Do not be afraid, I am with you

 ¹³ Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. ¹⁴ Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NRSV)

Be courageous, be strong. When do we have to be courageous? When do we have to be strong? And, why? What emotion creates those feelings? Fear. We all experience fear. Sometimes we brush the past into our future to make it feel comfortable. Sometimes our fear is trivial. Like our fear of being late, our fear of wearing the wrong outfit or our fear of spilling milk. Sometimes our fear feels huge. Like our fear of not being hired, our fear of failure, or our fear of not being loved. Our camp volunteers probably experienced some fear this past week at about 11am wondering how they would make it to the end of the day without the fear of being painted on or falling asleep from exhaustion. Our camp children may have experienced fear on their first day wondering what to expect. They may have feared they wouldn’t find a friend. They may have feared they wouldn’t have fun. But despite our campers’ fears, when their families dropped off their children, I heard words of comfort spoken to little ears in similar fashion of our Scripture today saying, “Don’t be afraid, you will have fun.” Or, “don’t be afraid, I will see you soon.”

And just like God, our Lord reminds us, “Do not be afraid, I am with you.” It is God’s way of comforting us and reminding us that we always have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. The passage in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 reminds us that God is our parent and we are bound as a family of faith when we trust in this and in the assurance of God’s presence in our daily lives. If we give in to our fears and forget that “God is with us” we lose sight of the guiding navigational power God has in our life. Like a lighthouse, God is our beacon of light within our own darkness of fear. God is our beacon of light in a fearful world.

The words we heard our children speak this past week made us laugh despite our fear of maybe “not adding up” in the sight of God through the mission of the camp. We heard the wisdom of a child in Gus when he said, “God made the number two.” Though simple, his words are a microcosm of the craftwork of God, that yes indeed God made the number two and everything else in our world. It was a blessing to see campers make connections to other things in Creation too. Like when campers learned about Diwali, the festival of light, they compared it to the 4^th of July since both celebrations use fireworks. They were able to see that though we were learning about a country on the other side of the world, that we still have many things in common with the people of India. Our campers learned that the beautiful colors in Rangoli designed artwork can be just as unique as each one of us. And, my fear as we closed camp on Friday would be that it would rain and wash the incredible Rangoli artwork off the sidewalks that we created.

Some volunteers may have had the fear of not making this camp experience good enough since some volunteers qualified their participation by saying, “You should have screened our artistic skills before letting us do this craft!” Or, “Are you sure you want me to do this?” I repeatedly remember saying things to people to quell their fears. And just as God will be pleased with our actions done in love, I was astounded at the outpouring of love shown by all the volunteers who came to Zion this past week to help with our camp. All that they did, they did in love. I was just grateful for them showing up and ecstatic that they wanted to do something as well. –I experienced what I presume to be God’s feelings for us when we not only show up but when we are active participants with our actions by showing love.

Now, how poignant God’s Word is for us today as we revisit today’s scripture.

We know that God is shaping Christianity and us today by His word. Though we learned about India this week in Zion’s Arts Adventure Camp, our campers were reminded that, “We are the Church” when we practiced singing that song this week. The church building, our church building and our facilities exist because of the people, if not for the people of Zion, we would have to put a For Sale sign on it. After all, it is not a church building or church organizations that bind us as Christians. What binds us as Christians is our walking within our faith to navigate our world today with the hopes of finding Grace. Let us remember to see the sparks of light in our daily lives that serve as God’s way of telling us, “Do not be afraid, I am with you.” Let us remember that God is our beacon of light on our journey. But, just as important that we can serve as one another’s light when we reflect God’s love to each other. May all that we do be done without fear but in love for one another. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

 

Message I gave at Zion United Church of Christ in Nottingham, MD