It Is Evening...
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
When the first storm of the 2006 hurricane season posed a threat to Florida last week, many media stories echoed an underlying sense of dread about some of the possible consequences should the storm hit with full force. It turned out that the effects of Alberto were not as severe as initially anticipated; nevertheless, lingering memories of hurricanes Katrina and Rita led many to fear the worst. The lectionary's assigned gospel text for June 25 -- Mark 4:35-41, the story of Jesus calming the great storm -- certainly speaks to the fear we have of our great storms. But in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Thom Shuman focuses in on Jesus' questions to his disciples -- "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" -- to address the larger concern of whether our modern world's "culture of fear" (as a popular book title puts it) is an impediment to our faith. Team member Steve McCutchan contributes an additional perspective, examining this week's Old Testament passage -- the familiar story of David and Goliath -- and finding it to be an instructive lesson in the power of faith to combat our fears in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. This week's material also includes illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
It Is Evening...
by Thom M. Shuman
THE WORLD
It is evening... and we come home from another wearying day at work, at play, at retirement. It is evening and our defenses are down. We turn on the television for some escapism, but we cannot escape the breaking news bulletin about the latest shooting in our streets; we cannot get away from the latest "talking head" reminding us that the birds which will awaken us in the morning might just be the carriers of a pandemic; we cannot avoid the stories about the AIDS epidemic which is destroying generations in Africa, the warfare in Iraq which is breeding new generations of terrorists, the weather reports about the tropical storm brewing out in the Atlantic.
It is evening... when the storms of life continue to thunder in our hearts and rattle the windows of our souls. Our mother -- who told us stories, baked us cookies, met us as we got off the bus -- is slipping further and further into that land called Alzheimer's. Our son -- who aced all the classes, who blew the doors off the SATs, who was the best and the brightest of the neighborhood -- has self-committed himself to a rehab center. The doctor -- who assured us that the lump in our arm probably was "nothing serious" -- has left a message on the machine to call him in the morning, first thing!
It is evening... and we open up a letter from our church, reminding us that our denomination is holding its annual meeting, and there will be difficult decisions being made. As we wonder who might be chosen to lead us, whether or not "that issue" will be resolved, if the group that is threatening to walk away from it all will really get up and do so, we reach for the antacid (or something stronger) to try to relieve the anxiety churning in our stomachs.
It is evening... and the terrors which we thought had disappeared in the morning's light are sitting on the front steps waiting for us, to once more keep us from sleeping with their bedtime stories of nuclear weapons being developed in North Korea and Iran, with tales about the board of directors which has plundered our company's pension fund, with the latest gossip about the politicians who could care less about our health care costs going out of sight.
It is evening... and what will we people of faith do when fears prowl in the shadows, ready to leap out at us at any moment? How do we keep our trust in the One who offers us the Bread of Life, in a time when so many feast on fear?
THE WORD
It is evening, Mark's Gospel tells us, and we are told a story about fears. After a day of teaching (and learning, one hopes!), the disciples get into a boat to go "across to the other side." Along the way, they encounter a storm so powerful that even the disciples who have spent a lifetime on the waters of Galilee are terrified! And the carpenter's son? He's fast asleep in the back of the boat.
It's a marvelous story about what happened to the disciples when their fears threatened to overwhelm their faith. It's a great story for preachers and congregants to ponder in a time when our faith, so comfortable and easy on Sunday morning, intersects with the fears with which we live each and every day of the week.
But one of the things preachers must avoid with this text is the temptation to trot out some platitudes about "just" trusting and everything will be all right, because this story tells us that the disciples are absolutely scared to death about what is happening to them -- and that is the situation many of our folks (and many of us preachers) find ourselves in these days.
Rather, we must struggle with the challenge this story gives to us as to whether we have the faith needed to trust in God, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He has just spoken to the disciples about seeds, about faith and hope and trust being planted deep within people by the Creator. Yet, in the very next moment, the disciples make very clear their belief that somehow God managed to skip them on the day these seeds were sown.
CRAFTING THE MESSAGE
I am tempted to begin my sermon by talking about my fears. I had the normal childhood fears of the dark and about what was hiding under my bed while I slept -- to which the children in the church can relate. I remember the sweaty palms and the cracking voice the first time I called a girl for a date -- and see the same fearful looks on the kids in the youth group as they interact with one another. And I fear the effects of aging, like so many in my congregation.
But I think this passage gives an opportunity to talk about deeper, more profound, more unsettling fears.
I grew up in a fearful time. The books, the movies, the television shows, the newspapers, the magazines were filled with stories about what would happen when the nuclear holocaust took place, when the two superpowers could not keep their fingers off the button and launched their rockets loaded with death. I remember neighbors building fallout shelters; I remember the decals on different buildings (even churches) indicating a supply of food, water, and medicine to be used in case of attack. I remember the drills when we hid under our school desks and covered our eyes, practicing how we would react. I remember the dog tags that some communities gave to children so that their bodies could be identified after the bombs were dropped.
And I see that same fearful time emerging in our world, our nation, and our churches today. We are afraid of terrorists, we are afraid of illegal immigrants, we are afraid of people who are moving into our neighborhoods, we are afraid of the people who are dropping into our churches (even though they may have the same religious background as we do). We just seem so fearful these days.
How do we deal with our fears? We can joke about them; we can hide them deep in the recesses of our minds, hoping they cannot find their way back to our consciousness; we can get therapy so we can "conquer" them. And, as people of faith, we can recognize that every fear, whether it is of the "creature" hiding in the closet or the thought that the last thing one might see is a mushroom cloud, causes us to ask the same question that the disciples put to Jesus.
