TSSF Northeast Regional Convocation
Ken Norian, TSSF Sunday sermon 8/11/2012
Loving God, thank you for minds to think, mouths to speak, ears to hear, and hearts to understand…..
Fear is something that everyone experiences in their life. It is a natural reaction to a perceived threat that causes animal of all sorts to move quickly away from the threat, and sometimes hide. It is a basic survival mechanism that can be essential to avoiding pain or the threat of danger. In additional to getting away from the threat of danger or hiding, fear can sometimes cause animals (including us) to confront the source of fear. Sometimes, unfortunately, fear can also cause paralysis. While some animals may freeze when confronted to mask themselves from a predator, most of the times doing nothing doesn’t help one get away from the source of fear.
It gets a little more complicated with human beings though. While all healthy animals (including human beings) have an instinctual response to danger, feelings of fear in humans are confused with and intertwined with anxiety. From a clinical perspective, fear is related to specific behaviors of escape and/or avoidance where anxiety is related to a situation which is seen as being uncontrollable or unavoidable. I guess you could say that fear is more of a “clear and present danger” situation while anxiety is a response to dealing with upcoming negative events. Fear is usually short lived, oriented to getting away from a specific threat while anxiety is longer acting and focused on the future. Anxiety can give feelings of apprehension or dread. Some of you probably know the symptoms – a fast beating heart, tension, fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, headaches, stomach aches, sweating, trembling, nightmares, etc.
Well, this is supposed to be a sermon, not a mini psychology lesson…. The Bible, not burdened by 21st century definitions or psychology doesn’t always make as clear a distinction between the two and what it has to has say about one often applies to the other.
Anxiety, worry and tension are some of the most destructive forces we can face. They sap our strength and slowly undermine our faith, keeping us from maturing in the Lord. In Luke 8:14, the seed that fell among thorns, tells us not to be “thorn patch” people – overcome by worries and the lure of materialism. Francis resonated to this so much.
Psalm 34 which we heard earlier has been one of my favorite Psalms for a very long time. I have a Bible I got in my first year of college just under 40 years ago, and there are several passages I highlighted from this Psalm when I had hair down to my shoulders and couldn’t yet grow a beard. Let’s set the stage a bit… Saul was the King of Israel who wanted to kill David. David ran away and Saul followed him. David went to the Philistine city of Gath whose King was Abimelech. He wasn’t very friendly to David. Instead of trusting in God, David became afraid and concocted a plan of his own – to make Abimelch think he was crazy. In those days, it was thought to be wrong to kill crazy people so instead of killing David he sent him away. David found himself a cave a few miles away. Several hundred people went to the camp David made, running away from a difficult life in Judah. They were pretty much what we would call refugees today. This story is found in 1 Samuel chapters 21 and 22.
Nearly every verse of Psalm 34 is rich and meaningful, but there are three verses that I highlighted in that old Bible:
• 4: I prayed to the Lord and he answered me, he freed me from all my fears.
• 6: In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my enemies.
• 18: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
God promises to set us free from our fears (4,6) guard and defend us (7), show us goodness (8), supply our needs (9), listen when we call to him (15), and redeem us (22). We have to do our part though. We have to trust him (4,10), cry out to him (6,17), take refuge in him (8), fear him (9), serve him (22). Most of us wish that we could escape trouble…. Pain, grief, loss, sorrow, failure and so on. God promises to be our source of power, courage and wisdom, helping us through our problems.
In today’s reading from 1 Kings, Elijah provides another example of someone we can identify with. Just when God needed him most, this prophet of God became a great failure and ran away from his post is a terribly depressed condition. He had shown great courage before Ahab in the king’s palace and on Mount Carmel. He saw examples of God’s providence over and over. But He became afraid and discouraged when faced with the threat of Jezubel and the fact that there would not be a quick revival in the land. How could Elijah, this man of God, run away into the wilderness and ask God to take his life? He had his own expectations, lost his focus and relied on his own strategies. But, of course, God wasn’t done with Elijah, and failure doesn’t mean defeat – just as it doesn’t mean an end to our challenges and struggles.
Therein lies the rub. We’re likely to all have struggles and challenges. I’ve got what the vast majority of people on the planet would consider to be a very blessed life. I know, intellectually, that there are people right this minute who are suffering orders of magnitude than I ever have…. my divorce, brush with the champagne of cancers (prostate), financial struggles (and, yes, I have them worse than can imagine with five kids and child support for many years), addiction and incarceration in the family, loss of jobs over the years… these pale in comparison to the kind of suffering that others experience. Most of them are “first world problems”. I sliced my finger open a while ago and it really affected by daily routine for a while – I was cutting limes for a gin and tonic. That’s a first world problem. Having potable water to drink…. That’s not a first world problem. But, still, rationalizing like that really doesn’t do much to make me, or probably you feel any better.
When we are struck with fear and/or anxiety what we want is comfort and protection. The good news is that we can have both. Psalm 46:1 speaks to this: “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” No matter what might happen to us, we need not fear. Even in the face of utter destruction, the psalmist expresses a quiet confidence in God’s ability to save. When things seem impossible, remember Luke 18:27, “the things which are impossible for people are possible with God”. I have to keep reminding myself of this often. Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “There is only one force more powerful than fear – and that is faith… Love overcomes fear. By love is meant trust, confidence and complete dependence upon God.
Speaking of Norman Vincent Peale, along with that old Bible I spoke about earlier, I also have this copy of “Thought Conditioners” that I got around the same time. If you search for Thought Conditioners + Norman Peale it’s easy to find on line. In the intro he writes, “the world in which you live is not determined so much by outward circumstances nearly so much as by the thoughts which habitually occupy your mind”.
Elijah and David learned this. Francis learned it too when he said – “Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.”
I suppose my favorite verse of scripture is (Phil 4:4-7, multiple translations) “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Don’t worry about ANYTHING, instead, pray about EVERYTHING. Tell God what you need and thank him for what he’s done. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe as you live in Christ Jesus.”
As Franciscans, we’re fond of saying “peace and all good”. Close, but the actual words of Francis was, “may the Lord give you peace”. From The Assisi Compilation, “ Likewise the Lord also revealed to him the greeting that the brothers should use, as he had written in his Testament: “The Lord revealed a greeting to me that we should say, ‘May the Lord give you peace’”.
See this carefree guy, supposedly “successful” guy talking to you now? I’m a good actor, but I worry a lot – more than I should. I wrote a little prayer that has several stubs of scripture in it that I pray every day:
God of love, my place of safety when I am in distress. You know my needs, fears, worries and anxieties. Forgive me for the times I’ve failed to love and serve you and others as I should, and for the role I’ve played in bringing trouble on myself. But you, O Lord, have mercy on me. Give me wisdom to know what I can and should do, and give me the grace and strength to do it. Be my fortress and my refuge; deliver me from all my fears. Grant me hope and confidence that you will be with me forever. Help me not to worry about the future but joyfully trust in you completely. Fill me with perfect peace that transcends understanding”.
Amen.