Should We Fear God?

Each of us is afraid of something. I am afraid of heights. A few summers ago we roofed our old house and I was unable to go up and help. Maybe its more a fear of ladders. Or, maybe I am just afraid of hard work. In any event, it was very useful to have this fear a few summers ago.

Fear can be very helpful. The zebra who is not afraid of the lion is called lunch. Fear is entirely normal. It is perfectly understandable to experience fear between the medical tests and learning the results of medical tests. It is a scary world, to be sure. There seems to be a lot these days to be afraid of.

But should we be afraid of God? This is the question I have been pondering after driving by one of our local churches whose sign exclaimed “those who fear God do not have to fear anything else.” Now I am certain that this expression was meant as a comfort and with the best intentions and I am not quarrelling with the church. But the statement raises an interesting theological question and, I think, an important one. Should we fear God? Does God expect us to fear him? If so, what are the consequences of not fearing God? If we are not to fear God, what are the alternatives?

As always, the place to take such questions is the Bible. And not just bits of the bible, but as much of the Bible as we can manage. There are an abundance of choices for this subject from the Old Testament but I was drawn to a very familiar statement which is really at the heart of Old Testament wisdom literature. Proverbs 1: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

What does the proverb mean by “fear the Lord”? In the Old Testament this word, like many words, can mean one thing in one place and something different in another place. But by and large when the Old Testament talks about fear of the Lord—and nearly four-fifths of all references to fear in the Old Testament have God as the object—it means a combination of fear and awe, or reverence. To the Hebrew mind, God is awesome, mysterious. One cannot look upon God and live. The God of Isaac is referred to in various places as “the fear of Isaac”.

Which is not to say that the common understanding of fear is not also present. There are many references which mean pretty much to be afraid. The psalms are full of references to the this fear of the Lord as being a very healthy response.

And certainly in the Old Testament there is a lot to fear. Adam and Eve were fearful of God after they disobeyed and they had reason to, as they were cast out of paradise and saddled with painful punishments. God was angered by the behavior of human beings and sent a flood to wipe them out. Moses feared God after discovering that the people had molded a golden calf and the result of that episode was a great plague which God sent to the people on account of their sin. Throughout the narratives of Israel first in the time of the Judges through the story of the Kings God is constantly delivering Israel into the hands of their enemies because of this or that transgression. No wonder wisdom says to begin with fear of the Lord.

And clearly these ideas are still with us to this day. Whenever tragedy strikes, like the earthquake in Haiti, there will be people like Pat Robertson who see the vengeful hand of God. Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell raised a stir after 9/11 calling in God’s judgment on America. Behind such statements is clearly the theology that says that God is ever ready to do us harm if we are not doing exactly what God demands we do.

But how can this view be contemplated by anyone who has the Gospel implanted in his/her heart? And to be fair to the Old Testament, there are abundant passages of grace. God forgives, redeems, comforts, even regrets. It is in that light that the New Testament illumines the Old, or, that the Old Testament emerges into the New. But the place to start in the New Testament is, or course, with Jesus.

Or just before Jesus. Luke begins his nativity story with John the Baptist’s dad Zechariah. When Zechariah first heard that he and Elizabeth were going to have a son he was afraid. When Mary was visited by the angel she was perplexed. When the shepherds encountered the angels they were sore afraid. And in each instance the message was the same. Do not be afraid.

Throughout the Gospel narratives there are people in fear. There is the woman with the flow of blood who touches Jesus’ hem and is healed. She is afraid of Jesus but Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her. The leader of the synagogue whose child is dying is told “Do not fear, only believe” and his daughter is healed. The disciples see Jesus walking across the water and they are afraid and Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, it is I”.

Now there is one passage where Jesus says “I will warn you who to fear: fear him who has the authority to cast into hell.” (Luke 12:4-34) From this it would appear that Jesus is advocating a healthy fear of God. And yet when we look more closely at the context, Jesus is really contrasting this fear with the present earthly fear of authorities who have the power to kill indiscriminately. Further, Jesus says only two lines later: “Do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.”

