Pastor’s Note: our “Fear Not” today first appeared as one of the UCC’s Daily Devotionals during Advent. “Enter In” was written by Vicki Kemperer, the pastor of First United Church of Christ in Amherst, MA. +
Someone the other day was telling me about panic attacks apparently instigated by what’s happening politically in our time and place. I wish I could have responded that the situation isn’t as bad as they thought! What I could promise is that Jesus is God’s power available to us, even to our fear and panic.
I suggested that prayers asking for Jesus’ presence and help can make a difference when we are agitated, dismayed, anxious. Why? Because Jesus CAN help.
God’s never turned away by even the worst in our world. Instead, in Jesus, God comes closer. And in the movement, God shares strength, steadfastness, courage, hope.
When it’s hard to stand on our own, trust that in Jesus, God’s close enough to lean on. And, sometimes, even if in your struggle, it’s even hard to find God, one of God’s faithful might just be right there to lean on.
Because even if our fear and panic aren’t tamped down, it’s better not to be alone with them!
Later that day, actually that night, praying my prayers before bed, I remembered Rev. Kemperer’s devotional…
ENTER IN!
Raise your hand if your panic has ever been eased by someone telling you to calm down. Raise your hand if your fears have ever been assuaged by someone saying, “Don’t be afraid.
Say to those who are panicking: “Be strong! Don’t fear! Here’s your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you.” – Isaiah 35:4 (CEB)
The prophet Isaiah — who wanted to make a despairing, exiled people feel better — clearly hadn’t done clinical pastoral education. He didn’t know how to be a calm, non-anxious presence. He hadn’t learned the healing power of listening to and witnessing another’s pain, as opposed to trying to fix it or make it go away.
But Isaiah was simply telling people what God had told him to say, which means … um, gulp … that maybe the God of extravagant, steadfast and redeeming love, the God who forever wants to make everything and everyone whole, also had some learning to do.
Enter Jesus of Nazareth, God-come-to-live-with-us, to walk beside us in our particular pains and comfort us in our shared fears. Enter the God who longs to be with us and who learned, over time, that the creatures made in the divine image carry within them an innate yearning for Home.
Enter into the world the Word Made Flesh. Enter into our lives the Light for all people. Enter into our hearts hope, peace, joy, love, healing, and, yes, salvation and wholeness. Enter you and me and other Light bearers into places of brokenness and separations. Enter in strength and hope.
Prayer
Enter in, Emmanuel, with your healing, empowering presence. Come to us again and again and again.
Thanks for the reminder, Rev. Kemperer; thanks for the Help, Jesus.
In faith and courage,
Michael
