Sermon
What's the first think you think of when someone says, “Don't be scared.” Or “Don't worry?”
Why? What's going to happen? What are you going to do? What are you about to tell me?
If I feel scared or anxious and I tell someone, it makes sense that they would then be reassuring after that and say “Don't be scared,” or “Don't worry.” But for someone to tell me not to be afraid or worried before anything has come up, that's not very reassuring but rather brings on the fear I wasn't yet experiencing! What started out as reassurance morphs quickly into escalating the very fear that the phrase is trying to eliminate. In other words, not helpful.
Which is why I am immediately on edge and suspicious when scripture begins with, “Be not afraid.”
It's all about timing.
I have been a person all of my life who gets really bad sunburns. The Swedish/Irish combination makes for some very pale skin. I remember being so badly sunburned that I was about to faint. Having had something like this kind of heat stroke in the past, I tried to warn the friend I was with that I was about to fall over. I wasn't worried but I knew it would alarm her, so typical me trying to take care of the other at my own expense, I said, “Don't be afraid, but I'm going to….” And I fell onto the sofa we were near. I don't think my reassurance came in time to erase any fear, but probably brought her even more fear than I was hoping to eliminate.
Timing. I'm sure that in the millisecond after I said “Don't be afraid,” it crossed her mind that she wasn't afraid of anything until I said that. By the time anything registered I had already gone silent and she was even more in the dark.
I'm told by an unreliable source (answers.com) that the gospel of Luke mentions the phrase Do not be afraid, or Do not worry, 69 times. I looked it up because the commentary that I do trust mentioned that it is a heavily used phrase in this particular gospel. So no, I don't know the number, but it is clear that for Luke whose gospel focuses on relationships more than any other gospel, reassurances go hand in hand with warnings. In the very first chapter of Luke, only 13 verses in, God's angel says “Do not be afraid” to Zechariah and foretells the birth of John the Baptist. And then again, less than 20 verses later, the angel Gabriele says “Do not be afraid” to Mary as she is told that she will bear a son, and not just any son. Zechariah didn't believe the angel and was made mute until after the child was born. Mary said to the angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then she sang her great prayer, telling of all of the injustices and ways of the world would be turned upside down because of her coming child.
You may remember that we are currently reading from the portion of Luke where Jesus and his disciples are making their way through the land. Jesus and his disciples share many events and at each one Jesus uses the relationships in question to describe how to be a good disciple. A few weeks ago we read about Mary and Martha. There Jesus used the example of hospitality as a way of understanding a few ways to be disciples. Last week we read about the parable Jesus told the crowd when a man interrupted him to ask that Jesus arbitrate between two brothers about their inheritance. Jesus used a parable about greed to explain what kind of risks are involved when we only consider our own benefits and well being when making decisions. Considering the concept of generosity, we asked ourselves what it means to be rich toward God.
Throughout all of these tales within Luke 11 and 12, Jesus describes warnings and woes while at the same time, reminding the listeners that God wants to be with us and wants us to be well. But God does not want us to abide by the status quo. All the woes and warnings Jesus mentions take into account our human conditions of fear and anxiety. Humans have weaknesses that lead us from fear and anxiety into our need to have more, not knowing the concept of enough. Our fears lead us into isolation away from relationships; into defensiveness and away from conversations; into the need to be right and away from growth, the need to see ourselves as good.1
In the verses before the portion we read today, Jesus had been again reminding the listeners not to strive for this or that – for money, for food, for status, etc. Verses 29-31 say “And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. “Instead strive for the kingdom.”
It is this kingdom that Jesus is referring to in the next line, “Do not be afraid, little flock, “for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
God's generosity is not something God gives begrudgingly, to a select few who have done the right thing, gotten the A on the life project, who have kept away and kept their lamps lit – God's generosity is exactly God's good pleasure.2 God's desire is to bring about the upside down way of the world that Mary sang about in the Magnificat. God's desire is to be the master who puts on an apron and “he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”
This is not the God who is the bad parent, the angry selfish master, the overlord who will punish at any discretion. This is God who wants us to do well, to flourish, wants to celebrate with us. Rather than stay awake so that we don't get punished, we are to stay awake or we'll miss the blessing.
When my friend Laura and I first drove from Chicago to San Francisco, we used paper maps – back when people used Thomas Guides! And we stayed in Motel 6 each night while we were traveling. Motel 6 is less than stellar to say the least, so we knew not to expect anything except a bed in a room. But the Motel 6 we stayed in in Bakersfield, CA had us so frightened that we propped a chair under the door handle, and stayed awake all night staring at the car, sure that a car with Illinois plates, stuffed to the brim with belongings, was sure to get trashed overnight. We were staying alert, dressed for action, keeping our lamp lit, for fear of something bad.
That kind of vigilance is exhausting. We were tired in body and in spirit. There are people who have to live their lives in a constant state of vigilance out of fear for their own safety and wellbeing. Some who are without homes, some who are in dangerous households, some who are in dangerous relationships and some who live inside their injured or ill minds.
It is a matter of privilege to be able to live a life without continual fearful vigilance. We may not live within systems that work against us, or feel hungry on a regular basis, or need to find shelter. It may be that our vigilance lessens as life struggles “lessen their grip on us.”3
What is gripping you these days? What has such a grip on you that you cannot freely trust God? I think every single one of us are gripped by worries and anxieties that stop us in our tracks. For some of us this happens every single day, and lasts a long time. For some of us, while we have many things that say, act like that gnat that won't get away from your face during a picnic, we are quickly able to find a perspective or support that helps us live our lives relatively smoothly. We are able to avoid one extreme of constant exhaustive 24/7 vigilance, and the other extreme of being asleep at the wheel, and find ourselves in the Baby Bear state where we, as writer Gene Lowry says “position ourselves to be surprised.”
Surprised by the master coming home early and preparing a banquet for the slaves, by the boss giving us a day off because we've been working hard, by the coach who stays after practice to help with homework because they want you to succeed, by the spouse who takes care of the kids and morning routine so you can sleep a bit. We can be surprised by God whose greatest desire is to gift us with life in God's presence.
Amen.
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1 Our drug of choice right now is knowing who we're better than
2 “The passage begins with a delightful statement found only in Luke: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). While some congregations will appreciate a preacher who can apply nuance to the verse's paternal God-language and the reasons why speaking of a “kingdom” sounds a little antiquated, no one should miss a larger point: these words speak an unqualified promise about God. They root God's generosity in God's desire. Jesus has just spoken (in 12:22-31) about trusting God while also seeking (or striving for) the “kingdom”; now he reminds everyone that the point isn't to coax a grumpy or frugal deity into being nice to us. Rather, God eagerly wants the “kingdom” — a whole new set of affairs reflecting God's intentions for human flourishing — to take root in the real, lived experiences of Jesus's followers. Why? Because that's God's good pleasure. This good news and reassurance set a context of confidence…”
3 From last week's sermon, I quoted Patricia Lull. “Patricia Lull, a commentator I read, wrote that “The capacity to trust in God can deepen only as other matters lessen their grip in our lives.” (Patricia Lull, Feasting on the Word commentary series)