Five Golden Days...

         Speaking strictly for myself. Fear is huge part of what drives life. Fear of failure, fear of disappointing people I care about, fear of rejection, fear of wasting my life and talents, fear of not being able to do what needs to be done, fear of how others will perceive me, fear of being wrong.

       If I'm not careful these fears can almost completely rule my actions. It's something I've lived with so long that I begin to forget just how much fear is meshed into the very fabric of my moral character. That, in itself, is frightening. It's one thing to know one shouldn't fear those things, it's one thing to try to act in spite of those fears, it's another to actually get rid of them.

       When the angel came to the Shepherds that night, he opened his speech with the one liner every angel in recorded history has had to say when dealing with people.
    "Do not be afraid."

     We can all sympathize with the Shepherds, I think. To be suddenly greeted by a being from a heavenly realm can't be something even the staunchest of people could take quietly.

      What the angel follows up with, however, I think puts greater meaning into his first statement.
"Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people."

       When you bring someone a piece of good news that's, in fact, good news for everybody, I think that would be the day we saw pink elephants dancing through the stratosphere.

      The point is, usually, and I mean no cynicism when I say this, when someone gets good news, it's very often, in turn, bad news for someone else. You get accepted into the college of your dreams, it means someone else was bumped out. You receive that long awaited visa into the U.S. while someone else is told to wait another six months. You win that full scholarship, and someone else is given nothing to pay for his tuition. The list could go on. I don't want to dampen the joy of receiving good things, but just think, how glorious this news must have been, when, in one of today's shameful platitudes, "everyone's a winner."
       It's interesting to think that, in this case, when the angel cried "fear not!" he wasn't simply assuring the Shepherds that he wasn't there to destroy them for their sins, but was also informing a whole generation of people that they no longer had to live in fear. We no longer have to fear that we won't be enough. Christ is enough. We don't have to fear failure, because in Christ we are more than conquerors. We don't have to fear that we'll waste our lives, because Christ who began a good work in us will complete it. We don't have to fear being wrong because in Christ we have victory. We don't have to fear what people think of us because if God is for us, none can stand against us.

     What a glorious call, that night. The Shepherds had no idea, in some sense, none of us has more than the vaguest notion of what it means to fear nothing and no-one but God. And yet, I believe that in that one and right fear, we have freedom from the rest, and freedom to live our lives fully.

       Dwell on that for a moment as you listen to this beautiful carol reworked for choir by Craig Courtney.



        We no longer have to live in fear. When the angel commanded the Shepherds not to fear it was an echo of a greater reality, because Christ has come to set us free from all of it.

     ~ Christianna