A Guide For Your New Journeys

As 21 June approaches, our hopes and prayers are that life can begin to return to normal again.

For much of the past 14 months we have lived in a sort of exile from our old way of life. We haven’t been free to do as we please, to see friends, to meet up in a pub or a restaurant, to go shopping or to travel on an aeroplane for a foreign holiday or to visit family abroad.

The pandemic has also caused deep pain: loved ones have died; funerals have been restricted; our physical and mental health have in many cases suffered and there has been some terrible impacts on jobs and education. However, this enforced exile within our own homes has been an opportunity to reflect on how we lived our lives before the lockdown. As we emerge from exile, we should reflect on the experiences we have had during lockdown and what we have learned from them. We might decide as a result we want to spend more time with friends and families, continue to help our isolated neighbours, to buy less stuff, and to reflect more carefully on how we travel.

The Bible gives us a good example of a people returning from exile and stopping to think before they re-started life at home again. As the Old Testament records, Moses led the Israelites out of slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt. But he didn’t lead them directly into the Promised Land. Instead, they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness to learn some lessons: those lessons were that God was always with them and that they were utterly dependent on God, rather than on Pharaoh, for the necessities of life such as water and bread from heaven. For us, too, this pandemic has been a reminder that we don’t have total control over our own lives.

It was during this wilderness exile that God gave the people the Ten Commandments as a guide to living in harmony with God and with one another in the Promised Land. I believe the Ten Commandments, which can be found in Exodus Chapter 20 Verses 1–17, are still a good roadmap.

Like the rest of Scripture, the Ten Commandments need to be interpreted. We do this by looking at other sections of the Bible, particularly the words Jesus said and the actions he took during his earthly ministry. Jesus taught that the greatest Commandment is to love: to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself.

Here, in what we call “The Beatitudes”, Jesus gives a new vision of a world that is shaped by love. For instance, he said “blessed are those who mourn”. Just as Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died, he also cried at the injustice he saw in the world. We will be blessed if we, too, cry out in sadness to God for the injustices and sorrows of the world, such as families relying on food banks, plastic waste choking our oceans or human trafficking. But we must let that sadness drive us to action.

In the last few weeks of restrictions, can I suggest you read the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, reflect on what you’ve learned during lockdown and then write down some personal priorities to guide your living as you begin this new chapter.

Revd. Bill Britt, Vicar of St Mary’s, the Parish Church of Stotfold & Fairfield