Diversiedades - Episodio 1: Manuel Méndez

Why would anyone be afraid of good news? I want you to think about that for a moment, because we usually assume that STEM fears from bad news, a diagnosis, a loss, or a failure. That's what makes us afraid. But if you've lived long enough, you know that sometimes we fear good things too. Sarah was nervous because she wanted to do well on her annual performance review. She wanted her boss to recognize the long hours, the extra effort, and the way she had gone above and beyond. And if she was honest, she was also hoping for a small raise too. When her manager called her into his office, everything started as expected. He praised her performance and said that she had exceeded expectations. And just as she began to feel relieved, he leaned forward and said, "You're a strong leader, Sarah, and we think you're ready for more. We'd like to offer you a director's position." For a moment, she just stared at him. This was the kind of opportunity that people worked years to earn, yet instead of feeling joy, her mind started racing. Am I ready for this? What if I fail? What will this do to my life, my family, my schedule? The promotion offer was good news, but it felt overwhelming. After when she called her husband, he said, "That's amazing, honey." And she replied, "I know. I just don't know if I'm ready." In that moment, she realized that she wasn't just afraid of failing. She was also afraid of succeeding, because success would change her life. It would demand more of her. It would call her to step into a new version of herself. And maybe you know that feeling. You finally get the opportunity that you've been praying for, and suddenly you're not sure that you want it. Someone who hurt you wants to make things right, and you realize it will require honesty and scary vulnerability. You sense God calling you in a new direction, but instead of excitement, you feel resistance. Because the truth is that good things don't just make us feel joy. Sometimes, they require change, and change is scary. And that helps us to understand what's happening in Matthew 28. The women go to the tomb early in the morning, and they are not expecting a miracle. It's clear they were expecting to say goodbye and to grieve the death of Jesus. But instead, there's an earthquake. An angel appears shining light-dietening, and the huge stone that was sealing the tomb is rolled away. The guards collapse in fear. But the angel says to the women, "Do not be afraid. He is not here. He is risen." Then something incredible happens. After hearing this good news, the women quickly fled the tomb to find the disciples and deliver the message, feeling both fear and joy. Have you ever had that experience? It's kind of strange, isn't it? To feel both fear and joy at the same time. It wasn't fear or joy, but fear and joy at the same time. You see, when the women first arrived at the tomb, fear stopped them dead in their tracks. The earthquake, the angel, all powerful events, completely beyond their control. But then the angel tells them that Jesus is alive, and suddenly what they are experiencing is not just frightening. It's also good news. It's exactly what they wanted. This is alive. He was right about everything that he said and death did not have the last word. And this good news evokes joy. But notice, the joy does not completely take away the fear. Matthew doesn't say that the fear disappears. He says they leave the tomb with both fear and great joy. So why does the fear remain with such good news? First, the experience itself is still overwhelming. I mean, the earthquake and the angel still rock their world and upset their expectations. And even good news didn't make this encounter any less intense. So there is a sense in which they are still recovering from what they have just experienced. Second, the good news changes everything for these women. If Jesus has raised in the dead, their lives will never be the same. While their grief is over, they now have a new mission. They are no longer just followers. They are witnesses. And here we see that resurrection doesn't merely restore the past, it creates a brand new future. Stepping into that future will require change, growth. It will require them to adapt to a new normal. And that's why even good news can be scary, not only for them, but also for us. Like the women, we are not afraid of things going wrong. Sometimes we are afraid of things going right. Because when something good happens, when a door opens, when a relationship is restored, when God calls us into something new, it requires us to change. To let go of our expectations, to let go of control, and to grow into a version of ourselves that we are not sure we are ready for. And that's why we sometimes resist the very things that will bring us the most joy. But fear doesn't have to cripple us. In the case of the women in our story, we see that while the joy of good news doesn't remove their fear, it changes the quality of their fear, turning it into something that doesn't paralyze, but mobilizes. It's a fear that doesn't paralyze. It's a fear that mobilizes. Again, when they first see the earthquake and the angel, they freeze and fear. But then the angel says, "Do not be afraid." Jesus is risen. Go tell the disciples, believing this message and trusting in what God is saying through the angel, their fear is changed, not removed, but transformed by joy. And the result is that they get unstuck. Instead of standing there like a deer and headlights, the Bible says they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples. Whereas fear first calls them to freeze, it's now transformed into something that wakes them up and moves them forward. So the most important question is not why they are afraid. We can understand that. But how they are experiencing their fear. Because whether fear comes from something bad or something good, it has the same potential. It can either shut you down or it can wake you up and move you forward. Just think about the soldiers guarding the tomb. Like the women, they were also afraid. But instead of fear being transformed into something mobilizing, the Bible says they collapsed like dead men. But why? Why does the fear of the women eventually get them moving in a new direction while the fear of the soldiers becomes paralyzing? One reason is that the guards are completely unprepared. They do not know the story of the God of Israel. They aren't part of a faith community that is shaped by scripture, memory. and generations of people who have encountered God in surprising ways and live to tell about it. So