From Fear to Faith

by Josh Moody

I first arrived in the United States in 1999. Since then my family and I have enjoyed the hospitality of this fair city and its environs enormously. Entering our fifth season of Thanksgiving we have many reasons to be grateful. One of the surprising developments over the last few years – coming as we do from England – has been the growing sense of ‘fear’ in our global culture. There are many historical events (foremost being 9/11) which have given rise to this ancient specter of terror rearing its ugly head once more, yet it has caught us all unawares. We thought we had matured beyond hate and violence and begun to tread the path to a multi-national community of global peace and prosperity. How wrong we were.

In the midst of such circumstances politicians and business leaders speak their various antidotes. I cannot help but wonder what it is that the religious community should be saying. How can we address these psychological forces that compel us, these events that terrify us, these disturbing trends in our own society? As I ponder and pray about these matters I want to find a way to emphasize hope and love and a place in the sun for all. It seems to me that they key emphasis we need to understand and proclaim is that of moving from fear to faith.

Faith, of course, can just be a feel good word of little import. The faith I speak of, though, is a faith that rests secure in the knowledge of the sovereignty of God even in the midst of the storm of war, that believes in the love of God, above and beyond the hate of tribal animosity, that trusts in the personal saving work of Christ – whose incarnation at this season Christians remember. It is my conviction that this faith can (and indeed must) move us out of fear to the sunny shores of hope, love, tolerance, and a society of neighbors.

The first Christmas was really all about this. When the angels appeared to the Shepherds their first words were not ‘rejoice’ or ‘have a party’ or ‘let’s get together for a religious worship service.’ The first words out of the angelic annunciation of the birth of the Messiah were: “Do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10). Why? Partly because meeting an angel was a terrifying experience. Angels were apparently not like the angels we put on our Christmas trees, for their presence is almost universally greeted by the trembling hands and knocking knees of their hearers. Also, though, the angels necessarily proclaimed ‘do not fear’ for the heart of the Christian message is wrapped up in that negative and the positive that followed soon after. “Do not fear” they said. Why? Because, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” The fear was removed in the proclamation of the good news of the faith.

These pages are insufficient space for me to explain the content of that good news, much discussed by scholars and packaged by professionals. Suffice it to say that in our day of startling ‘bad news’ it is important, to my mind, to stress that the content of Christian faith is a proclamation of ‘good news’. God in Christ is reconciling a warring world to himself. He stands for peace. He stands for justice. He stands for love. It cost him, of course (here we move from Christmas to Easter), but in that way much lost in the prepackaged notions of the religious superficial, the cost of Christ is the good news of God. We may be at war with others, we may be at war with ourselves, we may even (according to the Bible) in some spiritually essential way be naturally at war with God yet – here is the mystery revealed – in Christ God’s hand of love reaches out to this warring world with a message of peace and, yes, good news to all.

This holiday season I wish to encourage us all to move from fear to faith.