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| Old photo of my brother Dan and chickens |
Well, today I started to think that maybe it’s not safety that keeps us from being afraid. Maybe it’s love.Love that. God does not keep us safe. He loves us like a mother hen. Like Aslan - is he safe? No, but he is good. He is love! And the song by Anne Murray, "...on the other side of fear is love."
https://nadiabolzweber.substack.com/p/be-not-afraid-um-yeahok?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozMTUyMzYyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjozMjA3NTAsIl8iOiJvNi84MSIsImlhdCI6MTU4NDY1Nzk1OCwiZXhwIjoxNTg0NjYxNTU4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjM3MzMiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.I2vePWFgQNW7p8PdbXLCi7uMUns2XsaJEhhdTCKO3zM
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me,‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.….Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Luke 13)
There’s a minor character on the Simpsons named Kent
Brockman who is kind of a news anchor spokesperson guy with a chiseled face and
a low voice. He is the picture of self-confidence, and one my favorite moments
on the Simpsons was an infomercial for a self-help CD series Kent Brockman made
called, Get Confident, Stupid!
I think of Kent Brockman telling us to “get confident,
stupid!” pretty much every time I think about how often Jesus said “be not
afraid” since I tend to file both of those statements in the easier
said than done category. As if the only reason we
lack confidence is no one ever said Get Confident, Stupid!, to us - and
the only reason we’re afraid is because we just needed some
well meaning messiah to come along and finally say “be not afraid”.
But never once have I stopped being afraid just because
someone said that.
I AM afraid.
I’m afraid that I might get sick or the people I love might
get sick
I’m afraid of America turning into Grapes of Wrath again
I’m afraid of what this election might mean for our country
I’m afraid of my children making bad choices that will have
lasting implications.
And strangely, I’m also afraid of stepping on spiders in
case they have some secret way of communicating with all the other spiders
around and they will all know that I am a spider killer and they will all come
and get me when I least suspect it.
And yet, the words Fear not show up in the
Bible over 100 times, (parenthetically, the phrase Get Confident,
Stupid….doesn’t show up even once. Shocking, I know.)
So anyhow, folks came to Jesus and said he should leave town
since Herod wanted to kill him. And just to be clear, Herod had previously
imprisoned and then beheaded Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist. So, unlike my
spider conspiracy theories, Herod represented very real, actual danger.
Which is why I love Jesus’ reaction. Because Jesus was the
embodiment of be not afraid….he was like, “Oh Herod wants to kill
me? Well, tell that fox that I’m like, SUPER busy!” He basically
said to the same guy who beheaded his cousin “Oh sorry if this
comes as a shock to your fragile, bully ego but I’m just not afraid of you”
Jesus, the guy who again and again says “be not afraid”
shows us here exactly what being unafraid looks like.
Which is pretty badass.
… but does it take away my fear? Not
really.
I mean, let’s be honest, I’m never going to be Jesus. And
neither are you.
So I cannot bear to preach a “What Would Jesus Do” sermon.
We already have plenty of messages out there telling us that everything will be
ok and we will feel safe if we can just manage to hoard the amount of hand
sanitizer that guy in SC did, and then maybe muster up the compassion of Mother
Teresa, the physique of our Crossfit Coach, the entrepreneurial genius of Mark
Zuckerberg, and now, the fearlessness of Jesus. I mean, knock
yourself out, but I’m pretty sure none of that a) is realistically possible or
b) will actually keep me safe.
So maybe our hope for becoming unafraid is found in
the rest of this story – the part where Jesus calls Herod a
fox and then refers to himself as a mother hen.
A mother hen.
Maybe that beautiful image of God could mean something
important for us: and by us I mean we fragile, vulnerable human beings who face
very real danger. I can’t bear to say that this scripture is a description of
what behaviors and attitudes you could imitate if you want to be a good,
not-afraid person. But neither can I tell you that the Mother Hen thing means
that God will protect you from Herod or that God is going to keep bad things
from happening to you.
Because honestly, nothing actually keeps danger from being
dangerous.
A mother hen cannot actually keep a determined fox from
killing her chicks. So where does that leave us? I mean, if danger
is real, and a hen can’t actually keep their chicks out of danger, then what
good is this image of God as Mother Hen if faith in her can’t make us safe?
Well, today I started to think that maybe it’s not safety that
keeps us from being afraid.
Maybe it’s love.
Which means that a Mother Hen of a God doesn’t keep foxes
from being dangerous…a Mother Hen of a God keeps foxes from being what
determines how we experience the unbelievably beautiful gift of being alive.
God the Mother Hen gathers all of her downy feathered,
vulnerable little ones under God’s protective wings so that we know where we
belong, because it is there that we find warmth and shelter.
But Faith in God does not bring you safety.
The fox still exists.
Danger still exists.
And by that I mean, danger is not optional, but fear
is.
Because maybe the opposite of fear isnt
bravery. Maybe the opposite of fear is love. Paul tells us that
perfect love casts out fear. So in the response to our own Herods, in response
to the very real dangers of this world we have an invitation as people of
faith: which is to respond by loving.
It’s like the famous story about Martin Luther: when asked
what he would do if he knew the world was about to end, he famously said if he
knew the world were ending tomorrow, then he would plant an apple tree today.
I love that because it is defiantly hopeful. As though he
actually listened to Jesus when Jesus said “do not be afraid”. If the world
were ending he would respond by loving the world.
Because the Herods of this world, the dangers of this world
the foxes that may surround us, do not get to determine the contours of our
hearts. Nor the content of our minds.
So, we can plant trees and cast out demons and heal, and we
can squeeze every single drop of living out of this life.
So to hell with fear. Because it does nothing to
actually keep the bad things from happening ….it just steals the joy of
appreciating the good things around us.
So, love the world, good people.
But, you know, for now, do it from home.
Amen.
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