"Do you not care that we are perishing?" People look at their lives and see unfulfilled dreams, broken promises, failed expectations; does God not care about them? A wife sits next to the man who spoke vows to her that were supposed to last forever, and he turned unfaithful before their fifth anniversary; does God not care that she is adrift in a loveless marriage? A young person shares questions about his sexual orientation with a close friend, who turns out to be a mean gossip; does God not care about the waves of derision that wash over him each day? Lives filled with pain, with unspoken grief, with anger that is ready to burst forth; does God not care that we are perishing?
Of course, Jesus reminds us, God cares!
That's why Jesus has been sent -- not only to speak to us, to teach us, to ask us to believe and trust in God. More importantly, Mark wants us to know, Jesus models this unshakeable trust in the One who is actively present in his life, and in our lives, as well. That is why Jesus can confidently "go across" the waters, taking his ministry and message into pagan territory. That is why Jesus can see those seeds that God has planted in the disciples, and us, struggling to take root in such unreceptive soil. This is why Jesus can sleep, peacefully and soundly, in the back of the boat while the storm rages.
And this is why Jesus asks (one can almost hear the wonder in his voice), "Why are you afraid?"
Why, indeed?
Is it because fear holds a larger place in our lives than faith? Is it because we still are unable to believe the promises God makes to us in scripture? Is it because, no matter how many times we read the gospels or hear the stories, we still do not understand, and our lack of understanding causes our fear that God does not care? Is it because we fear more for our lives than we trust the life God wants to give to us?
I don't know. But it seems to me that Jesus is asking us the same thing he asked the disciples.
Why are you afraid? Why are you still so unwilling to trust? Why do you insist on shutting your ears to the angel whispering into your ear, "Fear not"? Why are you so determined not to let that little seed of faith grow and blossom in your life?
We may not be in a boat tossed by a storm on a sea, but we are threatened by the fears of our lives, as deeply and profoundly as those folks in this story by Mark.
A few weeks ago, I watched the TV program Inside the Actors Studio. The host was interviewing Tim Allen, comedian and star of the show Home Improvement. Allen, who is a recovering addict, talked about his life, his struggles, and his beliefs. At one point, he was asked what he thought God would say to him when he got to heaven. Allen paused for a moment, and then said, "I told you there was nothing to be afraid of."
Nothing indeed.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Stephen McCutchan
Combating Fear with Faith
In this week's Old Testament passage, the fear that is being confronted is of human origin and not the fear of a storm caused by the power of nature (as in the gospel text). The setting is different, but the challenge to our mind-set is the same. Whether it is a fierce storm, the uncontrollable actions of terrorists, mounting financial debt, or the diagnosis of a horrible illness, the feeling of being unable to defend oneself leads to a paralyzing sense of fear. The setting in this story is that of an overwhelming military machine, in the form of Goliath, and the most threatening of weapons, in the form of a giant sword and spear and javelin. How can anyone confront such a military threat unless they have similar weapons of terror? The response of the Israelite army to the threat posed by Goliath is one of paralyzing fear: "When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid" (1 Samuel 17:11). Further on, in a passage not cited by the lectionary, the reaction to Goliath is again described: "All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid" (17:24).
None of us likes the feeling of fear, but it is compounded when others see us being afraid. David comes to visit the army of Israel in which his older brothers are participating. He hears the threats shouted out by Goliath and the reaction of fear by the Israelites. With the bravado of those who don't fully appreciate the dangers that are before them, David begins to question this atmosphere of fear: "What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (17:26). His brothers hear his comments and become very angry with him.
Others report his words to King Saul. Desperate for some solution to his military plight, Saul sends for David. Upon seeing that he is just a young boy, Saul also concludes that David offers no solution: "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth." But David challenges this conclusion: "Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God." Fear can make us desperate, and since Saul sees no other alternative he decides to take David up on his offer to fight Goliath.
"Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul's sword over the armor..." Presumably the king had the best armor and weapons of anyone. If you are going against the threat of the enemy, you go with the best. Yet sometimes we are weighed down by such conventional thinking; what caused us to be fearful in the first place was our analysis of the situation that concluded that the threat was overwhelming. To get beyond our fear requires us to have a fresh perspective on the problem before us.
"Then David said to Saul, 'I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.' " It was not that David chose to go against Goliath unarmed, but that he chose the weapons that God had provided him: "Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd's bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand..." We live in a world in which we have believed that the one who had the most fearsome weapon would prevail against the enemy. Recently we have moved from the rattling of nuclear sabers, which cost an enormous amount to develop and deploy, to the threat of terrorists who are able to transform our technology and science against us at far less expense.
The challenge for believers against any threat is to determine what the five stones are that we have been given against such a threat. The traditional "stones" of the church have been worship, education, fellowship, service, and evangelism. They seem so ineffective against the threat of terrorism. Despite the fact that we possess immense military and economic resources, it is as if the mysterious ranks of terrorism have become the modern-day Goliath: "All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid."
David's rebuttal to Goliath was that he would defeat Goliath so "that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand." Christians are challenged to consider again how that which God has provided us might be used to overcome the evil of the world. When you are mired down in fear, it may seem like foolish bravado to declare that God has provided all that is necessary to combat the threat before us. Yet sometimes the greatest antidote to our fears is the memory of how God has helped us in previously threatening situations: "The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paws of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine." Perhaps the five stones that God has provided us -- worship and prayer, study of the faith, support of the faithful community, service to those more needy than ourselves, and sharing the good news of God -- are exactly the weapons that we need to combat the atmosphere of fear in which we live.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Often we imagine that the rich and the powerful have nothing to fear. The truth is, though, that some of the most prominent figures have lived lives tormented by unceasing fear.
Stalin, absolute dictator of the Soviet Union, was one of the most powerful men on earth: yet he was afraid to go to bed at night. Stalin had seven different bedrooms. In order to foil any would-be assassins, he slept in a different one each night. Stalin also had five chauffeur-driven limousines. Every time he went out, all five cars left the garage, each one with curtains drawn, so no one on the streets would know which one contained the mighty Stalin.
If possessions could conquer fear, then the late billionaire Howard Hughes would have been fearless. But his story -- documented by the recent film The Aviator -- is well-known. Hughes lived his last days as a pathetic hermit, closed up in his penthouse suite. He had all the money anyone could dream of, but he was so afraid of germs that he breathed through pieces of kleenex and refused to cut his beard or his nails.
If fame could cast out fear, then the rock musician John Lennon should have been utterly fearless. Yet the more fame accrued to this former Beatle, the more of a recluse he became. Lennon's biographers report that in the months before his tragic assassination, he refused to sleep with the lights off and was afraid to touch anything because of possible germs.
The scriptures tell us the only thing that can vanquish fear is divine love: "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).
***
It's instructive to observe how, over time, the object of some of our fears changes. For instance, there's a certain substance that a half-century or so ago was illegal in many states. If you manufactured this stuff, or sold it, or even possessed it, you could be subject to fines or imprisonment, or both. The governor of Minnesota pontificated that this substance had been created by "the ingenuity of depraved human genius." The federal government levied a so-called "sin tax" on the stuff. It was not until 1950 -- after state legislation and congressional hearings -- that every American citizen was finally free to purchase this product without either breaking the law or paying a special tax.
What was it? Don't think for a moment it was some insidious alcoholic beverage or dangerous drug. As it happens, this notorious product, this object of such extravagant fears, was... (get ready now)... margarine.
Yes, margarine -- that quasi-buttery stuff that lives in most of our refrigerators. It wasn't that margarine posed any health risk -- not that anybody was aware of in 1950, anyway (it's a bit different today). The ban on margarine had been orchestrated by the National Dairy Union and its lobbyists. What those dairy farmers, and those good citizens in dairy-farming states, most feared was that if margarine ever replaced butter, they could be ruined financially.
***
A certain sergeant in a parachute regiment was accompanying some trainees on a nighttime jump. He found himself seated next to a young lieutenant fresh out of jump school.
The lieutenant looked a bit pale, and sat staring off into space. The sergeant leaned over and touched his arm. "Scared, Lieutenant?"
"No," said the young officer, "just a bit apprehensive."
"What's the difference?"
The lieutenant turned to him and answered, "The difference is, I'm scared with a university education."
Fear, in this life, is a given. There's no getting away from it. The question is, what do we do with it? The right decision -- naming our fear, and living with it -- is called courage.
***
Somewhere in one of his books, the great Jewish man of letters Elie Wiesel relates a story of one Israel of Rishim, a Hasidic master. In the tales of this learned rabbi, one motif recurs over and over: that of a traveler lost in a thick wood during a storm. It is dark and the traveler is afraid. Danger seems to lurk behind every tree. Suddenly, lightning shatters the silence. The fool, says the rabbi, looks at the lightning. But the wise man looks at the road suddenly illuminated before him.
That's how you journey on foot through the woods in a thunderstorm. And this is how the most courageous human beings journey through life as well. In the storms of life -- which will come, make no mistake -- do we look for the lightning, or do we use the lightning to reveal the road ahead?
***
The Israelites have journeyed long, and suffered much, and have arrived at the very border of the promised land. At the Lord's command, Moses sends out spies to do some reconnaissance in the Land of Milk and Honey.
The spies return with wondrous descriptions of this fertile land, but they also return with something else: news of just who it is who inhabits this land: "There we saw the Nephilim... and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them" (Numbers 13:33).
The Nephilim are well-known to the Israelites. They are the stuff of many a campfire legend. Ages ago, as the great creation story tells it, there were giants who walked the earth. These "Nephilim" were the offspring of "the sons of God" themselves, who "went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them." (That's what it says in Genesis 6.)
These are mysterious, almost mythical figures. Genesis calls them "the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown." They lived before the great flood of Noah, and also afterwards.
When the people hear this disheartening news, a loud cry of despair rises up to the heavens. That night, the chronicles tell us, is lost in weeping. The next day, the people are back to their old tricks. "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!" they cry out. "Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?"
What follows is much complaining and naysaying -- and even rumors of mutiny. Displeased with all this foot-dragging, God finally sends a plague to strike down the ten unfaithful spies -- and a Canaanite army to defeat the Israelites and drive them back into the desert. It will be nearly a generation before the Hebrews have the wherewithal to mount such an assault again.
Giants in the land. Did the Nephilim really still walk the earth? Or did their thundering footsteps echo only in the people's imagination? We'll never know. But one thing we do know: the Israelites lost their nerve. They came to see themselves as little more than grasshoppers; and God punished them for the smallness of their vision, the frailty of their courage.
***
Novelist and essayist Barbara Kingsolver describes how, on the day after the shootings at Columbine High School, she was in her daughter's school, leading a writing workshop for teachers. Her family doesn't own a television, by choice. She had heard about the shootings on the radio, and read about them in the newspaper. Barbara discovered the teachers -- who had spent much of the previous evening obsessively watching video news footage of the massacre -- were beside themselves with fear.
"I didn't share the visceral sense of doom," she reflects, "that surely came from seeing a live-camera feed of bloody children just like ours racing from a school so very much like this one. I remarked that while the TV coverage might make us feel endangered, the real probability of our own kids getting shot at school today had been lower than the odds of their being bitten by a rattlesnake while waiting for the bus. And more to the point, the chance of such horrors happening here was hardly greater than it had been two days before, when we weren't remotely worried about it.... It was such a small thing to offer -- merely another angle on the truth -- but I was amazed to see that it helped, as these thoughtful teachers breathed deeply, looked around at the quiet campus, and reclaimed the relative kindness of their lives. Anyone inclined toward chemical sedatives might first consider, seriously, turning off the TV." ("The One-Eyed Monster, and Why I Don't Let Him In," in Small Wonder: Essays [HarperCollins, 2002], pp. 139-141)
Fear can become habit-forming: especially when we ingest daily doses of it from the media.
***
A new book from acclaimed historian Joanna Bourke, titled Fear: A Cultural History (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2006), is now available online and in the hardback nonfiction section of many bookstores. Its contents seem tailor-made for this week's Immediate Word topic. The book is a history of things that have caused particular populations and societies to be afraid, and discusses items such as the bubonic plague and nuclear bombs which have elicited great fear from people over the centuries.
***
Here are some examples of fears many of us didn't know existed as categories:
Blennophobia -- fear of slime
Pteronophobia -- fear of being tickled by feathers
Papaphobia -- fear of the Pope
Soceraphobia -- fear of parents-in-law
Bolshephobia -- fear of Bolshevism
Cherophobia -- fear of gaity
Metrophobia -- fear of poetry
Phobophobia -- fear of fear itself
-- Matt Groening, Bart Simpson's Guide to Life (Harper Paperbacks, 1996)
This list of phobias demonstrates how the things humans fear changes over time and according to context. An eighth grader may be terrified of being asked by his English teacher to explain the meter of a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, while Senator Joe McCarthy might be said to have experienced bolshephoria. One of the most famous quotes about phobophobia comes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inaugural address: "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
Looking at the date of the speech (1933), and reading a bit further into Roosevelt's address, it becomes clear that he was referring to the economic conditions of the time -- in other words, The Great Depression. Roosevelt was essentially saying: "If we can't shake our pessimistic economic outlook, it will be tough to turn things around." President Roosevelt was calling for a little irrational exuberance...
***
A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me -- I'm afraid of widths.
* comic Steven Wright, as quoted in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations (Penguin Books, 2001)
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: Who is this God we have come to worship?
People: God is the Creator of wind and water, the Pacifier of storms and fears.
Leader: Who is this Jesus we seek to follow?
People: Jesus is the Peace that fills our souls, the Companion of our hearts.
Leader: Who is this Spirit who dwells within us?
People: The Spirit fills us with grace, so our hopes will not perish.
Prayer Of The Day
You lay the foundations of the universe,
building a shelter for our battered souls;
you create wonders which are priceless,
yet do not forget the needy.
We open our hearts to you, God of Graciousness.
When evening comes and our fears prowl the shadows,
you whisper "Peace! Be Still!" to our hammering hearts,
so we may know you are with us in every moment.
We open our hearts to you, our dearest Friend.
When our lives are swamped by doubts and fears,
you calm us;
when we struggle with the clamoring chaos of our world,
you calm us.
We open our hearts to you, Spirit of Gentleness.
God in Community, Holy in One,
we open our hearts to you,
even as we pray as Jesus teaches us,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
Trapped by the storms of life, it is easy to let fear take over and pull us away from our source of hope and help. In such moments, we are tempted to believe that God does not care. Let us confess our doubts and fears, as we discover that the One in whom we place our trust is waiting to fill us with forgiveness and faith.
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
We see the goliaths of fear and doubt confronting us, Listening God,
and believe that our slingshots are empty of faith and hope.
We are alarmed at the evil we find in our world and lives,
thinking all good has crumbled beneath our feet.
We question your compassion for us,
suspicious that you are asleep in those moments of our greatest need.
Forgive us, Faithful God.
We open our hearts to you,
so you might heal us.
We open our ears to your voice,
so we might hear words of peace.
We open our spirits to you,
so we might be filled with the trust and hope offered to us through Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: God has listened -- to our words as well as our silence.
God accepts us as we are,
with doubts which threaten us and trust which seems to elude us.
This is the day of salvation,
the time when brokenness is made whole,
when fears are replaced with faith,
when the breath of the Spirit calms our souls.
People: God hears our cries, and will not let our hopes disappear.
God loves us, God forgives us, God fills us with joy and peace.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
In God we trust
Object: any United States coin
Good morning! How many of you can read? (let them answer) I want one of you to read what it says on this coin. (show the coin and let them read the motto) Yes, it says, "In God we trust." That's a really good motto. It says that we will not be afraid of anything because we trust God. We believe that He will take care of us. Do you think that's a good motto for this country? (let them answer)
Once, Jesus and his disciples were out in a boat and Jesus was asleep. A storm came up and the disciples were afraid that the boat would sink. They woke Jesus up and asked him to save them. They were really afraid. What do you think Jesus did? (let them answer) He just said a few words to the storm and it stopped. And then he said to his disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" In other words, he was asking them why they didn't trust God to protect them from that storm. After all, he was in the boat with them. Did they really think that God would allow the boat to sink when Jesus was in it? (let them answer)
We do need to trust in God just like it says on the coin. He loves us and he will take care of us. Let's thank him for being a God we can trust.
Dear Father in heaven: We are so glad that you are a God that we can trust. You keep all your promises to us and we know that you always will. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 25, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
It Is Evening...
by Thom M. Shuman
THE WORLD
It is evening... and we come home from another wearying day at work, at play, at retirement. It is evening and our defenses are down. We turn on the television for some escapism, but we cannot escape the breaking news bulletin about the latest shooting in our streets; we cannot get away from the latest "talking head" reminding us that the birds which will awaken us in the morning might just be the carriers of a pandemic; we cannot avoid the stories about the AIDS epidemic which is destroying generations in Africa, the warfare in Iraq which is breeding new generations of terrorists, the weather reports about the tropical storm brewing out in the Atlantic.
It is evening... when the storms of life continue to thunder in our hearts and rattle the windows of our souls. Our mother -- who told us stories, baked us cookies, met us as we got off the bus -- is slipping further and further into that land called Alzheimer's. Our son -- who aced all the classes, who blew the doors off the SATs, who was the best and the brightest of the neighborhood -- has self-committed himself to a rehab center. The doctor -- who assured us that the lump in our arm probably was "nothing serious" -- has left a message on the machine to call him in the morning, first thing!
It is evening... and we open up a letter from our church, reminding us that our denomination is holding its annual meeting, and there will be difficult decisions being made. As we wonder who might be chosen to lead us, whether or not "that issue" will be resolved, if the group that is threatening to walk away from it all will really get up and do so, we reach for the antacid (or something stronger) to try to relieve the anxiety churning in our stomachs.
It is evening... and the terrors which we thought had disappeared in the morning's light are sitting on the front steps waiting for us, to once more keep us from sleeping with their bedtime stories of nuclear weapons being developed in North Korea and Iran, with tales about the board of directors which has plundered our company's pension fund, with the latest gossip about the politicians who could care less about our health care costs going out of sight.
It is evening... and what will we people of faith do when fears prowl in the shadows, ready to leap out at us at any moment? How do we keep our trust in the One who offers us the Bread of Life, in a time when so many feast on fear?
THE WORD
It is evening, Mark's Gospel tells us, and we are told a story about fears. After a day of teaching (and learning, one hopes!), the disciples get into a boat to go "across to the other side." Along the way, they encounter a storm so powerful that even the disciples who have spent a lifetime on the waters of Galilee are terrified! And the carpenter's son? He's fast asleep in the back of the boat.
It's a marvelous story about what happened to the disciples when their fears threatened to overwhelm their faith. It's a great story for preachers and congregants to ponder in a time when our faith, so comfortable and easy on Sunday morning, intersects with the fears with which we live each and every day of the week.
But one of the things preachers must avoid with this text is the temptation to trot out some platitudes about "just" trusting and everything will be all right, because this story tells us that the disciples are absolutely scared to death about what is happening to them -- and that is the situation many of our folks (and many of us preachers) find ourselves in these days.
Rather, we must struggle with the challenge this story gives to us as to whether we have the faith needed to trust in God, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He has just spoken to the disciples about seeds, about faith and hope and trust being planted deep within people by the Creator. Yet, in the very next moment, the disciples make very clear their belief that somehow God managed to skip them on the day these seeds were sown.
CRAFTING THE MESSAGE
I am tempted to begin my sermon by talking about my fears. I had the normal childhood fears of the dark and about what was hiding under my bed while I slept -- to which the children in the church can relate. I remember the sweaty palms and the cracking voice the first time I called a girl for a date -- and see the same fearful looks on the kids in the youth group as they interact with one another. And I fear the effects of aging, like so many in my congregation.
But I think this passage gives an opportunity to talk about deeper, more profound, more unsettling fears.
I grew up in a fearful time. The books, the movies, the television shows, the newspapers, the magazines were filled with stories about what would happen when the nuclear holocaust took place, when the two superpowers could not keep their fingers off the button and launched their rockets loaded with death. I remember neighbors building fallout shelters; I remember the decals on different buildings (even churches) indicating a supply of food, water, and medicine to be used in case of attack. I remember the drills when we hid under our school desks and covered our eyes, practicing how we would react. I remember the dog tags that some communities gave to children so that their bodies could be identified after the bombs were dropped.
And I see that same fearful time emerging in our world, our nation, and our churches today. We are afraid of terrorists, we are afraid of illegal immigrants, we are afraid of people who are moving into our neighborhoods, we are afraid of the people who are dropping into our churches (even though they may have the same religious background as we do). We just seem so fearful these days.
How do we deal with our fears? We can joke about them; we can hide them deep in the recesses of our minds, hoping they cannot find their way back to our consciousness; we can get therapy so we can "conquer" them. And, as people of faith, we can recognize that every fear, whether it is of the "creature" hiding in the closet or the thought that the last thing one might see is a mushroom cloud, causes us to ask the same question that the disciples put to Jesus.
"Do you not care that we are perishing?" People look at their lives and see unfulfilled dreams, broken promises, failed expectations; does God not care about them? A wife sits next to the man who spoke vows to her that were supposed to last forever, and he turned unfaithful before their fifth anniversary; does God not care that she is adrift in a loveless marriage? A young person shares questions about his sexual orientation with a close friend, who turns out to be a mean gossip; does God not care about the waves of derision that wash over him each day? Lives filled with pain, with unspoken grief, with anger that is ready to burst forth; does God not care that we are perishing?
