October 31, 2021
First Lesson Isaiah 5:20-21, 25
20 Ah, you who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
and shrewd in your own sight!
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
Second Lesson Romans 3:9-12
9 What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, 10 as it is written:
“There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who has understanding,
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness,
there is not even one.”
When I was a child a bunch of neighborhood kids, most of them older than me, went to the movies and watched the Night of the Living Dead. It was one of the first zombie movies, back when just the idea of zombies was terrifying. I was no older than 10 and I want to say I was about 7. Somehow, I got in without parental permission, back in the day when all you needed was money for a ticket. My older brother David had enough sense to leave the theater. But I stayed with the group and was scared out of my mind. I had nightmares for a good month. The movie took place in a cemetery which put me off cemeteries. This is not a good thing when living in the church manse right next door to the cemetery. It was the scariest movie ever, but of course I had not yet seen Psycho, Halloween, Chucky or Silence of the Lambs. I have to wonder why so many scary movies are even made. I think it has to do with all the fears we have and needing an outlet for the energy around the things that scare us. It could be spiders, snakes, heights, things that go bump in the night. Since today is Halloween and it is the fifth Sunday of the month and all the ads for scary movies are all over television, I thought I would explore the things that scare us and how we as people of faith respond.
When I told Pam about this sermon idea, and she looked at the passage from Romans she said that isn’t scary. I take her point yet fear and terror in the Bible is more often the fear of God, more than being afraid of others. It can also be asking for God’s protection. I want to look at the things that scare us today. The things that keep us up at night, like, “Is this all that is left to my life?” How long will I struggle with this issue? To “Will our democracy survive?” Will our planet be here for the next generations? We face many large and scary questions each and every day. I can’t answer those fears here, but what I do want to explore is the real fear about not being good enough.
Paul declares we are all under the power of sin, not one is righteous, not one has understanding, not one seeks God, not one is kind. We are all worthless. If I sit with all of that, Paul just described a great fear, that we will never be good enough for God. We will never live up to what God wants us to be. This speaks to the fear of failure and our need to perform and please.
How many times have you done something in order to feel better about yourself, to show the world that you have value? To people please? Most of us do that from time to time.
I remember in my late teens, thinking I can never let you see the real me, because if you did, you would not like me. Somewhere in there I thought I was worthless. I agreed with Paul. I might have even thought I deserved God’s anger shared in Isaiah. That fear can motivate many wonderful achievements or cripple a person emotionally. I was driven to prove my worth through academics, travel, and finding ways to belong. One of those was being deeply involved in my youth group, where slowly I started learning that God never expected me to be perfect, only humble and seeking God’s love.
When insecurities arise today, I recognize that those are really the same fear of being worthless, taking on a new form. I can’t talk myself out of those feelings, but I can lean into God’s love that moves me back to a more grounded center. Remembering that Christ died for my sins and that God loves me no matter what, helps to quiet those insecurities.
My boys will tell you that I jump out of my seat at the scary parts of movies. My whole body reacts to that moment of fear, surprise, or shock. They tease me about it all the time. I wish I could sit still, but that is not how I respond. But it raises the question about how we respond to the scary things in life? Does our faith shape that response? Does knowing God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice alter how you go through the world?
Speaking to a member who has been dealing with many trials of late, faith played a major role in his response. God has always been there, and so now when facing a really difficult time, this person trusts that God will see him through and provide something even more wonderful, blessings, on the other side. That is a gift of faith, the lived moments of God’s care, God’s blessings, that sustain you in the dark times.
Sam Wells wrote an article about those trying times when you feel stuck, and things aren’t getting any better. It is hard to find happiness there. It seemed to answer the “Is this all there is?” fear and “How long will I struggle with this?” question. He encouraged us to find the beauty, instead of the happiness. Reframing how we look at a trying time, allowing ourselves to redefine what this moment means, can lead to finding beauty instead of looking for happiness in the middle of a trial.
Finally, fear of dying is one of the scariest things. Our society spends billions on trying to look younger, trying to leave a legacy, trying to cheat death. If I am honest, one of my biggest fears is the fear of dying. Even with my faith I am fearful mostly because I don’t know what it will look like. You could say it is the fear of the unknown as much as a fear of death.
But the fear of death keeps us from having honest conversations about end-of-life plans, allowing our family to ask questions, creating wills and talking to our children about finances. But if we can have our fears, own our fears, and still take those actions, then we are showing great courage in the face of our fears. What is even worse is simply denying our fears and denying the reality that we will all die. Let’s be honest about our fears and honest that we have faith. I think we have the illusion that if we fear death then our faith is lacking, is inadequate. I disagree. We get to be truthful about our feelings and fears while being honest about our faith.
Our faith gives us many comforting images, heaven when we are united with God, seeing family and friends that have already died, being welcomed into God’s house with many rooms, Jesus preparing a place for you. All of these offer hope. Later in Romans Paul writes, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (8:24-25). God has already solved the problem of dying. Addressed our fears. That is the beauty of Christ dying on the cross. We have been saved from our fear of death because we have new life in Christ.
I learned a new way of looking at that in our Bible Study. We were looking at the Book of Ruth who travels with Naomi after they both lose their husbands. Ruth declares “Your God is my God, your people are my people, where you go, I will go (1:16). These two women need hope, need saving, need a path forward. Next of kin were to redeem them by purchasing land and marrying Ruth. But this next of kin law is called redemption. Redemption is the act of buying back, the process of making whole. Redemption makes relationships whole; it makes parcels of land whole because they are united once again. When I think about this idea of redemption, of being made whole, I find it comforting to my fear of death. Whatever comes after this life, I can trust that God will make me whole when I am united with Christ. God will make you whole in body mind and spirit. I still can’t see it, I don’t understand it, but I feel God’s love and compassion in redeeming you and me after this life and uniting us with Christ in the life to come. Amen.
