Facing Fears

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 20:7-13 and Matthew 10:24-39.

All of us driving on US-1 that day could see what was going to happen. The Key deer was obviously in distress. He was running in tight circles in the parking lot of the Dion's Quikmart. He kept lurching toward the highway and then spinning away. He wanted to cross the road but the traffic had him scared. All of the drivers slowed. And suddenly he shot across the access road and US-1, heedless of the moving cars. If we hadn't seen him and starting braking, he would have been hit—perhaps several times. All the drivers on Big Pine Key have noticed this on other occasions. If a deer is on the side of the road and starts acting skittish, odds are it will not wait until the road is clear to cross, but will, without warning, bolt right in front of an oncoming car. Panic leads to bad decisions.

It is not only the so-called dumb beasts that can be panicked into disaster. In the 2002 film, The Sum of All Fears, based on the Tom Clancy novel, CIA analyst Jack Ryan discovers that terrorists are going to detonate a nuclear bomb in an American city. When he is unable to prevent it, he then must stop Russia and the US from launching World War 3. What is chilling is how plausible the situation envisioned in the movie is. After 9/11 the fear that terrorists would use a nuclear weapon was all too justified. It even has Russia involved in an invasion of Chechnya, just as they are in Ukraine today, making tensions in the world high. As the movie shows, fear can push our nations into precipitating precisely what we most dread—all-out nuclear war.

Matthew 10:16-39 is all about fear. Jesus is preparing to send the disciples out and he is telling them they can expect the worst. “I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves...” They can count on opposition—from the religious authorities, from the government, even from members of their own families. On the face of it, this is not the best recruiting speech. But greater than the fear of what you know is fear of the unknown. Horror novelist Stephen King says the hardest part of his craft is making the monster live up to all the dread he has been generating. If you remember the other version of his book IT, the 1990 miniseries with Tim Curry, the actual sight of the pre-CGI monster, a giant spider puppet, is a tremendous let down after the creepy buildup. It was scarier when you didn't know what it was. In the Tom Clancy movie the presidents of both Russia and the US are trying to make life and death decisions based on very limited knowledge of what is going on. This causes them and their advisors to speculate and magnify the true nature of the threat they are facing. Ryan realizes he must let both sides know what really happened if he is to diffuse the fear that is driving events.

So in this passage Jesus is replacing fear of the unknown with a realistic view of what the disciples are likely to face. And he is obviously talking of future generations of Christians more than the immediate mission of the Twelve. For the first 300 years of the movement Christians did face persecution and even death. And that's because their opponents were afraid as well. The Jewish authorities feared what they saw as a popular heresy among their fellow Jews. The Roman rulers feared the idea that Christians felt they owed a higher allegiance to Jesus than to the emperor. Caesar, not Jesus, was the king of kings and divine ruler of the Roman citizen. To say “Jesus is Lord” was treason. Parents were hurt and outraged when their children abandoned their Jewish or their pagan faith and practices in order to worship a man executed in the manner of a slave or traitor. Many a convert was declared dead to his family when he chose to follow Jesus.

Family was important to both Romans and Jews. Jews especially did not think of themselves as individuals first but as part of their people. Solidarity with their fellow Jews was essential. This concept is what Paul is talking about in Romans 5:15-19. If all humans are members of one family, and Adam is our father, then his sin becomes our sin. As the Tom Clancy movie illustrates, the decision of the head of a people determines the fate of those people. A bad decision by the leader of a country can have devastating effects on his nation. Adam's decision mired us all in sin and its consequence: spiritual death. But if we follow Jesus, then his grace liberates us from sin and death. He puts us in the same loving relationship with God that he has.

Jesus said he is bringing not peace but a sword to the earth. What he means is that, without his desiring to, his very presence will divide people, causing them to take sides and sever even intimate relationships. In which case people will have to make a painful decision: to stay in the family in which they were born or to choose to be born anew into the family of Christ. Exile from your loved ones is a terrifying prospect. But sometimes something is so important that you must separate yourself from those who were closest to you. Recovering alcoholics and people in toxic family situations often find themselves in this position. At one point in the Clancy movie, Ryan asks about the condition of the hospital where his girlfriend works. He doesn't know if she has survived the explosion and cannot contact her. But unlike most Hollywood films, Ryan doesn't go off searching for her. The fate of the world is more important than the woman he loves. His message can save the world and it must have the highest priority.

In today's passage, Jeremiah suffers because of his message. It is unpopular and he sometimes feels as if God has tricked him into being his prophet. But he knows better. He cannot hold in the truth. It burns within him like a fire in his bones. He must deliver the message God has given him and put his trust in the Lord.

Consistently near or at the top of the list of fears that most people have is speaking in public. There are classes and seminars and organizations devoted to helping people overcome their fear of speaking in front of others. But there's no technique that makes an unpalatable truth acceptable to the majority of people. That's why politicians rarely take stands that are unpopular with their voters and why we have the leaders we deserve. We either get the bland leading the bland or the outrageous leading the outraged. The candidate who tells voters you cannot both cut taxes and increase the benefits they get from the government doesn't get elected. The diet plan that says the only way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more isn't going to top the bestseller list. The Christian who tells the world that following Jesus means putting God before self, giving up some pleasures, taking on some hardships, and actually loving everyone, including your enemies, is going to be at best a laughingstock and at worst a martyr.

Quite the catalog of fears, isn't it? Unpopularity, ridicule, being an outcast, the loss of loved ones, death. And speaking in public. What is the answer to these fears?

