There is much debate going on about the efficacy of wearing face coverings or masks, now mandatory in shops and on public transport in England. Many people believe these are helpful in reducing the spread of the coronavirus, whilst others feel the fabric or disposable face masks available do little to prevent aerosol transmission and can even be harmful in some ways.

Few of us like wearing these kinds of masks, but the truth is all of us, from being children, have got used to wearing invisible masks of a different kind. In Greek theatre, actors used masks to represent different characters, and it’s from this practice that the idea of hypocrisy (pretending to be something that you aren’t) and ‘play-acting’ arose.

We all tend to put up ‘fronts’ or ‘masks’ to protect ourselves from hurt. When we see governments doing this, we call it ‘spin.’ When we do it ourselves, we call it ‘image’. It’s often a defence mechanism, to present to other people an ‘acceptable’ image, to hide our faults and flaws behind the mask because we fear rejection and pain. Often, we don’t really like who we are inside, so we pretend to be somebody different. Social media is a particularly insidious kind of mask, for we can very easily cultivate the perfect image on there – the best partner, parent, cook, worker, gardener, builder, crafter etc. – which is in reality nothing but a snapshot of the real us.

God wants us to be real with Him and with each other, and this means taking off the masks. When I come out of a shop, I thankfully remove my mask and feel relief at being able to breathe freely again. So too there is great freedom in being open, honest and real with God and with other people. NIcky Gumbel says, ‘instead of trying to impress people with our masks, we connect through our vulnerabilities.’ This may seem scary, daunting and difficult, but it’s the path to truly deep relationships and to freedom. Living without a mask is risky – but in the spiritual realm, it’s definitely worth it!

I’m back pondering the mysteries of nature and the amazing gifts God has given us in the great variety of flowers we can find all around. There is so much that this single sunflower is teaching me! (Thanks to David Trelawny-Ross for sharing the photos with us.)

Before it blossoms, the petals are curled up on itself and the dominant colour is the green supporting the flower. Gradually, the petals begin to unfurl, and this flower reaches out towards the sun; its French name (‘le tournesol’) literally means to turn towards the sun. When I was a child, Greek singer Nana Mouskouri sang a song called ‘Le Tournesol’ with the lyrics,

‘Le tournesol, le tournesol

N’a pas besoin d’une boussole,

Ni d’arc-en-ciel, ni d’arc-en-ciel,

Pour se tourner vers le soleil.’

At the time, I was too young to understand the song’s lyrics, but now I know that she was singing that the sunflower has no need of a compass or a rainbow to turn itself towards the sun; this is something built into the flower. God’s amazing creation has its own built-in homing device; as the petals unfold, they do so with the flower turning, stretching, reaching out towards the sunshine. In the same way, we can be like that flower: initially curled up tightly, marred by sin, crippled by life’s misfortunes, hiding ourselves away. It’s only as the light of the gospel touches our lives that we begin to uncurl, opening up in exactly the same way that the sunflower does.  ^‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.’ (2 Cor 4:6)

Turning towards the sun (and towards the Son) enables us to blossom, to flourish, to become like the fully-opened sunflower, whose yellow petals (ray florets) and inner part (disk florets) now dominate, hiding the green that was previously the dominant colour. When God’s light shines in our hearts, the past is dealt with; we become new creations (2 Cor 5:17). We are set free from condemnation, sin, shame and guilt. (Rom 8:1) We can now live our lives unfurled, faces reflecting God’s glory: ‘whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ (2 Cor 3:16-18)

From the example of Joseph we can see how God keeps His word.

First, He does this by not throwing up our past. We all have things of which we are ashamed, times when we did things we shouldn’t have, or we didn’t do things we should have. When Jesus died upon the Cross, He took our sin and His promise is that “He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) He will wash our sins away by the blood of His Son, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) Pharaoh never knew about the awful past of the brothers because the love of Joseph buried their past and kept it from him. God does not keep reminding us of our past; we can have a fresh start in Him.

