“Top Ten Reasons Not To Fear”
The Reverend Barbara K. Briggs
The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14, Year C
A few days ago Caleb called me into his
room in the middle of the night. He had
just woken from a bad dream. We talked
about it for a few minutes. In his dream his parents had invited him on an
outing. He said “no,” twice, but then
later changed his mind. He was upset
because in his dream we had already left without him. We had taken him at his word: “no,” and gone without him. Telling a four-year-old in the dark of night that
it was just a dream doesn’t work. The
fear is real. So we talked about it. I reassured him of my love. He went back to sleep.
Do not be afraid. How is it that when we are sometimes consumed
by fear or anxiety, when someone tells us not to be afraid, we want to find
solace in their words, but we cannot? We
have good reason to fear. Our anxieties
wake us up in the middle of the night, or keep us from sleeping at all. Some of these fears are irrational, born of
bad dreams and sleepiness. But some of
them are quite founded. What wakes you
in the middle of the night? What keeps
you from sleeping?
I went to a conference on church growth
a few years ago. One of the speakers
suggested that if congregations could be about the business of discovering what
it was that woke people up in the night, they could
develop a vital ministry to the people in their wider communities. It is part of life to fear, but too much fear
paralyzes and leads to inaction, smallness of spirit, selfishness, lack of
imagination and creativity, and so on.
God does not
want us to lead lives of fear, but of trust. The Bible is full of stories about people
being afraid and God’s promise to do something about the fear. God says “Do not be afraid,” and follows or
precedes it by an invitation, promise or command. You could find this phrase in some form or
other in at least a hundred places in the Bible. I compiled my own top ten.
10 Do
not be afraid, for I am with you. Genesis 26:24; Isaiah 43:5
9 Do
not be afraid; God has heard [you]. Genesis 21:17
8 Do
not be afraid, … for I myself will help
you. Isaiah 41:14
7 Do
not be afraid …, for I am with you and will rescue you. Jeremiah 1:8
6 Then
Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to
5 But
the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been
heard.” Luke 1:13
4 But
the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor
with
God.” Luke 1:30
3 Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world
gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not
be afraid. John 14:27
2 Do
not be afraid of any one, for judgment belongs to God. Deuteronomy. 1:17
1 Do
not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you
the kingdom. Luke
12:32
You might recognize number one. It is from the Gospel we just heard. Right from the beginning, we are invited to
let go of our fear, whatever it is. In
essence, what Jesus is saying here is, whatever you are afraid of losing, don’t
be, because the real treasure, the REAL THING, the thing that is about life
itself, cannot be lost. It has been
given to you for good, and no one or any thing can take it away from you… What treasure is this? Nothing less than the Kingdom of God, which is
another way of saying that we have been given God’s everything: God’s goodness,
God’s justice, God’s way of doing things with love, compassion and
understanding and the way God honors and cherishes us as God’s precious and
beloved children. We have been given
this as a way of life, if we want it.
However, says Jesus, if we spend all our
energy in amassing these other treasures, we will be missing out on an
adventure of trust, love and mutual generosity. For some, this treasure might be money. For others it might be reputation, for others
still it might be both. Don’t get me
wrong. These things are meant to be used
for our greatest good. God gives us
everything we have. With God all things
are possible. We can dream big and go
forth with confidence. But the opposite
is true as well: without God’s grace, we
can do nothing. And if we put something
other than the
As people of faith, we are invited to
live lives of trust and love rather than of fear. How can we help each other do this? I’m not sure of the answer, but I know it
involves being there for one another, listening to one another with patience
and respect and doing the hard work of looking at one another the way God looks
at us: with infinite and unconditional
love.
Perfect love casts out fear (1 John
© Copyright
2007 by the Reverend Barbara K. Briggs