Facing Fear

November 18, 2018
November begins with All Saints Day and ends in or near Advent, when we anticipate Christ’s coming again. In the last week of his life, Jesus warned his disciples concerning trials that were to come upon them and upon the world. He exhorts the listener: Do not be alarmed. These predictions provoke in us the turmoil of hope, fear, and disbelief. The more we see the last day approaching, the more important it is to meet together to provoke one another to love.

Government officials and religious leaders had set up shady systems on what was already shifting sands. This reality wasn’t new news then, and it isn’t new news now. Still, it shook these disciples to their core. If the Temple, the most important sign of their identity as God’s chosen people, was destroyed could they continue to claim that identity.

What we do here, as followers of Jesus, by gathering and celebrating together the Lord’s Supper, seeks to prevent our constructing a shady system, and to avoid banking on the insecurity of this world’s shifting sands. See, we do here what Jesus’ followers have been doing since their world ended on Good Friday, and their terror drove them to a locked room on Saturday.

At our 9:30 A.M., Sunday worship, in prayer, Word, song, sermon and Meal, we’ll be mindful that each of us has occasions to stand with someone out there who’s overwhelmed by fear, terrified. We’ll also rediscover the power God gives us, by grace through faith, to stand in opposition to terror and to face down fear.

Pastor Jeff