July 2021
Dear Friends
I am writing this on 15 June. Yesterday our Prime Minister postponed ‘Freedom
Day’ for four weeks until 19 July.
Some think he did the right thing; others disagree. I think the delay will do more harm than good
so I am disappointed, but not devastated.
All human governments are temporary, even the unelected tyrannies that
some people in our world live under, and God has promised to Jesus Christ the
kingdoms of the world. So whether I
support or oppose our government I must also wait patiently for Christ’s
kingdom to mature. Our true Freedom Day
is his alone to give.
Last night I phoned a couple who are due to get married in
church in three weeks’ time. Their
wedding has been postponed twice already; this is another big blow. They’re perplexed but not in despair. They know that being married is more
important than what can or can’t happen on their wedding day. And they know that our marriages are
reflections of The True Marriage that lies at the heart of history, the forming
of a deep eternal bond between the perfect groom, God’s Son, and all those
called together to collectively form his bride.
No lockdown can postpone That Day.
Today I buried a man who died on the day he received a
vaccine injection. No vaccine can remove
our vulnerability to the last enemy, death.
But our great enemy cannot forever prevail against Jesus who broke the
bonds of death and rose again. He
promises that those who trust him, even if they are struck down, will not be
knocked out. Our Resurrection Day will
certainly come and no human authority can cancel it.
So what’s ahead of us now? Just a four-week delay, deeply
damaging to a few but a minor inconvenience to most? Or a new world where we continue to be so
scared of illness that we keep shutting down life? I don’t know, although I know which I hope
for.
Ultimately my hope is not in anything created – in health or
governments or vaccines – but in the Creator and his Son. As Paul the apostle wrote:
“We are
hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in
despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed. We
always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus
may also be revealed in our body.” 2
Corinthians 4:8-10
Sincerely
Graham Burrows