Wednesday, August 20, 2008 9:34 PM CDT
CLERGY VIEWS: Nothing can separate us from God's love
By Revs. Cynthia and Mike Jones, Wesley United Methodist Church, Charleston
We were visiting recently with an American citizen who has just returned home after living overseas for more than a year. She observed in a conversation when we asked about how her homecoming was going that she had forgotten how fearful we are as a nation and as individuals.
Our lives, she noted, are based on being afraid of an economic downturn, a terrorist attack, the possibility of getting cancer.
Her words echo the advice we have been receiving at preaching workshops and reading in books on ministry: we live in the United States in an “age of anxiety.”
As we have watched the Olympic Games we have noted that many of our nation’s athletes compete out of this fearful attitude. They are more afraid of losing than they are excited about winning.
In such an age of anxiety the message that we as followers of Jesus need to proclaim is, “Do not be afraid.”
This message is repeated throughout the story of Jesus. On the night of Jesus’ birth, when the Bethlehem shepherds are terrified by the appearance of an angel of the Lord, the angel says to them, “Do not be afraid.”
When Mary Magdalene and the other women disciples go to Jesus’ tomb on the first Easter morning to anoint his body, they are frightened by the empty tomb and the appearance of an angel of the Lord. Once again the angel’s message is, “Do not be afraid.”
When Jesus’ disciples are anxious and fearful because he has told them that he will soon be arrested, persecuted and crucified, he tells them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.”
And in each case the reason that those who are afraid should not be fearful is Jesus himself. The Bethlehem angel tells the shepherds that they should not be afraid because the Savior of the world is being born that night.
The Easter angel tells the women that they should not be afraid because Jesus has been raised from the dead. Jesus tells the disciples that they should not be afraid because he has prepared a place in heaven for them and because God will send the Holy Spirit to be with them throughout their earthly lives.
During our senior high youth group’s mission trip to Appalachia this summer those who had not gone there in previous years were amazed at how happy the families we served were. It surprised them that persons who were so economically poor, lacking many of the materials things that most of our youth consider “necessities,” could be so happy.
I would also add that most of them did not live their lives out of a fearful world view. For most of these Appalachian families, their faith in God and their family and friends were the priorities in their lives.
With these priorities they were not fearful of losing tomorrow’s sporting event, of going to school without owning the latest electronic gadget, of being seen by others as anything less than extremely successful.
Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Christians gathered in Rome that we should not be defeated by the sufferings and powers of this earthly life because through God’s gift of Jesus we are made “more than conquerors.”
There is nothing we know or can imagine, including our own sins, that can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Believing in this certainty of God’s love for you, we say to you, “Do not be afraid!”
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andersbranderud wrote on Aug 24, 2008 2:00 PM:
Following Ribi Yehoshua by practising the commandments in Torah the Jewish
Bible - gives true meaning of life
/Anders Branderud, apprentice-student of Netzarim (www.netzarim.co.il) "