12 Pentecost, C p14, August 7, 2016
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3 (4-7) 8-16 Luke 12:32-40
Jesus told his followers, "Don't be afraid." All of us know what fear is. We all have the capacity to be fearful, and if not fear as sheer terror, we know the more common boutique varieties of fear: worry, anxiety, fretting, concern, foreboding, and melancholy. Is this perhaps due to the great attention that is given to the bad news in our world? Such great attention to the bad news tempts us live our lives according to Murphy's Law: If something can go wrong, then it probably will. If five events of terror happen in this world in three weeks, then that must mean that terror and evil are omnipresence and surely going to come to the locations of my life. So, I need to frightened in advance because perhaps all of my fearful energy will actually prevent the terror of evil thing from befalling me.
The force of bad news is why we need to remind ourselves of FDR's words, "We have nothing to fear, except fear itself." Fearing fear is to deplete and waste our energy and make our lives truly miserable.
And if we have this capacity to live in fear and anxiety what are we supposed to do with our fears?
The first tip about fear which Jesus provides us in today's Gospel has to do with the cause of fear. Fear is based upon some future loss: loss of one's life or a significant person in one's life, loss of property, loss of dignity, loss of job, loss of money, loss of friends, loss of family and loss of health. So if fear is based upon loss, then we need to do an "attachment" review. What is our treasure? If we have loving devotion to so many idols, then the loss of those idols will in some way end our lives because of our over-identification with those idols. So, Jesus reminded his followers not to be afraid and to sell their possessions and to give alms. If we can transact in our minds that everything we have could really belong or be given to someone else who needs it more, then we learn to release ourselves from our fearful attachment to "stuff." Jesus was essentially saying, "Let go of your stuff, not by being irresponsible with your things but to lose fearful attachment that we often have with all that we love and often manage wrongly in our lives." If we establish that God is the treasure of our lives then we know that even when we experience loss, we cannot lose God.
The next way to deal with fear is train ourselves to be prepared and ready. Education is supposed to help us to be ready and prepared for as many life circumstances as possible. Being prepared has to do with commonsense, wise probability theory. If you have a wedding; get thee to the church on time. It's your own fault if you miss the vows and you face the shame of not honoring your friends by your late arrival. In the wise actuarial practice, Jesus reminded his friend not to be naïve by only assuming goodness in other human beings. If you know that there are thieves in the area; lock the doors of your house and be prepared.
How do we deal with fear? First treasure God above all and then whatever we might lose cannot cause the loss of God. And don't be naïve; practice wise probability theory in all that we do.
These are excellent ways to deal with fear but there is something further that can be done with fear. Fear saps an incredible amount of life energy and that same life energy can be transformed and expressed as its opposite. What is the oppose of fear? It is faith.
The Faith chapter of the Bible is the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Faith is defined as the assurance of things hoped for; the evidence or conviction of things not seen.
Fear is a wrong relationship to the future. Fear is based upon building worst case scenarios and letting those scenarios keep us from effective action now. Fear is based upon what we cannot see yet in the future but projecting the worst outcomes and then acting accordingly. (How many remember the Y2K scare and the many people who acted out in fear?)
Faith is inspired by hope and hope is the gift of vision of what is good and more perfect. With faith we let the magnet of hope inspire creative actions which attempt to reach the goals of hope. Faith is not hope; faith is creative action in the direction of the perfection of the vision of hope.
Hope does not exist in a vacuum; hope needs exemplars. Hope needs the vision of God as our perfect treasure. Hope needs the example of the life of Jesus to show us how God would live a human life. Hope needs the examples of saints, holy people, moms, dads, friends, teachers and mentors. Why? Faith needs the positive visions provided by living examples of what is good and decent, positive and optimistic.
Today we are invited to the life of faith, just like all of the heroes of faith written about in the Bible. These heroes were not perfect; they had human weaknesses, but they had faith. They had the ability in the midst of the varied circumstances of life to execute their actions toward the better and more perfect visions of hope.
Without faith, we cannot please God. Without faith we cannot make progress toward what is better.
But with faith we can continually make creative advance in our lives and in our community. With faith we can always be at the work of surpassing ourselves in excellence in a future state.
