Without Fear

One of the messages repeated over and over in the Christmas narrative is that of do not be afraid. In Luke 1:13, Zachariah encounters an angel in the Holy of Holies; the most holy place in the temple. The angel tells Zachariah “do not be afraid”. In Luke 1:30, the angel visits Mary and says, “Do not be afraid”.  In Luke 2:10, the angel greets the shepherds to announce to them the birth of Christ and greets them with the words “do not be afraid”. Yet fear is a basic instinct necessary for survival. As a father I always felt that it was part of my responsibility to give my children a dose of fear for things in their life. Things like electricity, fire, and drinking or texting with driving being involved with either one of those activities.

Fear is important to ministry. I believe that the life of a church should be measured with fear, anxiety, joy and gratitude being the high points or spikes of the heartbeat for the worshiping community. There is no ministry that I have been involved with that has been without fear. Ministry is, and should be, about confronting the principalities of darkness that rule the world and, a good healthy dose of fear should accompany the tasks of ministry. Fear keeps your wits about you; fear should not be something that we are afraid of rather, fear should be a trusted and respected companion on our journey of faith. Fear is that companion that accompanies the fireman as he walks into a burning building as everyone else is running out. Fear accompanies the cowboy when he gets on the back of a bronco or bull at the rodeo. Fear should be the companion of the bear hunter and the farmer who dares to place himself between a mother and her newborn calf. Fear should be the companion who sits right next to confidence and a driver on slick road. Fear is the companion to joy as many new parents await the birth of a child. Fear is my companion every Sunday morning when I prepare to lead worship, my best friend when I visit people and a companion for most every situation I go into in ministry. When I don’t have fear, that

my friends, is when I am most afraid.

Yet, Jesus calls us all to a ministry without fear; a calling where we are focused on what we are called to be and called to do. A ministry where issues and people who are troublesome do not keep us preoccupied from doing what God has called us to do.

Fear is something to be overcome. It is an instinct that tells us that what we are dealing with is not comfortable, or that what we are dealing with is dangerous. Seventy-one years ago, President Roosevelt told a nation “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Which meant to the nation that if we live in fear of what the future holds we will always be in fear. Like Jesus, our leader wanted us to live a life of hope, not a life of fear.

Today we have much to be fearful, full of fear, of; the economy, the changing culture of our nation, the changes of technology, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, terrorists attacks, the fiscal cliff and the list goes on. I am asking you to respect your fear and to move beyond it.

It is good to ask the questions that need to be answered before ministry moves forward in the faith community. Fear of something new or unknown should not paralyze our response. We should recognize our fear, acknowledge our fear and just like the farmer, the driver, the fireman or any other person in ministry, do what is needed to move beyond the fear. That entity that gets us beyond fear is hope.

For two weeks now we have heard Paul talk about being able to stand before God pure and blameless; last week it was 1Thessalonians 3:13, this week it is Philippians 1:10.  You can’t be pure and blameless on your own. Romans 3:23 states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is only through God’s grace, it is only through hope, that we are able to stand at the Day of Judgment. Hope is one of the virtues that Advent teaches us to hold dear, one of those values that Christ exemplified by his life and by his death.

Hope is that thing that helps us sleep at night and gets us out of bed each morning. It tells us that tomorrow will be a better day or that today for some reason will be worth getting out of bed for. Our faith fuels our hope, both of these are virtues of a life centered around Christ.

Paul is beginning to construct a picture of what love is. Paul is challenging us to recognize what it takes to love and be in love. Love is a verb, it as an action word; it is not passive; love is work. It requires faith and hope to love. Love is the catalyst for a unified community. You will not find love or the unified community without first finding hope and faith.

Blame is the anti-hope. I said in one of our recent baptisms; if you are going to believe in the power of God and all the good that God represents, you also have to recognize the spiritual power of evil and the grip of sin that represents evil. I think the grip of fear should also be included. So many good ideas never come to be because we don’t know how to move beyond fear. One of the major fears that must be overcome is the fear of blame. Too many of us will not let our dreams become reality because we are afraid of blame. We are fear filled with the idea that someone is going to hold us accountable for our actions. We must work to change this by placing blame in the context of love. In the context of love, blame becomes accountability and, accountability is a good thing. Accountability is a great expression of love. It says “I love you so much that I will support God’s call in your life by doing my best to make sure that you are…ready for this…pure and blameless; in God’s call in your life of ministry.

Love produces knowledge that produces a clearer sense of what is important which ultimately purifies a community. But, hope is one of the key elements that leads to love. Still struggling with this? Think about the people that you love in your life; can you love them if you have no hope in them? Even if that person has done some very bad things in your life you can love them. But, you can’t love unless you have hope.

Jesus teaches that love is the greatest of gifts. We will talk more about love next week. Without love we are clanging gongs and banging cymbals. We cannot love without having faith and hope. I believe we all want to love more. If we work at having more hope, I believe we will ultimately find more love. Hope begins by moving beyond our fear and living as Jesus taught us to live in the example of his life.