Matthew 14:22-33Pastor Lori Broschat

Isaiah 41:10-14June 18, 2017

Matthew 14:22-33Pastor Lori Broschat

NOTHING TO FEAR

Scientist Marie Curie said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Madame Curie sought to understand the mysteries of science; for her, knowledge was the way to overcome fear. President Roosevelt’s inaugural speech in 1933 was meant to bring a distressed country together and help it overcome fear.

His famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” had as its subject the economic depression. It was a legitimate reason for fear, but then, we are really called to avoid fear where we can. For some, a heightened sense of anxiety or stress is their normal. I guess we can say they are just built that way. However, we are only designed to show fear when it’s necessary to preserve our safety. The fight or flight reflex is a physical and chemical reaction that is beyond our control. It’s for our benefit.

If we listen to what Roosevelt stated, we will avoid being afraid of fear. Sounds bizarre, I know, but from a psychological standpoint it’s a very real thing. Psychology Today magazine notes there are five main categories of fear into which everything we can possibly be afraid of falls. These are extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and death of the ego.

I know as a whole these appear rather ominous, but when you get into specifics you can understand the categories better. Fear of extinction explains why you fear heights or hospitals. Fear of mutilation covers everything from organ failure to animal bites. Fear of the loss of autonomy may plague us as we grow older and feel we are losing control. Those who fear separation will find themselves clinging to relationships rather than being alone. To state that we fear the death of our ego means we will avoid shame or humiliation.[1]

Even when fear is not a clear and present danger, we can manufacture it for ourselves. Public speaking is still the number one reported fear, so at least I’ve conquered that one. However, if you’ve ever seen the flat rock projecting 1,100 feet above a Norwegian lake you’ll know why I would never step foot on that site, even if it is called Pulpit Rock.

For the past year I have let fear get the better of me in one particular way, a friendship I’ve had since seminary. A man I met in school graduated one semester after I did, and then he and his wife moved to SD. His experience of the conference was not always good, and he put off his ordination by several years. After taking a medical leave he decided last year to give up his credentials altogether. I learned that on arriving to our board of ordained ministry meeting.

I spoke to his wife at the conference and asked her what prompted his decision, although she was as surprised as I was. I told her I would call him, but as the weeks went on I could not make myself call. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to comfort him or help him. More weeks went by and then months. Finally, a whole year had passed and by that point I was even more afraid because I had failed him.

Last week I sent him an email trying to explain myself and apologize for letting him down. He responded with a brief email, “Thank you for your note.” I know I’m going to have to bite the bullet and call and rebuild a relationship if I can, but I still feel fearful. The world is never short of things to cause us distress. Shootings, people trapped in fires, terrorist attacks all give us a sick feeling of dread. It just never ends.

So, if we can’t get away from it, how do we deal with it? Scripture is clear on this subject; fear is not something God wants us to live with. We heard today from the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming God’s promise to the people of Israel, “Don’t fear, because I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your god. I will strengthen you, I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.” Now, even though we know God has no physically strong hands, that kind of imagery is important for us to have faith when we are frightened.

Again, and again in the OT God’s words of strength in adversity and calm in anxiety appear, to kings, prophets, nations and individuals. This is God we are talking about, not just a self-help exercise to find peace. God means what God says; the promises are just as real for us as they were for those who first heard or read those words.

In the book of Sirach in the Hebrew Bible is another passage about fear, both fear of the Lord and what comes to those who don’t practice it. “Those who fear the Lord won’t disobey his words, and those who love him will keep his ways. Those who fear the Lordwill try to please him, and those who love him will be fully occupied with observing the Law.Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and they will humble themselves before him. May we fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of human beings,because his mercy is equal to his greatness.”

I love that last verse, may we fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of human beings, because his mercy is equal to his greatness. What a tremendous statement of trust in God! Fear of the Lord should not be fear inducing. Instead, it should give us courage because the one we serve and turn to is the Almighty, the Creator and Redeemer. He knows what frightens us even when we try to deny it, and He provides the calm we need and the strength we need to overcome or eliminate our fear.

