Do not fear

Salvation Oracles on Reading Isaiah 43:1-5

There is a long list of threats around us:
     terror,
     cancer,
     falling markets,
     killing,
     others unlike us in all their variety,
     loneliness,
     shame,
     death--
     the list goes on and we know it well.
And in the midst of threat of every kind,
     you appear among us in your full power,
          in your deep fidelity,
          in your amazing compassion.
     You speak among us the one word that could matter:
               "Do not fear."
And we, in our several fearfulnesses, are jarred by your utterance.
     On a good day, we know that your sovereign word is true.
     So, give us good days by your rule,
          free enough to rejoice,
          open enough to change,
          trusting enough to move out of new obedience,
          grace enough to be forgiven and then to forgive.
We live by your word.  Speak it to us through the night,
     that we may have many good days through your gift.
 
~Walter Brueggemann
     from Prayers for a Privileged People

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation