WHY SHOULD WE FEAR NOT?
Luke 1:26-38

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
December 5, 2004 / Second Sunday of Advent

The angel says to Mary, "Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God." When I was a child I used to imagine this scene. I saw a tall angel with long feathery wings, and a glow of halo around his head; an angel that appeared fast – surprisingly – out of the blue. I also heard a loud voice that sounded almost like a trumpet. No wonder Mary was flabbergasted, taken aback, uneasy. So when the angel said, "Do not be afraid Mary," I took it to mean "do not be startled," "do not be surprised." That was needed to cushion the beginning of the conversation. After that Gabriel got on to the real message.

So with that understanding, I pushed the comment about fear aside, and got on to the baby.

Since then, as those of you who have heard my sermons before know, I have changed my idea of angel visits. I have come to believe that on Earth at least, angels most often look like people: ordinary people, people in everyday clothes, people without any neon signs saying "I am an angel, look here."

But even though I changed my vision of angel visits, I never went back and rethought then why Gabriel would have to begin the conversation "Do not be afraid Mary." Now I have finally changed my tune. At last I have come to understand that "fear not," is not merely a cautionary little introduction to some other important message, "fear not" is a central part of the whole message of the angel. It is what God wants to say to humanity. It is the instruction to Mary on how she is expected to live.

I guess I have been thinking about fear a lot lately. I've been disturbed about a lot of what is happening in America, and much of it has been since 9-11. We live in a climate that has been electrified by fear.

So my concern about fear led me to an excellent article by Richard Rohr¹, then to a profound new book by Corey Robin². I started thinking about all those Advent and Christmas "fear nots," to Mary, and Zechariah, and the shepherds, and Joseph. So I thought I would talk about fear in an Advent sermon. And then I had an epiphany: I went to my concordance to look up Bible passages about fear. It was like opening Fibber McGee's closet. Bible passages about fear came tumbling out the closet all over me. I never realized how important the issue of fear is to the Bible. So I am going to have to do a lot more work on this.

But as I was saying, I've been disturbed about a lot of what is happening in America since 9-11. We live in a climate that has been electrified by fear.

It is now all right to pull women aside at the Los Angeles airport and fondle their breasts, because we are all afraid.

Quaker peace workers, some of whom have worked with our local American Friends Service Committee that has their offices in our building, are now on government lists, and pulled aside for special searches as "Female Specials." Its okay because of our fear of violence. But they are pacifists for God's sake.

In the summer of 2002 West Coast dock workers, who had serious concerns about their pay and health benefits, were planning a strike. Mostly these workers unloaded things like toys and tee-shirts coming from Asian countries to companies like The Gap, Mattel, and Home Depot. So these three companies went to the government to ask them to get the workers off their backs. The government responded by threatening a declaration of national emergency or the use of federal troops. They justified this incredible response because they said it was a "threat to national security." So now these workers suffer low pay and more limited health care to unload tee-shirts and toys, because we are afraid!³ Don't you think those Gap happiness and joy Christmas commercials should be controversial because of the way they make their money?

Of course there are legitimate reasons to be cautious, to be vigilant. 9-11 should make us aware that America is vulnerable to attack. But we are not the first ones, nor will we be the last. Al Queda attacked in Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen, and Afghanistan before it ever attacked in America. Terrorism is an international issue.

And we have been attacked before – how soon we forget. Let me remind you of some things from American history: In a war Providence, Rhode Island was attacked and burned to the ground. In another one Washington, D.C. was attacked, evacuated, and the White House was burned. In still another one a defending army in San Antonio, Texas was completely obliterated and killed to the last one. And one of the bloodiest scenes in American history occurred in a field outside a little Pennsylvania village where there was a Lutheran Seminary: Gettysburg. Our ancestors also lived in merciless times.

And this is also true of our personal lives. My Uncle Billy died in a diphtheria epidemic; my aunt’s best friend was liberated from a German concentration camp with a number tattooed on her arm, after losing most of her family, and my college room mate died in Vietnam.

This is a dangerous world, but the angel says to Mary "Fear not."

