We have chosen as our theme this fall the words you see on the cover of your bulletin - Living Unafraid in a World of Fear.  Our worship each Sunday will be guided by  that ambitious ideal.  To live without fear - to be brave, as Carol told us - in our world where fear seems to be the coin of the land these days. That is ambitious indeed, for it requires going against just about everything we see and hear and touch.  From economic uncertainties here and abroad to wars that seem to have no end; from our own health and the health system that fails so many, to global warming and the environmental disaster it promises to bring us; from international conflicts to the religious, ethnic and racial bigotry that fuels them, to well, the list could go on, couldn't it.  So much to be afraid of!

            In this election year Republicans and Democrats both fear the other will win.  I know I do.  I fear more, though, campaigns that, instead of providing honest, truthful debate of issues that matter to us and the whole world, offer us soundbite-size easy answers to complex questions.

            So our fears these days are many.  But our faith - this following the way of Christ that we talk about all the time - is not fear-based. It is in fact the very opposite of fear!  The way Jesus taught us is the way of confidence in a present, loving God, the way of meeting even threats of an enemy with graciousness, the way that looks toward a day when all will be well indeed because we are not alone in the universe.  We celebrate not fear in this place, but hope - always hope!

            The symbol of our faith is this Table - an open table where all are welcome, where all are fed, where all belong because all are children of a loving God.  For some Christians faith means circling of the wagons against the throngs of enemies, real and imagined. Warriors for the Lord, as if the Lord couldn't fend off his enemies alone.  But here living by faith means setting a table where there is always room for another.  And so we celebrate the Lord's Supper today to begin this fall season of living unafraid in a world of fear.

            And we begin too by remembering the basic gospel in the simple but profoundly powerful words of St. Paul in the reading today. Do know that the people who first heard those words had good reason to be afraid.  In embracing this new faith, in daring to meet in the name of this Jesus and live out his teaching, they were swimming upstream indeed.  It was downright dangerous for them to be the church however small it was, meeting in their homes to hear words of Jesus, to break bread and drink wine in his name.  Often, their lives were on the line. How could they overcome the fears of their day?

            First, by loving one another.  Let your love be genuine, says St. Paul.  Love one another with deep affection.  We deal with fears best in the company of people who care for us, in the company of other like-minded folk, who profess a common faith in the Jesus Way.  And so we come here to encourage one another, for it is in the community of faith that the glowing embers of hope stay alive.  And not only that, these first century believers overcame their fears by welcoming into their community the outsider: Extend hospitality to strangers.  To strangers!  People not like us in culture and faith, in race, in creed; people we don't know, yet.  Knowledge can overcome fear, for we fear what we do not know.  And so we welcome the stranger.

            But not just strangers.  Enemies too.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.   And then later: if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink . . . . 

            Such a radical, outlandish, crazy way to live, this Jesus way.  Conventional wisdom of that day and of ours says that loving one's enemies will not conquer our fears, but add to them.  But this radical way of Christ says that it is through love, by grace, toward even the enemy that we find hope in the midst of fear.  Call them "the enemy," label them "terrorist" says the world..  But Jesus says call them blessed.  And in that blessing we find hope.

            We live unafraid in a world of fear by loving and by encouraging one another in a faith laden with hope, and by daring to know and to have compassion on even those who would be our enemy.  We overcome fear - not forever, mind you, not as if by waving some magic wand of faith we will never fear again - but moment by moment, day by day, Sunday by Sunday remembering and reminding each other that - and this is Jesus talking now, so if you have trouble buying it, as I do very often, you'll have to take it up with him, and not me - remembering that God who is love itself cares for the world as a loving father, as a compassionate mother cradling their child.

            We overcome fear when we remember and remind each other that the One who made this world, and us, and our enemies too, who sustains our lives in grace and mystery, that Holy One is a God of always love, of always grace.  That compassionate God, who cares for our world, who cares for your life goes with us through our fears, and will bring us someday to that place where all is well, where fear will be no more, and hope rules in the hearts of all people.