Lockdown is easing! For what?

​This morning we are freer! We can gather in small groups! We can go to have a coffee – outside - with our friends! We are permitted to travel across regional Victoria!
I am sure we will all want to spend our money at local cafes, do things we had long put off, be with our families in small celebrations, visit those in distress. We all want to love and support one another, including local businesses.
This is good and right. How wonderful that our reason for being is not limited to pleasure-seeking! We follow Jesus, who came to serve.
I was reading in Isaiah this morning, chapters 41 and 42. It speaks of the Lord’s Servant who will perfectly fulfill God’s love: Jesus himself. Matthew quotes 42:1-4 in chapter 12. In Matthew, chapter 20 Jesus tells that ‘… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
All of life, including pandemics, is to be interpreted through this. Jesus knows suffering, Jesus endured suffering, experienced injustice and betrayal, for us. He overcame it, triumphed, conquered death, through this ultimate service and self-giving. For YOU! For me.
Therefore, God’s promises apply.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Isaiah 41: 10
I will guide you along unfamiliar paths, turn darkness into light before you, and make the rough places smooth. Isaiah 42: 16
Do not be afraid: the Lord is with us. The joy of the Lord is our strength.  Let us follow Jesus in service.
This applies to our own lives, to the way we see our role in the wider world, to our life as a church, to the search for a new vicar, to our vision for our church in the future.
 
Pray that we may increasingly know this reality in our lives and in the life of the church.