More and more, fear seems to be the underlying current of our age. The campaigning has begun for 2016 and much of the rhetoric is based upon fear and its effects.

According to many of the candidates, we should be afraid of virtually everything except them. Whether other nations in the world, immigrants, the other political party or divergent views on any topic, fear becomes the motivating influence calling the hearer to believe that this candidate or that will be able to relieve the very fears that he or she created.

Certainly much that has been in the news in the past week has proven to be fodder for the purveyors of fear. From the senseless killings in the church in Charleston, South Carolina, to the various rulings of the Supreme Court, newscasters and others have twisted the events to promote their own talking points whether applicable or not.

The intentional killing of black persons at Bible study is not some organized assault on Christianity despite the reporting of some of the news affiliates. It is a tragic event fostered by fear and promoted by small elements of many of society’s institutions.

Certain decisions of the Supreme Court will not, in fact, be the doom of society and culture as we know it. However, those who seem to use fear the best will continue to try to convince people that they should be afraid.

One of the frequent questions that Jesus asked his closest followers as the Gospels recorded these events was, “Why are you afraid?” The assurance of Jesus’s words and presence was that there was nothing to fear. Powers and forces of this world in whatever form would not ultimately prevail against him. Jesus would share that confidence with all who follow him.

The Apostle Paul picks up on that theme as he writes to fellow believers in Rome whom he has yet to meet. He asks the rhetorical question, “What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Paul believed that nothing could separate God’s people from God’s love revealed in the Savior, except for the people themselves. God’s people are called to live life on the basis of the good news of God’s love not on the basis of fears manufactured and inflated because they make news or generate ballots and support.

In the midst of change and challenge, God’s people are encouraged by the words of Jesus, “fear not,” and the promise that he will be with us always even to the end of the age.

 

Don Rose is the pastor of United Lutheran Church and Mansfield