When
I look around me, I see fear -
I see fear and anxiety at church
meetings because of
lower
attendance figures,
smaller
Sunday schools,
reduced
budgets
less
influence in society.
I see fear of people who are different –
especially
Muslims – 2.2 % of the
Australian population in 2011 http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/2071.0main+features902012-2013
The biggest increase in
religious affiliation in the census is the people with ‘no religion’ 22% . This group is almost as big as the
Catholic Church 25%, and larger than the Anglican church 17%. 5% name
themselves as Uniting Church.
I see fear of change
And fear of death, disease,
contamination.
What
do we fear?
What
do you fear?
The
psalmist writes
‘I
will fear no one …
I
will never be afraid ….
I
will still trust in God…
I
will praise the Lord.’
This
week we saw what happens when fear and its accomplice hate come together –
Cynthia
Hurd,
Susie
Jackson,
Ethel
Lance,
DePayne
Middleton,
Clementa
Pinckney,
Tywanza
Sanders,
Daniel
Simmons,
Sharonda
Coleman-Singleton,
Myra
Jackson.
These
people were at a prayer meeting at a church,
They are
Christian people,
our
brothers and sisters in Christ,
but they
are black people
and they
were killed.
Now we
might think that such racism doesn’t happen in Australia, but Ian and I were at
a meeting this weekend with about 40 people from across NSW and ACT.
One of the
people at that meeting is an aboriginal woman – she was travelling with a few
aboriginal people who are in Sydney for other meetings. She was contacted by the others, because the
hotel they were booked into would not let them into the room without a large
bond. One of the staff of the church and the woman at the meeting went to the
hotel, and keys were handed over with no bond being asked for. And yes the
staff person was white. This was in a major centre in the Sydney region.
Each of us
will have fears, each of us will worry – and as we heard in the gospel reading
‘Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it?’
If it means
going to the doctor a little sooner, maybe.
But most
things we worry about, we cannot do anything about, so where does worrying get
us – older, tireder ?
And in 1
John 4:18 (GNT)
There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.
Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society
At times I
have been asked what is going to happen to the Uniting Church – in the sense
that the church is dying and what will happen if the UCA as a whole closes
down.
Well, on
one hand I think that this is an unlikely scenario, for a while range of
reasons. But what if the UCA does close.
For over 2000 years , people whose lives have been touched by the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus have met together to worship, to tell and retell the
stories of our faith, to encourage faithful living, to support one another and
to spread the message of God’s grace, forgiveness and love.
So what if the
UCA closes –
do you
think God will not continue to work in the lives of people?
Do you believe
that people will no longer respond to God’s grace,
Are you
concerned that people will no longer seek out others to act together to work with
God in bringing the kingdom into being?
Yes, there
is a crisis in the UCA –
and I think
it is a crisis that comes from fear,
fear of speaking
a gospel message of love and grace
fear of trying
something new
fear of
looking at our own brokenness
fear that
we, and God, are not enough
My hope is
that this crisis of confidence will lead us to take hold of the opportunities
we have, to take the risk of following the way of Jesus.
The
psalmist writes
‘I
will fear no one …
I
will never be afraid ….
I
will still trust in God…
I
will praise the Lord.’
I
have been wondering this week – what does it mean to trust God?
Looking at
the psalm and the gospel reading, it looks to me like not worrying, not being
fearful,
it looks
like accepting that sometimes life will be difficult,
But in the
midst of the difficult times
In the
midst of the challenges of life
times of depression
times
of being overwhelmed
times
of unemployment
times of crisis
when
people attack us
when
tomorrow takes the joy from today
trusting
God does not take away the challenges of life
but
trusting God means having a sense of calm amidst the storm.
This may
not be easy to do, and I am a natural worrier, but I have learnt, and still am
learning, that worrying about how I will get through next week, or how will I
handle moving from here to a new place – none of that worrying achieves anything
other than for me to be tired and stressed.
Trusting
God, is trusting that God is present, that nothing can separate me from the love
of God, and that God is faithful.
What does
it mean for you to Trust God?
Hymn:
The Lord is my light [I am planning on this starting with one person and people joining in as they choose to]