Jesus was also very clear on the matter, and often greeted His disciples with the words, “Do not be afraid.” Why did He need to say this so often? Because He knew they were human and therefore prone to fear, and fear would make them poor witnesses to His immense love and sacrifice. Unfortunately for those disciples and for us, fear is often our go-to emotional response.

When on a boat on the stormy sea of Galilee the disciples saw Jesus walking on the surface of the water and they assumed He was a ghost. Seems reasonable, I suppose, given the fact that people generally don’t walk on water. Peter, being the most likely to try and fail, gave Jesus a challenge to let him walk on the water as well. This was a conditional statement of belief, which I’m sure Jesus was inwardly disappointed with but was willing to allow.

Although held by the righteous strong hand of God, when Peter saw the waves threatening to drown him he began to sink. Fear will do that to us all if we let it. Even though we have faith we still give in to fear. Jesus knew that fear is often disguised anxiety or worry or stress.

In a sermon on this passage one pastor said, “Only the faith that leaves behind all false confidence, letting it fall and break down, can overcome fear. This is faith: it does not rely on itself or favorable seas, favorable conditions; it does not rely on its own strength or on other people’s strength, but believes only and alone in God, whether or not there is a storm.”[2]

The verse in 1 John 4 that reminds us how to eliminate fear may sound like merely an inspirational slogan, but its meaning is deeper than that. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.” The only perfect love is the love of God, which takes away any need for us to fear being condemned, judged by, or lost to God.

That’s the main thing we need assurance about. The rest is mainly out of our control anyway and when adversity or conflict or threat comes there are ways to deal with it. Holding onto the knowledge that God wants to perfect us and not punish us will allow us to live without fear of having nothing to save us. For the most part fear is a natural reaction to stress, but giving in to chronic fear and anxiety is not natural.

Not for nothing, but the admonition to fear not appears 365 times in the Bible. Maybe that’s a good reminder for us that every day the reality of fear does not have to control us. In one of my daily devotionals I receive through email there was a lesson on fear. Using the letters as an acronym it becomes False Evidence Appearing Real. That’s a useful description of what fear is a great deal of the time.

We can feel trapped by what we see in front of us or even what we imagine. That fear can then prevent us from making good choices or even moving forward in life to get past the situation. The solution for this is another acronym of the word, Face Everything and Rise. Take courage that God has already overcome the evil of the world and nothing we encounter or imagine can take us away from Him.

Getting back to 1 John 4, this passage from a book on Job might offer some insight to our existing confusion between fear of the Lord and fear which is eliminated by perfect love. “Obviously John is speaking of a fear other than the fear of God. In contrast, the fear of God that is commended in the Bible is that which indicates that we take God seriously in our lives and in our conduct. The opposite of fearing God in this way would be to consider God negligent, impotent, apathetic or indulgent. As early as the book of Deuteronomy, we see that there is no conflict between the fear of God and the love of God.

In his final sermon before his death, Moses urges Israel ‘to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul,and observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.’ Perfect love, which involves the love of God, drives out those kinds of fears.”[3]

The only fear we should allow to run our lives is fear of the Lord, that humble, solemn, utmost respect for God as our Creator and our King. All other fear is a ruse, a trick played on us by our imaginations, our wounds, our insecurities. Satan takes great advantage of our tendency to imagine the worst, to overthink, to act without reason.

Should you fear danger? Yes, that’s a natural human reaction. Should you be afraid of nuclear war or tornadoes or Zika virus? You can, though the energy would be better spent preparing for something inevitable like loss or death. God does not want us on a sense of high alert all the time, waiting for the other shoe to drop. If you’re looking for something to fear, chances are you’ll find it.

But if you want instead to practice courage, to inhabit confidence, to live in faith and trust and hope, knowing that God has your back, then as the old John Wesley hymn says, “Give to the winds thy fears, hope and be undismayed.”

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[2]Best, Isabel, editor, The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg. 65

[3]Walton, John H., and Longman, Tremper III, How to Read Job, pg. 153