Secondly, Joseph demonstrates how God keeps His promises in the way that he continued to care for his brothers after their arrival in Egypt. Pharaoh said, “the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen.” (Genesis 47:6) Goshen was a fertile section of Egypt, a much favoured place, excellent for grazing and certain types of agriculture. As a result of Joseph’s care, they would have the very best. They would live in the midst of plenty while the world around was in famine. They also had the ear of the king. They could go to Pharaoh any time they wanted, because they could do it through Joseph their brother.

We too have this promise as God’s children. We can go to God any time we want, because we can do it through Jesus, our brother: “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:19) We have tremendous privileges because we are God’s children. Just as God had sent Joseph to Egypt where he could gain the ear of Pharaoh and be in a position to speak for his family, so God has provided Jesus to speak for us to God, to intercede for us and allow us access to the riches of God.

During the recent pandemic, many people have asked, ‘Where is God in this situation?’ – a question that has been asked throughout history when people face suffering. Dave spoke tonight about Jacob’s family, a godly family that suffered over 20 years of guilt and despair as they came to terms with the absence of their brother. The disappearance of this young man created a vacuum in the family from which they never really recovered.

Usually when we think of this family, our attention is focussed on Joseph, but tonight we looked at the eleven brothers – ‘trophies of God’s grace – examples of what God can do, even with those who have greatly sinned.’ These brothers were angered by Joseph and his dreams and therefore felt justified in selling him into slavery and pretending to their father that he had been killed, but they lived with the guilt of what they had done. Yet when famine came upon their land, they went to Egypt and found out that Joseph was still alive and ultimately agreed to return to live there. They didn’t rebel against Jacob even though they knew that Jacob still felt the same way about Joseph, his favourite son, as he had always done. Neither did they divide, with some staying and the others going. They all went to Egypt, the whole family, because they realised God’s hand was in this. (Gen 45:5)

Joseph freely forgave his brothers, but they had to learn to accept that they had been forgiven by the one that they had tried to harm and that meant they had to swallow their pride. They also showed that they had changed, that their lives and their attitudes were different. Instead of being resentful of Joseph’s success, they were willing to go and to live under his authority and protection.

In this whole episode we have a picture of how the Lord Jesus Christ feels about His brothers. “Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Hebrews 2:11) Just as Joseph was not ashamed to let everyone know about his brothers and show his true feelings, so Jesus was not ashamed to weep over the death of his friend or over the city of Jerusalem. Just as Joseph was not afraid to present his brothers to Pharaoh, so Jesus is not ashamed to present us to the Father, faultless and without blame. We have been accepted into God’s family and are welcomed before God; Jesus lives to intercede for us (Heb 7:25) even as Joseph asked Pharaoh for good land for his family to live on. The privileges we have as God’s children are so great!

As a child, I grew up with a sports-mad Dad and an aversion to doing sport myself. I went along with my Dad to football and cricket matches and learnt English and world geography through accompanying him to football grounds watching Barnsley F. C. and following England tours abroad. I watched golf, horse-riding, rugby league and rugby union on television and followed the more obscure sports in the Olympics as well as winter sports with him. I loved learning the different rules of sport and loved the camaraderie of being a supporter. Wimbledon was one of my favourite tournaments; I enjoyed watching tennis in the 1980s in particular and was a huge Borg fan.

But as far as participating in sport was concerned, I hated that. My poor eyesight, left-handedness and lack of spatial awareness meant I was never going to be in anyone’s top-11 for team sports, and I was no better at individual sports. At school I had to play hockey, rounders, tennis and take part in gymnastics and athletics, all of which became the most dreaded hour of the week for me. I knew the rules. I knew what I was supposed to do. But actually doing what I was supposed to do just never seemed to happen. And the shame and humiliation of that haunted me for many years. I was gifted academically, but when it came to sport – which I loved to watch, admiring the skill, tactics, physical and mental strength required – I was at the bottom of the class, and my pride was badly dented.

