Some time ago, I listened to an interview with, a Benedictine monk, David Steindle Rast. He was talking about anxiety – which so many of us have been feeling these days.

He said, “We have to acknowledge our anxiety, but we must not fear. (And) There is a great difference. See, anxiety… or being anxious — this word comes from a root that means ‘narrowness’ and ‘choking.’ The original anxiety is our birth anxiety. We all come into this world through this very uncomfortable process of being born… It’s really a life-and-death struggle for both the mother and the child…”

He went on to say that if we let go of the fear, “…the worst anxieties and the worst tight spots in our life, often, years later, when you look back at them, reveal themselves as the beginning of something completely new, a completely new life.”

I was listening to this and it made me think about some of my friends who lost their family business during the last big recession in 2008. It had been in their family for years. They had two kids still in high school at that time, and the loss was just devastating. They were worried about losing their house – how they were going to make ends meet. Talk about anxiety!

But God did move in their lives during that time. God did bring about something new. My buddy tells me that this whole experience brought them together as a family – bonded in ways they never could have imagined. They began to experience a whole new level of gratitude for the gifts they did have. It wasn’t too long after that, that my friend enrolled in seminary. I went to his ordination service two years ago, and today he’s serving a Presbyterian church up in Jacksonville.

If we think about it, we’ve all seen times when pain and suffering, confusion and anxiety give way to new life…

All of this makes me wonder about all that we are going through right now…in our world, in our church… Are these yet birth pangs… I don’t believe that God brought this on, but could it be that through this, God is at work even now to bring about something new…

Let us pray: Gracious God, today I pray that you would help us to let go of fear and instead look for the potential. May we trust that you are at work – even now – even through all of this, to make all things new. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Many years ago, as a part of a small group exercise, we were invited to read the story of Zacchaeus. If you remember, Jesus invites himself to Zaccheaus’ house for dinner. We were then asked to imagine, What if Jesus invited himself to your house for dinner tonight? How would you feel? Would you have any reservations? How would you respond?

Oh, we had a great conversation around that. Some of us said we would want to have our house perfectly clean – everything just right! Some of us said we would want to invite friends and neighbors. We talked about having a long leisurely conversation.

Others of us said we would want to ask him, perhaps beg him for help – to heal what is broken in us… to ask for forgiveness, mercy, mercy for ourselves, mercy for our nation and for our world.

I have to wonder if you were to see Jesus right now, what would you bring to him? What would you ask him? What needs would you lay before him?

Why don’t we take a moment, and lay all of this before him right now.
Will you pray with me?

Lord Jesus Christ, we can see you even now, in our mind’s eye, with your arms open wide… In this next moment of silence, we ask you to hear the needs that weigh on our hearts… Amen.

There is an old story about two young boys whose mother asked them to chase a chicken snake out of the henhouse. They looked everywhere for that snake, but couldn’t find it. The more they looked, the more afraid they got. When they finally found it, they nearly killed each other running out of the chicken house.

“Don’t you know a chicken snake won’t hurt you?” their mother asked. “Yes, ma’am,” one of the boys answered, “but there are some things that will scare you so bad you’ll hurt yourself.”

Most of us have been there at some time in our lives.
When we act out of fear, we are much more likely to make hasty or even bad decisions. On other occasions, fear can be crippling. It can lead to intense worry, anxiety, and even inaction.

Maybe that is why the most frequent command in the Bible is, “Fear not.”

Fear Not!

Psalm 46 is one of my favorites: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea…

Let us pray: Dear God, when change threatens to overwhelm us, when our world feels as though it is coming apart when anxiety begins to rise up within us and we find ourselves worried about our families, our communities, or our health help us not to fear, but to trust. Remind us that ultimately we rest in your hands. Today we claim the promise of the scriptures, that you are gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love. Amen.

Today, I am deeply grateful for those of you who have supported the Dial Hope Foundation with a financial donation. Hope reaches others because of you. Thank you!

In one of his commentaries on Romans, pastor, and scholar Eugene Peterson writes about the way Paul opens this letter. In verse 8, he begins, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you…”

Peterson makes the following observations:

“Paul, mature in all matters of spiritual formation, begins, as life itself begins, with gratitude for lives placed in his care. Life in itself – sheer, raw, unadorned life – is a pure gift. Spontaneous, grateful thanksgiving establishes the working conditions for all growth and development in Christ.”

I love that! “Spontaneous, grateful thanksgiving…”

If you paused and reflected for a moment right now, I wonder what spontaneous thanksgiving would arise in you. I don’t know about you, but too often in life, I get caught up in the worries and demands of the day, and I fail to reflect on all of my blessings. Yet, I believe that Peterson has it right – our gratitude lays the foundation for a life of deep and meaningful faith.

Today may you and I make a point of allowing our gratitude to flow. And may we share it with those whose lives depend on our love and care.

Let us pray: This is a day that you have made, O God, and we rejoice and are glad in it! In the moment of silence that follows, hear us as we offer our silent prayers of gratitude…. You have blessed us so richly, Lord. Thank you! Amen.

Yesterday we reflected on the story in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus returns to his hometown. Things did not go so well. The town’s people say, “Is this not the carpenter?” And Mark tells us, he could do no deed of power there.

True, learning carpentry did not normally prepare someone to be such a wise man. Typically, rabbis would have received an entirely different education.

It seems as though the townspeople, not only see him as he once was, but also based on his trade, they have put him in a box, and given him a label.

Is this not the carpenter?

Have you ever had someone do that to you?

I remember a number of years ago now when I first met my neighbor Barbara at a neighborhood party, she asked me what I did for work. When I said, I’m a pastor, she scowled at me and said, “You have no right to tell me what to do with my body!”

I said, “Barbara, I have no interest in telling you what to do with your body.”

You know what she was doing. She had totally put me in a box. She was making the assumption that all Christians come down in the exact same place on a very complex moral and political question…

I don’t know about you, I do not like being put in a box!

But then again, I think about how often I do this to others. How often we all do: He’s a Trumper. She’s woke. Boomer. Old white guy. Socialist.

Labels.

Leo Tolstoy once wrote, “One of the commonest and most generally accepted delusions is that every man can be qualified in some particular way…”

On the other side of this, the author Zadie Smith said that when she was growing up, she would try to imagine what it would be like to live in the homes of her friends. She wrote, “I would rarely enter a friend’s home without wondering what it might be like to never leave. That is, what it would be like to be Polish or Ghanaian, or Irish or Bengali, to be richer or poorer, to say these prayers or hold these politics… Above all, I wondered what it would be like to believe the sorts of things I didn’t believe.”

What a beautiful way to train your imagination in the art of seeing others.

Let us pray: God of grace, at this time when the social fabric of our nation is torn, at this time when so many are lonely, starved for connection, hungry to be known, empower us to be the kind of people, who are curious about others, quick to listen, slow to judge. We look to Jesus, who shows us the way. Amen.