(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Casting Out Fear”, originally shared on December 13, 2023. It was the 289th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
There are many good reasons to be afraid
these days. And one great reason not to. Today, we’re going to find out what it
is.
There are many
reasons to be afraid: rising conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East that
could flare up into nuclear war, climate change bringing environmental
catastrophe and extreme weather, the growing collapse of the Church in the
West, China’s growing military and economic influence abroad and economic
uncertainty at home that could lead to open conflict, and in the United States,
social breakdown and street-level crime, the challenges to democracy and to
civilization itself reflected in campaigns related to the upcoming elections,
rising levels of hate speech and hate crime, and the classic California
trifecta of earthquakes, flooding and brush fires, and much more.
There is one great reason not to be afraid,
and it’s reflected in the portion of the Gospel of John that will be read in
the vast majority of churches all over the world this coming Sunday, John
1:6-8, 19-28. It begins,
6 There was a
man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a
witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself
was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
John was sent by God. So, was that the key
to his fearlessness? As in the words of Psalm 27:1,
1The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the
stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Yes, sort of. But there’s more.
And there’s a difference between knowing that we are secure in God, and in
believing it.
It is the difference between asking
rhetorical questions and in trusting God when it’s difficult to do so.
Detrich Bonhoeffer was a
Lutheran pastor and theologian who, unlike many Lutherans, stood up to and resisted
the evils of Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany. He was imprisoned and executed near
the end of WWII as the Allies closed in. But, as a colleague once observed, everybody
wants to be Bonhoeffer. Until it’s time to be Bonhoeffer.
I read a story years ago about Nikita
Khrushchev, who was Premiere of the Soviet Union right after the Stalinist era.
Joseph Stalin tolerated no dissent and had been responsible for the deaths of
between 6 and 9 million people as the result of purges, ethnic cleansing, deportation, starvation, and incarceration in concentration camps. Millions
more may have died in WWII as the result of Stalin’s purges of qualified
generals (according to an article by Ian Johnson in the New York Review of
Books). Khrushchev had been an associate of Stalin, but when Stalin died, he
campaigned for Stalin’s job under a platform against the evils of Stalinism.
He spoke at a large gathering
of communists during this campaign and at the end of his speech he sat down and
asked if there were any questions.
A voice from the back of the
hall said, “You were there. Why didn’t you do something?”
Khrushchev leaped to his feet
and stretched to see (he wasn’t very tall), turned beet red and screamed, “Who
said that?”.
The room went totally silent.
Khrushchev relaxed, sat down,
and said, “Now you know.”
What enabled John to stand up and
preach in desperate conditions and with resistance from the principalities and
powers?
We get another look in the second
section of Sunday’s gospel reading.
19 This is the
testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem
to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed
and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 And they
asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the
prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they
said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do
you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I
am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the
Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. 24 Now they had
been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked
him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah,
nor the prophet?” 26 John answered
them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who
is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28 This took
place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
John had many reasons to be afraid.
He was not the Messiah. He did no miracles. He
had no divine power to validate who he was.
He was not Elijah, who many did believe
would return before the Messiah came (Malachi 4:5).
He was not the prophet predicted by Moses
(Deuteronomy 18:15).
And he had one great reason not to be
afraid. He was sent by God. He had a vocation, a calling. God was bringing in
the kingdom. The Messiah was coming. John was called to prepare the way. He was
a prophet.
The religious leaders sought to discredit
him. He was hated by the local Roman government (and would eventually be
imprisoned and executed by them).
But that didn’t matter. John lived by faith,
not fear.
Each of us, like John, has a calling. It is
our “vocation”.
The root word for “vocation” is the Latin
word “vocare” or, “to call”.
We each have a ministry, a “calling”, to
carry out in daily life. And though we have many reasons to be afraid, fear
does not define us. God does.
These are the “how” reasons that John was,
and we are, able to stand without fear.
But they still do not answer the question of
“why” John was able to stand without fear
I saw a meme years ago quoting Yoda in the
Star Wars movie, “The Phantom Menace”, speaking to Anakin Skywalker (who later
becomes Darth Vader), “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger,
anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
And next to it the apostle Paul was quoted
saying, in Romans 5:3-5,
3 And not only
that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, 4 and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does
not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
This is the reason that John stood without
fear.
It is the reason that we stand without fear.
It is the central reality of the Christian
life.
The Holy Spirit makes all baptized believers
into a new Creation. We are born again. Because “God’s love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
John writes in 1
John 4:7-8,
7 Beloved, let us love
one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and
knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is
love.
This love is selfless, sacrificial love. It is
God at work on the cross.
And what does this love do? John tells
us a few verses later, in 1 John 4:18,
18 There is no fear in
love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and
whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
“Perfect love casts out fear.” It sounds
like fear is something that is alien to us. And it is. We weren’t created for
fear. We were created for a perfect relationship with God and harmony with all
of Creation. But we rejected God and evil entered the world. How can we return
to Eden?
Can we achieve perfection in love? No.
Where does this love come from? It can only
come from God. We receive this love in the perfect relationship that God gives
us though faith in the one true living God. It redefines us.
As John writes in 1 John 4:19,
19 We love because he
first loved us.
It’s been said that the Bible uses the
words, “Fear not”, or “Don’t be afraid”, or something that’s equivalent 365
times. One for every day of the year.
I can’t say that I have counted them. 😊 But that sounds
about right. God has made us new.
Even when we feel fear, which sometimes is a
good thing, we know that there is a foundational level of our existence that is
free from fear, just as we can be depressed and at the same time know that we
are filled with joy.
This is a broken world, and it will not be
made whole until the Last Judgement and there are new heavens and a new earth.
Meanwhile, we live in the grace of God. We have
been made free. We have moved from death to life. Death has no more dominion
over us.
Jesus said, in John 3:16,
16 “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
We could give in to fear, we could go along
to get along. We could compromise with the world and justify it as necessary. We
are, after all, sinners as well as saints in this world.
But that is not a part of our new character
as reborn children of God.
As has been said, we don’t know what the
future holds, but we do know who holds the future.
We simply join John the Baptist every day to
answer God’s call. We live in the already but not yet perfected Kingdom of God.
We live as the people of God called, equipped, and sent into the world to proclaim
and point to Jesus crucified, risen, and coming again.
There are many good reasons for us to be
afraid in this world, and there is one great reason not to. Jesus said, in John
16:33,
33 I have said
this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face
persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
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