Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C). 5 May 2013.

St Philip's, Earl's Court Road.

'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Imagine a life free of anxiety. Think of the weight off our shoulders. Think of the wasted hours we would regain. Early on in Matthew's Gospel:

John 14.23-29.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.'

It's easy to imagine that our fears and anxieties show how far removed we are from the world of the rst disciples, those heroes of the faith without which the Christian church would not exist. But the only reason Jesus says time after time 'Do not be afraid' is because his friends and followers, the Apostles including our own patron saint, Philip - were afraid. The church was built on and by the faith of anxious, fearful people. And that's still true. The church remains full of anxious, fearful people. We are anxious and fearful. We're often blind to the amount of anxiety and fear in our lives.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus over and over again tells his friends, his followers, not to be troubled, not to be anxious, not to worry.

'do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear ...' (Chapter 6)

Later in Luke's Gospel, Jesus, having slept through a storm at sea asks 'Why are you afraid?' On Easter Day, according to John's Gospel, 'Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. (John 20)

We're anxious about money. We worry for our children.

We fear that we're insignicant, that our lives don't add up to much. Above all, and lying behind many other fears, we're afraid of death, often terried of death.

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C). 5 May 2013.

St Philip's, Earl's Court Road.

John 14.23-29.

It's natural, and understandable, to be concerned about all these things. The problem with fear is that it very often counterproductive. As someone has said:

We recognise this in our public life.

Probably the best known quote about fear in politics is from President Roosevelt in 1933: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustied terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

'Fear brings what it fears.' Fear often ironically brings about the very thing it dreads.

Parents, fearful about their children, become over-protective, provoking in the end a erce reaction, leading to a rift. The parents' fears become a reality. Unreasonable fear can lead people not to want to know the truth. To make that visit to the doctor for a check-up. To look carefully at their bank statements. To have a difcult but necessary conversation with a friend or even a partner to see if the relationship is in need of attention.

In our battles with fear, it's a knowledge of God's love which can turn the corner: 'Perfect love casts out fear,'

The God who made us, who cares for us, for whom we matter, can dissolve our fears of insignicance. The God who loves us can take away our neurotic craving for afrmation from others. The God who says 'death is not the end' can take away our terror of death. Sometimes for Christians our fear turns out to be of God Himself. We experience God at work in our lives in new, unrecognisable ways and we wonder what's going on.

This principle, that fear brings what it fears, is illustrated early in the Bible, in the story of Job, who says: "the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me" (Job 3:25).

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C). 5 May 2013.

St Philip's, Earl's Court Road.

John 14.23-29.

When the disciples see Jesus walking on the sea, they are terried. Jesus says 'Do not be afraid.' (Mt 14) When the disciples hear a voice from heaven at the Transguration, they are overcome by fear. Jesus says 'Do not be afraid.' (Matthew 17) When Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel, he says to her: 'Do not be afraid, Mary.' So sometimes we need to overcome fear by recognising that the very things which most discomfort us are in fact signs that God is at work in a new way in our lives. And at other times we need to hear the voice of Jesus, telling us not to be afraid. Let's all spend a moment bringing to mind our greatest fear ...

Jesus says to you: 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.'