the angel and the earthquake for the soldiers, it just came out of nowhere. They didn't expect it. And when something overwhelming like this happens and you don't have a larger story to make sense of it, it doesn't wake you up, it paralyzes you. It's also possible that in the moment they realize that they are on the wrong side of what God is doing. They've been guarding a dead man, making sure that the story ends with a tomb. And now the tomb is empty. Heaven has broken in. And if that's true, their fear is mixed with guilt and anticipation of the death of God. It's patient of divine judgment because they are now realizing we were wrong about this Jesus. Finally note that the angel says nothing to the soldiers. The angel only speaks to the women. The soldiers get no comfort, no reassurance, no do not be afraid. Instead, they are left alone in their fear with no good news to soften the blow. All of these compound the fear and shut them down. But for the women, for the women, everything was different. They know God. And they have heard many stories in their church and in their family about how God sometimes shows up in surprising ways. So while this experience is initially overwhelming, it is not completely unfamiliar. Their ancestors had encountered angels who said do not be afraid. Their ancestors had encountered God in ways that rocked their world. And they had heard these stories. There's a sense in which they were prepared. They also know the story of God's faithfulness and goodness. And they can make more sense of all these scary things in the context of this larger story. Something bigger is going on here. And then finally, in the middle of this terrifying event, they received two messages from God through an angel. The first message is you don't have to be afraid. The second is the tomb is empty because Jesus has been raised from the dead. This means that unlike the soldiers, the women are not discovering that they're wrong about Jesus. They are discovering that they were right about Jesus. And this evokes joy. And even though this joy does not completely remove their fear, note in the story that the way they experienced this fear in response is very different because now the joy reshapes their fear. And gives it a new direction. It turns paralyzing fear into mobilizing fear, causing them to embrace a new future filled with hope and with promise. And as they get unstuck and start moving forward, something else happens. Suddenly, somebody say suddenly, not gradually, not not expectedly, suddenly Jesus appears. As they listen to the angel and obey God in the face of their fear, running to tell the disciples that Christ has risen, they literally run into Jesus. First, he says, greetings, which literally means rejoice. Rejoice. Then after calling them to embrace joy, he says, do not be afraid and then gives them the same mission as the angel. To go and tell the disciples that he is risen and that he will meet them in Galilee, where they also will see the risen Christ face to face. And this part of the story matters because it shows that clarity doesn't always come before obedience. Are you awake, church? Clarity doesn't always come before obedience. Sometimes it comes in the middle of obedience. Sometimes we don't get all the reassurance that we want at the beginning, but as we take steps forward while we're still afraid, while we're still figuring it all out, Jesus meets us, gives us strength and guides our next steps. This isn't in my notes, but does anybody, if you're my age or older, do you remember MTV? Do you remember Michael Jackson? I can't remember the song, but there's a video. It might be Billie Jean. I'm not sure. There's a video in which when Michael Jackson takes a step forward and steps on a toilet lights up. And then when he steps off of it, it goes dark again, but the one that he steps on lights up. And so it's almost like he doesn't have light until he takes the step forward. And then, because of that faith, the path is illuminated. So here's the difference between the women and the soldiers. The women experience fear in the presence of God's love, promise, and direction, while the guards experience fear in the absence of all three. And that's why fear paralyzes one group and mobilized another. Because when fear is held within the story of God's faithfulness, and when it is accompanied by joy, it doesn't shut us down, it wakes us up and moves us forward. Friends, we will all face moments when God interrupts our lives. Moments when God calls us into something new and challenging. And sometimes it's going to sound like good news and sometimes it's going to sound like bad news. But when this happens, we're going to experience fear. Right? The question is not if we will feel fear, but how we will experience it in our walk with Jesus. Because that will determine how we respond. Whether we move forward an obedience or freeze up like the guards. And the good news this morning is that God gives you a choice. The Christian tradition has said, the Orthodox Christian tradition has said for 2000 years that before Jesus came and died for your sins and rose from the dead to give you new life, we really couldn't do anything but choose sin. But after that event, it's not a magic trick that does everything for us, but it is a miraculous divine event that gives us our choice back. We lose our choice in sin, we gain our choice back in salvation. And now, because Jesus is alive, we have a choice. We're not stuck in our sin. We have a choice. Will you experience fear all on your own? I can handle it and let it shut you down. Or will you hold your fear within the story of God's love, faithfulness and promise? Allowing joy to rise alongside of it so that your fear becomes something that moves you forward into greater blessing and promise. And this is where the message becomes personal today. God is always bringing good news into your life. Did you know that? If you have ears to hear and eyes to see, God is always bringing you good news. God is always trying to do something new in you and around you, something good and transformative. And if you're honest, part of you is afraid of it. Maybe it's a new opportunity or a relationship that needs to be healed. Maybe it's a calling that you've been resisting or the challenge of taking your next step in faith. the fear that you're feeling might not be a sign that something is wrong, it might be a sign that something is right. Because even though it's scary, moving into something new can lead you into a joy that you otherwise would never experience. Remember, fearless faith doesn't mean that