Refreshing Bread

"Fear not, little flock." So go the words of Jesus from the Gospel of St. Luke (12:32) which I chose as the motto for my episcopal ministry twenty-one years ago. Perhaps, now, thinking about my motto, you might be tempted to ask, "Why not be afraid? We live in frightening times!" And indeed, the world seems a scarier place than it did this time last year, or even six months ago, or perhaps even last week, as we tumble headlong into a kind of national and global chaos, unfamiliar to us and full of foreboding and dread. And there certainly is no lack of the "principalities and powers" of which St. Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, willing and able to feed off of our fear, to make use of this fear in ways that seem able to threaten the very existence of the human race. "Fear not, little flock." In this season of long nights and cold days, I find it comforting to remember these words of the Master as he advised His disciples to depend totally on God. We cannot look to the unstable, transitory powers of this world t