I was asked to lead worship at our
recent meeting of Northern Lights Presbytery. Here is a revisit of
the message I gave during that service (the Scripture reading was
Isaiah 43:1-3, 18-19)...
It is
1933, the world is in the midst of the Great Depression. Farmland is
being turned into a dustbowl. Banks are failing. Unemployment is
sky-high. There is no social safety net. But 1932 had been an
election year, and a new President had been elected in the US. And
in his first Inaugural address Franklin D. Rooesevelt uttered a
phrase that has become one of the memorable classics of political
discourse:...the only thing we have to fear is fear
itself...Really? As the
economy crumbles around us, as people are losing homes and land, as
families are struggling for food you make the claim that we have
nothing to fear? There must have been some people who at the very
least scratched their heads in confusion as those words were uttered.
And yet they have
become classics. I am sure that there are many people who could have
finished the phrase for me. It stands with other classics like “Four
score and seven years ago...” or “Ich bin ein Berliner”. And
part of that was because FDR was a great orator. Part of it was
because he knew what the people of the US needed to hear. But part
of it was because that is a message that we need to hear over and
over and over:
...the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself...
Did
you know that phrases like “Fear Not” or “Don't be Afraid”
are among the most common statements in Scripture? There was a
graphic circulating around Facebook recently that they occur 365
times – one for each day of the year. The reading from Isaiah we
just heard is written to people in exile. And God tells them not to
be afraid, “I have called you by name, you are mine...I am
about to do a new thing; now it springs forth”. Whenever
something big happens, when the world is about to be changed, God
says something like “Fear not for behold I bring you tidings of
great joy which shall be for all people....”
...the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself...
Some days I think that without fear our
media and political systems would break down. News media seem to go
out of their way to breed fear – like the station that figured a
good way to cover news of a fertilizer plant explosion was to ask
people living near a different fertilizer plant if they felt safe.
Our political leaders routinely try to make us afraid of what might
happen if they can not do what they are proposing. And so we too
need to hear the words:
...the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself...
Those words still seem overly
simplistic. There are things we fear. We worry about what will
happen in North Korea. We worry about the sustainability of our
congregations – what will happen if a few more families move away.
We are afraid that what we have to say may not matter. We are afraid
of many things. But as the hymns we just sang reminds us, God says
“Don't be afraid, my love is stronger than your fear...and I have
promised, promised to be always near”
...the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself...
It won't always be easy. God never
promised it would be easy (neither did FDR). God says there will be
water and fire. But we will not be overwhelmed or consumed. We can
live into the changes of the world with confidence, with hope,
striding firmly towards the promise.
...the only
thing we have to fear is fear itself...
Can we do it? Can we take the leap of
faith and live out of love and hope instead of fear? All it takes is
faith and trust and we can fly (at least so Peter Pan told us). Do
we truly believe that love and hope are stronger than fear and
despair? In a world where fear and despair seem to have leading
roles, can we claim there is a different way?
...the only thing we have to fear is
fear itself...
Not by ourselves.
But with God we can. Thanks be to God.
