God holds the long game: Bishops’ News
Dear whānau
Last Wednesday I met with our Archdeacons, Vicars, and Priests in Charge; our first face to face gathering since Training Day in February. As we have been encouraging each other to do over this lockdown period, we were able to gather our collective discernment about the work of God in this season and reflect on what might need to cease, and what needs to be continued or freshly created to serve God’s church going forward.
Today I have been reflecting on the tension our scripture holds in the knowledge that God holds the long game of our human existence, and through Jesus invites us into active participation in the forward movement of creating the Kingdom. At the moment I often find myself thinking “now that we’re back to Level 1 we can go back to church” instead of “now we can go forward into what God has for us in this next season.” What does it mean to both ‘seek the ancient paths’ (Jeremiah 6:16) while also living into the invitation many of us have felt in this season – ‘See, I am doing a new thing!’ (Isaiah 43:19).
If we track back to the book of Numbers (chapter 21), we see Moses in the desert, creating at God’s request a bronze snake on a staff which saves the Israelite people from a snake infestation when they look at it. Scholarship suggests this took place around 1400BC, or over 2,600 years ago. A thousand years later, this staff of liberation had become a staff of idolatry, which King Hezekiah tore down to stop the Israelites burning incense to it. What started out good had taken the place of God (2 Kings 18).
In the disruption of this season, our rhythms are out of joint. Somehow we are nearly at Matariki, our winter season of new beginnings. But some of us have noticed that because we have had an extended period away from work, it feels like it should be summer, and we get surprised when we look out the window and what we get is this picture below:
In this season I wonder if I’m being a little like the Israelites under Hezekiah, losing sight of why we do what we do. Looking at the long game of scripture I find it interesting that the work of God seems to have a forward motion. ‘Going back’ is often seen negatively – the Exodus narrative being an obvious one, but also in the New Testament in the spread of the gospel around the existing cultural and geographical boundaries rather than in the securing of Jerusalem.
When we notice a disjoint between our expectations and our reality, it’s often a time that God is asking us to stop and take stock. If God is asking us to seek a new move of the Spirit, there are some questions we should ask. What are the things that we have held on to for so long, which might have been the work of God in the past? What have we held on to because we loved that move of God, but may no longer be how God is moving today? Are they theological viewpoints, ways of doing worship, ways of using our buildings, or language?
The gift of our scripture to see the long game of thousands of years gives us the model for reflecting on how we honour the goodness of what God used in the past, and perceive the fresh move of the Spirit into constant creation as God seeks ultimately to draw all things to God’s self. Let’s take these long nights of winter to spend time with God’s Word and in God’s presence, seeking to place ourselves with humility into God’s long game.
In Christ,
+Justin