Who lived in a more dangerous world, Mary or us? We live in the United States in the relative obscurity of Rhode Island. Mary lived in Palestine under Herod the Great, one of the leading despots of all time. It was the age of Augustus Caesar during the century of those vile and violent Roman Emperors. Mary probably knew the mothers of many of the babies killed by Herod, Mary herself would have to flee as a refugee to a foreign land. Before she would die she would see her cousin’s son beheaded and her own son crucified. Whose life is more dangerous, hers or ours? Yet the message of God to her is "Fear not!" So why are we afraid?

Actually fear is the most natural of human emotions. It is really the first human emotion if you believe Genesis. Adam and Eve look at the fruit on the tree and find it attractive, and they eat it, and it is good to eat. But these are mere reactions to outward stimuli. It is only when God calls to Adam, that Adam is afraid. Being afraid is Adam's first recognition of himself, the first realization that bubbles up from the inside. Being afraid, therefore, is a normal human response. We were built with the emotional ability to be afraid. We do it naturally. But the question then is what shall we do with our fears? How shall we react to our fears? Shall we wallow in our fears?

When Moses encourages the Israelites to not fear their enemies and instead fear the Lord, Moses is saying you can choose which fears to be attentive to. Moses is saying to put your fears of enemies, or animals, or screaming, or terrorists above God is to fail to honor God. It lowers God in importance around all these other things you have your mind on. If you put God first in your life then all these other things will fall into their proper places. So as Proverbs says, "The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord."⁴

The question is not then that you will not have fears, but how you shall respond to them? Take for instance two neighbors that lived on the same city street in the Netherlands when the Nazis invaded. Both families had Jewish friends. One family decided to be so afraid of the SS troops that they shunned and abandoned their Jewish friends. The other family decide to hide Anne Frank and her family in their attic, and to feed and take care of them. One family let fear rule. The other family overcame their fear with courage.

That is exactly what Mary did. She knew the reality of life. She knew what was going on. But she conquered her fear with courage. She had the baby. And she did not become paralyzed and hide out in a corner of the stable in Bethlehem: afraid that if she went out that Herod’s army would see her. When she and Joseph went through the border crossing to Egypt they did not shake and mumble their words calling attention to their plight. They moved assuredly, resolutely, confidently, knowing they walked with God. When she had to go to the cross, she did not stay at home and cry, afraid of what the Roman Army might do to the convict's family. She went and stood right there a sad but strong woman.

Of course we must learn discretion. The wise men knew enough to go home by another way. And Joseph told people that he heeded the advice of angels about where to go and when. They found the right way to do things despite what originally brought their fear.

But listen: don't you think under King Herod that the powerful people in the palace believed that it was perfectly acceptable to fondle and abuse women because they were afraid? And don't you think they thought it was acceptable to keep the poor poor and to deny them health care because they were afraid? Of course they did. They had to defend their power, and their influence, and their property – they had so much to lose so they were afraid. Their fears turned them into criminals.

But in their midst was this little woman who learned to name her fears, to put her fears in order, and to put her earthly fears behind her and to trust in God. And who changed the world?

Mary was able to change the world because she believed her angel and did what the angel said: fear not.

And that is what the angel annunciates to you today. Are you poor, not knowing whether to choose food or lodging? Much less wondering if you can buy anyone presents. "Do not be afraid, God has found favor with you!" Are you dis-eased, broken in body, often in agony, wondering if you have any worth at all? "Do not be afraid, God has found favor with you!" Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered? "Do not be afraid, God has found favor with you." Have you been called names, abused, beaten, cast down, put down? "Do not be afraid, God has found favor with you!" Have you achieved well, captured all the attainments you were taught to seek after, and find them unsatisfying, unfulfilling? "Do not be afraid, God has found favor with you!"

Of course you will fear. But name your fear. Put your fears in order. Then live courageously. Cast out your fears. Be not afraid.

Amen.
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1 - Rohr, Richard, "Fear Itself," Sojourners (October, 2004, pp.13-15,20-22)
2 - Robin, Corey, Fear, The History of a Political Idea, Oxford University Press, New York, 2004)
3 – Ibid., p.191.
4 – Ibid., p.7.