Naked Fear
June 22, 2025
“In the story of creation found in Genesis, we read where Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit, something which had been specifically denied them. Knowing that God is searching for them, they attempt to hide. It is a scene perhaps reminiscent of many of our childhoods when we had done something that we were not supposed to, and we literally hid from our searching parents. Finally God finds them, as we know that He will, for, after all, where can we go to hide from God? God asks them why they are hiding. Do you remember the response that Adam gave? “Because I was afraid.”
I think this very poignant story reminds us that fear is so basic to who we are as humans, it goes all the way back to the beginning of time. To be human is to experience fear.
There seems to be no limit to our fears. In a peanuts cartoon strip Charlie Brown goes to Lucy for a nickel’s worth of psychiatric help. She proceeds to pinpoint his particular ‘fear’. (After asking about several types of phobias to which Charlie Brown says no) Lucy, exasperated, says well, maybe you have pantophobia, which is the fear of everything. Yes, says Charles, that is the one! Sometimes we feel like we are afraid of everything. We are afraid of people. We are afraid of the future. We are afraid of life. We are afraid of death” (Sermons.com Brett Blair).
The disciples had just been afraid of dying when crossing the Sea of Galilee. A violent storm swept over their boat until Jesus calmed the raging waves and wind. Directly following, they arrive in Gerasene. As I read God’s word from Luke 8:26-39, I ask you to listen for fear.
Did you hear the fear? The demons were afraid of Jesus, tormented really, acknowledged his power and sought a place to reside other than the abyss. Fear came when the people saw the demon possessed man clothed and in his right mind. The people were so afraid of Jesus after the healing, “seized with great fear,” they asked him to leave. What seems like a simple healing, really has several layers of meanings and fear is baked right in. Our psalm also speaks to fear; deliver my soul from the sword, save me from the dogs. Then he thanks God for saving him from the wild horns and hearing his affliction.
Fear is everywhere right now. We are afraid of all-out war with Iran. We are afraid for our democracy, our court’s integrity and the independence of Congress. We are afraid for our immigrant neighbors. We are afraid of aging and dying. We fear the survival of our planet with rising temperatures and changing climates. I list all these not to depress us, but to name them and the power they have to impact our lives. Last week we talked about triangles, and I believe we move around the emotional triangle when it comes to all these terrifying fears. This triangle has three elements, fear, anger and avoidance. I think sometimes we would rather avoid our fears, or get angry at something or someone, instead of admitting and facing our deep fears.
“These are fearful times, but then – they always have been. You would think, if ever there were a time and people who would be fearless it would be the disciples, walking and living in the very presence of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, Light of the World, 2000 years ago. But as Luke tells it, they could panic right along with the best of us” (Sermons.com).
When Adam hid from God, he was afraid because he was naked. He realized he had no clothes because he had eaten the forbidden fruit. Adam had naked fear. The possessed man was also naked, not from shame, but from the legion of demons inside of him. They had robbed him of his home, community and dignity. After Jesus commanded the demons to depart, we are introduced to Legion, before Legion was relegated to a herd of pigs.
The very name Legion created fear. “For people in the ancient Roman world, “Legion” had only one literal meaning: a unit of approximately six thousand Roman soldiers, the occupying army. Suddenly an exorcism takes on social and political significance. (Rome had recently retaken Gerasene, killing thousands and imprisoning families. So, a Legion of demons elicited palpable fear in the people.) …the whole episode evokes the experience of living under a brutal occupying power” (Working Preacher, Judith Jones).
People in Los Angeles are forced to live under the occupying power of the US military. What once was a clear line between domestic law enforcement and the exclusive use of our military on foreign soil, has become terrifyingly blurred. A random raid at flea markets to arrest people whose parents hail from south of the border, and those who have lived here for generations, creates fear. Even the fact that a CA Senator was handcuffed and NY Controller were detained for hours, just goes to show what happens to so many people in our country simply because of the color of their skin. We just heard about these because the people are elected officials, instead the demonized immigrants. That is why over 5 million people protested at the No Kings Rallies around the country, pushing back against fear and fascism while holding on to all we hold dear.
Legion begged Jesus to let them go into the swine. I have always thought of the pigs as simply unclean animals so why not send Legion there. But I discovered it could also have a political meaning. The Roman force that participated in the destruction of Jerusalem and reconquering Palestine was called, Legio 10th Fretensis. Interestingly one of its emblems was a pig. A pig would be displayed on banners and coins, much like elephants or donkeys are today. So for the local people, pigs would have seemed a fitting destination for Legion. Poetic justice occurs when the pigs run off the cliff, Legion’s worst fear, falling into the abyss.
“In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker says that so many of the fears that we grapple with–fear of rejection, abandonment, failure, separation, and loss–are but manifestations of the one ultimate fear, and that is the fear of death. Perhaps he is right. How do we overcome that ultimate fear? Faith. It is the only antidote that will exercise the demons of fear that can haunt us” (Sermons.com). Moreover, the great pastor the early 20th century, Harry Emerson Fosdick who promoted the social gospel wrote, “Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable.” Once the man finds his voice and reaches out to Jesus, his life is liberated, empowered, encouraging, healed, and serviceable. That is how faith surpasses fear.
Once the man is healed, he begs to follow Jesus. Instead Jessus returns him to his home, family and community, having already restored his dignity. Community and care, sharing the love and healing of the gospel are what emerged from facing fears and meeting them with faith. The healed man continued to proclaim how much Jesus had done for him. He shared his faith in Jesus, his story of transformation, overcoming fear to be made whole.
As we face our fears let us remember Edmund Vance Cooke words:
A fear’s a ton, or a fear’s an ounce
Or a fear is what you make it,
It isn’t the fact that you have fear that counts
But only, how you take it. (Sermons, King Duncan)
We all have fears. Yet it is our belief in Jesus Christ that grants us the courage to face our fears, to ask Jesus to heal us from what ails us, and to grant us new life in our wonderful Savior. Amen.
