Do not be afraid, I am with you

Sermon for Morning Prayer 15/03/2020

You don’t need me to tell you we seem to be living in strange times ! A couple of months ago people had never heard of the coronavirus but now it dominates not just news programmes, but it seems also most of our lives. A trip to the supermarket will confirm that ! 

Into this situation our readings this morning couldn’t be more appropriate (Joshua 1:1-9; Ephesians 6:10-20). Amidst the chaos and the worry, God says ‘don’t be afraid’ and he reminds us that he equips us for anything we can ever face. 

Don’t those words sound easy, but we all know they’re not. When God says, ‘do not be afraid, I’m with you’ I know it’s not as easy as it sounds to trust that. I, probably like many of you, struggle with questions about suffering in whatever form it occurs; I still worry about not being faithful enough, or not adequate enough to share my faith well enough and I’d still like to have that sit down chat with God where I could ask a pile of questions that are sitting in my mind !

But I also recognise that Jesus came to bring hope and peace and love and he certainly didn’t take an easy way of doing it. God valued and values his people enough to still offer people the choice of whether to follow him or not.

He faced the pain of human rejection, not just emotional but physical as well and he did it in order to offer an invitation to all to enjoy a closer relationship with him, a relationship where people would be free to live the best lives they could, to live lives recognising our relationship with God and his constant presence with us and to live lives recognising the gifts of people that he puts alongside us, not people to compete against but people who help to show us the rich variety of life as God intended.

Whether it was the tax collector that Jesus called to serve him, the Samaritan who he used as an illustration in one of his most famous parables, the persecutor of people who followed him, the soldiers and authorities who put Jesus on the cross, the thief who was hung alongside him, the disciple who had watched all of the incredible things Jesus had done and still denied knowing him when it came to a test, or whether it’s you or me, Jesus offers the same words, ‘do not be afraid, be strong and courageous, I am with you always’.

And our readings as I said bear out that message perfectly. Joshua served as an assistant to Moses for years but now it came to the time for him to lead. Following any great leader is never easy. Not that I’m comparing Warren Gatland, the former Welsh coach to Moses, but look at the challenges and criticism his successor, Wayne Pivac, is getting. 

Joshua was stepping into big shoes but the message from God was overwhelming - over and over he said, ‘be strong and courageous’, ‘do not be afraid, I am with you wherever you go’. Joshua may well have been nervous or afraid, he may well have felt inadequate or even unworthy and incapable and confused but God said, ‘be strong and courageous’. 

And so everything is fine ! Life is ok, whatever is happening... but of course, it’s not quite like that. Sometimes we struggle through our busyness, or all kinds of distractions or perhaps our fears, to take these words seriously, but they are the words of a Saviour who came to live amongst us, to love as a perfect example of love and to die in order to wipe our slates clean - but then to show his power by rising to life again to offer everlasting life and perhaps to show equal power in still allowing us the free will to accept his invitation to get closer to him or not...

‘Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid for I am with you wherever you go’ were the words to Joshua and they are the words to us all in whatever struggles we may face and through whatever chaos or fear.

And then in the New Testament reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we’re reminded that through our fears, our confusion, our feelings of inadequacy, God offer us what Paul describes as his ‘armour’, ‘armour’ to protect us and ‘armour’ to strengthen us to live and proclaim the gospel, to be and to share good news... 

I started by saying we seem to live in strange times and we do. Whatever our feelings about this virus and there will be some who think people are over reacting and there will be others who think that not enough is being done, but what is absolutely clear is how we need God’s assurance that he is with us so we don’t need to be afraid, and also how we need one another, to rely on each other a little more, to help each other out where we can, to look for what is good in people.

In a world of fear and chaos we are called to be people of hope, of love and of compassion, offering those things for ourselves and for others, always trusting in God to strengthen us, to be with us, to love us... 

I’d like to finish with a prayer I read on Facebook (thanks to Gareth Rayner-Williams -adapted from a prayer by Dean Brian Baker ) :

The world now is too dangerous and too beautiful for anything but love.

Blessed be your eyes, that you may see God in everyone.

Blessed be your ears, that you may hear the cry of the poor.

Blessed be your lips, that you may speak nothing but love.

Blessed be your hands that everything you touch may become a sacrament.

Blessed be your feet, that you may run to those who need you.

And may your heart be so opened, so set on fire, that your love may change everything. 

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen