Monday's thoughts

Sermon for Sunday, February 1st

"Faith for the Fear of It"

I will to doing a series of sermons on the aspects of faith and I want to look at something we find frequently in Hebrew scripture called "The fear of the Lord".

Some have wanted to contrast the Old Testament and its sense of the "fear of God" with the New Testament and its promotion of the "love of God". I'm not thinking that is a fair analogy. In fact, when we look at it in some depth we find the the concept of the fear of the Lord provides something helpful to us in our time of taking things for granted and living through our days without seeing what we're missing.

The "fear" of God is best understood as "awe" or "wonder". It is promoted as fear only in that it causes us to step back and think about it and to be taken over by it.

Wonderment is a good word for it. When was the last time we stopped and looked or listened for the wonder of something; the stars at night; the birth of a baby; the quiet of a snow fall; the sunrise in the morning or the sunset at night?

What brings you wonder?
What brings you awe?
In what measure is that God?
How is that incorporated into your faith?

Your stories are of interest to me. Write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with other click on the box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles