Weekly Bulletin

**********************************************************
Winchester Friends Church           765-584-8276
124 E. Washington St.      Winchester, IN  47394
www.winchesterfriendschurch.org
**********************************************************

 

“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.  Make the LORD of Heaven’s armies holy in your life.   He is the one you should fear.  He is the one who should make you tremble.      
God’s instruction to his prophet when Assyria threatened Israel,  Isaiah 8:12,13    New Living Translation

 

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.   So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.        Part of Jesus’ instruction to the Twelve for their first “solo” mission, Matthew 10:28-31

 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.         I John 4:16-18

 

 

America is gearing up for three big events in the next ten days – first the annual “festival of fear” we call Halloween on October 31, next our return to Standard Time early on Sunday morning November 3, and then Election Day on November 5.  Listening to news coverage of the run-up to those events, one consistent theme I’ve heard is that many people say that their voting will be motivated by their fear-stoked anger over inflation and the economy.  I can’t help feeling disappointed when hearing in the same reports that Americans will spend an average of $170 per person this year on Halloween decorations, costumes, and candy.  That adds up to a projected $11.6 billion spent nationwide on nonessentials to celebrate “pretend fear”, by a population that insists it can’t survive in the current economy.   Those numbers may add up, but for me the logic of it really doesn’t. 

 

I heard this week a behavioral scientist interviewed about the reasons why horror films and haunted houses are so popular in our country.  To me, it sounded quite similar to why social media and video games have been found to be addictive in both kids and adults.  The movie makers follow a formula of showing long stretches of suspense and stress, then a sudden, loud, often gruesome encounter with violence or evil, followed by a resolution of the crisis that leaves the viewer feeling glad to be still alive.  The researcher suggested that those emotions result from very similar hormone releases in the brain as those which accompany being snubbed or “liked” in social media interchanges. The “rush” of the stress hormones being overcome by the feel-good hormones at the end makes the participant want to repeat the process.

 

I don’t know about you, but I find plenty of actual fear-generating things in 21st century life, without the need for “make-believe goblins” running around in costumes, pranksters roving town looking for mischief, or “pretend crises” threatening (un)reality TV participants.  By the time I’ve pondered the world’s tragic wars, the disruption of millions of lives by climate disasters, the imbalance and volatility of the global and national economies, and the real struggles of people here in Indiana, I honestly don’t need any “pretend crises” to help prompt a dopamine rush for relief. 

 

For me, the three events coming up – Halloween, clock change, and the election – are in some ways representative of the fears which seem to impact much of life in our times.  A lot of people seem afraid of genuine spiritual life and Truth, partly because they think it will take all the pleasure out life, and partly because they don’t know the loving Spirit of the Living God.  Many seem to fear time, some because they see it slipping away, some because they know they’re wasting it, and some because it leads to an unknown, scary future.  I’ve also heard several people say they’re afraid about the 2024 election, largely in fear of what they or the nation will lose if their favored candidates do not win.  It’s one tangible expression of that unknown, scary future. 

 

Matthew 10:5-31      In Matthew 10, Jesus sent his twelve disciples out on their first ministry assignment without his personal accompaniment.  He sent them out into a world that was at least as frightening as ours is today.  He sent them only after giving a lengthy series of instructions regarding their intended audience, the content of their message, the provisions and resources they would need, their treatment of people, their need for vigilance, their response to opposition, and his assurance of God’s care.  At least three times in those instructions, Jesus said to them, “do not be afraid.”  From the content of his instructions, it is clear that the only way they would be able to avoid being afraid was to follow his example and his instructions as carefully as possible.  You and I are called to be Christ’s disciples in the 21st century.  We can learn valuable lessons for being faithful, effective witnesses for the Lord in our place and time by contemplating and obeying his instructions to those first disciples so long ago.

 

Go Where God Leads You      Jesus’ first instruction to the disciples (10:5,6) was where to avoid!  He told them not to seek ministry among the Gentiles or Samaritans, but only with their fellow Hebrews.  That was not to exclude anyone, but to allow time for those non-Hebrews’ souls to be prepared to receive him, and for his disciples to learn how best to express his message to people not familiar with Yahweh.  Knowing what had happened to him at Nazareth in his own earliest days of ministry with his home congregation (Luke 4:24-30 – they tried unsuccessfully to throw him off a cliff), Jesus told them not to be afraid.  If God had led them to an opportunity for ministry and they had obeyed, it was God’s responsibility to protect them and bless their efforts.  That is a principle Pam and I have tried to honor during all our years of work together.  It was especially important — and consistently true — for us in the decision to live and work in Africa for nearly ten years, It matters every bit as much in each of our lives today, no matter where God has called us to be or to what ministry opportunities he leads us.

