“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”   John 20:19

I know that I am jumping ahead in the Lenten/Easter story a bit, but I am doing it for a reason. Do you remember when the disciples self-quarantined? There were not afraid of COVID-19, but they were very afraid of the leaders who had Jesus crucified. (Just to be clear, John calls them the “Jews,” even though Jesus was a Jew and almost all of the disciples were Jews.)

Anyway, the disciples were afraid, and they went into a room and locked the door because they were afraid of what might happen.

Today we are encouraged by health officials and commanded by our children to go inside and shut the doors because of what might happen if we should catch the new coronavirus. It IS a dangerous situation, it IS serious, and there may be times when we become a bit afraid, BUT…

FEAR IS THE ENEMY OF FAITH!

ALSO

FEAR IS THE ENEMY OF LOVE!

AND

FEAR IS THE ENEMY OF HOPE!

AND

FEAR IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD JUDGEMENT!

Well then, what is fear? Fear is an emotion that happens when we feel threatened. Fear is usually a sign that something is wrong. It is a warning that there is danger out and about in the world.

Well, you know what? There is ALWAYS danger out and about in the world. It is just that most of the time we can ignore it because we are so busy with other, more pressing and usually more pleasant things.

Of course, the truth is that it is never a good idea to live our lives ignoring the danger and the consequences of our actions. But it is also true that if we spend all of our time focused on what horrible things MIGHT happen, we would never get anything done!

So what is the answer?

The answer is to–as calmly and reasonably as we can–separate what can be done from what is beyond our control. So we listen to the recommendations of the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) and we stay home and keep our physical distance from others. But that is not all that we can do! Because of the blessing of telephones and computers, we can still stay connected to loved ones. But we don’t have to stop there. What about that person living along? Why not give them a call or even send them a note and ask if it would be OK if we checked on them every other day or so to see if they are OK or if they need something?

And as we get busy doing what can be done, we will find that we have a lot less time to be afraid and we will have more time to realize that faith in God is bringing us more peace…that doing what we can do is bringing us more peace…and that seeing the difference we are making in the lives of others is bringing us even more peace.

Peace be with you. And remember, peace happens when God is in us and working through us to meet physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, and bringing love and compassion to into this world.

This world is a dangerous place, but we do not need to be afraid!

Pastor Dennis Niezwaag