{"id":3224,"date":"2022-01-07T10:21:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/?p=3224"},"modified":"2022-01-07T10:21:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T10:21:28","slug":"dont-be-afraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/2022\/01\/07\/dont-be-afraid\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t be afraid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"418\" src=\"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/DSC_1159.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/DSC_1159.jpg 640w, https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/DSC_1159-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption>a little whiteness after a wintry shower this morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Isaiah reading from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=107\" target=\"_blank\">Sunday&#8217;s Lectionary<\/a>, there is a repeated phrase, &#8216;do not fear&#8217;, and the reason not to fear is that God has promised to be with the people. That is part of a nation&#8217;s history, but we Christians have also appropriated it as a promise for us. For we believe that God will be with us. Bad stuff may well happen, fire and flood &#8211; but we have the reassurance that God is with us. What concrete form might that reassurance take? I&#8217;ve a couple of suggested examples (there are more);-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The closeness of God in prayer and reflection, to give us perspective<\/li><li>The closeness of God in Jesus, to give us solidarity in pain, and a renewed hope<\/li><li>The practical support of the Christian community<\/li><li>And for Christians together (not equal to the institutional church necessarily), once again perspective, in the form of a story, a history, that has been, and will be, way into the distant future<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Isaiah reading from Sunday&#8217;s Lectionary, there is a repeated phrase, &#8216;do not fear&#8217;, and the reason not to fear is that God has promised to be with the people. That is part of a nation&#8217;s history, but we Christians have also appropriated it as a promise for us. For we believe that God &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/2022\/01\/07\/dont-be-afraid\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3226,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions\/3226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobjanet.org.uk\/bobsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}