Fear, Love and Peace

The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C Rev. Patrick Grant

• Acts 16:9-15;
• Rev. 21:10&22 to Ch22:5;
• John 14:23-29

A man fell off a cliff but managed to grab hold of a branch on his way down. He hung there and shouted to the top, “Is anybody up there?” “Yes” came the reply, “God is up here!” “Can you hep me, God?” “Yes” God replied “What do you want me to do?” the man asked. “Let go of the branch.” There was an agonising pause “Is there anybody else up there?”

Samuel Johnson once wrote “Fear is one of the passions of human nature of which it is impossible to divest. You remember the Emperor Charles V when he read upon the tombstone of a Spanish nobleman, “Here lies one who never knew fear.” Wittily said “Then he never snuffed a candle with his fingers.”

Fear, with its adrenalin rush, is a natural part of human nature. Without it we would be less, we would get into more trouble and do things without thinking that would put our lives and those of others, at risk. Yet it is also a sad part of human nature – I remember how sad I felt when my young son first showed fear – he needed to – he needed to learn that things could hurt – but it felt as though a little innocence was lost, the little Eden of childhood less of a paradise.

Jesus was deeply concerned with the whole concept of fear. He tried really hard to show people who God was and is, and fear was not part of “this vocabulary”. Indeed fear is a primary topic for Jesus and he went out of his way to teach his disciples to have faith in God and not to fear change or the unknown. One day Jesus was walking on water – as you do – the disciples were afraid and Jesus identified himself using the phrase “It is I; do not be afraid”. When he said his catchphrase the disciples recognised him and their fear was gone.

From the very beginning of his life Jesus was introduced to the world by God’s angels, his messengers proclaiming “Do not be afraid, for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy.”

Jesus had to go out of his way to encourage people because they had the wrong image of God. The religious leaders of his day talked of a God of wrath and anger, a God who condemned the world and to whom humanity was to grovel for the crumbs under their Lord’s table.

Jesus flatly contradicted this view of God by embracing the sinners, the unclean, those on the fringes, by proclaiming a Gospel of love and talking about a loving Father who would sacrifice himself for the sake of his wayward children. And then by proclaiming us God’s children, that we were to share with him in a loving relationship with God who was not to be feared but to be run to as the prodigal ran to his father, who in love ran to meet him.

Time and time again the Gospels tell us that Jesus commanded those around him not to be afraid: the stilling of the storm; the Transfiguration; his appearance to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb; the first words uttered to the disciples hiding in the upper room: do not be afraid.

At these words they knew Jesus, he brought his Peace to bear upon them, not a power to prevent harm or to stop the fears of physical torment that many of his closest would undergo, but a peace that allowed action even in the most traumatic place, a peace that gave confidence and a surety in a salvation that transcends death and brings the fullness of life.

Jesus then went on to Emmaus and on his journey with two of his number he went into their lodging and shared bread with them. In the breaking of bread they knew their Lord and although he left them, their fear departed and they returned to Jerusalem. In the Eucharist we share in the wonderful peace of Christ, not just a handshake or kiss but in the reconciliation of one to another in the love of God; we share together in the greatest of gifts and are strengthened and healed in the body and blood of Christ. When we receive, it is his words we hear “Do not be afraid for I have conquered the world and you my beloved - live in my love”.

To know ourselves loved, to accept this love, gives us the strength to do great things in the name of Jesus. In his love we need have no fear of the unknown, for in even the darkest place he is present. We need have no fear of death, for in his love we will live eternally, and we need have no fear of the present because his holy spirit will guide and lead us in the path that we, both as individuals and as a church community, must take to build, sustain and grow his body on earth. We need not be tied to the past because our future offers so much more so long as we hear his words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid”.

This peace is a peace of action. It cannot rest in a world of injustice and suffering, it cannot rest in a world where people cry out in spiritual pain and depression, but it is a peace that helps us to survive the journey from our own comfort-zones to growth, and from spiritual apathy to fullness of life. Lydia opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul and had her whole household baptised into a faith centered on love. She was not afraid – in love she willingly made this massive shift into a faith considered dangerous and condemned by those who failed to understand. The community she was to lead thrived and grew strong, open to all and secure in the knowledge of a loving God who calls us all.

Franklin D Roosevelt wrote “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”.

Roosevelt understood very clearly what Jesus was getting at let us hope and pray that we can have such vision.