Steve Lindsley
March 7, 2010
Don't be afraid! This is what your mother says to you when the power goes out during the thunderstorm. Your precious Big Bird night light, the one that stays on all night to keep the big bad monsters away, isn't working. So you do what any three-year old kid would: you scream your head off. Never mind the fact that it's two in the morning. Mom is at your bedside in an instant, as if she just appeared out of thin air, which she probably did. She tries to explain why the power went out, that it'll come back on eventually, but none of it makes any sense. All you care about is that it's dark in your room and it's really loud outside. Some kid in your preschool class told you it was the sound of God bowling. That doesn't make you feel any better.
Don't be afraid! It's what your Dad says to you – your Dad, who is way, way, way down there. You are standing on the high diving board at your summer pool. He's treading water below, both arms reaching up to you. Years later, when it's you in the water, you realize how treading water indefinitely waiting for your son to jump off the board is a pretty good workout. You also realize that a three-meter diving board is just under 10 feet and not really that high up. But you are not a grown rational man – at the moment, you are six years old and it feels like you are standing on top of the Empire State Building. Dad's arms are still extended, and you love the feeling when those arms are wrapped around you, but you're not all that crazy about the distance it'll take to get to them.
Don't be afraid! It's what all the books tell you, but what do they know? I mean, were they really written by some guy who was expecting his first child? Because apparently he believes you are going to make a great first-time Dad; that you'll know what you need to know when the time comes, that your son or daughter couldn't ask for a better father. You want to believe what he's saying, what everyone else is saying. But my gosh – this is a baby we're talking about; a brand new life form that you and your wife will be ultimately, completely, irrevocably responsible for. You will have to clothe this baby. Feed this baby. Buy a car and pay for college for this baby. Are you really ready to take this on? Is anyone ever really ready?Don't be afraid! This is what the prophet told the people, and it was welcome news for their captive ears. And it was welcome not just because, for so long, that same prophet had filled those same ears with words of condemnation and judgment. It was welcome because all those things had come to pass, and now it was time for a something new. Ripped from their homeland and hauled off to Babylon, the people needed a new word – a word of redemption, a word that reminded them they were still loved, still cherished by the God who created them. Do not fear, he said to them, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine. Their God would not give up on them now. Their God never had.
Don't be afraid. It's what we long to hear, isn't it – whether we're three and our night light goes out, six and on top of the diving board, 34 and expecting the birth of our son, or an entire people lost in a strange and foreign land. Sometimes fear is a good thing – fear of the pain of touching a hot stove keeps us from burning your hand. Fear of drowning motivates us to put on that life jacket or take some swim lessons. Those kinds of fears serve important purposes in life.But there's a different kind of fear going on out these days. In the ups and downs that life can dish out, we want to be assured that there is a constant in the mix of it all; something we can latch onto that will keep us steady and on course. We want to know that we are safe and protected. We want to know that everything is going to be okay. But that's not always possible, is it? So much in our world today reminds us that we are not in control and that bad things are happening, can happen at any moment.
There's a fisherman one summer morning, fishing off the Florida coast when his boat capsizes. He's heard that these waters have a history of being home to alligators. Not wanting to offer himself as tempting bait, he decides instead to cling on top of the overturned craft, rather than swimming to shore a hundred feet away, until someone comes to help.After a while he sees in the distance an older gentleman walking on the shore. The fisherman calls out, Hey you – are there any gators around here? The man answers back, No, they haven't been here for years!
The fisherman breathes a sigh of relief – perhaps it'd be safe to swim to shore after all. That's great news, he says. What did you do to get rid of 'em?The beachcomber replied, We didn't do anything. We just let the sharks take care of 'em! (http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustrations_for_installment.asp?installment_id=93040503, visited on 2.28.2010).
