Musings on the Daily Lectionary - Fear

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

The Psalms are filled with such assurances. In 1 John, in the section that tells us "God is love," we hear that "perfect love casts out fear." Or as Paul writes to the church at Rome, "If God is for us, who is against us?" Over and over the Bible assures us of God's care, God's love, God's provision. So why do we know so much fear?

I see lots of fear in the Church. Congregations are afraid because of shrinking numbers, an increasingly secular culture, and shrinking budgets. The same issues keep me awake some nights, and can motivate my actions. In recent years, my Presbyterian denomination has gotten more and more interested in evangelism, but all too often this interest seems to be motivated by fear. "If we don't learn to do evangelism, we will die."

For me, fear is largely a product of not having very much trust in God. My congregation's successes or failures are all about how well I lead them, how well we run our programs, how inspiring we make our worship, how well we connect with our community. And rarely as we discuss such issues do we ask ourselves, "What is God calling us to do? What does faithfulness look like?"

I don't often ask such questions because I am so focused on the human element, on what I do, on what other staff and leaders do. Our discussions and arguments about what we should do are usually focused on pretty trivial matters. What time should worship start? Should we do peppier sounding hymns? What color should the carpet be? And if a stranger were to wander into one of these discussions, I wonder if she might ask, "Where is God?"

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