Mind The Gap
26 Aug 2022
One of the very few things I miss about living in London is the public transport. Living in the capitol you could get to another part of the city fairly easily at any time, day or night. Although travelling by tube isn’t the most comfortable journey, the trains are reliable. Every tube passenger is very familiar with one message which is repeatedly broadcast over the tannoys of most stations. “Mind the gap”. The gap is question is the one between the train and the platform - which at points can be alarmingly wide (especially if the platform is on a bend!)
That announcement is one we need to bear in mind as Christians. The gap for us isn’t physical though. It is the gap between Sunday and Monday. Our lives when we are together worshipping the Lord and our lives at work, at school and behind our front doors at home.
That gap can seem almost impossibly wide. It is cultural and societal. Over the summer I have been attempting to read a (big) book by a philosopher and theologian Charles Taylor. He attempts to explain why it is that 500 years ago no one could conceive of not believing in God, whereas now the opposite is true. Today when we step out of church on a Sunday we are stepping into a world which simply does not have any room for God - or at least will not allow him to make in difference in the world. We can say we ignore this, but we can’t. It affects every entertainment we enjoy, the nature of political discourse and decisions, how our children are educated and how our work is organised. So it will understandably affect how we think.
(Incidentally this is why the closure of churches and the total silencing of our sung worship during the pandemic was so wrong, and why the almost total absence of opposition and refusal by pastors and churches revealed how big the gap really is today. As a pastor I repent of not speaking up and attempting to lead us against this stronger than I did. This isn’t to say we should have done nothing, but what the Christian church as a whole did - on the basis of just in case - gave in to the secular mindset.
It would have been costly not to, but by giving in it meant that the fear narrative of our world sounded louder than the narrative the Lord has given us about who we are in Christ and what he has done. The world should have been able to watch us and been provoked to ask “why do you have such hope during this time?”)
The gap is also felt when we step out of church and are faced with the difficulties of life. As I write, the new energy price cap has been announced and is at a level likely to seriously affect us all. Many of us have family concerns - whether it is with children or elderly relatives. Some of us struggle seriously with our health (physical and/or mental).
If we get used to the fact that there is a “gap” between Sunday and Monday, then our Christian life will feel increasingly unreal. If we begin to feel there is little or no connection between what we sing or pray or hear on the Lord’s day and the rest of the week, then our relationship with the Lord will begin to feel distant, and we will gradually feel like hypocrites both in and out of church. This puts us in serious spiritual danger.
What is the answer? Partly it is that those of us who lead services, pray and preach should work harder to show the connections between what we preach and our lives! But there are some other answers too.
One is to recognise that as we come together on the Lord’s day we are doing what we have been created for, and what we have been saved to do. It is a taste of glory - as we gather both in Beverley, and together with all the saints in glory around the Lord’s throne. Jesus himself addresses us, and then sends us out to serve him in his world. A greater appreciation of the Lord’s day worship of the church will help us understand the whole of life! The Lord is reorienting our perspective and reminding us who he is and who we are. He is assuring us he loves us, that he is in charge, and that (if we are united to Christ by faith) we belong to him.
On Sunday’s this term we are going to deliberately hear from parts of God’s word which will help us see how secure we are. In the midst of very uncertain times we need to know we stand firm in grace!
So after we have concluded our series on the 10 commandments we will go through Romans 5:1-11 slowly, savouring in detail all the blessings that come from Christ.
On Sunday evenings we will take a whistle stop tour through 1 and 2 Chronicles. These Old Testament histories are rarely preached, but they were written to assure God’s people that the Lord is committed to keeping his promises to his people even in the darkest times.
The second important way to “mind the gap” is to deepen our relationships with each other. We shouldn’t be embarrassed to tell others how we are. We should be constantly pointing each other to Christ. We can draw near to each other as fellow sinners and sufferers who need Christ. The last few years have meant we have been separated from one another and so we must make every effort to grow our love for each other.
One practical thing we are doing this term is the return of our “Church Weekend At Home”. It’s my prayer that as well as the teaching from Tom Brand, the Lord will use that weekend to deepen our relationships with each other.