Rector's letter for April Fowey News
Dear Friends
Fear is common to us all. Wouldn’t it be great if someone could be with us whenever we are afraid? Reassuring us. Dispelling our fear. Because we are all afraid. However hard or tough or measured we think we are, some things will frighten us.
Some fears are rational and understandable. Others are irrational, but no less real. People can be afraid of spiders, large crowds, small spaces, the dark. Some fear not having what they want, or not having enough, or being alone. Others fear being found out; they are haunted by the past. Still others are frightened by the future.
Every single one of us will know that feeling of fear. Perhaps someone once jumped out on you as a prank. Perhaps you have been threatened, either physically or with legal action, or have unwittingly got yourself into a dangerous situation. Maybe you have received an unfavourable medical diagnosis. These are all frightening.
The world may be a fabulous place, but is also a fearful place, spoiled by war, terrorism, crime, unfaithfulness, loss, and disease. Sometimes fear can rule over us and paralyse us. Very often the things we fear effectively control us and they are terrible masters. Of course, fear is not always negative. Sometimes it’s protective. The fear of having a horrible road accident causes us to make sure we have decent lights on our bike when out at night, or that our car is in good repair.
For many, the biggest fear is death. But we hate talking about it. We even avoid using the ‘D word’, preferring to say that someone has ‘passed away’. Yet, however we describe it, we are all heading towards it. Mostly we see death as a very unpleasant and unappealing prospect. We would gladly leave the queue, if that were possible, and even if we imagine just ‘quietly slipping away in our sleep’, we still dread death because it will take everything we love from us. For many death is terrifying.
That is why Easter is such good news. The physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead - which the bible asserts is a witnessed, attested, reliable historical fact - transforms our fear of death. When Jesus walked victorious from the tomb, he was the first to do so, but, in being the first, it meant that the reign of death has been conquered. The grave is no longer a dead-end. Death may seem like an impenetrable black shroud that threatens to swallow us all. But Jesus is like a needle that pierces through that black shroud and comes out the other side. And that piercing offers a possibility. Because a thread can be pulled through by the needle, if we rely on him, if we’re connected to Jesus by faith, then we can get pulled through death too.
That is the message of Easter. By pioneering a way through, death’s terror has been neutralised. In the words of Psalm 23, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil” because there is someone who has been there and been through it. He’s been the other side of it. He’s conquered it and blazed a trail through it. And to prove it, he came back. He rose from the dead. He beat the grave. So he can be with us when we face it and lead us through.
Happy Easter!
with every blessing
Philip