Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

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Pastor's Pulse

by Paul Leggett, Pastor

Nothing to Fear

January 2009

“Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid’” – Luke 5:10

As we begin the new year of 2009 many people are struggling with a sense of fear and anxiety.  Chiefly this has to do with the economy.  The seriousness of the present recession has created concern about many fundamental things in our lives — jobs, savings, loans for mortgages, cars, and college educations.  We continue not only with an ongoing war but with the vague threat of terrorism hanging over us.  This is all in the context of the tremendous social changes that go under the somewhat ambiguous term of “post-modernism.”  Standards and patterns of life that, until fairly recently, would have been taken for granted have changed dramatically.  The internet alone is an example.  It is safe to say that the internet has become our fundamental means of communication.  Historians tell us that if you change the basic nature of communication you change a whole society.  Dr. Darrell Guder, Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and our keynote speaker at last year’s Missions Conference, put it succinctly, “For all the pain and trauma it introduces, constant change has become the expected norm for most people.”  He adds, “The very foundations of society have changed.”

Change invariably makes us anxious.  We have just come through the Christmas season, a season that emphasizes the “glad tidings of great joy” of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world as our Lord and Savior.  Yet, as we have noted, the coming of Christ brings enormous changes.  It is no accident that throughout Luke’s narrative the refrain, “Do not be afraid,” is repeated several times (Luke 1:13, 30, 2:10).  There is of course the added distress of change in an ominous sense as we have witnessed in the recent economic downturn.

Jesus’ words to Simon are also words to us, “Do not be afraid.”  Fear and anxiety are normal human responses to change, especially unsettling change.  But a new year is always filled with promise because God is in control and Jesus is always with us (Ephesians 1:11; Matthew 28:20).  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus bluntly asks, what do we accomplish by worrying? (Matthew 6:25-34).  The answer, of course, is nothing.  In a desperate moment, faced with complaining people, Moses asks the Lord if he can indeed provide for all the children of Israel.  God answers unequivocally, “Is the Lord’s power limited?  Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” (Numbers 11:23).  Of course God’s word proves true again and again.  It will prove true again in 2009.  We have nothing to fear.