We don’t graduate from our need to trust and obey

I’m writing just as 2022 has begun. Looking forward to this year in the Church of England it’s not hard to see some significant challenges ahead.

One is exhaustion and weariness in the face of the ongoing pandemic. My impression from Anglican clergy is the challenge of patient endurance in the face of tragedy, hardship and crisis, including in some cases the personal crisis of the minister, taking their toll with the accumulated pressure of these last two years.

Where is the faith, the energy, the hope to come from if personally you feel like you are running on empty or near empty?

In the Church of England this year, that pressure is exacerbated by at least two others. One is the financial crisis affecting some dioceses. This has led to proposed cuts in clergy numbers and generated insecurity about future stipendiary ministry.

In addition, the completion this Spring of the initial consultation of the Living in Love and Faith project – which is intended to help the Church find a way to live with radically different theologies and pastoral experiences around human identity, sexuality and marriage – will stretch many who are already feeling pretty much at full stretch. Put these pressures together and you have a 2022 which is perhaps leading more than one minister or church member into the slough of despond.

This prompts the question posed by the psalmist: ‘From where will my help come?’ (Ps. 121:1). The answer, you know, given by the Holy Spirit through the psalmist to us, is: ‘My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.’

Whether it is in the face of tragedy and sickness, whether it is because of financial and organisational challenge, or whether it is because of a fear that the Church of England might embrace an understanding of human identity, sexuality and marriage that is not from the Lord; we need to pray for help.

As I approach 2022 I admit to asking for this help from the Lord. I have found encouragement this Christmas to see how none of the challenges facing the Church of England are new to the people of God. One of the reasons God has caused all Scripture to be written for our learning is to see how this pattern of being overwhelmed by difficulty, insecurity and complexity is present in every generation.

We don’t graduate from our need to trust and obey. Such trust and obedience expresses our love for the Lord. We know that in praying for that trust and obedience we do not stop praying for those who disagree with us and who believe we are profoundly wrong. It is no help if, in holding to the truth, we cease to be held by love, the Lord’s saving love of us.

I’m praying for myself and all the ministers and people I’m encountering that we will not imagine that the future of the Church of England (or any other church) is somehow dependent on us, or that the Lord is somehow unaware of what is going on, or that He will not act in either judgment or mercy according to His sovereign grace, as He takes in the long sweep of history, knowing the end of all things and the promise of the new heaven and earth.

If Covid teaches us anything, it is that we do not know what is going to happen tomorrow, never mind next year. And the greatest need in England is for the Church that bears the name of this country to be faithful in living and speaking the gospel of Jesus Christ as God’s good news of His coming, saving and re-creating. His living water, His eternal life flowing from the eternal love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the source of our help; and this life, His life within us, will flow from us, even in 2022 and beyond.