Fear and Living Life

Fear is such a predominant theme in the Bible.  That is so, I think, because it is such a predominant theme in life and such a powerful motivation for us.  It is no wonder that the first words of angels are often “Do not be afraid.”  Both the Old Testament and the Gospel readings for this week deal with it.  “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”  (1 Samuel 17:11)  And again, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’” (Mk. 4:40)

I have preached many sermons over the years about fear, all of them dealing on some level with my own.  It is a subject that would be hard to avoid.  I once preached what I’m sure was a bang-up sermon on this subject and the threat fear is to faith.  I think it had to do with the fact that human beings come with few natural fears, really only two—loud noises and falling (although I think there are differences of psychological opinion about this).  A member of the congregation, one I thought would wholeheartedly agree with what I had said, made an observation afterwards that has made me think about fear sermons more carefully ever since.  He reminded me that not all fears are irrational, and indeed, some contribute to survival, which would have to make them beneficial.  Fear, he argued, is not all bad.

I’ve struggled with that idea over the years.  I still do.  Here’s where I am now, though.

Fear, it seems to me, is neither inherently bad nor inherently good.  My parishioner is right.  Fear has its usefulness. 

But the issue isn’t the one he posed, whether fear is rational or not.  The issue is whether it gets in the way of living life to the fullest, living the lives we are called to live, living the lives we desire, in our heart of hearts, to live.  And when that happens, whether the fear is rational or not really is beside the point. 

Facing Goliath on the field of battle does not strike me as an irrational fear.  David did anyway.  To do otherwise would have interfered with the life David wanted to live.  A storm on the open sea doesn’t strike me as an irrational fear for people in a small boat.  The problem is that fear got in the way of the disciples’ relationship with Jesus, and that was the whole purpose of being in the boat to begin with.

Rational or not, the spiritual message is that a courageous life is a life more fully lived than a fearful one.  I suspect that is because it is a more fully human one.  The natural fears of human beings, after all, are few.  And faithful fears are fewer still if they exist at all.

Peace,

Kudzu and Mustard Seeds

About 130 years ago, someone in the United States got a bright idea, to import into our country a vine that had use both as a decorative ground cover, something like ivy, and also for controlling soil erosion, particularly in the South. The vine is known as kudzu, and it came to us from Japan.

It was not long before the kudzu, particularly when it was left unattended when used for erosion control, got out of control.In my home state of Georgia it literally covers everything. It overgrows telephone poles and trees. It grows incredibly quickly. It is a constant effort to keep it trimmed back along interstate highways. It is generally considered a terrible nuisance and people in Georgia rue that day that it was introduced to our state. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but most anyone I know would tell you that kudzu, was a terrible mistake.

And that it is why it is startling to me that Jesus said the kingdom of God is like another noxious botanical monster, the mustard plant. The mustard plant and kudzu have a lot in common. They are both considered weeds. They both grow rapidly. They are both considered by farmers to be damaging. They are both almost impossible to control.

And that is why it is so surprising to me that Jesus, going about the rural country of Galilee as he was, speaking to farmers and those who depended on the land to earn a living, seeking to proclaim the good news among those who would have more than a passing acquaintance with mustard plants and for whom mustard plants would have had a very negative connotation, would look precisely there for a way to describe the coming kingdom.

The kingdom, he said, “is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." What Jesus is saying is that the kingdom, mustard plants, and kudzu are very much alike. They start benignly and that grow uncontrollably until they take over everything around, in the case of kudu until it covers the telephone poles as if they weren’t there, and in the case of mustard plants, until they grow so large that the birds of the air make nests in their shade. That is what the kingdom of God is like, first and foremost, completely out of control.

Peace,

Original Sin

There is a story in Genesis that I think is beautiful in many respects, and also quite disturbing.  It involves God’s discovery of the brokenness that had transpired in the Garden, that the serpent had misled the man and the woman and that the man and the woman had hidden themselves from God as a result.  Separation, after all, is the very root of sin. 

 

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  (Gen. 3:8-10)

Theologians often describe this as being the root having something known as original sin, the idea that the human actions in the Garden have infected humankind at the deepest level.  All subsequent human beings, it is said, share in the sin introduced by Adam and are inherently sinful because of it. 

I have always rebelled at the idea.  Until now. 

What has changed for me is a new understanding of exactly what the sin of Adam was.  It appears on the surface to be disobedience. God had commanded the human couple, after all, not to eat of the tree of knowledge.  They disobeyed.  And all the bad consequences flowed from that.

   

Something never seemed quite right about that to me.  After all, God had to realize from the beginning that disobedience was going to happen.  And disobedient or not, knowledge always seemed like a strange source of something so calamitous. 

But now I’m seeing the sin differently.  It is not disobedience.  It is shame. 

The man and the woman do not separate themselves from God because of their disobedience or even shame at their disobedience.  They separate themselves from God for shame at their nakedness, which is to say for shame at their humanity, for shame at themselves. 

It is shame and not disobedience at which God is displeased and also apparently surprised.  I’m not sure even God saw coming that the creation, indeed the part of the creation most like Godself, would be ashamed of its own nature.  It is a sin, I think, that is unique to human beings.  And it is profoundly disturbing to think of a creature ashamed of itself as God had created it.  And that fundamental sin, shame, has led to most of the other sins of the world.

Disobedience is something human beings have long since learned to overcome, as every human parent knows.  Shame, though, is a much more difficult thing.  Its remedy seems quite beyond us.  The doctrine of original sin says it can be overcome only by God.  On this point I wholeheartedly agree.

Original sin or not, shame is a sin that human beings do seem to just come with.  It takes us a while to grow into it, but grow into it we inevitably do.  Its only antidote is the message implicit in the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  Humanity’s shame need be no more. God has proclaimed its sanctity, shame is defeated.   Just as we are, naked as the day we were born.

Peace,