Christmas, Wednesday, December 25th, 2013
Fr. Todd Bragg
St. Margaret Anglican Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
" Fear not, for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." (St. Luke 2:10)
As a human being, it seems that fear is something that we have to deal with. As human beings, we do not like the unknown. We like everything to be right there before us. We have 24 hour news channels and the Internet and texts and emails, etc. We like to be informed immediately and anything that we are not sure of, it causes us to be fearful in a certain sense.
Certainly if we look back to the first Christmas over two-thousand years ago, there was probably fear from not knowing what was happening, or at the very least, not knowing why things were happening the way that they were happening.
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed for I am Thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." (Isaiah 41:10)
As Christians, we are not called to be fearful. Rather, we are called to always place our trust in Our Heavenly Father. Despite the fact, that we may not know what may befall us, we can always be certain that God will be with us and there for us in times of need.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us." (I St. John 4:18-19)
What St. John is trying to point out is that when we are filled with the love of God, fear has no room. If we think of the example of a bottle. If the bottle is filled to the brim with water, for example, there is no room for anything else. We have to first remove some of the contents of the bottle in order to fill it with something else. This is what St. John is pointing out in regards to "fear" and "love:" be so filled with love that there is no room for fear. Be so filled with love for God, that there is no room for fear of the unknown. Be so filled will love of God that there is no room for anything else.
As a human being, it seems that fear is something that we have to deal with. As human beings, we do not like the unknown. We like everything to be right there before us. We have 24 hour news channels and the Internet and texts and emails, etc. We like to be informed immediately and anything that we are not sure of, it causes us to be fearful in a certain sense.
Certainly if we look back to the first Christmas over two-thousand years ago, there was probably fear from not knowing what was happening, or at the very least, not knowing why things were happening the way that they were happening.
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed for I am Thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." (Isaiah 41:10)
As Christians, we are not called to be fearful. Rather, we are called to always place our trust in Our Heavenly Father. Despite the fact, that we may not know what may befall us, we can always be certain that God will be with us and there for us in times of need.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us." (I St. John 4:18-19)
What St. John is trying to point out is that when we are filled with the love of God, fear has no room. If we think of the example of a bottle. If the bottle is filled to the brim with water, for example, there is no room for anything else. We have to first remove some of the contents of the bottle in order to fill it with something else. This is what St. John is pointing out in regards to "fear" and "love:" be so filled with love that there is no room for fear. Be so filled with love for God, that there is no room for fear of the unknown. Be so filled will love of God that there is no room for anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment