Certainty

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear..." Psalm 46:1-2

I was struck by the certainty of the last phrase by the psalmist, "Therefore we will not fear..." Duh. Of course...of course we will not fear. It's quite certain. Fear simply has no place in our lives because of the reality of God's protection of us. While the psalm was written thousands of years ago, the psalmist includes us..."we will not fear." God's people for all time are people who share fearless lives governed by faith in God's protection and strength.

And the we means also that God's people as a community are fearless. Together, a fearless faith defines the entire community as well as individuals therein.

What are we scared about as a community?
What are we scared about in our personal lives?

Run to God and trust in him.

From Sacred Space

When Jesus said ‘Let your light shine before all’, did he mean that we should be haranguing people in the street? It would not work. There was a time when street-preaching might have made an impact on people. Nowadays everyone who has a radio or TV is bombarded with messages from another sort of street-preacher, the advertisers. They beguile, hector, amuse and titillate in order to seduce you into buying. As Christians, we are not expected to rival them. We could not. Our Lord’s words are not about coercing other people into religion, but about doing good in a visible way, ‘so that others, seeing your good works, may glorify your father in heaven’. In Recife, Brazil, where great numbers of poor people were illiterate, Bishop Helder Camara used to instruct his catechists, ‘Sisters and brothers, watch how you live. Your lives may be the only gospel your neighbours will ever read.’ We are all witnesses, at every moment of the day. That does not mean shouting the Creed from the rooftops. It means living in such a way that our lives would not make sense if God did not exist.

http://www.liturgy.co.nz/virtualchurch/sacreadspace.html