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As I wrote yesterday, with the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing coming up, we’ve been watching Chasing the Moon, a 3-part PBS documentary on American Experience. June and I were born in 1946 so we lived through the excitement of the early space age, beginning with the USSR’s launch of Sputnik in 1957.

In episode 2 of Chasing the Moon, in addition to the astronauts of Apollo 8 reading Genesis 1 while orbiting the moon, the tragic story was told of the on-the-ground deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts, January 27, 1967. I remember that event, too. It’s astounding in retrospect that only 2 1/2 years after that accident, Apollo 11 landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon and returned them to earth safely with the third astronaut, Michael Collins, just as President Kennedy had predicted.

Part of the reason for the program’s continuing had to be the fierce determination of the astronauts themselves and the willingness of Americans in those days to assume risk. In a day when safety seems to be predominant in the minds of many folks, Walter Cronkite, the legendary news anchor and huge enthusiast of the space program said:

This is a time for sadness for the loss of our friends and a time for national sadness. However, this is also a time for courage. And if you don’t like “courage,” then “guts.” This is a test program. There are risks in a test program. People die.

I wrote before that contrary to what’s on the back of some trucks, safety can’t be our goal. Thankfully, NASA has had very few tragedies in the history of spaceflight. But if safety were the goal, there wouldn’t be a space program.

The early believers didn’t play it safe from Stephen in Acts 7 on. Tradition has it that 10 of the 11 original apostles were martyred. Jim Elliot, the American missionary killed in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956, said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And today, 2019, Christians are being killed or imprisoned for their faith. I’ll leave it to you to look up and determine the number.

The point is, God has never promised us safety, either from disease or persecution. Our job, as Walter Cronkite said, is to have courage. Or, as the Bible says, “Fear not!” (Some say this appears 365 times in the Bible, one for every day.)

While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 21.10 – 13, ESV)

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41.10)

Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. (Acts 27.22 – 25, ESV)