In other words, Jesus is speaking rhetorically. Rather than fearing human authority, if you are going to fear someone, fear God, because only God is in control of your eternal destiny. Why waste your time being afraid of anything lesser than God? And here is where the church sign cozies up to the scripture. But Jesus quickly adds something which changes the complexion of this idea completely. If we fear anything it should be God, but we should not fear God because God places a great value on us. Jesus then goes on to caution against worry, talks about the ravens and the lilies of the field and culminates with the passage: Fear not little flock, for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

So we return to the question with which we began: Are we meant to fear God? Well certainly if “fear” is understood as a reverential awe, as an acknowledgement of the mystery and autonomy that is God, then surely this is a good disposition to hold. Yet I knew a man once who, thankfully, had no children, who gave me some parenting advice. He looked at me at said, “Pastor, you and I both know what it takes to be a parent—you have to give ‘em fear!” Apparently he was disturbed by the fact that the kids next door were a bit exuberant and he thought if they carried with them the fear of a good beating they might be less annoying.

Now if this is how we are to understand the fear of God then I think the New Testament witness discourages this. Now I don’t want to get sidetracked into debates about parenting and punishment and consequences etc because that is not really my point. My point is that Jesus exclusively tells people that God is not to be feared as the deliverer of punishment, he is to be loved and followed for he has in his grace given us the Kingdom of God.

The earliest New Testament witness to this is the Apostle Paul who writes frequently about this, especially in the letter to the Romans. Although Paul, being a human being, is not entirely consistent in his theology, he does amplify the point that in Christ we have been set free from the judgment of the law by the grace of God. And, being free from the burden of perfection under the law, we are free to respond in grace to the needs of the world. Can he put it more eloquently than he does in Romans 8 when he writes “nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”?

That seems pretty comprehensive—nothing in life or in death. And yet how often do we hear of the conditional love of God, which is why this topic is important.

Fear, properly understood, has its place. It protects the Zebra from being lunch and it protects us from wandering into a busy street without paying attention. Fear, properly understood, puts us in a good orientation to God as one who is majestic and awesome and yet personal to us in Christ. Fear, not properly used or managed, is a bad thing when it is used as a tool of manipulation by governments or churches or any other organization.

So fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. It is for this reason, and not out of fear, that when something goes wrong in the kingdom we rush to aid and support as we did in Haiti or we did in the gulf coast when hurricanes strike, or anywhere else locally or globally where people are in distress. This is our Father’s world and we are meant to tend it, build it, maintain justice within it. We do this not out of fear of condemnation but out of the joy of life in Jesus Christ. Remember, God sent his only son not to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved through him. Fear not.

Now, having said that, I am still not going up on the roof.

Confession

So the other day I posted this very self-righteous post about how I wasn't going to do any sermon prep for Sunday because "if I can't talk about the love of God for ten minutes without writing it down I should open a bookstore in Vermont and grow a long beard"

But I am a writer and I cannot help myself. So I admit it. I wrote it down. And here it is. I hope you enjoy it. Now excuse me while I pack for Vermont and, no, I don't need my razor.

Love, Gospel Style

John 21, 1 John

Paul said that Faith, Hope, and Love abide, these three. He wasn’t speaking specifically about the Bible but he might well have been. His words are a very good summary of the Bible. The Bible speaks throughout of faith, hope and love but clearly the greatest of these is love.

Love permeates the pages of the text. Yes, I know, you can find a healthy dose of violence and betrayal and dysfunction as well. For what, ultimately, is profound about the love of God if not the sin it overcomes? From the dawn of creation to the promise of the New Jerusalem, the love of God directs the reader from death into life.

The psalms are full of love. The Song of Solomon is full of love but we can’t read any of that until after 8 at night. Proverbs speak of love. Isaiah and Jeremiah talk of the love God has for the people even after they have broken the covenant and of how that love will re-establish a newer, better covenant.

And, of course, that newer covenant is the covenant we speak of as being sealed in Jesus’ blood. The New Covenant we also call the New Testament. Paul is all over love as we have mentioned already. Jesus obviously speaks of love. But there is no writer in the New Testament who prioritizes love as much as the one we know of as John. John’s gospel---and the three letters which bear his name---make love the center of all things. For John, clearly, the greatest of things is love.

