11/29/15
RUMC “Sent #1”
“DO NOT BE AFRAID.” How many
times do you read that in the Bible?
Some say 365 times. . Even
though it is a nice thought, that God put in one “fear not” for each day of the
year, I have yet to find a version of the Bible for which it is that neat and
easy. No matter how many you count, however, there is no denying that God told
us not to be afraid a LOT of times! “DO NOT BE AFRAID… FEAR NOT.”
Fear and its more
generalized, but very real partner anxiety, have existed since almost the
beginning of time.
When God set Adam and Eve in
the garden there was no fear… there was no anxiety. There was only love, and
peace, and walking with God in the cool of the evening.
When Adam and Eve decided to
go their own way, disobeying God, and eat the fruit, and their eyes were opened,
they began to feel a very strong emotion that things were not right. In fact, something
was very wrong. And what do they tell God when he asks them why they were
hiding? Adam says we were hiding because we were “naked and afraid.” They were
naked and afraid.
God said to Isaac - ‘I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”
Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua,
Gideon, Samuel, David, Elijha, Solomon, Jehosephat, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel,
and Zechariah all received similar messages. “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”
Then we see it again and
again in the birth narratives that we start reading today,
Just before Zechariah was
told that his prayers had been answered and Elizabeth would bear a child we
know as John the Baptist, he was told by the angel, “Do not be afraid”
When Mary was greeted as the
highly favored one she was told, “Do not be afraid”
When the angel appeared to
Joseph what did he say? “Do not be afraid.”
Those poor shepherds pulling
the night shift encounter an angel choir, and the first words are, “Do not be
afraid”
Why were those the first
words spoken to these heroes of the nativity story? Obviously, because they
were afraid. I think we would have been afraid too.
Anxiety in moderation is
critical for our survival. It was critical that we be constantly aware that the
rustling of the bushes might be a saber tooth tiger. It would only take one
moment of false security for us to become meow mix for the very real tiger in
the bushes. Appropriate fear is critical too. When the tiger jumps out of the
bushes, fear is what makes us run, hopefully at least just a little faster than
our buddy sitting next to us.
Theologically, anxiety and
fear do not belong in our relationship with God. God created us in his image,
breathed his own breath of life into us, filled us with the Holy Spirit, and
loves us more than we can imagine. What is there to be anxious about? What is
there to fear? If we look back to the first appearance of fear in the creation
story, we can easily see that sin and separation from God are the source of
spiritual anxiety and fear.
The Christmas story,
therefore, is a story for anyone who is afraid. The Christmas story is a story
for anyone who is anxious. The Christmas story comes to Zechariah, and Mary and
Joseph and the Shepherds, who were all afraid, with the message “YOU DO NOT
NEED TO BE AFRAID.” And it comes to us with that same message.
·
Whether our anxiety and fear is healthy and appropriate, or
extreme and debilitating, the Christmas story is for us. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO
NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
Whether our anxiety and fear are based on real dangers, or
manufactured in our heads, the Christmas story is for us. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO
NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
Whether our anxiety and fear are of this world, or more
existential and spiritual in nature, the Christmas story is for us. AND IT
SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for old couples who think that life
has passed them by. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for pregnant unwed teenagers. AND IT
SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for those facing punishment by death. AND
IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for those who fear they won’t make it
through scary economic times, or through these medical bills, or this student
loan, or the next round of layoffs. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for people who are afraid that the
latest diagnosis may be the one that kills them. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED
TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for parents grasping at anything they
can reach in order to save their children from the misadventures of
adolescence. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for children afraid to walk past the
house where the neighborhood bully lives. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE
AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for children who aren’t sure they can
stand to lie in bed and listen to dad beat up on mom… again, or see mom come
home drunk… again, or watch their sister poison their unborn nephew with
alcohol. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for young adults who aren’t sure they
know how to grow up, and are even less sure they want to bring a family into
this world. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for people who aren’t sure life is
worth living because fear and anxiety have such a strong hold, because
depression drags them in to a deep dark pit, and because alcohol and drugs
distort and destroy any meaning left in life. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE
AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for husbands and wives who have lost
the joy in their relationship but feel trapped for the sake of the kids. AND IT
SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for people for whom this is a season
of loneliness, and grief, and depression, instead of a season of good news and
great joy. AND IT SAYS, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AFRAID.”