Let's start with speaking up for Christ. The root of this fear is not knowing how to express oneself. We fear we will say the wrong thing and look foolish. As a priest who once notoriously forgot to say “Thou shalt not commit adultery” when we were reciting the 10 commandments one Lenten Sunday and who another time announced a hymn as “thongs of thankfulness and praise,” I can assure you from personal experience, you do not literally die of embarrassment. What's in danger is not yourself but your inflated image of yourself. It's important to be able to laugh at yourself. The pompous die a thousand deaths. Hence the popularity of the show Frasier and its announced revival. Humility is a good thing to take with you as you mount the pulpit.

But Jesus promises that we will not be alone when we speak up for him. “Do not worry about how to speak or what to say, for what you should say will be given to you at that time. For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20) Listen to the Spirit. If you are in touch with God's Spirit he will give you the words.

Or not. My predecessor, the Rev. Lynn Jones, told me that when she stood before the Commission on Ministry and was asked about her call to become a priest, she found herself choked up. She was so emotional she could not express herself. Because of that she was sure that she would not get approval to become a candidate for ordination. Afterwards a member of the commission approached her. He told her that when that question was asked, he thought that, with her being a lawyer, she would have some slick answer to charm them. But when she was suddenly speechless, and all of these emotions played out on her face, he knew how important and how real her call was to her. Her reply was written on her face. And so he voted for her. Sometimes the right answer is an eloquent silence.

As someone who used to write and record radio ads, I'm going to let you in on a secret: the most important thing in an ad is not the words you use, or the music you play under it, or whether the announcer has a deep resonant voice. Those things can help. But what is essential is what you are offering people. If you have what they want at a price they are willing to pay, you will have their attention, regardless of how artlessly it is presented. Judge for yourself. One commercial announces in a beautiful baritone, “And with every purchase you will receive a bag of manure.” The other says in a scratchy voice, “Every customer will get a sack of gold free.” Which would you respond to?

The gospel is gold. It says that at the heart of the universe is a God who loves you and offers to adopt you as his beloved child. He will forgive you for all the bad you've done and will help you become the person he created you to be. He will never leave you or forsake you. And the proof of his love is that he became a human being just like you, lived the blameless life you wish you could, suffered as you have, died as you will one day, and conquered death as you will as well if you trust him and open your heart to him and follow him. It's that simple.

Say that in your own words and people will listen. They may ridicule it but it will stick in their brains and hopefully will bear fruit someday. Trust God, commune with his Spirit, read his words and meditate upon them and they will be there when you need them.

As to the fear of pain and death, Jesus says there are worse things than that. “Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” We all have to die. The question is whether we die spiritually intact or compromised and corrupt. Do we die a friend of God or his enemy? Will Jesus commend us or deny us?

But we just said that God is a God of love; why are we saying we must fear him?

You have no doubt heard of the Darwin Awards, an internet site where true stories of incredible and often fatal stupidity are posted. They are called the Darwin Awards because these people have taken themselves out of the gene pool and possibly improved the world's population by leaving it. For instance a man on a jetski tried to recharge its battery by using jumper cables. This might have worked had he not first hooked them up to his car and then jumped into the water with the other ends. He did not have a proper respect for the laws of physics and electricity. Others do not respect the laws of nature. When I worked in Yellowstone Park one summer, the rangers told me about tourists who, in order to get “cute” pictures of their children interacting with wild bears, would smear the child's face with jam so the bear would lick them. In other words, associate their kid with food in the bear's mind. Or they would try to get a photo of their baby riding on the back of a bear. Recently there has been a spate of stories about people trying to pet the wild bison with predictably painful results. Their reckless lack of appropriate fear often leads to avoidable tragedy.

Fear can be a gift. A healthy fear of the proper things can keep you alive. It's like the healthy respect a good sailor has for the sea and the weather. He knows they are powerful and outside his control. He is at their mercy so he doesn't take them for granted. God is loving but he is also powerful. It is wise to have a healthy respect for him. He is not a teddy bear. As C.S. Lewis said, he is not tame but he is good. Disobeying the laws he gave us for our own wellbeing is foolhardy.

A healthy respect for God can actually give you courage. It is said that Scottish reformer John Knox so feared God that he was afraid of no man. Many a person brought up to respect and obey his parents can tell you that he avoided the problems some of his friends got into because he feared what his parents would say or think of him. Parental prohibition can be a great protection against peer pressure. God is our heavenly Father, whose strength we can draw on when we have to stand up to others on some matter of principle. Martin Luther refused to go against his conscience when asked to recant the truths he wrote about God even though he knew he might be killed for it. Corrie Ten Boom and her family defied the Nazis rather than God and were sent to the camps for hiding Jews. Only Corrie survived. Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer opposed the idea that Nazism and Christianity were compatible and was sent to a death camp. He was hung. Death holds no fear for those who follow the one who died for us and rose to life again.

The ultimate answer to fear is the knowledge that God cares for us. God is aware of each part of his creation, even the common sparrow. How much more is he concerned for us.

When a new parent takes their baby into their arms for the first time, they instinctively count their fingers and toes. Jesus said God has counted the hairs on our heads. Admittedly that's not very hard in my case but what a wonderful picture of God's parental love and intimacy.

With such a God on our side how can we let fear of disdain, disapproval or even death stop us from carrying out our mission? We serve a powerful God who has every right to reject us for our betrayals of him but who forgives us and loves us instead. He doesn't ask us to be great speakers or big successes in the eyes of the world. He only asks us to be faithful witnesses to his love so that others will come to know him.