"All We Do is Hide Away"

All we do is hide away
All we do is, all we do is hide away
All we do is chase the day
All we do is, all we do is chase the day
All we do is lie and wait

These are the opening lines to a song by British alt-pop duo, Anthony and Josephine Vander West. They came to my notice when watching a crime series called Unforgotten on The Knowledge Network. For me it became one of those tunes you found yourself humming time after time.

The series itself, filled with well-known actors, follows cold cases being followed up due to new evidence coming to light years after the deaths of the victims.

Although the program itself comes highly recommended, it is the theme tune that is our focus this morning. The song itself was likely chosen because the perpetrators of the crimes have managed to ‘hide way’ for many years. And the words ‘lie and wait’ could refer to the suspects or the detectives who solve the crime.

All we do is hide away
All we do is, all we do is hide away
All we do is chase the day
All we do is, all we do is chase the day
All we do is lie and wait

It got me thinking about how we sometimes want to hide from God, from each other and sometimes even from ourselves. It also made me think about how the Roman, as well as the Jewish religious authorities, tried to hide Jesus away, ultimately by having him executed by crucifixion.

It seems to me that often our lives are complicated, stressful and not without heartache. At the same time there is also so much more to discover, and part of our life journey is to see what is there to be seen.

For some of us in the northern hemisphere, Holy Week and Easter coincide with spring. This year as the cooler weather persisted, the beauty of spring flowers have been very much in evidence in the last few weeks. And though some love the snow, especially the way it looks on the mountains, many of us also crave the longer, warmer days with the promise of light and new life ahead.

Of course this lends itself to the themes of resurrection as we celebrate our new life in Christ, but today our focus is on what comes first.

For Good Friday commemorates the death of Jesus in which we all play our part, but from which new life (in Resurrection) comes to us a couple of days from now.

The life of faith for most of us is not plain sailing and as such reflects all the rest of what makes up our lives. At times our life of prayer goes well, as other times we become very dry and cannot pray at all. Sometimes we know where we are headed, but other times we lose direction and purpose. It is as if God disappears from view, when really it is us who cannot see. There are no quick fixes, very often when things are challenging, we just have to wait and keep trying, and sometimes we just have to wait.

It is the nature of faith that it is not always about belief and certainty, sometimes it seems to be more about unbelief and uncertainty. Perhaps we kids ourselves that everyone else’s life is going just fine, that they have no worries, no concerns, it just isn’t so.

Our responsibility it to face our own reality, to be honest with God, with ourselves and with others about what we find hard and why. For when we share our burdens they never seem so difficult to bear. When we are honest about what is going on we can start to get back on track.

That is what, for me, is so wholesome about the cycle of the Church’s year with its different seasons, festivals and commemorations. It is not always fun and happiness, and that is part of what Good Friday means.

And when Jesus dies, perhaps we can once again let go of all that is dead within us. The silliness, the selfishness, the pride, the jealousies, the sin - yes I said the word. We all sin so we might as well use the word.

But by being here today we acknowledge our desire to reset our lives, to be in tune, once again, with the God who gave us life and gives us life, in all its fullness, every single day.

All we do is hide away
All we do is, all we do is hide away
All we do is chase the day
All we do is, all we do is chase the day
All we do is lie and wait

Perhaps at times we want to hide away, I’m sure we do , but God is always there, always ready, and eager to welcome us home.

Perhaps at times we feel forgotten, that no one really cares for us, that we do not matter, that what we do and say lacks purpose and direction.

But to God we are always Unforgotten. We are always precious, and the one that matters to God. For on this day God’s son Jesus died for us and for the whole world. On this day death ended because Jesus died. On this day we can put away our sin and our selfishness, and turn back to God, to love again those whom we love. On this day when all seems perhaps dark and forbidding, we have hope because Jesus died. On this day we are reminded that in spite of best efforts to hide way, God is there for us, as God always was, always is, and always will be. For try as hard as we might to hide, God will always find us, because God already has.