(Editor’s note: The following is a submission to The Recorder’s weekly column titled “Faith Matters.” Each Saturday, a different faith leader in Franklin County offers a personal religious perspective in this space. For information on becoming part of this series, email religion@recorder.com or call 413-772-0261, ext. 265.)
Everywhere I go I hear people talking fear. Fear for their lives and the lives of their children. Fear for our country and fear for the world. Words like fearful, scared, scary and terrified are filling our lexicon. I have felt fear more times than I can count. Yet I am a follower and student and lover of Jesus and of Jesus’ God and I know deep down that I am not called to identify with fear.
We are called to notice and to address fear but not to let it run our lives. The oft repeated commandment “Do not be afraid” incorporates that very word but it does so in a way that confronts and resists. It says that fear should not salt our conversations or be the tenor of our lives.
I am looking forward to seeing the documentary The Music of Strangers. The previews of the film show international and multicultural musicians traveling all around the world and standing for the power of connection that withstands and transforms the creeping nature of fear. In the film, conductor Yo-Yo Ma, says “Everybody is afraid. But make a connection with another human being and you can turn fear into joy.”
Choosing to make connections with each other and with the Divine Spirit of God that is within and all around us, is choosing to align with joy. The choice to speak joy and to act in the way of joy helps us wrestle fear back to the level that it belongs. Fear should not be constantly rising to the top.
I have been thinking about joy and fear as I walk with my church in the Eastertide season. During this 7 week Easter season we tell the stories of Jesus coming back to his friends; visiting them in their locked rooms, their locked up hearts and minds, and shattering fear with the joy of his appearance. This joy says that a tomb is fine for a short while but it is not a place to live.
As Jesus’ students in the 2016 we see how he loved the fear-ridden men and women who were beaten in spirit by the empire of their day and who were mourning the loss of their rabbi and friend. He told them they would find a new way to live by staying in relationship with each other. They would find a way that straightens the spine, lifts the head, and opens the mouth to speak truth against lies cloaked in the emotion of fear.
Of course we are fearful. In this political climate who wouldn’t be? But fear can be turned into joy. Joy at being alive. Joy at seeing another human being (Oh what a miracle!) standing right there alongside us. Joy that laughs and cries and dances and praises what is worthy of praise. Joy that puts fear in its rightful place.
During Eastertide I am encouraging my congregation to find the courage to practice resurrection – the revival of God’s great love in the world. It is not only Jesus who came to life after dying. We too have been knocked into the death world by fear mongers in our midst. We can push aside the boulder of fear that is being spread about our neighbors, the strangers, the future, and our present reality. We can join together. We can “make a connection with another human being” and turn fear into joy.
This transformation might happen with music. It might happen with prayer. It might happen with protest or witness. It does happen with standing on the side of love. It happens by refusing to believe some things and choosing to live other things. It might happen overnight and it might take a lifetime. It just about always means working together.
Joyful living takes practice. It means standing up against deathly thinking. It does not come naturally. It is something that we can and must learn to do. Joy is a gift that comes when we least expect. It is a gift that we can be prepared to receive and accept when it shows up. When asked to choose between death and life, I choose life. I choose joy. Now.
Trinity Church is an ecumenical congregation in the village of Shelburne Falls. We have ties with the United Church of Christ, American Baptist Church, Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church. We are known for our gracious and open welcome, free community meals every Friday evening and our free community clothes closet, our historic building and garden, and the Main Street green, location of the farmers market and other community events. We host weekly AA meetings, a community parent/child playgroup and a Boy Scouts troop. We are fully accessible. Sunday worship 8:30 and 10 a.m. One 9 a.m. service in the summer. 413-625-2341, trinitychurch@gmail.com. Like us on Facebook!