Fear Not

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

May 6, 2012

Fear Not

1 John 4:18

What is it?

Who is it?

Spiders, snakes?

The dentist?

The dark?

Thunder?

We are all afraid of something;

every one of us knows what it feels like

to be filled with fear.

Someone asks you to speak in public,

before a large group of people,

and if you are like most people,

the very thought will cause you

to break out in a sweat,

turn your legs to jello,

your knees ready to buckle beneath you,

your heart pounding in your chest.      

Fear is a natural emotion;

we are all hard-wired with it.

God created us with fear,

so we would know that there are times

when we should run from danger,

when bravery becomes recklessness, foolishness,

when, if we hope to see another day,

our best path is to find a way out,

away from threat.

God wants us to recognize those times when

our “fight or flight” control

is switched to “flight”.

Fear can protect us from dangers.

Yet fear can also grip us, paralyze us,

lead us down destructive paths,

be anything but protective.

                          

We fear failure,

so we cheat;

We fear poverty,

so we steal.

We fear getting caught,

so we lie.

We fear strangers and the different,

so we hate.

We fear change,

so we resist.

We fear being hurt by others in relationship,

so we build a wall around our hearts

to protect ourselves.

We build a wall because we are afraid;

we hold back our love.

We do this in marriages;

we do this in relationships with family –

parents, children, siblings;

and we do it with God,

in our relationship with Jesus.

Yet God holds nothing back.     

God didn’t even hold back his Son

so that we would know his grace and love.

God knows that fear grips us.

God knows that fear can overwhelm us,

take control of our very lives.

Count the number of times the words

“fear not”

or “do not be afraid”

appear in the Old Testament

and the New Testament.

Would you care to guess how many times?

One dozen?

Two dozen?

Try well over one hundred times!

God wants us to overcome fear so we can live fully

the life God wants for us,

so we can know fully and completely

the love God gives us.

Our text reminds us that

“whoever fears has not reached perfection in love….

‘But perfect love casts out fear.”

The love God gives us through Jesus Christ

is that perfect love which can cast out fear,

and give us peace,

give us assurance;

Not that life will be without pain or problem,

but that God will always be with us,

Jesus will always be at our side.

Listen to God’s words of reassurance

spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

But now says the Lord,
   …Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
   I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
   and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
   and the flame shall not consume you.
^…Do not fear, for I am with you;

(Isaiah 43:1-5)

Do you hear what God is saying to us?

This isn’t the prosperity gospel

so many contemporary preachers

love to preach;

This is truth, the reality of life,

that while we may find ourselves caught in fire and flood,

while we may find ourselves in the very middle

of the Valley of the Shadow of Death,

we will never be without God’s presence;

we will never be without Jesus’ love;

we will never be out of reach of the calming voice

that says to us: “Be not afraid.”

“Fear not.”

For we are precious in God’s sight,

and God’s perfect love in Jesus Christ

can cast out our fear,

if only we let it.

The words “fear not”

can turn fear into a “not”

as the writer Kathleen Norris puts it,

fear melted away, gone.

Do you recall the story in the Gospel of Matthew

when Jesus walked on water?

He and the disciples had spent the day

on one side of the Sea of Galilee

and as evening drew near,

Jesus sent his disciples across

to the other side of the Sea in a boat.

As the evening turned to night,

the weather turned foul,

the wind whipping the little boat,

pushing back against every stroke of the oars.

Waves battered the boat and

water crashed over the gunnels

filling the boat in the bleak, hopeless dark of night.

And just as the disciples were surely giving up hope,

exhausted by their struggle against the wind and the waves,

consumed by fear,

there comes Jesus, walking toward them,

on the surface of the water,

oblivious to the gusts,

paying no attention to the rolling swells.

                                   

What do you imagine was more frightening

to the men in the boat:

the storm that raged all around them,

or seeing what must have looked like a ghost

doing the impossible: walking on the water.

It should come as no surprise then

that the first words Jesus said to the terrified men were,

“Do not be afraid, it is I.”

(Matthew 14:27)

More accurately, what Jesus said was,

“Do not be afraid,

I am.”

“I am”

Two simple words, three letters,

yet in them a promise of perfect love,

for in those words is God’s promise

of his abiding presence,

his reassuring presence in our lives

at all times, in all places,

“I am with you,

and so you have nothing to fear.”

The preacher and teacher Fred Craddock

reminds us that in the Bible,

the sea was the “abode of all the forces

that were against us,”

it was the repository of everything we had to fear.

In walking on the water, Jesus is saying to the disciples,

saying to us,

that God controls even the watery chaos,

and so we have absolutely nothing to fear.

What is the fear that grips you?

Don’t say, “nothing,” for it is surely something.

But you can let it go here and now.

You no longer need to tremble at the shadows,

shrink from those who frighten you,

hesitate, falter, hold back

(Henry Van Dyke)

For Christ is here, saying to you

“do not be afraid,

for I am.”

Christ is here, inviting you to come to his Table

to eat with him this meal that he has prepared,

this spiritual meal

that will renew and refresh you,

that will grace you with courage

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Come to this Table

and leave your fear behind.

And then go from this Table, confident,

assured,

unafraid,

filled with the perfect love given you,

given me,

by God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s unwavering promise to us: “I am”.

AMEN