you'll never feel afraid. It doesn't mean that you'll have everything figured out. Fearless faith looks like trusting God enough to move through your fear toward promise and joy. It's trusting that God isn't work in you even when you don't know what's coming next. It's not the absence of fear, but trusting God more than your need for control. So here's the big question. What if the thing that will bring you the greatest joy is the very thing that you're afraid of? What if the new life that God is offering you in Jesus is the very thing that you've been resisting? Have you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you surrendered completely surrendered your life to Him? Are you following Him daily? Because God has been offering you that gift from the very beginning, and maybe you've heard the gospel, but instead of hearing it as good news, you're afraid to step into that kind of life for fear of what you might have to give up. For fear of losing control, for fear of not having certainty, but having to step out an uncertainty with faith, trusting a God that maybe you've experienced, but you have not seen, can be scary. Again, you have a choice. You can hold back and stay where things feel safe and predictable, or you can step forward into something new and better, not because you're no longer afraid, but because your fear is transformed and redirected by God's love, promise, and joy. Friends, this is who we are in Jesus Christ. As resurrection people, we do not avoid fear, or try to handle it all on our own. We carry it within the story of a loving and faithful God who is always and everywhere working for our good. Do you believe that this morning? God is for you and not against you. And some of you grew up in a church where God was portrayed as some big scary guy throwing lightning bolts at you from heaven when you make mistakes. Sometimes it doesn't feel like God. I'm here to tell you that the good news of the gospel of my friends is that God is for you and not against you. And the Bible says that no matter how faithful you are or not, God through the power of the Holy Spirit is always already working in and through everything in you, around you, above you, below you, to accomplish your good. And the only reason that we don't experience that good is because we resist it. God doesn't stop offering that gift when we're disobedient, when we're unfaithful. God says, I'm gonna give it to you anyway. I can't remember who said this, but someone said that God is the hound of heaven. Anybody been hunted down by a hound dog? I haven't, but I've seen it in movies, right? And then they let the dog sniff the clothes and then the person runs off and hides. How often do we run and find our favorite hiding spot? Thinking that God won't be able to find us? Or we realize that we wanna connect with God, but we've gone so far away and we've hidden so well that God won't be able to find us. And God is the hound of heaven. He knows your scent. And constantly, eternally, God is hunting you down, saying, you gotta receive this gift. It's so good. You don't know what joy truly is until you receive my joy, my peace, my love. God's always there. And when we face our fear within the story of a loving and faithful God who is working for our good, it doesn't shut us down. It wakes us up and it moves us forward. And when we wake up and when we get moving, when we step forward in the midst of tension between fear and joy, something remarkable happens to us, Jesus suddenly appears. Jesus suddenly appears and we run into his arms just as the women did. It might even surprise us that when we start taking that step of faith that we literally bump into Jesus and go, oh, hey, I didn't know you'd be there. Jesus meets us in a new way in our obedience. And when he meets us, he doesn't say, oh, you've been so bad. When we run into Jesus, he says, rejoice. Rejoice because there is good news. Then Jesus speaks peace over our fear and gives us the guidance and power that we need for our next step because Jesus is alive. Fear doesn't have the final word. The worst thing is never the last thing. In the life into which God is calling you, my friends, is better than the life that you're afraid to leave behind. Do you have eyes to see? Do you have ears to hear? Will you pray with me? Gracious in loving God, we come before you as people who know what it means to be afraid. Not only of what might go wrong, but even of what might go right. In Lord, if there are people here this morning who have heard this gospel, but they've never in their heart of hearts received you as their Lord and Savior. I pray that they will do that right now, Lord. I pray that they will stop listening to me and that they will connect with you, that they will confess their sin and simply say, Jesus, come into my life, be my Lord and my Savior and help me find my next steps. Also, Lord, if there are people here who have made a decision to follow you but wandered away for whatever reason and they're scared to come home, that they will know that you are the Father who leaps out of the rocking chair and runs to them and embraces them as parodical children, as all heaven rejoices. Give them the courage, the hope, and the strength God to come home this morning and to rededicate their life to you. At the beginning of this Easter-tied season, Lord, wherever we are in our relationship with you, we confess that when you bring good things into our lives, we sometimes resist. We cling to what feels safe and unfamiliar rather than trusting where you're leading us. We confess that we often try to carry our fear alone. Forgetting your love, your promise, your presence with us. Forgive us, Lord. Remind us that you are faithful, that you are for us and that you're always at work for our good. Help us to hold our fear within your story so that even when we're afraid, joy can arise within us and move us forward. Above all things, Lord, give us the courage to trust you, to have faith, to follow you and to step in to the new life you are creating. Speak peace into our fear and guide us on our journey. We pray these things in Christ's name and all God's people said. Hey, everyone, it's Pastor Mark, and I want to thank you for tuning in. I also want to thank First United Methodist Church of Cocoa Beach, which helps make this ministry possible. If you would like to make a donation to the church, go to our church website, funcb.com. Also, if you're in town, I hope that you will visit one of our services in person so that we'll have an opportunity to meet. May God bless you as you find your next steps and following Jesus.