• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • Column
  • Into the Mystic
  • Do Not Live in Fear

Do Not Live in Fear

by Dorhauer, John | published on Sep 17, 2021

Listen to the podcast

Picture of a sunflower with a bee pollinating it with the words, “Love unites us in a common bond.” Listen to Into The Mystic by the Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer.

Read the transcript

Triggering fear isn’t hard to do.

It’s a tactic used by advertisers and politicians, preachers and coaches, film makers and authors – just about anyone who has a need to influence, entertain, control, or make use of other people.

It can certainly be used to entertaining effect, as film maker Alfred Hitchcock and author Stephen King can attest to.

But it can also be used to control behavior to devastating effect, bringing out what I would argue is the worst in us.

Hitler rose to power by manufacturing fear against Jews.

Donald Trump stoked the flames of fear against blacks, Mexicans, Muslims, and trans leaders.

Fred Phelps spent an entire lifetime fomenting hate and fear of gays and lesbians.

Entire religious movements and political strategies develop knowing how easy it is first to trigger fear and second to manipulate the trepidatious once their amygdala has been engaged. Fire up the fight or flight mode in the brain and otherwise rational people covet a leader who will point them towards whatever promises to look and feel like safety and security. If, along the way, the fabric of society that holds us all together is unraveled as we eye each other with suspicion, paranoia, fear, and loathing. When you broker in fear, that sort of collateral damage is merely the byproduct of your larger agenda.

Into such a world comes the wisdom of Jesus. He lived a life that showed that the greatest antidote to fear was love. Fear distances us from one another, driving between us wedges of doubt and walls of division. Love unites us in a common bond. It transforms the trepidatious anxieties that fear engenders into the tender exchanges that love enjoys.

Speaking into a context and culture where fear was bred, Jesus offered this bit of wisdom to his disciples: “Do not live in fear, little flock; it has pleased your Creator to give you the kindom.”

 Jesus was not someone who just painted the world with rose colored glasses. He knew full well the devices of empire and the fear-mongers its patrons practiced. Empire manufactured all the fear it needed in order to compel obeisance. And Jesus was not naïve – he knew full well the costs of ignoring empire.

But he had his sights set on things beyond the reach of empire. He knew that the reach of the God he incarnated made the fears that empire manufactured utterly ineffective. His mission was to establish a community of disciples who, through committed love for one another, transformed the fear of empire into the hope of a promised realm in which the vision of God’s shalom was fully realized.

For Jesus, that was not a future promise – that realm already existed and made the power of Rome and the reach of its empire obsolete, superfluous, ineffectual. Once you see that, the fear-mongerers lose their sting. The virus fear they seek to spread is dissipated by the antidote that is love.

Jesus’ statement that the kindom of God is already assured was not only radical, it was seditious. He would be hanged for it. He knew that, but he didn’t fear it. It was God’s good pleasure to resurrect within him the promise of a life that neither fear nor empire can destroy.

And so, gentle listener, cast aside fear and live in love. Turn your heart to the pleasure of a redeeming God who assures your place in God’s kindom is secure. And may you then know the joy that comes from a life without fear on this, our journey Into the Mystic.

Categories: Column Into the Mystic

Sign Up For Our Newsletter








Privacy Policy






Related News

Talitha Koum
Talitha Koum - The UCC Women's Newsletter

Welcome to Talitha Koum: The UCC Newsletter for Women, Girls and Their Allies

Welcome! I am so grateful that you have decided to connect with UCC women and allies through...

Read More
Witness for Justice
Witness for Justice

Closing the Global Gender Digital Divide

The 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was held in New York City...

Read More
Column

Planning for Earth Month: Resources for Congregations

April is Earth Month, and for congregations, it can be a great time to further discern how...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative