Do Not Be Afraid

​Do Not Be Afraid
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
August 11, 2019
Proper 14, Year C
The Rev. John Taliaferro Thomas
 
When we made our first stop, we were about four miles into our 214-mile journey.  We had embarked from a place a called Lee’s Ferry we would spend the next week and a half rafting on the Colorado River all the way through the Grand Canyon.  Our guide was a guy named Duffy and he looked the old man river part with a graying beard, leathery skin, and experienced, calloused hands.  We pulled into an eddy and got off the raft to hike up to a beautiful waterfall, but before we took off, Duffy delivered the following speech:
 
“Just remember, there will be no cell phone service for at least a week.  Our satellite phone only works for a few hours a day.  We are at least 100 miles from medical care at all times.  It is at least a ten-mile, uphill hike to the canyon rim… if we are near a trail.  It will be 8 days until we get to a place where a helicopter might be able to land.  There are poisonous snakes, swift moving water, and slippery rocks…. So, what could possibly go wrong?  But do not be afraid, because nervous people are more accident prone.”
 
We got the point and we made it through that journey safely because we were careful.
 
When somebody tells me not to be afraid, I tend to worry about why they have to say that in the first place, and then I run through all of the disaster scenarios that could befall me or my family or whoever is being told not to be afraid.  It is like when you get blood drawn and they say it will be a little stick… it is only little for the person doing the sticking. I tend to want someone to tell me it just might hurt.
 
“Do not be afraid,” God tells Abraham in our first lesson.  God chooses this man to leave the security of everything he knows and set off on a journey of unknown origin.  But Abraham is really old and he and his wife, Sarah, are childless. A childless old person in the ancient world is like one with no retirement, no social security, and no healthcare.  And yet, God promises to be with him and give him descendants: as numerous as the stars.   Abraham has plenty to fear as he takes off across the desert, but on the strength of a God’s promise and a holy hope he goes anyway.  That is faith.  
 
As for the rest of the story, Sarah gives birth to a son at age ninety-nine, and that son will marry and have children and so on and so forth, and through them, God begets a whole holy hoard of descendants of his faith.  Abraham and Sarah name that son Isaac, which means ‘laughter’ because that’s what they did when they found out they were expecting.  Lots of things could have gone wrong, and there were perils along the way, but God gathered their faith for good.
 
Fast-forward about a couple of millennia and God’s people gather around the person and work of Jesus Christ.  They have seen him love and heal and welcome all comers.  A rag tag group of followers have left their fishing nets and tax collecting practices to follow him because this man is more than a man for them.  He is the embodiment of God. But they are wavering with doubts and questions.  They want to be part of a revolution to overthrow the oppressors and set things right for God’s people, but things are not going as they expect or hope.  Those in powerful positions are finding Jesus to be threatening, and those who follow him might well get caught up in their wrath.  The followers are not sure where Jesus is leading them.
 
“Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells them.  He says it here in Luke’s gospel, and he says it in lots of other encounters with them.  He asks them to be like Abraham and make this journey in faith.  They may not know how exactly God will act, or how it will all happen, but Jesus urges them to believe, to follow, and to see God at work in the world.  Lots of things could go wrong.  Indeed lots of things do, but in the end, God wins – only not like they expect.
 
Fast forward a few decades and Jesus followers are still gathering, remembering his unexpected victory the oppressors and their death-dealing sentence.  They have seen and experienced the resurrected Jesus as a presence and a force among them, but they are wavering with doubts and questions.  The Romans continue to oppress them, taking their property, harassing them, imprisoning some who profess belief in the risen Christ.  They are afraid for their future, and rightly so.
 
This is where we hear the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews which is some of the most elegant prose on the subject of belief in the entire Bible.  Reminding them of the Abraham story, and the presence of a living Christ, the letter says “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  In other words, it tells them (and us) that we may not ever know what God is doing in God’s way and time, but that the promise of God’s blessing and love remain.  The letter urges us to look backward at our holy history as a way of looking forward and expecting God to be at work in our lives.  Lots can go wrong, and some things do, but through the long arc of history, the Word of God continues to take hold and the faith is alive in people like us.  God’s love overpowers despair and darkness and, even, death.  We have seen it happen.  We dare expect it to continue to be so.
 
As we look at all of our lessons for today, there is a pattern and a consistent story to be told.  God is a gathering God.  God works in ways we do not understand or expect.  Faith is, simply, hope with a track record.
 
Being invited and encouraged not to be afraid is not about some sort of holy denial, some sort of whistling in the dark theology that means we just wait around and let God do all of the working there is to do in the world.  Faith is not  a passive thing.  It is a verb.  Having faith urges us to action, living in stark contrast to darkness and despair, becoming God’s hands and feet to serve our community, nation, and world.  As that great theologian, Snoopy, once said in Peanuts cartoon: “Hope is hearing the music of the future.  Faith is dancing to it.”
 
Being afraid all of the time is a paralyzing trap.  If we consider all that can go wrong, we might not ever leave home. Hurt and fearful people hurt people and engender fear.  We see that played out in the news over and over.  God’s Word, our faith, and Jesus’ call to us asks us to be different: to be faithful. 
 
While we may believe the world is going to hell and things are about as bad as they have ever been, we need only look back at the challenges so many others have faced and overcome.  God’s story is one of possibility and promise.  Jesus tells us today that leaning into that world-view is worth whatever we have to leave behind to go there.  The world needs us: believing, faithful, Jesus people to hold up holy hope – to proclaim our core story as one based in love and grace, rather than fear and blame.  It is a story lodged in the basement of time and it continues today.
 
Do not be afraid.  Even and especially when things go wrong, God is at work and God will use us to heal and help.  And God is good… for all time. Promise.  Amen.