Do Not Be Afraid (Sunday's Sermon)

Do Not Be Afraid
Texts: Luke 12:1-9
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
August 30, 2009
Do not be afraid.
Considering the events of last weekend, whenever people heard that my sermon title, one I had already planned, was "Do not be afraid,' the title was met with a lot of laughter. All things considered, it's a good thing that I have a sense of humor.
Do not be afraid.
In the passage we read today we read about Jesus responding to some Pharisees who are afraid for him. The Pharisees in today's story were not enemies of Jesus.
Let me say something about the Pharisees. For the most part, when we hear about the Pharisees we think bad thoughts about them. The Pharisees were merely a sect in Judaism like any other group. Some liked Jesus and some did not.
This group approached him with a warning that King Herod was keeping an eye on Jesus. This was the same King Herod who had recently had John the Baptist beheaded, and they were concerned for Jesus' safety.
Jesus, pretty much dismisses their concerns. He is basically unafraid to die. He is willing to meet whatever fate has in store for him.
So what do we say about fear and courage? Sometimes fear and courage is not really a big deal.
One of my favorite recent movies was the movie Julie and Julia and Meryl Streep played Julia Child to perfection. She redid a scene that Julia Child once did de-boning a duck and Julia Child's opening statement on de-boning the duck was this:
Do not be afraid. But this was not a mortal type of fear. Perhaps cut fingers or a messed up duck, but there was not danger involved.
But sometimes fear is real. There is something very real to be afraid of. It might bemajor surgery, or jobs are being cut, or illness, or danger. Not being afraid, having courage, is first off confronting fear.
First off, fear, when left to its own devices, has a way of immobilizing us. When we allow fear to rule our lives, we fine it difficult to take steps forward.
Sometimes fear can immobilize us.
One day in July, a farmer sat in front of his shack, smoking his corncob pipe. Along came a stranger who asked:
"How's your cotton coming?"
"Ain't got none," was the answer. "Didn't plant none. 'Fraid of the boll weevil." "Well, how's your corn?"
"Didn't plant none. 'Fraid o' drouth."
"How about your potatoes?"
"Ain't got none. Scairt o' tater bugs."
The stranger finally asked, "Well, what did you plant?"
"Nothin'," answered the farmer. "I just played it safe."
On occasion fear can immobilize us that we do nothing in response to it.
The way we move from being immobilized is through courage. Courage mobilizes us away from inertia.
Many people mistakenly presume that courage is an absence of fear; that courage and fearlessness go hand in hand.
A lot of times this thing we call fearlessness isn't very healthy.
Would one expect soldiers in the middle of an intense battle to be fearless? One would expect there to be a great deal of fear.
Fear is a pretty normal reaction to things.
Courage isn't so much an absence of fear as it is moving forward despite having fear. Brave people do brave things not because they are fearless, but because they are able to do brave things despite the fact that they are afraid.Having courage can come from several different routes.
One route many people take is attempting to make the situation manageable for themselves.
It seems that years ago the great golfer, Arnold Palmer, was invited to come to a convention of blind golfers. He asked the golfers how they were able to know what direction to hit the ball. One blind golfer explained that the caddy went out ahead of him with a little bell which he would ring as he stood near the hole. The blind golfer would then hit the ball toward the sound of the bell. Arnold asked how well it worked, and the blind golfer said that it worked so well he was willing to take on Arnold Palmer for a round of golf; and just to make it interesting, was willing to bet Palmer ten thousand dollars he could beat him.
Well, this just blew Palmer's mind. He pressed him, but the man insisted he was willing to bet that amount on his ability to beat Palmer. So, the deal was struck. Palmer said, "OK. What time do we tee off?" And the blind man said, "Midnight!"
We can achieve courage when we can create scenarios that we can deal with.
However, very often in life, things go out of control and we do not have the ability to control the situation--so we need to depend on more than our ability to control a situation--we need to find faith and confidence in more than ourselves.
Sometimes people find faith and confidence in the wrong stuff.
Many people who have had problems with alcohol and drugs have used them to give them courage---and they were betrayed by their drug use.
In reality our only true hope can come from God and, perhaps, as important as God, the Worship of God.
Fear paralyzes us, courage mobilizes us, and the worship of God encourages us. The Worship of God is with way we em-body our faith.
The Worship of God is with way we en-courage our faith.
The Worship of God gives us grounding in something other than ourselves, and something greater than ourselves.
And the Worship of God need not be perfect to embody our faith or even to encourage us.
One of my favorite stories was about a Rabbi many years ago. A crisis had hit his village and so he went to a certain place in the woods, lit the fire a certain way, and said the prayers a certain way to God. And God heard the Rabbi and rescued the village.A generation later a crisis had hit the same village and the Rabbi of the that era went to the certain place in the woods, lit the fire a certain way, but had forgotten the prayer. And God heard the Rabbi and rescued the village.
Another generation had passed and a crisis hit the same village and the Rabbi of that era went to the certain spot in the woods, but did not know how to light the fire and did not know the prayer. But it was enough. God saw the Rabbi and rescued the village.
Yet another generation had passed and the crisis hit the same village. The Rabbi of that era did not know the spot in the woods, did not know how to light the fire and did not know the prayer. But he told the story, and that was enough and God rescued the village.
When we Worship God we retell a story that has been told over and over again. We sing hymns which are old; we read stories from the Bible which are old and we say prayers which are old. We carry on an old ritual because we tell and old, old story.
Why do we do it--because the Worship of God is the only thing which can truly move us from fear to encourage.
It is what gave Jesus the strength and the courage to confront Herod and his culture; it is what empowers us to live as Christians even when it is difficult.