The Sixth Sunday of Easter

In this week’s reading from the gospel of John (John 14:23-29), Jesus comforts his friends by encouraging them to not be afraid.  The phrase “fear not” or “do not be afraid” appears at least 100 times in Scripture.  While we may acknowledge that there are things which frighten us, Scripture urges us to not be controlled by fear.  Instead, we are called to love, trusting that love casts out fear.  Fear narrows the circle of our lives.  It constricts, and it can choke the life out of us as individuals and as the church.  Jesus was always about widening the circle and loving and inviting others in even when it was risky.  The decline we see in the Church in the U.S. is, in part, the result of the Church’s unwillingness to take the risk to love.  Instead, our witness is too often motivated by fear – fear of decline, fear that resources are scarce, fear that strangers might change us, fear of the unknown, fear that keeps us planted in the past while Jesus is calling us to follow him into God’s future.  A Church motivated by fear is powerless to change the world.  But friends, if our life as Church is in Christ’s hands, we can take the risk of love, knowing that love casts out fear.