Jeromy Key, I baptise you ...
Samuel, God has called you out of darkness ...
Samuel Jeffrey, I baptise you ...
... sanctify this water ...
We give you thanks ...
Texts (Year C):
Isaiah 55:1-11 An invitation to abundant life
Ezekiel 36:24-28 The renewal of Israel
Matthew 28:1-10 The resurrection of Jesus
Do not be afraid .,.. do not be afraid …
This twofold refrain, announced by an angel and then again declared reassuringly by Jesus to the women at the tomb, is one that is echoed throughout the gospel of Matthew.
To Joseph as he contemplated dismissing Mary when he found her to be pregnant with Jesus, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid.”
To the disciples terrified by the storm at sea Jesus said, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?”
To the apostles being sent on their mission to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven is near, Jesus said, “Do not fear …”
To the disciples being buffeted by natures tempest while out at sea and seeing Jesus walking towards them on the water, we hear the familiar refrain, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
To Peter, James and John, immobilised by fear after having just witnessed the transfiguration Jesus said, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
Do not be afraid …. do not be afraid …
It is the Easter refrain, the clarion call to Christians who truly believe that Jesus Christ reveals the care and compassion, the energy and the feistiness, the love and the mercy, the humility and the glory of God.
Imagine that … believing in a mighty God, all-powerful, all knowing and ever-present on the one hand, yet on the other hand a God who, through Jesus Christ, sought to enter into an intimate relationship with men and women by becoming flesh and blood and who continues to seek a connection with us through the community of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth … a connection made possible only through a lonely death on a cross … and through the mystery and the glory of resurrection.
God seeks to enter into a relationship with us, as Christians through Jesus Christ and the Church, and yet we balk at the very thought of such a connection.
Why, because we are afraid.
We are governed by our fears. Fears that we allow to accumulate and build up in our lives, fears that act as barriers to a whole hearted, unreserved, uninhibited and extravagant connection with God.
What are these fears I wonder, these fears that somehow stop us from plunging into the cool, calm and tranquil depths of God’s very being?
What are these fears?
We fear being alone so we gather about us a virtual world of avatars and facebook friendships that keep our loneliness at bay.
We fear difference in others and ourselves and so we become boring and monochromatic and unadventurous in our efforts to fit in with everyone else.
We fear rejection and so we become “yes” people, we join in the chorus of societies dominant voices, or worse we say nothing.
We fear being without and so we aspire to accumulate those many useless possessions that we think will make us happy.
We fear boredom and so we make ourselves busy, shopping, working, renovating, playing and partying.
We fear pain, so we self –medicate with food, with alcohol, and with drugs.
We fear silence so we fill our lives with noise, ipods, radios and tvs, dvds and cds, ceaseless chatter and white noise.
We fear inferiority so we look for ways that we can build ourselves up put others down through gossip or indifference.
We fear old age and death so we scrabble for antidotes, creams, gels, diets and surgery to fend off that, which is inevitable.
We fear the unknown, the mysterious, that which can’t be explained and so we build up for ourselves hard and fast rules, facts and formulae, the opinions of experts that (we think) can’t be disputed.
The facts and the formulae, the diets and the surgery, facebook and frippery and obsessive activity all these things that we employ to mask our fears become like a layer of calcium that hardens us, our hearts, our minds and our souls to the presence of God in our lives … perhaps our ultimate fear. This God who for many of us first entered our lives unbidden through infant baptism, through the faith or social compulsion of our parents, or for others of us through some other unexpected or surprising way (for that is often how God can work), this God will challenge us and nag us and poke us and prod us to become the people he seeks us to be. A people not bound by fear but rather a people resourceful enough to withstand the desert wilderness, strong enough to ride out the storms at sea, tough enough to scale a mountain top, wild enough to up turn a table or two, generous enough to affirm the gifts of others, loving enough to bear with another’s faults, smart enough to know that we can’t prove everything, secure enough to recognise that we are unique and that others are too … and that that’s ok … calm enough to sit with silence and stillness and occasional inactivity, brave enough to accept pain and suffering, courageous enough to recognise our own mortality, humble enough to accept the will of God for us.
And we have a great mentor in all of this … a God-given mentor in Jesus Christ who was resourceful and strong, and tough and wild, who was generous and loving, smart and secure, calm, brave, courageous and humble.
We have a great mentor in Jesus Christ … who feared for a moment in a garden but who instead of seeking to escape his fear entered into it fully and in so doing was transformed.
We have a great mentor in Jesus Christ who reveals to us in a very earthy way the glory and the majesty, the kindness and compassion, the love and the generosity of God and who stood by an empty tomb and said, “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.”
