Talk About Facing Fear

At "little church with a big mission" we're planning for Advent and Christmas, and we've settled on the theme of "facing fear" by affirming that there are "Angels Among Us."  Just as the angels of the Christmas story (and throughout the bible's history) start out by saying "Do Not Be Afraid," we can affirm those messages. Thanks to the Worship Design Studio, we have all sorts of tools for making this message real. But still, it's not just individual fears we are concerned about--it's the big community ones. After the violence in the First Baptist Church of Southerland Springs Texas, people who gather in churches can't help but think about a real anti-fear message.
I'm surprised at the toll this fear is taking on my parishioners and community. Someone actually asked me "can you tell us how to think about this?" My gut tells me that people of faith ought to have more guts than this. I didn't answer, but I thought "Do you really mean that you don't know? Don't you know and trust the good news that 'God's got this?' Where is your faith?"  Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh.
I do think that doesn't bode well for us that trust in God has been supplanted by trust in guns. Colleagues at Christian Century put it this way:
"In the United States, we worship our guns like no other nation in the world, and some will say more guns are the answer. I do not believe this. We need to be direct in saying the god of guns is a false god. As much as I believe Jesus is among the grieving, I believe he is also pressing on his church to engage with the powers and principalities and say “No more!” Our culture privileges the powerful; often our church culture does the same. Yet we know Jesus proclaimed a preferential option for people who are marginalized and oppressed. We need the church to be a place where we talk about why mass shootings happen. We need to have those conversations and let God be part of them. We need to decide whether the church will be not just a voice speaking but a body acting to bring change in human priorities and understanding. If we have any power left as an institution, we must work together for good, in Jesus’s name."
Text for last week's sermon from Joshua was "MAKE YOUR STAND."
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
Buck up people!

Shared fear has become more important than shared responsibilities. And that’s the essence of fascism.  HENRY GIROUX