So What Are You Afraid of?

Sermon Preached by Tom Haynes
St. Thomas Episcopal Church
August 11, 2013
Proper 14C
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

So what are you afraid of? I know my wife is afraid of spiders. I can’t pretend to understand this, but I just accept the fact that she is. My dog Poly is afraid of thunder and lightning. She is a retriever, and people use them for hunting to fetch ducks. You would think that loud noises and flashes of light would mean it is time to get to work, but for her in means it is time to go hide in the bath room.

People have lots of fears. One of my daughters had a terrible time getting to sleep at night. She was afraid of bugs and monsters. I got one of those plant mister spray bottles and put water in it. When it was time to go to bed, Dad would come in and check the room – a couple of squirts from the bottle of “bug and monster spray,” and she was good.

So what are you afraid of? Some of us have fears that people will see who we really are and won’t love us anymore. Some of us fear dying unprepared. We fear losing jobs, or not being able to provide from our family. People who call the church for help are often very afraid. They have restraining orders on ex-boyfriends. They can’t pay the rent. School is about to start, and they don’t have any way to buy clothes for the children.

Today’s Gospel lesson begins with the words, “Do not be afraid.” This phrase appears a lot in the Gospels, and I want to give you just a couple of examples. When Gabriel appears to Mary to tell her that she will conceive and give birth to Jesus, the Son of God, we hear it. When Jesus was walking on the sea of Galilee, and they thought he was a ghost, he told the disciples in the boat “Do not be afraid.” When the angel appeared to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, he tells them “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”

In each of these cases, people have fears. They are terrified because they have gotten a glimpse of God’s power and plan for them. I get that. You can see how they might be scared. It is a very human response. Mary is wondering how she is going to explain this pregnancy to Joseph and the neighbors. The message to the shepherd is the one I want to focus on for a second because the angel goes on to say “I am bringing you good news.”

This “Good News” is key to understanding our relationship with God. God has a plan for us. We are fearful because we get distracted by the scary details of the moment. We need to remember that God loves us and intends good things for us. The New Testament is called the “Good News” because it is. The short version of the Gospel message is that Christ came and died for us so that we could be redeemed. This is pretty good news no matter how you look at it. It makes sense to tell people “Do not be afraid.” It makes sense, but it is easy to say and hard to do. We are afraid sometimes and can’t help it.

Those details of life distract us from the larger message. Think for a minute about the messages our society gives us.
• Live for the moment.
• Look out for number one.
• The person who dies with the most toys wins.
• Stick to others before they stick it to you.

The rules of the kingdom of God are quite different. The Kingdom Rules are:
• Give alms.
• Show mercy.
• Perform acts of kindness.
• Love your enemy.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

So what can we do while we wait to see God in His glory? How do we deal with fears and live life day to day in a society that does not understand or value what we believe? In today’s Gospel we are told it is the Father’s pleasure to give us the kingdom. What do we do while we wait?

Today’s Gospel tells us what to do. First we are to be ready. We are told to be dressed for action and have our lamps lit. Being dressed for action is in Ephesians 6. We have a great description of the armor of God. We wear a belt of truth and a breastplate of righteousness. We have on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. We take up the shield of faith. We fit our feet with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace Now that we are dressed, we are supposed to keep our lamps lit. Keeping an oil lamp lit is not a trivial task. It requires constant maintenance. It has to be filled and the wick has to be trimmed. It is not one of those “set and forget” tasks.

It is not enough to be dressed for action; there is work to be done. Our faith lives are not “set and forget” either. As disciples, we have to be constantly working to maintain our faith lives. We do that by worshiping in community, doing private prayer and meditation and giving alms and performing acts of charity. It is a battle sometimes to get to Mass or pay our pledge, but we are dressed for battle. We are ready, and we have to be committed to staying ready when it might be easier to stay in bed or watch TV.

The Gospel tells us that “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required…” Now you are thinking this is Good News. You are thinking, I have not really been given much, so I am off the hook. There is couple of points here to be made. First, God works miracles with little things. The little boy with five loaves and two fishes is an example. His small offering of food fed five thousand people. Mother Teresa is another. She was kind to hopeless, dying people, and her example inspired the world. Every congregation has people whose Christ like lives bless everyone they touch––in ways great and small. You know who they are. Not only are they prepared for the day that they will see Christ, but they model for us how to live and how to prepare.

The second point with our gifts is found in today’s Gospel. We look at what we bring to the table, and it may not seem like much. The fact is that we have been given it all. The reading tells us “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We are heirs to the Kingdom. We are being given everything. It may not seem like we have been given the Kingdom, but it is a lot easier to understand that we have been given salvation and the Scriptures and we have been blessed with this faith community. In return, God wants us to share these gifts with others. We commit our lives completely to living out the Gospel message.

When I talked about the people in this congregation who live Christ like
lives and bless those whose lives they come in contact with, was I talking about you? I claim that I was, and whether you know it or not, someone looks to you as a walking witness to God’s power to redeem. Be a good witness! Be dressed and be ready!

So are you afraid? What are you afraid of? We have every reason to rejoice! We are heirs to the Kingdom. God has blessed us in so many ways. We have salvation. We have each other. We have work to do.

Here are the takeaways this morning:
It is human nature to be afraid. We are a new creation, and we are heirs to the Kingdom. The Scripture tells us over and over not to be afraid. We need to live lives of hope.

God is telling us not to be afraid because He brings Good News. We have salvation. We have Scripture, and we have each other. We have work to do. We are called to be dressed and ready. Readiness is ongoing. We do it by living out our baptismal promises and growing as disciples.

I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen