No More Fear This New Year!

“Gen 15:1”

Sermon for Sunday December 28, 2008

 

1.     Good Morning.  Let’s pray.  O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.   Amen

2.     Well it’s December 28th – Christmas Day has passed and many of us are beginning to come to terms with a new year and all that this New Year promises and forebodes. 

 

Some of us will go to college and some will graduate from college.  Some perhaps will get married.  We will see babies born and some of us may go home to be with the Lord.  Some of us may get jobs while others of us may lose jobs.  Some of us may be promoted while others demoted.  Some of us will blossom in relationships while some of us may struggle in relationships.  Some of us will grow into greater Christian maturity while some of us may stay in our comfortable “this is who I am and that’s it” stage. 

 

This church body will gain some new members and lose some beloved older members

 

This is life in a real Christian community!

 

So as we face this new year what single message would our Lord say to us to encourage us?  This is the question that I pondered this week as I prepared for this Homily and I found the answer in the fist verse of the Old Testament Scripture reading for today.

 

It goes like this: 

 

Gen. 15:1  After all these things, this word of GOD came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

Now let me read the rest of the reading to keep it in context:

Gen. 15:2  Abram said, “GOD, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?”  3 Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.” 4  Then GOD’S Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”  5  Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!” 6  And he believed! Believed GOD! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”  1  GOD visited Sarah exactly as he said he would; GOD did to Sarah what he promised:  2 Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a son in his old age, and at the very time God had set.  3 Abraham named him Isaac.

Now hold all of that in your mind and ask yourself this question – How much does “fear” play a role in the way I live my life? 

Clearly Abram was fearful that he would have no heirs and that his servant Eliezer would inherit it all!

Quite frankly Abram had very good reasons to believe this.  He was old – very old and so too was Sarah.  Empirical reasoning – the reasoning that is paramount in this world – made it clear that Abram and Sarai were going to die without an heir.

BUT God had others plans!

I think that most of us in our more vulnerable and transparent moments and perhaps introspective moments might answer – “Fear plays a huge role in our lives – Like Abram we see what is and what it tells us are sad truths that belie any sense of something miraculous happening!” 

In fact many of us live in denial of the miraculous.  We’ve become believers in what is.  We have lost hope in the miraculous.

Now it needs also to be acknowledged that perhaps a few of us might answer that fear has played a very small role in their lives.   To you who have that last response I would like to say “stay tuned” you might be able to relate to this question more than your think?

Yes, the emotion of “fear” plays far too much of a role in most of our lives doesn’t it?  Think about it – fear of loss – fear of losing our partner, fear of losing our beloved, fear of losing our sanity, fear of losing our income, our security, our stock portfolio.

Fear of failing at our marriage.  Fear of giving in again and again to our compulsions . . . our addictions . . . our hidden terrors.

Fear of failing at life!  Fear of failing someone we love!  Fear of failing at love!  And for those of us who are nearing the end of life – fear of having lived a largely useless and unredemptive life!

Hmmmmm – we can’t get away from it can we – fear really does haunt most of us.  It’s the hidden spectra in almost everything we do – don’t you think?

Think about it you teenagers – most of us in those years are driven by the fear of being unacceptable and this can drive us to promiscuity – giving our bodies to someone else to feel loved and accepted.

Oh fear drives many of to do things and to say things that should never be done or said.

Fear is a merciless tyrant and it’s the very thing that our precious Lord came to rescue us from!

Think about that just for a moment.  Do you think “fear” – terror, that sense of absolute dread, can be found in the Kingdom of God?

I can hear a few of you answering – yes, “fear of God!”  Ah!  And you’re right but that soul-affirming fear is very very very very different from the soul-destroying fear that is authored by Satan himself and that plagues most of us this side of glory!

So this morning as we stand on the brink of a new year our gracious and glorious God wants to say to us:

“Don’t be afraid, JD, Angie, Kevin, Esther, Joan, Naomi, Jimbo, Fred – “Don’t be afraid Robert, Randi, Beth, Suzanne, Don’t be afraid. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

Now we can respond as most of the world does with cynicism, skepticism, anger, frustration, disdain, condescension and alienation.  We can stay home in our urban caves and avoid ever believing in what seems impossible – the dreams of the stupid and uneducated masses!

Ah but we in our intellectually honest suburban retreats know so much better.  We choose to believe in what is and in so doing to reject infantile fantasies!

And so most of the world huddles in the hovels of their unimaginative lives.  The live – they die – and they leave noting but their detritus born not of hope but of hopelessness.

This is not the life that Jesus who came that first Christmas day – came to save us for.  NO!  It’s the very life that He came to save us FROM!

He together with His Father says to us: “Don’t be afraid, Kevin, Scott, Emily, Naomi, Josh, Keith, Joanne, Pat, Aaron – “Don’t be afraid Denise, Salim, Seth, Sarah,  Don’t be afraid. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

And Jesus says to us this morning:

Matt. 10:28  Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

4.  Don’t be afraid!  This – I’m convinced – is what our Lord wants to instill in us this morning!  He wants us to be fearless followers of His – the one who took the sting out of fear and replaced it with the majestic reality of love!

Remember - 1John 4:18

There’s no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 

Now let me read that passage in the Message: 1John 4:18

There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

And I have recently reflected on this fundamental disassociation of fear and love but today Simeon in the Gospel reading teaches us about another fear-reducing virtue – can anyone tell me what it is?

Let me read the Gospel less once again:

Luke 2:25  In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him.  26 The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died.  27 Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law,  28 Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God: 29  God, you can now release your servant;  release me in peace as you promised. 30 With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; 31 it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: 32 A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel. 33  Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words.  34 Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,

     This child marks both the failure and

              the recovery of many in Israel,

     A figure misunderstood and contradicted—

 

35 the pain of a sword-thrust through you— But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are.

 

Ah!  Simeon – he was a man who “prosdeco/menoß para¿klhsin touv ∆Israh/l,” -  he was a man looking with faith and enthusiastic expectancy for the coming of the sublime consolation or encouragement of Israel!

 

Simeon was a patient man trusting that God would be true to His promise of sending a Savior – and so Simeon was the first Jewish man outside of the Royal Family to know about and to anticipate and eventually to discover Jesus Himself!

 

So too was the prophetess Anna!

 

The virtue that stands against the intimidating witness of “what is” is “patient expectancy” that God is God and will bring His redemption into your life – into your terrifying situation!

 

So today God says to all of us – “Don’t be afraid, learn from my dear friend Simeon and Anna – patience – fervent expectation – I will NOT let you down!  Test me – prove me – Let me show myself to be faithful to my promises!”

 

Be patient – my redemption is coming!  O It’s coming alright!  And when it comes you will be filled with such overwhelming joy!  I can see that day!

 

Can you!

 

Trust me – don’t fear – I’ve overcome the world and so too have you in me.  Rest in me – trust in me.  I will carry you!  Come to me – rest in me!   Let me be your constant companion and consolation – your reward as you walk into this coming year!  Don’t do it alone – let me come with you and I will fight off any fear in you.  Trust me! 

 

Let’s pray. . .