Sometimes like feels like that, doesn't it? There we are, stuck on that overturned boat, struggling to stay afloat. The shore is not far away, but there's a lot of water between it and us. And if the alligators don't get us, the sharks surely will! Sometimes that really is the case, and we need to be aware of it. But so many times, it seems, it's not. And therein lies the problem. You and I live in a society that has become obsessed with fear; like we don't know what to do without it, like we need our daily fix of it. Rarely is it by accident, either. Fear-mongering is what it’s sometimes called – where fear is used to coerce people into doing what someone else wants them to do. It's what one noted Biblical scholar was talking about when he observed that today, “we have been programmed to live by our fears and not by our hopes.” So it's not just succumbing to the lowest common denominator. It's when we are held captive by it; expecting the worst even as we believe it's for the best.Where is this in our world today? Where is it not! I think of factions it the church that twist the words of the Bible, like Revelation, to “scare” people to Jesus; or twist the dogma of another faith to portray it as something we should be afraid of. I think of the horrible stigma placed on people who are “different” because of what they believe or what they wear or what their lifestyle is. And I think it'd be safe to say that fear-mongering has more than taken over our political process, with both sides of the aisle bearing the blame.
And so to all of this the prophet Isaiah says loud and clear: Do Not Fear. In fact, he practically screams it, trying to shout above the cacophony of competing voices that are grappling for the Israelites' attention. Isaiah desperately wants God's people to hear this message, not because there's nothing to be afraid of; not because there aren't things that should merit concern. The prophet speaks these words – God's words – because he knows a better way.What way is that, exactly? What way enables us to no longer be held captive by our fears? Is it courage? Is it like John Wayne once quipped, “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway”? Is it really that simple, just kind of pushing forward and “willing” ourselves through and past that which frightens us?
Perhaps. But you know, I'm wondering if there's more to it than just courage. Peter Gomes, an author and Harvard religion professor, might have been on to something when he said this:We fear what we do not know, but we cannot fear that which we love.
For, as (the scriptures tell) us, perfect love casts out all fear.
So true compassion leaves no room for it.
And if we doubt that choosing compassion over fear really makes any difference, just as William Wimsatt. Believing that our country, as he put it, “is fast becoming a nation of fear,” William launched a project he called "A Bet with America." One summer he hitchhiked across the United States through some of the more feared neighborhoods in our nation's largest cities; neighborhoods most people wouldn't set foot in during the day, much less at night. The “Bet with America,” according to William, was pretty straightforward: "If I get killed,” he said, “I lose the bet. But if I win, you have to consider that I may be right about this whole fear thing.”
So he went to cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston. He did the kinds of things everyone tells you not do to – he accepted rides from total strangers and made a point of walking through areas most of us would consider off limits. Conventional wisdom says William should've been killed dozens of times, but the only crime that happened to him the entire trip was that someone stole his diary and a pair of his jeans. ("Bet With America," Utne Reader, November-December 1995, 46-48).
It sure was a risky bet William took – and I probably should say that I am in no way advocating anyone here doing such a thing. It was a big risk. But you know, so is life! I mean, there aren't that many guarantees, when you think about it. There is only the promise that, just as he did thousands of years ago for a people desperate to return home, our God journeys with us for the long haul, even in the dangerous places. God is forever going with us.
Fifty-eight times in the Bible, God says these three words: DO NOT FEAR. Don't be afraid! Fifty-eight times, God implores the faithful not to be misguided by their fear, not to have their life dictated by the “opposite of compassion.” Fifty-eight times, God proposes a radical alternative – to replace fear with hope, hate with love, prejudice with acceptance, indifference with concern, judgment with forgiveness. And we live differently when we make these choices. We tackle problems in relationships with our loved ones instead of living in uncertainty about what will happen next. We choose to worship a God of love and grace, instead of a God who is just waiting for us to mess up. We follow our dreams in life, instead of being held captive by everything else. And in this church, we answer God's call to serve in new and exciting ways; ways we may have never considered before, because it is compassion and not fear that has taken hold in our hearts.
The question in all of this is: are we ready to listen, and are we ready to follow? Let's take God up on that bet, shall we? Thanks be to God – AMEN!
Recent Comments