And we owe it to ourselves and to our communities to live by faith. If we live by faith we become examples to the young and to each other to provide encouragement and positive direction in our lives.
The Gospel for us today is that our fear can be transformed to faith. And so the energy of faith can propel us to complete the vision of hope.
Jesus says to us today: Do not be afraid, don't worry, be happy and exercise your faith. Amen.
The force of bad news is why we need to remind ourselves of FDR's words, "We have nothing to fear, except fear itself." Fearing fear is to deplete and waste our energy and make our lives truly miserable.
And if we have this capacity to live in fear and anxiety what are we supposed to do with our fears?
The first tip about fear which Jesus provides us in today's Gospel has to do with the cause of fear. Fear is based upon some future loss: loss of one's life or a significant person in one's life, loss of property, loss of dignity, loss of job, loss of money, loss of friends, loss of family and loss of health. So if fear is based upon loss, then we need to do an "attachment" review. What is our treasure? If we have loving devotion to so many idols, then the loss of those idols will in some way end our lives because of our over-identification with those idols. So, Jesus reminded his followers not to be afraid and to sell their possessions and to give alms. If we can transact in our minds that everything we have could really belong or be given to someone else who needs it more, then we learn to release ourselves from our fearful attachment to "stuff." Jesus was essentially saying, "Let go of your stuff, not by being irresponsible with your things but to lose fearful attachment that we often have with all that we love and often manage wrongly in our lives." If we establish that God is the treasure of our lives then we know that even when we experience loss, we cannot lose God.
The next way to deal with fear is train ourselves to be prepared and ready. Education is supposed to help us to be ready and prepared for as many life circumstances as possible. Being prepared has to do with commonsense, wise probability theory. If you have a wedding; get thee to the church on time. It's your own fault if you miss the vows and you face the shame of not honoring your friends by your late arrival. In the wise actuarial practice, Jesus reminded his friend not to be naïve by only assuming goodness in other human beings. If you know that there are thieves in the area; lock the doors of your house and be prepared.
How do we deal with fear? First treasure God above all and then whatever we might lose cannot cause the loss of God. And don't be naïve; practice wise probability theory in all that we do.
These are excellent ways to deal with fear but there is something further that can be done with fear. Fear saps an incredible amount of life energy and that same life energy can be transformed and expressed as its opposite. What is the oppose of fear? It is faith.
The Faith chapter of the Bible is the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Faith is defined as the assurance of things hoped for; the evidence or conviction of things not seen.
Fear is a wrong relationship to the future. Fear is based upon building worst case scenarios and letting those scenarios keep us from effective action now. Fear is based upon what we cannot see yet in the future but projecting the worst outcomes and then acting accordingly. (How many remember the Y2K scare and the many people who acted out in fear?)
Faith is inspired by hope and hope is the gift of vision of what is good and more perfect. With faith we let the magnet of hope inspire creative actions which attempt to reach the goals of hope. Faith is not hope; faith is creative action in the direction of the perfection of the vision of hope.
Hope does not exist in a vacuum; hope needs exemplars. Hope needs the vision of God as our perfect treasure. Hope needs the example of the life of Jesus to show us how God would live a human life. Hope needs the examples of saints, holy people, moms, dads, friends, teachers and mentors. Why? Faith needs the positive visions provided by living examples of what is good and decent, positive and optimistic.
Today we are invited to the life of faith, just like all of the heroes of faith written about in the Bible. These heroes were not perfect; they had human weaknesses, but they had faith. They had the ability in the midst of the varied circumstances of life to execute their actions toward the better and more perfect visions of hope.
Without faith, we cannot please God. Without faith we cannot make progress toward what is better.
But with faith we can continually make creative advance in our lives and in our community. With faith we can always be at the work of surpassing ourselves in excellence in a future state.
And we owe it to ourselves and to our communities to live by faith. If we live by faith we become examples to the young and to each other to provide encouragement and positive direction in our lives.
The Gospel for us today is that our fear can be transformed to faith. And so the energy of faith can propel us to complete the vision of hope.
Jesus says to us today: Do not be afraid, don't worry, be happy and exercise your faith. Amen.
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