 

Don’t Fear Risky Obedience, if you know the Spirit has led you.  Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 10:8 to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and drive out demons – all rather risky stuff.  I can think of no record of any of them being harmed by obeying that instruction. 
             When we lived in western Kansas, I was led to train to be an emergency medical technician.  The doctor who trained us warned us that we would be confronted in the field by life-and-death choices and would sometimes fear taking the wrong action and harming a patient.  He confessed to the class that he had those same doubts frequently during medical school.  He told us that, as a Christian, he finally found peace when he accepted the fact that God had led him to be a doctor, and that God was sovereign over his and his patients’ lives.  He realized that if he had been faithful in his study and preparation and did his very best in treating his patients, then “if God wanted a patient to survive, the doctor couldn’t kill him, and if God was ready to receive a patient into eternity, then the doctor couldn’t save him.”  That same principle applies to the ministries of every disciple.

 

Don’t Fear Poverty      The song “Freely, Freely” that we enjoy singing during worship is drawn from Matthew 10:8-10.  Jesus’ instruction to the Twelve reminded them that they had been forgiven, healed, given new spiritual life, and provided for by him.  Their task was now to pass those gifts along freely to any who were willing to truly follow Christ.  They were to minister unencumbered by concerns for their own economic status or needs, trusting the Lord to move the recipients of their care to share resources freely with them to meet their basic needs for life.  Pam’s and my testimony is that in all our years together in so many places, God has honored that trust.

 

Don’t Fear Rejection or Failure      Jesus prepared the disciples for the reality that not everyone would be thrilled with their message of the nearness of God’s Kingdom (Matthew 10:11-16).  He told them that if people were inhospitable to their message and work, they were to leave that place and “shake the dust off their feet” as they went as a symbolic warning of the danger of rejecting the Lord’s offer of new spiritual life.  The Holy Spirit and hard experiences have taught us the truth of Jesus’ words, both of realistic expectations and of the need for the “shrewdness of snakes and the innocence of doves” which can only come from him.  The Lord expects us to use our heads and not to be naïve.  Our mentor Stan constantly reminded us that obedience to God is our success – the results are in God’s hands, not ours.

 

Don’t Fear to Suffer for Truth      Matthew 10:17-25 describes some of the rough ways God’s enemy will attempt to silence those who proclaim the authority of Christ’s Kingdom over those of humankind.  Jesus spoke of arrest, physical punishment, public humiliation, and betrayal by loved ones – as if he was looking ahead two or three years to his own suffering and death.  He promised that even under those trying circumstances, his disciples would be accompanied and helped by his Spirit.  Don’t forget – he said that if anyone would come follow him, they must deny themselves, take up the cross daily, and follow him.  Theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.  It’s well worth it.

 

Don’t be Afraid to be Different      Faith and life in the living Spirit of Christ is not very popular these days, especially with the constant pressure of various media to be like the celebrity of the week, to fit in with all the latest trends.  Our calling as Christians is to be like Christ, not like the world.  In Matthew 10:28, Jesus told the disciples they should fear and obey the One whose power is greater than his enemy’s worldly influences and behaviors with their destructive eternal consequences.  Love for that One who saves us eternally will empower us never to fear being different from the world.

 

There is No Fear in Love      Our English words “love” and “fear” usually describe human emotions that are part of normal everyday life.  John’s first epistle (I John 4:16-18) makes it clear that God’s agape love and fearful selfishness have no compatibility, but John was not writing about mere emotions.  He wrote about the sacrificial, Truth-filled love of God and said that whoever lives in that love lives in God, and God lives in them. It is that perfect love which drives out fear, because living in that love of God and for God produces trust in the Lord’s purpose, provision, and protection.  We may still feel emotional fright when circumstances cause it, but the fear will not overcome our loving trust in the Lord or cause us to act selfishly and sinfully to conquer the circumstances.  Knowing that, our highest goal should be to stay focused on living Jesus’ new commandment fully every day – “love one another, as I have loved you.”  Let’s practice that on October 31!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1)  What differences, if any, do you see between worldly fears and “Quaker concerns”?

2)  Which of the fears listed here, or others not listed, tend to cause you the deepest trouble or most frequent concern?

3)  Describe a time when you witnessed God’s love drive out fear from a person or a situation.