Do Not Be Afraid!

A Reflection on Isaiah 43

Yesterday, I preached on Isaiah 43 which testifies to the salvation Israel. As they sit in captivity, oppressed by the powers of this world, the prophet gives them a word of hope:

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.

Just as the Lord brought the people of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea, the Lord promises to once again bring them through the water into the land of New Creation. Do not fear…

My sermon connected Isaiah’s vision of salvation as being “brought through the water” with the baptism of Jesus. Jesus enters the water as the new humanity, the new people of God, and comes out the other side to lead us into the new creation. At his baptism, the Spirit descends like a dove—a sign of the Father’s love, but also a marker of life and courage. In the same way, our baptism is a sign—we are claimed by God: I have called you by name, you are mine. But we are also empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as the new humanity of Jesus Christ in the world. “Do not fear” is said twice—take courage, stand strong, the powers of this world have no authority over us.

In the coming weeks the immigrant community will face many challenges. Those of us who work with immigrants, who live in community with them, and count them as friends will have a choice: Are we ready to walk through the fire? To make our way through the raging water that is about to come? The prophet Isaiah reminds us that the gospel is about liberation. Rene Padilla speaks to this in his short book What is Mission Integral? He writes:

If there is one thing that Lausanne (a missional gathering) I made clear, it was that social action and evangelism are essential aspects of the church's mission; that proclaiming the Gospel cannot be separated from expressing God's love in concrete ways. Recognizing that Christians share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society, and for the liberation of people from every kind of oppression, that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty, and that the message of salvation also implies a message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination was clearly expressed by the hundreds If there is one thing that Lausanne I made clear, it was that social action and evangelism are essential aspects of the church's mission; that proclaiming the Gospel cannot be separated from expressing God's love in concrete ways. Recognizing that Christians share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society, and for the liberation of people from every kind of oppression, that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty, and that the message of salvation also implies a message of judgment upon every form of alienation, oppression and discrimination was clearly expressed by the hundreds. (pp. 37-38)

Oscar Romero, a conservative priest and bishop of El Salvador, understood the gospel calls us to more than an other worldly salvation—it calls us to a concrete love our neighbor in whom Jesus appears to us. The role of the church is to speak this truth, to disturb the status quo for the sake of New Creation. He writes:

That is what the church wants: to disturb people’s consciences and to provoke a crisis in their lives. A church that does not provoke crisis, a gospel that does not disturb, a word of God that does not rankle, a word of God that does not touch the concrete in of the society in which it is being proclaimed—what kind of gospel is that? Just nice, pious considerations that bother nobody—that’s the way many people would like their preaching to be… (55)

Many voices have tried to shame Christians who fight for justice, accusing them of not being Christian at all. These people advocate an abstract gospel, one that focuses attention on a spiritual world somewhere out there, one that never touches the lived reality of real human beings. This is what Bonhoeffer calls “Cheap grace”—Grace as presupposition, grace that means nothing has to change. The time has come for us to stand up to these voices, to unmask their false gospel that allows them to abdicate their responsibility toward their neighbors. Today, our God says to us, “Do not fear!”

The next few years will be challenging, but we are not alone. In Jesus Christ our God goes before us, making a way in the wilderness, leading us into the new creation.

Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
⁶ I will say to the north, ‘Give them up’,
and to the south, ‘Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
⁷ everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.’