Of course, Jesus reminds us, God cares!
That's why Jesus has been sent -- not only to speak to us, to teach us, to ask us to believe and trust in God. More importantly, Mark wants us to know, Jesus models this unshakeable trust in the One who is actively present in his life, and in our lives, as well. That is why Jesus can confidently "go across" the waters, taking his ministry and message into pagan territory. That is why Jesus can see those seeds that God has planted in the disciples, and us, struggling to take root in such unreceptive soil. This is why Jesus can sleep, peacefully and soundly, in the back of the boat while the storm rages.
And this is why Jesus asks (one can almost hear the wonder in his voice), "Why are you afraid?"
Why, indeed?
Is it because fear holds a larger place in our lives than faith? Is it because we still are unable to believe the promises God makes to us in scripture? Is it because, no matter how many times we read the gospels or hear the stories, we still do not understand, and our lack of understanding causes our fear that God does not care? Is it because we fear more for our lives than we trust the life God wants to give to us?
I don't know. But it seems to me that Jesus is asking us the same thing he asked the disciples.
Why are you afraid? Why are you still so unwilling to trust? Why do you insist on shutting your ears to the angel whispering into your ear, "Fear not"? Why are you so determined not to let that little seed of faith grow and blossom in your life?
We may not be in a boat tossed by a storm on a sea, but we are threatened by the fears of our lives, as deeply and profoundly as those folks in this story by Mark.
A few weeks ago, I watched the TV program Inside the Actors Studio. The host was interviewing Tim Allen, comedian and star of the show Home Improvement. Allen, who is a recovering addict, talked about his life, his struggles, and his beliefs. At one point, he was asked what he thought God would say to him when he got to heaven. Allen paused for a moment, and then said, "I told you there was nothing to be afraid of."
Nothing indeed.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Stephen McCutchan
Combating Fear with Faith
In this week's Old Testament passage, the fear that is being confronted is of human origin and not the fear of a storm caused by the power of nature (as in the gospel text). The setting is different, but the challenge to our mind-set is the same. Whether it is a fierce storm, the uncontrollable actions of terrorists, mounting financial debt, or the diagnosis of a horrible illness, the feeling of being unable to defend oneself leads to a paralyzing sense of fear. The setting in this story is that of an overwhelming military machine, in the form of Goliath, and the most threatening of weapons, in the form of a giant sword and spear and javelin. How can anyone confront such a military threat unless they have similar weapons of terror? The response of the Israelite army to the threat posed by Goliath is one of paralyzing fear: "When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid" (1 Samuel 17:11). Further on, in a passage not cited by the lectionary, the reaction to Goliath is again described: "All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid" (17:24).
None of us likes the feeling of fear, but it is compounded when others see us being afraid. David comes to visit the army of Israel in which his older brothers are participating. He hears the threats shouted out by Goliath and the reaction of fear by the Israelites. With the bravado of those who don't fully appreciate the dangers that are before them, David begins to question this atmosphere of fear: "What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (17:26). His brothers hear his comments and become very angry with him.
Others report his words to King Saul. Desperate for some solution to his military plight, Saul sends for David. Upon seeing that he is just a young boy, Saul also concludes that David offers no solution: "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth." But David challenges this conclusion: "Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God." Fear can make us desperate, and since Saul sees no other alternative he decides to take David up on his offer to fight Goliath.
"Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul's sword over the armor..." Presumably the king had the best armor and weapons of anyone. If you are going against the threat of the enemy, you go with the best. Yet sometimes we are weighed down by such conventional thinking; what caused us to be fearful in the first place was our analysis of the situation that concluded that the threat was overwhelming. To get beyond our fear requires us to have a fresh perspective on the problem before us.
"Then David said to Saul, 'I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.' " It was not that David chose to go against Goliath unarmed, but that he chose the weapons that God had provided him: "Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd's bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand..." We live in a world in which we have believed that the one who had the most fearsome weapon would prevail against the enemy. Recently we have moved from the rattling of nuclear sabers, which cost an enormous amount to develop and deploy, to the threat of terrorists who are able to transform our technology and science against us at far less expense.
The challenge for believers against any threat is to determine what the five stones are that we have been given against such a threat. The traditional "stones" of the church have been worship, education, fellowship, service, and evangelism. They seem so ineffective against the threat of terrorism. Despite the fact that we possess immense military and economic resources, it is as if the mysterious ranks of terrorism have become the modern-day Goliath: "All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid."
David's rebuttal to Goliath was that he would defeat Goliath so "that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand." Christians are challenged to consider again how that which God has provided us might be used to overcome the evil of the world. When you are mired down in fear, it may seem like foolish bravado to declare that God has provided all that is necessary to combat the threat before us. Yet sometimes the greatest antidote to our fears is the memory of how God has helped us in previously threatening situations: "The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paws of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine." Perhaps the five stones that God has provided us -- worship and prayer, study of the faith, support of the faithful community, service to those more needy than ourselves, and sharing the good news of God -- are exactly the weapons that we need to combat the atmosphere of fear in which we live.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Often we imagine that the rich and the powerful have nothing to fear. The truth is, though, that some of the most prominent figures have lived lives tormented by unceasing fear.
