4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”
5Then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame
shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For
waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the
burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the
haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
In the Dune series by Frank Herbert,
there is a litany against fear that the protagonist Paul Atreides uses – I must
not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total
obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through
me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where
the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Throughout the first few
books, Paul does amazing things, and whenever there is fear in his heart he
goes through this mediation, in order to calm his nerves and accomplish what
needs to be done. Yet, even in its
ability to calm him, I see some sadness in its wording, especially at the end
when he says “Only I will remain.”
Why? Because he is all alone in
that moment, and we are not people designed to be alone. No, instead we are called to relationship and
our fears are eased not through our own will and determination, but through
God.
God
tells us not to fear, just as Paul’s litany tells him, but it is for very
different reasons. We are told not to
fear, because we are not alone, because we are never alone. Instead we have a God who comes to our aid
and who uplifts the lowly. Now sometimes
this means that we have to accept that God is coming after us as well, if we
are the ones oppressing others and they are calling out to God for aid against
our actions. But, God is always of aid
to his children, and God brings us hope in His presence. After all, if God is for us, who can possibly
be against us?
And
we have a God who gives us strength, so that when we get past fear we see not
that we are alone, but that God is there with us, holding us up. What is it that you fear? What is it that holds you back, that silences
your tongue and that weakens your knees to the point that you cannot move? What is it that is blinding you to the world
around you and what is closing your ears from hearing those who mourn or are in
pain?
What
is holding you back in your life, what fear is gripping your heart and making
you think that you are not good enough or that you don’t have the skills
needed? May God grant you peace. Trust that God is with you, that God will
give you the strength that you need to speak and to walk and to do. Because that is what God does. God is in the business of hope. God is in the business of giving
strength.
In
God we are made free, free from Sin, free from despair, and free from
fear. We have no need to fear death,
because God has already destroyed death.
We have no need to despair, for God is with us in all of our sorrows and
we are promised final victory and reconnection with all those that we have
lost. This one may be the hardest right
now, as we have lost three of our beloved members recently. But know that they are not left alone either,
for god is still caring for them even past death and God cares for us who mourn
as well. And we have no need to fear, for God is by our side and caring for us
each and every day. We are never
alone. Instead we have God and we have
this community of faith, which supports one another in our times of weakness,
and despair, and fear. We have one
another to example God’s love and support, to give us the strength and the
courage to do things that we may not believe we have the power to do.
And
if you think that you are too small for God to work with, then let that notion
be completely tossed away. God
especially cares for those who are the lowest and God is more than willing to
work in the mud and the dirtiness of this world in order to bring healing and
restoration to all people. After all, in
our Gospel reading today Jesus plays in the dirt in order to give voice to the
voiceless and hearing to the deaf. There
is nothing and no one under God, for God lowers Himself in order to be with us
at all times. We do not have a far off
God who just watches us, or worse ignores us, but instead we have a God who is
in the dirt of our lives, in every one of our moments, in order that we may be
loved and empowered and free from the burdens of sin and fear.
The
great philosopher and general Sun Tzu once wrote “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear
the results of a hundred battles.” Well,
we know our enemy. Our enemy is fear and
oppression and Sin. And we know
ourselves. We know that we are the
children of God, beloved of our Creator.
And we even know the results, because we know that God will always
ultimately win. So we need not fear the
result of the battle nor the battle itself.
For we have already won, all we need do is act in the light of God’s
grace and to know in our hearts that God will defeat all that which tears down
and all that spews hatred and all that fills our hearts with fear.
As
I’m in a quote happy mood today, here is another one. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, once said “It
is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to
live.” In our lives we are free, free
from living our lives out of fear. We
are free from worrying about where food and drink and money will come
from. God will provide, and we need to
have trust in that. Because if we start
to focus on just finances, on just property, then we shall die in multiple
ways. We will die spiritually, because
we will lose our focus on God and we will die numbers wise, because we will
cease to be truly church and that is easily seen.
So
be not afraid, God provides and God cares.
And know that God empowers you and fills you with His Spirit. You are
given ears to hear God’s word, and a tongue to speak it, and nothing will stop
God from working through you, except for yourself. Over the next few weeks in the parlor adult
Sunday school class, we will be discussing the Spirit and the gifts that we are
given through the Spirit and how we may use them. Please come join us if you are
interested.
God
empowers us, God gives us the one thing that we can’t account for on our own,
the one thing that defies logic, and that is Hope. Hope, that in the end all things will be as
they should be, where there will be no more weeping, except for tears of joy,
and their will be no more pain and no more suffering, and the downtrodden will
be lifted up and the ill will be healed.
And the hope that we are more than we could ever believe, and that hope
can be lived out each day, because we truly are the children of God. And God has given us a great many thing and
works miracles in our lives every day.
So be not afraid, but instead live in the abundance that God has given
us, in the light of his mercy and love, and with the hope of things that are to
come.
Amen
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