·
The Christmas story is for the afraid… the ones whom God
sends out, again and again, but each time they stumble over their own fear, and
God has to pick them up and say, “Do not be afraid, Do not be afraid.”
·
The Christmas story is a story of reconciliation for all
people who are afraid… even you and even me.
The Christmas story is a
story of reconciliation that assures us that we don’t have to sit in the bushes
along the path in the garden naked and afraid. That the close relationship with
God that was compromised in the Garden of Eden is reconciled in Jesus Christ.
God never gave up. God kept
offering, again and again the power and promise of his presence in the lives of
his people, but people kept going their own way. Through sin and slavery,
exodus and exile, God offered… maybe I should say God begged to come near, but
people kept choosing fear that led them further from God and further from the
persons they were created to be.
Then, finally, in the
fullness of time, God sent Jesus as a baby in a manger. Everyone who received
the good news in those days was unsuspecting, unqualified, undeserving,
anxious, and afraid. But God came anyway, as a baby, Immanuel, God with us… again
…finally.
God comes to us today as a
baby, Immanuel, God with us for everyone who is unsuspecting, unqualified,
undeserving, anxious, and afraid…that’s all of us by the way.
God comes to us today as a
baby, Immanuel, God with us for every one of us who lives with anxiety and
fear… that is all of us by the way.
God came as a baby,
Immanuel, God with us for every one of us whose lives are turned upside down by
sin. … That is all of us by the way.
God came as a baby,
Immanuel, God with us to every one of us in order to set our lives aright. To
redeem us from our perpetually anxious, and fearful, and sinful existence. To
reconcile us to the one who says over and over, “Do not be afraid… do not be
afraid.
The phone rings and between
the callers tears and my adrenaline, I have a hard time understanding exactly
what is said, except come quick.
As a pastor, I often find
myself invited into the holiest moments of a family’s life. I sit in hospitals,
nursing homes, living rooms, and hospice rooms when people are afraid. I sit
across kitchen tables from people who have received frightening diagnoses. I
stand in hospital hallways with families talking in hushed tones about the
decisions they have to make. I stand next to beds in the intensive care unit
where anxiety and fear almost suck the air out of the room. I stand in front of
families at funerals with an empty place in the pew and an even emptier place
in their hearts.
And there aren’t many words
to say. There just aren’t.
In those moments, we fall
back to the words that bring us comfort… I can’t count the number of times I
have read those words, He makes me to lie
down in green pastures… he restores my soul… yea thou I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death…
And then come the words that
somehow bring comfort, words that carried me through some of my most anxious
times… words spoken to countless folks fearing for their lives, or the lives of
their children, or the lives of their parents, or fearing for their own future,
or on the battle field, or in the midst of any time in middle of the night or
in brightest daylight, when all around us seems so dark.
I will fear no
evil; for you are with me…
It is still scary. And
families still have months and years of rehabilitation, or grieving, or guilt.
But I am always amazed that in the middle of the night, in those darkest
moments, in the living rooms, lobbies, and bedsides, the sanctuaries, and in
our homes, God is with us. Immanuel. Just as God was with Mary in as she faced
the angel or in the donkey stall. Immanuel, Just as God was with Joseph when he
thought his whole life and future had crumbled around him. Immanuel Just as God
was with the shepherds frightened by the glory of God. Immanuel. Just as God is
with us today. Immanuel. God will be with you in any darkness, or anxiety or
fear that you face. Immanuel.
Immanuel… God is with you.
AMEN
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