How is the lockdown affecting you? During the first lockdown last March and April, the main response seemed to be anxiety, with some anger when other people breaking the rules. This time around anger and anxiety are still there, but there seems to be another response: acedia.
Acedia is an old word, which expresses a kind of attitude of boredom and lack of motivation or as some might say, 'get up and go.' It means a loss of desire or enthusiasm to engage in the normal activities of life. During the Middle Ages it was often used of those who had lost the motivation to be involved in spiritual activities, like prayer.
How are we to tackle these effects of lockdown in ourselves? By looking afresh at God.
The response to anxiety is to learn to trust that God our Father cares for us and is looking out for us (Psalm 146:7-9; Matthew 6:25-34), this will naturally lead us to bring our worries to God in prayer (Philippians 4:6)
When it comes to anger, we need to remind ourselves that God is the one who will judge far more effectively and ultimately than we will. So we leave judgement to him (Psalm 146:3-4, 9; Romans 12:17-21). We may also need to remind ourselves of the price Jesus paid that we could be forgiven, in order to help us learn to forgive others rather than be angry with them (Matthew 18:21-35). This too will be reflected in another attitude of prayer, confession. In confession we learn to judge ourselves rather than others (Matthew 7:1-5) and we also realise that if we need forgiveness from God we must also forgive others (Matthew 6:12,14-15).
When it comes to acedia we also need to look to God. This time the focus needs to be praise (Psalm 146:1). As we learn to focus on who God is, his power (Psalm 146:6) and his love (Psalm 146:7-9), then our spirits are lifted out of ourselves and inspired to move on to the activity God is calling us to do (2 Corinthians 5:14). So when you watch the online services, sing along with the songs and hymns. Don't worry what your neighbours think or of the teasing of others in your household. This is something as a Christian you can engage in that will help in the midst of a Pandemic.
As well as a weariness with lockdown, there is also a growing sense of hope that we may be soon approaching the end of lockdown and the restrictions. There are still months to go, but we can begin to think of life beyond Covid.
One of the questions we need to face is what the Post-Covid Church will look like. Much we hope will remain the same, but like many parts of society the church as a whole is struggling with finances because of the Pandemic. Also, some of the long term decline has been enhanced by the Lockdown. However, this is also a moment to reimagine how the Post-Covid Church can be renewed for its mission. Perhaps more than other times, the coming year will be a time for opportunities as well as challenges.
Over the coming weeks we are going to be running a sermon series on Post-Covid Church. You can read more about that by clicking this link. It would be great if you could engage with this by completing the short weekly surveys. There is still time to complete the survey on Prayer (by mid-day Friday) and there is now also a survey on Care (read more further on).
We will also be making some big announcements about forthcoming developments for St. Luke's in the coming weeks, so do keep reading these emails and watching the online services to find out more.
