The words that are spoken are mine Lord - May the words that are heard be Thine. Amen
In 1933 in his inaugural address, Franklin D Roosevelt told the people of the world, that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was really speaking to the millions of Americans who were drowning in the quagmire called the Great Depression, but history has held on to those words that were then and are now profoundly prophetic. I bring this up because I feel that we are faced today with a lot of fears – both actual and perceived. The language used by our leaders and others is inflammatory and intended to disrupt relatively peaceful communities. So I think it’s important to look at what fear does to us as people of God and hopefully what we can do to mitigate its effect on us. I truly believe that the opposite of faith is fear. So how do we remain faithful to our God of mercy, kindness, and love in this time of uncertainty?
Fear
is at times paralyzing. At other times
it creates emotional chaos that drives us to erratic and unhelpful decisions
and actions. Fear can be used as a tool
to immobilize effective responses to harmful situations or speech. Fear divides an otherwise harmonious group
into irreconcilable layers of difference by engendering envy, unhealthy
competition, and the willingness to throw an otherwise friend under the bus in
order to save oneself. In the end fear
can destroy the fabric of community.
For
sure there is nothing new under the sun and these kinds of tactics designed to
create fear do from time to time become part of a community’s story. The images of God restoring the people of
Israel and establishing a new world order brought hope into a seemingly
hopeless world asking them to forget the ways of the past and instead look
forward into the future with hope for God’s mercy. That fear felt by the oppressed Israelites is,
I believe, that same fear that so many around us are experiencing today. Prophetic language speaks across generations
and so this poetry of Isaiah has a lot to say to us today.
Do
not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I
am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Today
I believe it is fear that is creating the chaos, confusion and tribalization
that we see in our world today. History
is cyclical and we are in a time when the cycle of bellicose hate speech is
sending good people into panic mode.
When that happens, we lose the ability to think rationally or to plan
and execute a counter message of love. Instead
of rational arguments or productive action we just run in circles and scream
and shout. Fear and uncertainty make us
run in circles – we lose clarity in opposing hate, greed, and cruelty. Without hope and knowledge of or
faith in God and the possibility for reconciliation that God offers, the
fear can overwhelm us and we find ourselves at the bottom of a very deep well.
Isaiah 43, - we heard just a snippet of it this
morning, is prophetic salvation poetry in it’s finest form. It is a text about who God is and what God
has done (and will do) - God our creator,
deliverer, and forgiver. When hope was
hard to come by, it was the prophetic voice of 2nd Isaiah that
awakened a sense of order, purpose, and will that was born in the fires of
faithfulness. God’s work cannot be
understood apart from God’s relationship with the people. In the rich tradition of the prophets the
people of God and in fact the faithful today who hold these promises sacred are
reminded that God is merciful and that we are precious beloved children of God.
God
triumphs over all that causes fear and chaos in our lives, and over all that
threatens our existence, be it water, war, or wilderness or the greed of
humankind. God will not abandon us. God
is present now just as God was present in Babylon. Isaiah proclaims that the Lord makes a new
way.
In our Gospel this morning Jesus has
returned to Bethany and the home of his friends. There was chaos and danger everywhere. But for the moment the friends just wanted to
enjoy a meal together. Lazarus was there
and Martha Mary was there too and most likely some of the other disciples and
maybe even some local guests. Of course,
the room was packed, it was - after all - a party.
Mary, perhaps remembering how she had sat
at Jesus’ feet once before, comes to him with an expensive bottle of oil and
anoints his feet and then wipes off the excess with her hair. It is an act of generosity and devotion grown
out of love and her awareness that Jesus was about to walk into a situation
that would cost him his life. Of all
those watching it was Judas who objected vehemently to the extravagance of the
costly perfume. While Mary’s faith
remained strong in the face of fear, Judas’s faith was already compromised and he
speaks out of greed and anger .
But I wonder how many of the disciples,
when Judas jumped up and objected to a woman attending to Jesus with such
extravagance… I wonder how many of them
had a little heartbeat skip and leaned - forward ready to get into the fray and
jerk the jar out of Mary’s hand and throw her out of the room? I suspect, - human beings being who we are -
that at least some of them were enticed into a bullying gang mentality. Are we any different? Do we speak up when our leaders use hate,
anger, and greed to create fear and hopelessness, or do we silently give thanks
that it is not us who stand accused?
Isaiah tells us that God is creating a new
thing and our job is to be open to that new way. We are to be steady, trusting, walking in
love and mercy. Jesus offers the
consolation that evil is real, but we do not have to succumb to that evil. Rather we have the opportunity now to hold
onto what is good in our world. To love
and to serve God’s creation extravagantly.
To walk through the chaos around us with love and forgiveness for
ourselves and for each other, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward
to what lies ahead, …pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly
call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil
3:14)
Perhaps
the over-arching take-home for us today is that God both calls us to holding
onto a vision of a generous, ordered world and at the same time blesses us with
divine faith to help us get there. We
stand on the verge of Holy Week. The
flowers are ordered, the bulletins are prepared, the choir is already
practicing for Easter. The promise of
Easter morning is just a touch away and the Peace of God that passes all
understanding beckons from the other side of the grave. Amen
