7th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 11A

7th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 11A July 19, 2020 I’ve been thinking a lot about fear this week. It seems to be rampant—on the news, in social media…If I look carefully, I can see fear at the heart of anger—both my own and others’—in anxiety that comes out in strange ways around strange subjects. I see fear in under-reacting and in overreacting, in the quest for data, answers, certainty. It feels like fear is the water that we are swimming in right now. In our Isaiah reading for today, we see God on trial as a seemingly-defeated deity in the wake of the Babylonian attack on Jerusalem. God testifies on God’s own behalf and tells the truth of who God is to Israel. God challenges the false gods or idols that Israel has turned to; God reminds the people of the covenant, their unique relationship with God. And God tells the people they do not need to be afraid because God is the rock that they know and can trust. This passage evokes the fear of God that is brought down the mountain with Moses and the 10 Commandments, the fear of God that is foundation of the covenant. In that relationship, fear of God is not a bad thing. It binds the community together; it keeps the children of Israel humble so that they do not become evil like the Egyptians that God has freed them from. “Even though things look really bad right now, you don’t need to be afraid.” God tells Israel. “You know me. And I’ve got you.” This week, I read a book about fear that was written by the Episcopal priest Eric Law. It is titled Fear Not: Living Grace and Truth in a Frightened World. The book was originally published in 2007 and draws on numerous anecdotes and data surrounding September 11th, 2001. But in 2019 Law re-published it with some new material about us and about fear in our common life. The book was fascinating to me; it could be a good book for a group to study as there are questions and exercises at the end of each chapter. The tenets that captured my attention the most in this current season fraught with fear are these. 1. Law writes “In this world of fear, we need to find ways to move from risk management to living in faith through Jesus Christ. Living in faith has to do with actively engaging people, the community, and creation in spite of our fear. Living the gospel is about trusting God, and trusting each other as children of God, so that we can be vulnerable, take risks, and tell the truth. And the truth will set us free to connect and be intimate with each other and with God. We need this kind of intimacy the most in order to develop communities of trust in which we can face the world of fear together.”i 2. Law emphasizes that fear in and of itself is not a bad thing. Fear serves an evolutionary purpose in calling us to pay attention to potential danger. He writes,“The fear of fear is the issue…As we avoid the feeling of fear, we avoid knowing the vulnerable parts of ourselves.” He writes that rather than avoiding our fear, we are invited to mine it, to delve deeper into it tracing it to the most terrible destinations (pain, suffering, chaos, isolation, death) in order to see beyond our fear to the wider vision to which God is calling us.ii 3. Politicians, the media, and product marketers evoke our fear because it gives them power and money. Law describes the processes they use in similar terms to the false idols challenge by God in the Isaiah reading for today. “Politicians evoke fear because they want us to give them power by voting for them. They want us to change the polling results and give them a higher approval rating. The news media use fear to keep us watching their news and buying their papers and magazines, which are supposed to give us helpful information…But does voting for a certain politician really help us deal with our fear? Will buying a certain product alleviate our fear? They are but symbolic substitutes [idols?] for what really will help us address our fear. Buying these substitutes gives only the feeling that we are doing something about our fear. They offer only illusions of safety. They are only temporary releases. The feeling of safety wears out quickly, and we crave the next substitute when our fear, which was never really addressed, surfaces again thanks to marketers and politicians. These substitutes distract us from doing the things that will help us face our fear, work through it, and discover our call to ministry.”iii 4. Law shares a portion of the President’s speech immediately following 9/11, where the President urges our continued participation and confidence in the American economy, and he writes, “Many heard this…as the invitation to continue our daily lives as ‘normal’ and not give into what the terrorist wanted us to do-to change our lifestyles and limit our activities. Instead of dealing with our fear, many followed the ritual of ‘business as usual.’ If we changed our way of life, then the terrorists had won. Therefore we ignored our fear, buried it, and continued to practice our ritual of living life as usual. Be good and patriotic Americans, and support the economy-which, for most people, meant ‘Go and buy something.’”iv 5. When we don’t deal with our fear, violence is often the result.v We are seeing this individually and on a societal level. This week, I invite you to dwell a little more with your fear. Pay attention to when others try to stoke it and ask why, what they have to gain from your fear. Look for it the ways it comes out unexpectedly in your life—for me, my fear is usually hidden in anger. For some it is often hidden in anxiety that focuses itself in unexpected ways on unexpected things or situations. Look for the fear that dwells under the surface of your life, and invite it to come out into the light. One of the meditations on my prayer app Pray as You Go this week was on fear and anger, and I’m going to close with the questions they offered for you to use to dwell with your fear or your anger for a bit this week. I hope you will find, like I have, that when you name it, it loses some of its power over you. “Is there anything or anyone who is making you angry [or afraid]? Share these feelings of fear or anger with Jesus now. Where in your life do you need to know God’s peace at this time? What is causing you anxiety or distress? In the quiet and stillness, imagine God’s love flowing through you bringing peace and healing for yourself and others.”vi i. Law, Eric. Fear Not: Living Grace and Truth in a Frightened World. Chalice: St. Louis, 2019. P 5 ii. Ibid. pp 13-14, 17 iii.Ibid. pp 29-30 iv.Ibid pp 35-36 v.Ibid pp54-55 vi.https://pray-as-you-go.org/player/prayer/2020-07-14