Stalin, absolute dictator of the Soviet Union, was one of the most powerful men on earth: yet he was afraid to go to bed at night. Stalin had seven different bedrooms. In order to foil any would-be assassins, he slept in a different one each night. Stalin also had five chauffeur-driven limousines. Every time he went out, all five cars left the garage, each one with curtains drawn, so no one on the streets would know which one contained the mighty Stalin.
If possessions could conquer fear, then the late billionaire Howard Hughes would have been fearless. But his story -- documented by the recent film The Aviator -- is well-known. Hughes lived his last days as a pathetic hermit, closed up in his penthouse suite. He had all the money anyone could dream of, but he was so afraid of germs that he breathed through pieces of kleenex and refused to cut his beard or his nails.
If fame could cast out fear, then the rock musician John Lennon should have been utterly fearless. Yet the more fame accrued to this former Beatle, the more of a recluse he became. Lennon's biographers report that in the months before his tragic assassination, he refused to sleep with the lights off and was afraid to touch anything because of possible germs.
The scriptures tell us the only thing that can vanquish fear is divine love: "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).
***
It's instructive to observe how, over time, the object of some of our fears changes. For instance, there's a certain substance that a half-century or so ago was illegal in many states. If you manufactured this stuff, or sold it, or even possessed it, you could be subject to fines or imprisonment, or both. The governor of Minnesota pontificated that this substance had been created by "the ingenuity of depraved human genius." The federal government levied a so-called "sin tax" on the stuff. It was not until 1950 -- after state legislation and congressional hearings -- that every American citizen was finally free to purchase this product without either breaking the law or paying a special tax.
What was it? Don't think for a moment it was some insidious alcoholic beverage or dangerous drug. As it happens, this notorious product, this object of such extravagant fears, was... (get ready now)... margarine.
Yes, margarine -- that quasi-buttery stuff that lives in most of our refrigerators. It wasn't that margarine posed any health risk -- not that anybody was aware of in 1950, anyway (it's a bit different today). The ban on margarine had been orchestrated by the National Dairy Union and its lobbyists. What those dairy farmers, and those good citizens in dairy-farming states, most feared was that if margarine ever replaced butter, they could be ruined financially.
***
A certain sergeant in a parachute regiment was accompanying some trainees on a nighttime jump. He found himself seated next to a young lieutenant fresh out of jump school.
The lieutenant looked a bit pale, and sat staring off into space. The sergeant leaned over and touched his arm. "Scared, Lieutenant?"
"No," said the young officer, "just a bit apprehensive."
"What's the difference?"
The lieutenant turned to him and answered, "The difference is, I'm scared with a university education."
Fear, in this life, is a given. There's no getting away from it. The question is, what do we do with it? The right decision -- naming our fear, and living with it -- is called courage.
***
Somewhere in one of his books, the great Jewish man of letters Elie Wiesel relates a story of one Israel of Rishim, a Hasidic master. In the tales of this learned rabbi, one motif recurs over and over: that of a traveler lost in a thick wood during a storm. It is dark and the traveler is afraid. Danger seems to lurk behind every tree. Suddenly, lightning shatters the silence. The fool, says the rabbi, looks at the lightning. But the wise man looks at the road suddenly illuminated before him.
That's how you journey on foot through the woods in a thunderstorm. And this is how the most courageous human beings journey through life as well. In the storms of life -- which will come, make no mistake -- do we look for the lightning, or do we use the lightning to reveal the road ahead?
***
The Israelites have journeyed long, and suffered much, and have arrived at the very border of the promised land. At the Lord's command, Moses sends out spies to do some reconnaissance in the Land of Milk and Honey.
The spies return with wondrous descriptions of this fertile land, but they also return with something else: news of just who it is who inhabits this land: "There we saw the Nephilim... and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them" (Numbers 13:33).
The Nephilim are well-known to the Israelites. They are the stuff of many a campfire legend. Ages ago, as the great creation story tells it, there were giants who walked the earth. These "Nephilim" were the offspring of "the sons of God" themselves, who "went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them." (That's what it says in Genesis 6.)
These are mysterious, almost mythical figures. Genesis calls them "the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown." They lived before the great flood of Noah, and also afterwards.
When the people hear this disheartening news, a loud cry of despair rises up to the heavens. That night, the chronicles tell us, is lost in weeping. The next day, the people are back to their old tricks. "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!" they cry out. "Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?"
What follows is much complaining and naysaying -- and even rumors of mutiny. Displeased with all this foot-dragging, God finally sends a plague to strike down the ten unfaithful spies -- and a Canaanite army to defeat the Israelites and drive them back into the desert. It will be nearly a generation before the Hebrews have the wherewithal to mount such an assault again.
Giants in the land. Did the Nephilim really still walk the earth? Or did their thundering footsteps echo only in the people's imagination? We'll never know. But one thing we do know: the Israelites lost their nerve. They came to see themselves as little more than grasshoppers; and God punished them for the smallness of their vision, the frailty of their courage.
***
Novelist and essayist Barbara Kingsolver describes how, on the day after the shootings at Columbine High School, she was in her daughter's school, leading a writing workshop for teachers. Her family doesn't own a television, by choice. She had heard about the shootings on the radio, and read about them in the newspaper. Barbara discovered the teachers -- who had spent much of the previous evening obsessively watching video news footage of the massacre -- were beside themselves with fear.
