Do Not Be Afraid

Did you know that the sentence: "Do not be afraid" or the other way to write it: "Fear not!" is found about 365 times in the Bible? That is one "do not be afraid" for every day of the year.

It is interesting that this phrase appears once for every day of the year, because it appears to me that many people from the Religious right want to do nothing more than instill some fear in people. There is a set of tracts done in comic style that try to get people saved through fear. The problem with this kind of proselytising is that the good news was given to free people from fear, not paralyze.

The times we live in have a lot to be afraid of. The idea that over 40,000 people this year will die because they do not have health coverage to care for their illnesses is a frightening reality. The fact that in Pakistan innocent people are being killed from bombings that are suppose to protect people from the Taliban is scary. Just being aware that the country of Iran has been building nuclear weapons and the UN is trying to negotiate so that they will disarm is scary. We don't need a Halloween full of ghosts, goblins, witches and skeletons. The real things of this world are scary enough. The very idea that our military has a law that can discharge people willing to serve if they come out and say they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, and our President says he will repeal DADT, but with no time line, that is scary.

But God tells us through Sacred Scripture: "Do Not Be Afraid." And God tells us this, every day of the year. Why? Because God knows how frightening life can be. God knows that there are dangers all around us. When God came to us through God's perfect revelation in Jesus Christ, God made God's self vulnerable to all the fears that we face. In Jesus, God showed us how to face those fears. God knows that sometimes, life is just plain scary. There are days when it is down right ugly. That is why we are told 365 times in Scripture: "Be Not Afraid".

God has called each of us by name. God has called us to follow Jesus and to recognize that in Jesus we can have courage, strength, hope and even in death we can believe that death is not the last and final word. In Psalm 16 the Psalmist prays: "For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the Pit. You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore."

There is no place we can go where God does not know our name, and what we are going through. "If I climb up to heaven, you are there; and if I make the grave my bed, you are there also." (Psalm 139: 7). God is as close to us as each cell of our body, yet God is greater than the highest mountain. God's love for us is deeper than the ocean, and stronger than the hardest rock. So, Be not afraid.

"God is Love, let heaven adore him; God is Love let earth rejoice; let creation sing before him and exalt him with one voice. God who laid the earth's foundation, God who spread the heavens above. God who breathes through all creation, God is Love, eternal Love." (The Hymnal 1982).