Lessons from Lockdown: Stand together!
For those of you who can remember as far back as 1987 it was the year that Paul McCartney lost his cool and recorded Rupert and the frog song. We all stand together. 
Whatever happens…
We’re living in a time of unprecedented global uncertainty. Life hasn’t been this uncertain in our nation since the second world war. We don’t know how or when we will fully emerge from this pandemic
Although lockdown is easing, there are still many unknowns. What will happen as restrictions are lifted? Will the R number rise? Will there be a second wave? Might we have to lockdown again? How long is this going to last for?
Do you find yourself going day to day?  I find that I’m absolutely fine as long as I don’t think too far ahead. Tomorrow is good, next week is OK, next month is bearable. When I start to think what the Autumn and beyond might look like for daily life, for my children’s education, for wider family contact -  that’s when it starts to unravel.
Over the last few weeks we’ve been thinking about Paul (the apostle) experiencing his own lockdown in a prison cell. And as he sits in his cell, he writes letters to the churches he has planted. He writes to a group of believers in the Roman colony of Philippi in Greece. Partly it’s a polite thankyou letter – the sort you might have been made to write as a child after Christmas - because the Philippian Christians have had a whip-round and sent him some money to help him out while he’s locked up. In the first past of the letter he also says he’s OK; being in prison has worked in some ways to his advantage. Then he says. show courage for Christ 
Last week Carys spoke so wonderfully to us about living courageously. Now he says stick together, we’re all in this together, we all stand together, …. Paul starts this paragraph Whatever happens…..   sound familiar? 
Whatever happens, says Paul. He didn’t know how things would turn out anymore than we do at the moment. He didn’t know if and how release would come, and at the moment we don’t either. 
Perhaps Paul was the same. He could get by day to day in prison, but the long term must have looked pretty bleak. He didn’t know if his lockdown  would ever be released, he didn’t knowif a painful death awaited him. He didn’t know, and we don’t know.
But whatever happens says Paul... Whatever happens…Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ
What does that mean? Paul expands that for us. He says it’s about sticking together, standing firm, side by side, saying we’re all in this together as followers of Jesus Christ. Ok we think – we can do that. Sounds reasonable. 
That’s because we know that in letters to other churches Paul writes about Christians being the different parts of a body all connected up.
…there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. ( he writes to the church at Corinth)
One of the saddest things ever is to see a church fragment into little bits – the body of Christ is damaged when that happens. We have responsibility to each other. We are family, brothers and sisters united in Christ. That means getting to know each other – really getting to know each other. Beyond the polite.
The Christians at Phillipi were diverse. Roman colony but ethnically diverse believers (we know that from Acts ch 16)
Families bicker sometimes but ultimately they support each other. Partners in the gospel. What can we do for our sisters and brothers who are struggling? It might be a practical need, it might be a spiritual or emotional one. 
Suffering together.
But then comes a bomb shell.     You doesn’t just mean  believing in Christ, but also suffering for Him.  And it’s a privilege!
Believing in Christ & suffering for him  are two sides of the same coin – the coin is wrongly weighted (counterfeit)when it keeps landing believing side up. Use fake coinage and eventually things go wrong.
Suffering is an integral part of many Christians experience around the world. In the west we are rarely exposed to it.
Perhaps that is why the church world wide is growing and flourishing, and not doing so well here. – we’re out of kilter! 
The Christians at Philippi had seen with their own eyes Pauls suffering. Beatings and imprisonment (Acts 16) when he arrived in their city with the good news
Suffering for Christ was kind of part of the deal – they expected it to go hand in hand with following Christ. Wow!  That’s radical commitment. They chose the Jesus way even though it would lead to these things.
If we are called to suffering what can it be for us that show how committed we are.
It’s fairly unlikely that here we will be beaten, imprisoned or face death for our faith in Christ. Although very sadly people of other faiths are certainly more at risk of violence and intimidation.
What might suffering for the gospel look like for us?
Wallets? Ambitions? Reputation, popularity, Long held beliefs? Traditions?

Bear each other’s suffering.- Carry each others pain. There’s a lot of pain around race at the moment. We are a diverse community of believers . How can we bear each others pain? I want to stand with my family in Christ who suffer and have suffered.
‘I will know that you stand firm in one spirit’
Paul wanted the Christians in Phillipi to be united. To stand together whatever happened. To work together, to support one another.

Stand firm, stick together, bear each others suffering, for the gospel of Christ.. . 

LizClayton@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk