In these strange lockdown times most of us have had to work out and develop new routines. When once we might have had regular days for shopping or going out for a meal, seeing the family or going to the gym, this is no longer possible, and it can be very disconcerting. For those of us who can work from home it is still difficult because the home is usually the place for rest and relaxation (or looking after children – a different sort of work!) We have been forced to make completely new patterns and routines – very challenging when the options are so limited, and it is not surprising that some are tempted to flout the regulations.

I was thinking about this on Wednesday morning at morning prayer which I said, as I usually do, with our Pioneer Minister, Rev. Wendy Pagden on a Zoom call, (we have learned a completely new vocabulary in the last few weeks).  The first reading was from Exodus chapter 33 and it is about the Israelites in the wilderness after they had escaped from slavery in Egypt, led by Moses. The Israelites, finding themselves in a new and hostile land, had panicked and returned to pagan ways, building a golden calf as an idol. This made God very angry, and chapter 33 opens with him berating the people, saying that he would not go with them to the land he had promised to give them. Their distress was great and Moses pleaded with God not to abandon his people, even though Moses was blameless and still had God’s favour. Moses effectively says to God “We can’t carry on without you, for if you are not with us we would just be like any other tribe around. You make us special: this nation is your people.” (see verses 12 to 16). You might expect God to get even angrier, but he does not – he changes his mind: “I will do the very thing you have asked” he says. And he did.

God does not abandon us. We may do some extraordinarily foolish, sinful or bad things – things which must upset him greatly - but still he does not leave us. He has shown us the measure of his love by sending his only Son, Jesus Christ, to come in to this world, to live amongst us a human being, and to die for us. And in this season of Easter we celebrate his resurrection – the ultimate sign of the fact that the sinful and evil things of this world have no power over us anymore. 

So we can carry on despite all that the world has to throw at us, as long as we remember and stay close to God. He will lead us through and we can be safe in his hands. We may find ourselves in unfamiliar territory where nothing is like what it was before and everything seems perplexing, distressing or worrying, but we can be assured that we have a God who understands our difficulties and our weakness.