The Right Rev. Craig Loya

Fear Not

From the Bishop

"One thing have I asked of the Lord; 

One thing I seek;

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" 

Psalm 27

Beloved in Christ,

Every time I go back to my hometown of North Platte, Nebraska, I make a point to drive by my childhood home. I haven’t been inside for decades, but just driving by gives me a sense of enormous comfort. The visual cue brings back rarely accessed childhood memories, and my whole being is flooded for a moment with the sense of safety I felt as a child. Reconnecting with five or ten-year old Craig is also profoundly grounding, tying the thread of who I am at my core across the seasons and winding roads of life. Driving by the old house, I feel held, and I remember who I am.

Psalm 27,  which we will pray together this Sunday, outlines a program for fearless living in a fearful world. That program is a matter of returning over and over to the house that is God, and remembering who we are - cherished, beloved, and held, made for the purpose of seeking God’s loving face continually. 

Our daily spiritual practice, our weekly worship together, soaking ourselves in the story of scripture, sharing our lives with each other - these are all ways that we return again and again to God’s house. 

The world is a fearful place, but here’s the deal: the real resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which we celebrate and see, hear, and touch, and taste every week, is an irrefutable assurance of God’s final victory over suffering, separation, injustice, death, and all the fearful things we face. Even now, under death’s fearful shadow, we walk by resurrection’s loving light. 

Fearless living starts with remembering who you are, and what you are for. You are God’s beloved child. You are an ambassador of Jesus’ victory of love. The singular purpose of your life is to that love with every breath we are given. 

Fear not, beloved. In these fearful days, let us learn to make the psalmist’s prayer our heart’s home: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?” (27:1). 

Grace and Peace,

The Right Rev. Craig Loya