And when speaking of John’s use of love it is always important to remind ourselves what he means by this. The word, as you have heard in many places and ways, is agape. Agape is a special kind of love. Agape is a love that prioritizes the well being of the Other. It is not a feeling, although it may generate feelings. It is not private, like love two people would hold exclusively for each other. It is a way of life. It is the way that Jesus is when he says he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His way is love because God’s way is love and Jesus is, after all, according to John, the love of God incarnate.

God is love, John says, and those who abide in God abide in love. But John places the emphasis of this love, not in word or speech but in action. Jesus, being the prime example, demonstrated love by his laying down of his life for the world. Agape is this kind of active love. As the writer Fred Buechner pointed out, to love someone in this way does not mean you have to like them. It means you have what is best for them at heart in what you do and say.

This is the new commandment of which Jesus speaks to his community on the eve of his execution. A new commandment I give you. That you love one another. In this way the world will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another as I have loved you. This commandment is not about affection. It is about attitude. To love one another in the community is to set the needs and desires of others along side our own. To love one another in the community is to understand that we are different and have different interests and tastes. To love one another in the community is to be aware of the ways in which we can honor one another and demonstrate the value we have for one another rather than simply taking what we can get for ourselves.

John’s Gospel ends twice. The first ending comes at the end of chapter 20. Chapter 21 comes later and is added on to bring John’s understanding of love into a new awareness. Whereas the original Gospel centered around the immediate community of Jesus, as distinct from the forms of Judaism which rejected that community, chapter 21 draws our attention to the needs of leadership in the community as it continues to develop. The back and forth with Jesus and Peter suggests to us that the community may have become a bit too much inward looking. The first step is learning to love each other in the community of Jesus. But John 21 wants us to know that this is not the end… it is the means to a larger end. To feed Jesus’ sheep. And who are Jesus’ sheep? All who hear his voice, whether they are part of “our” crowd or not.

So John presents us with a total picture of Love, Gospel style. First, God is love. God’s love for us is first and it is unconditional. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. As God loved us, we should love one another. The community that bears Jesus’ name must show the world that God’s love is real by the way in which they love one another. How crucial this is—that we learn how to value and respect each other and are willing to place another’s needs ahead of our own. What an inviting community that would be to those burdened and disgusted with the “me first” society. And finally, after having received God’s love and shared it within the community, we take it out to the world and share it with the sheep of Jesus’ fold. Feed my sheep, Jesus told Peter, if you love me.

On Valentine’s day it is customary to give some sign of one’s affection—a card, flowers, candy. Do we dare think of this table in that way? A sacrament is a visible sign of grace. At the table we share with Jesus and with one another that covenant of agape love which is the basis of the community. Does it cheapen the moment to think of this table as God’s "valentine"-- love made visible, tangible? For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus so loved his own that he gave his own life. We so love one another that we give the body and blood of Jesus to one another in remembrance not only of him, but of his love. Amen.

Special Guest Post- Morbid Society

I received the following eloquent response to my earlier post "Should I Be Worried?" and wanted to be sure it was seen. So I have received permission from its author, Shirley in California, to post it here.

I'm in a somewhat advanced state of chronological enhancement. I have no children (who don't have four feet and fur) much less grandchildren (the "children" mentioned above are all "fixed"). Also, I was never really a child, proceeding directly from infancy to adulthood, or so it seems to my current memory.

My point? I am so far out of the loop I can’t claim any hands-on knowledge of why morbidity is so attractive to the young. However, I have a supposition or two of what might spawn such an attraction. For instance, it could be for its exotic pseudo-romanticism and its shock value to adults. When I think in this context of the effect on young men who read Goethe's "Werther" when it was first published, I am a bit frightened. In trying to find the connection between my own early fantasy life (escape from dull powerlessness under parental authority into adventurous autonomy) and the current vogue, I find a more distinct difference in method of than in desire for escape.