"I didn't share the visceral sense of doom," she reflects, "that surely came from seeing a live-camera feed of bloody children just like ours racing from a school so very much like this one. I remarked that while the TV coverage might make us feel endangered, the real probability of our own kids getting shot at school today had been lower than the odds of their being bitten by a rattlesnake while waiting for the bus. And more to the point, the chance of such horrors happening here was hardly greater than it had been two days before, when we weren't remotely worried about it.... It was such a small thing to offer -- merely another angle on the truth -- but I was amazed to see that it helped, as these thoughtful teachers breathed deeply, looked around at the quiet campus, and reclaimed the relative kindness of their lives. Anyone inclined toward chemical sedatives might first consider, seriously, turning off the TV." ("The One-Eyed Monster, and Why I Don't Let Him In," in Small Wonder: Essays [HarperCollins, 2002], pp. 139-141)
Fear can become habit-forming: especially when we ingest daily doses of it from the media.
***
A new book from acclaimed historian Joanna Bourke, titled Fear: A Cultural History (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2006), is now available online and in the hardback nonfiction section of many bookstores. Its contents seem tailor-made for this week's Immediate Word topic. The book is a history of things that have caused particular populations and societies to be afraid, and discusses items such as the bubonic plague and nuclear bombs which have elicited great fear from people over the centuries.
***
Here are some examples of fears many of us didn't know existed as categories:
Blennophobia -- fear of slime
Pteronophobia -- fear of being tickled by feathers
Papaphobia -- fear of the Pope
Soceraphobia -- fear of parents-in-law
Bolshephobia -- fear of Bolshevism
Cherophobia -- fear of gaity
Metrophobia -- fear of poetry
Phobophobia -- fear of fear itself
-- Matt Groening, Bart Simpson's Guide to Life (Harper Paperbacks, 1996)
This list of phobias demonstrates how the things humans fear changes over time and according to context. An eighth grader may be terrified of being asked by his English teacher to explain the meter of a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, while Senator Joe McCarthy might be said to have experienced bolshephoria. One of the most famous quotes about phobophobia comes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inaugural address: "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
Looking at the date of the speech (1933), and reading a bit further into Roosevelt's address, it becomes clear that he was referring to the economic conditions of the time -- in other words, The Great Depression. Roosevelt was essentially saying: "If we can't shake our pessimistic economic outlook, it will be tough to turn things around." President Roosevelt was calling for a little irrational exuberance...
***
A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me -- I'm afraid of widths.
* comic Steven Wright, as quoted in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations (Penguin Books, 2001)
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: Who is this God we have come to worship?
People: God is the Creator of wind and water, the Pacifier of storms and fears.
Leader: Who is this Jesus we seek to follow?
People: Jesus is the Peace that fills our souls, the Companion of our hearts.
Leader: Who is this Spirit who dwells within us?
People: The Spirit fills us with grace, so our hopes will not perish.
Prayer Of The Day
You lay the foundations of the universe,
building a shelter for our battered souls;
you create wonders which are priceless,
yet do not forget the needy.
We open our hearts to you, God of Graciousness.
When evening comes and our fears prowl the shadows,
you whisper "Peace! Be Still!" to our hammering hearts,
so we may know you are with us in every moment.
We open our hearts to you, our dearest Friend.
When our lives are swamped by doubts and fears,
you calm us;
when we struggle with the clamoring chaos of our world,
you calm us.
We open our hearts to you, Spirit of Gentleness.
God in Community, Holy in One,
we open our hearts to you,
even as we pray as Jesus teaches us,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
Trapped by the storms of life, it is easy to let fear take over and pull us away from our source of hope and help. In such moments, we are tempted to believe that God does not care. Let us confess our doubts and fears, as we discover that the One in whom we place our trust is waiting to fill us with forgiveness and faith.
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
We see the goliaths of fear and doubt confronting us, Listening God,
and believe that our slingshots are empty of faith and hope.
We are alarmed at the evil we find in our world and lives,
thinking all good has crumbled beneath our feet.
We question your compassion for us,
suspicious that you are asleep in those moments of our greatest need.
Forgive us, Faithful God.
We open our hearts to you,
so you might heal us.
We open our ears to your voice,
so we might hear words of peace.
We open our spirits to you,
so we might be filled with the trust and hope offered to us through Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: God has listened -- to our words as well as our silence.
God accepts us as we are,
with doubts which threaten us and trust which seems to elude us.
This is the day of salvation,
the time when brokenness is made whole,
when fears are replaced with faith,
when the breath of the Spirit calms our souls.
People: God hears our cries, and will not let our hopes disappear.
God loves us, God forgives us, God fills us with joy and peace.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
In God we trust
Object: any United States coin
Good morning! How many of you can read? (let them answer) I want one of you to read what it says on this coin. (show the coin and let them read the motto) Yes, it says, "In God we trust." That's a really good motto. It says that we will not be afraid of anything because we trust God. We believe that He will take care of us. Do you think that's a good motto for this country? (let them answer)
Once, Jesus and his disciples were out in a boat and Jesus was asleep. A storm came up and the disciples were afraid that the boat would sink. They woke Jesus up and asked him to save them. They were really afraid. What do you think Jesus did? (let them answer) He just said a few words to the storm and it stopped. And then he said to his disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" In other words, he was asking them why they didn't trust God to protect them from that storm. After all, he was in the boat with them. Did they really think that God would allow the boat to sink when Jesus was in it? (let them answer)
We do need to trust in God just like it says on the coin. He loves us and he will take care of us. Let's thank him for being a God we can trust.
Dear Father in heaven: We are so glad that you are a God that we can trust. You keep all your promises to us and we know that you always will. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, June 25, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
