Beloved of God,

How are you at entering a completely novel situation?  Are you a “go with the flow” kind of person? Or do you avoid new situations like the plague? Do you enter a new context spontaneously or do you try to prepare yourself as much as you can? Me, I like to get information in advance so I’ll feel more confident when I cross the threshold into a new place. We all have different ways of meeting up with something or someone new.  But sometimes, information is not available.  Sometimes, the context is so radically new that nothing can prepare us for what we face.

In each of the gospels, the disciples’ first reaction to the resurrection is one of fear. That’s not surprising, really.  Because in the face of things we don’t understand or can’t comprehend, in the face of questions that challenge our understanding of reality, fear and anxiety are almost always the first emotions to exert themselves.  That’s why nearly every time in the Scriptures that divine messengers and human beings meet the first words spoken are:  BE NOT AFRAID.  God knows how paralyzing fear can be.  God knows how fear diminishes our capacity to trust.

So it is no surprise that when Jesus speaks to his community as their risen Lord, he begins his greeting with the words, PEACE BE WITH YOU.   He begins with PEACE, and slowly, ever so slowly, fear unwinds and anxiety lessens, and then, new possibilities begin to emerge.  In back to back stories at the end of Luke’s gospel we can see how fear is finally overcome by faith and anxiety and despair are replaced by trust and confidence.  But this transformation doesn’t happen instantly!  It’s not a slam dunk!  When it comes to hearing the resurrection story and allowing the implications of that news to begin to register, once is not enough.  The first disciples needed it—and we need it—again and again.

During the 50 days of Easter we learn what it means to be Easter people.  We learn what it means to encounter the Risen Christ and to be sent by him into new territory as witnesses and servants of the Risen One.  But one Sunday, one worship experience, one trip to the Table, one Bible study, one conversation isn’t enough.  We need to be reminded of God’s grace and God’s call again and again.  We are Easter people, marked with the cross of Christ forever, and called to live our life in community in the context of a deep trust in our risen Savior.  Easter people who are learning to look at the world and their own experience through the lens of Christ’s resurrection. 

It took the disciples 50 days before they were ready to be witnesses, to bear good news in a form the world could recognize; to incarnate it; enflesh it; live it.  But whether it takes us 50 days or 50 years to grasp the transforming power that God makes available to us, we’ll keep on coming back here to this community, to this Word, to this Font and Table because this is where Christ promises he will meet us, and will calm our anxieties and banish our fears.

Not that fear and anxiety don’t try to creep back in.  But when we feel fear slinking into our thoughts and anxiety trying to take hold of our minds, we need to recall the words of Jesus:  PEACE BE WITH YOU.  And as his peace takes hold of us, fear is once more set aside and faith rises up to take its place, declaring: 

Ever with hope,

Pastor Erik