There’s a huge difference between participating in something and being a spectator. It was years before as an adult I took part in any physical activity, finally taking to swimming to help my health, and I still can’t say I enjoy sport or exercise in any shape or form, even though I have got used to the benefits of them and realise the need to participate. But I know full well there’s an involvement from participation which can’t fully be explored through the act of being a spectator, however fanatical a fan you are (and believe me, I have been that fanatical fan…)

Many people, it seems to me, have the same tension between participator and spectator when it comes to ‘Team Church.’ We teach and preach all the time about every individual being a vital team member, but many people would rather be a spectator when it comes to church than a participator. There can be all kinds of reasons behind this, including my familiar feeling that ‘I’m-no-good-at-this-so-I’d-better-not-even-try’ and a sense of shame and humiliation (‘what if I get it wrong?’) I can remember the first time I attended a Church of England service – I had no idea how to follow a service sheet or what was meant by ‘responses’ –  feeling terrified that I would be standing when I was supposed to sit or sitting when I was supposed to stand. All these things make it difficult for us to learn what it means to find our place in the body of Christ.

Online meetings have been a great blessing to us during the pandemic, but they are fuel for the idea that church is a spectator sport. It really isn’t. Church isn’t about passively sitting in a meeting and letting others do everything. Paul tells the Corinthians, ‘When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.’ (1 Cor 14:26) To the Ephesians, he said, ‘speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.’ (Eph 5:19) That sounds to me like involvement, participation, not passive spectating!

So when we gather together in person next week, what will you be? A participator or a spectator? There’ll be opportunities to pray and to tell other people something of what God has been doing in your life over these past four months. There’ll be opportunities to talk to each other and build each other up, perhaps bringing verses of Scripture or hymns and songs which have blessed you recently. The challenge for us all is to move from being people who know the rules, know how to spectate and keep God and other people at arm’s length… and become participators, sharing from our hearts and seeking to bless God and build people up. Which will you choose to be?

In the Message version, Phil 2:14-16 says, ‘Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.’ I think this is a really good way of getting the meaning across to us:

• Do everything readily and cheerfully – a cheerful heart is good medicine, after all! (Prov 15:13) Having this positive attitude really makes a difference to our own lives and the lives of those we meet. We all instinctively feel better when we are around cheerful people, and we feel better when we ourselves determine to be positive. Being cheerful is a choice. It’s determined by where we put our focus and how we choose to be. Grumbling and complaining happen because that’s what we choose to focus on and how we choose to respond. Circumstances don’t have to be the deciding factor in how we live.

• Don’t spend all your time bickering and arguing or even second-guessing people’s motives. Be open, honest and forgiving with people. Life is really too short to hold grudges. Bickering, arguing, grumbling and complaining eat us up from the inside and make us miserable, resentful, bitter people. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Learn to see from someone else’s perspective. We serve a God of ‘countless second chances’ (‘Second Chance’, Rend Collective) and need to embrace those for ourselves and offer them to others.

• Understand that when we live as God wants us to, we are like a breath of fresh air in our world, for we live in a squalid and polluted society. We live in a world that is negative and selfish. When we live God’s way, putting each other first, being unselfish, acting out of love, then we give people snapshots of what God is like; we give people ‘a glimpse of good living and of the living God.’ That’s a powerful witness to the world.

• Recognise your God-given identity as ‘light of the world.’ (Matt 5:14) We may not feel like light, but this is what Jesus, Himself the Light of the World, said to His followers. Paul wants us to ‘carry the light-giving Message into the night.’ Again, it’s not about our light per se; it’s about letting God’s light shine from us so that others can see God’s light. The Message version says, ‘By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.’ (Matt 5:14-16) As we work together and live out God’s light, we can be part of God’s winning partnership and see others come to faith in Him.