What Are We So Afraid Of?

 I’ve been quiet for the past few days, but my mind has been asking one question, over and over again, on repeat:

 

What are we so afraid of?

 

The question first popped into my mind as I read an article about a family boycotting Budweiser over the company’s support of the LGBTQ+ community.

 

It continued when I read the headline of lawmakers in TN being ousted from their jobs because of their actions and stance on gun reform.

 

It remained as I read the post of a friend feeling that she was being persecuted because of her belief in God.

 

And it solidified as I learned of an acquaintance’s wedding that wasn’t supported by her home church or family because they didn’t like her choice of partner.

 

What are we so afraid of?

 

I know we all have moral convictions.

I know that most of us have spiritual convictions.

I know that we all like to be right.

I know that being wrong is hard.

 

But what if life isn’t about being right or wrong?

And what if life is not about forcing our moral and spiritual convictions on others?

 

Jesus did not live a life of coercion.

He presented his life, his actions, his teachings to those around him and he let them choose whether or not to follow.

The only people he pushed away and against were the Pharisees—

The religious leaders who thought they knew it all—

But even for the Pharisees, he made a way for life abundant and eternal.

Jesus was not afraid of the outcast, or the sinner, or the person from a different culture, or of love.

Jesus was not afraid of making a radical stance against that which denied others of their human rights.

Jesus was not afraid of speaking out against violence or of standing up for Peace.

This Jesus is the Jesus that Christians profess to follow…

And yet…

There is so much judgment,

So much hate,

So much condemnation,

So much fear…

Of the different, of the sinner, of the “wrong.”

 

For days, I’ve been trying to make sense of this.

I’ve been trying to figure out an answer to the question:

Why we are so afraid?

And tonight, on this Silent Saturday,

Rain falling outside,

I concede.

I just know that today, in the silence and stillness of the in between,

In the moments that we will never know everything about,

A dead Jesus defeated death and condemnation in a process that would cause him to arise on Easter morn.

 

God, help us to stop living in fear of one another, especially those who claim to be Christian,

and help us to live in the hope of your resurrection and all the good that is to come. Amen.