Example: I play at collecting dolls. I think it is a good indicator of the temper of the times that there are dolls out there such as "Agnes Dreary", her brother "Viktor Dreary" and the older "Sister Dreary", one model of which is called “Watching the Garden Die”; there is a whole group of strange and violent looking dolls in "The Sinister Circus"(16"-18") line; a goth couple, but named Romeo & Juliet, with respectively a bottle of poison and a dagger in their hands; and there are the very glamorous Fashion Zombies. This sort of doll is relatively expensive running between $125-$250 costumed so they are for adults, I think. Why is violence so popular?

Example: Several young people in the San Jose area have committed suicide in this last year by various methods, including walking in front of light rail commuter trains.

Questions: Could the truly grotesque state of world affairs have something to do with this attraction to morbidity? Are we in some sort of vortex pulling us down toward the worst that’s in us? I do think the use of the words “The Fall” is not accidental. Every terrible thing that happens is immediately broadcast through an amazing diversity of media for us to see, hear and know. Young people are already by virtue of innocence rampant on a field of hormones in the throes of some exaggerated emotion or other all the time. With a depressive reality out there how does that affect them and how does morbidity make it better? Is it making fun of evil? If they laugh it can’t hurt them? Are they jaded or fatalistic? With the way things are, I often have real trouble keeping upbeat even with a strong faith that no matter how it looks, God is handling things. How must it be to be young now?

To tell it truly, I’m grateful that I am at this end of my life. I find myself not at all upset with the idea that though it appears the bad guys will be way ahead when the final quarter starts, I won't be on the bench much less the field, having been sent to the showers long since, and probably will watch the last of the game from the comfort of the skybox.

Conclusion: Being basically a worrywart, I do think there is reason to worry…about the young, especially—yes, but in deed about all of us in this off-the-rails country. Where do we as Christians stand on all this? Isn’t the message of morbidity that death is great and death wins? Do we believe that? There’s so much noise about pro-life on the one-track abortion issue. Where is pro-life when we are bombing the crap out of so many people in so many places? Jesus was so pro-life he let them kill him to save the lives of everyone forever. Where are we Christians on that?

Valentine's Poem

It isn't exactly traditional, but here is a poem for Valentine's Day (more or less)

Does A Love Poem Need to Be About Love?

Or dusty smells

of ruptured leaves

The crackling

of thin tinder

Or salty mist

clashing with froth

Sand infernos

drawn back to their home

Or air trimmed thin

by the glacier's edge

Lichen surviving

in a range of centuries

Or the baby's cry

echoing through adolescence

Mirrored in a father's face

fading from importance.

And the Answer is.....

Recently I posted a piece about discovering Morbid Outlook Magazine and whether such a thing was a cause for concern. It was admittedly one of my more spontaneous pieces and I wasn't sure it had any traction so I asked readers to comment about whether I was making a mountain out of a goth mole hill.

I had one respondent tell me it was really all good fun and that was it.

So I can conclude that no, I should not worry about this.

Although, just to be sure, I think I will ask Witch Hazel.

Sermon Prep

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday. This Sunday, the one before the beginning of Lent, is set aside to read from the Gospel story of Jesus on the mountain top appearing with Moses and Elijah and appearing to the disciples in translucent white.

I, however, have sold out to popular culture and am preaching about love for Valentine’s Day. I realize that I risk alienating my congregants who eagerly look forward to the annual reflection on Transfiguration, but I am willing to take that risk.

This is partly due to a tradition we have had for a number of years to supply Mylar balloons for Valentine’s Day as a fund-raiser for the North Platte Rape and Domestic Violence prevention program. It is not that often that Valentine’s Day lands on a Sunday so it seemed that it would be a good convergence.

But what I am thinking about this morning is what we religious professionals call “Sermon Preparation”. I seem to remember back in seminary we were told that a good preacher will spend 35 hours a week in prep, or three hours for every minute preached, or something like that. Now this makes sense when you have just graduated from seminary and feel compelled to include everything you ever learned into your first sermon. I have re-read some of my sermons from the early days and they are heavy enough to hold down a tarp on a windy day.

And preparation is still important, especially when dealing with complicated areas either biblically or worldly. I am not disrespecting prep as such.

But this week I have a new approach to sermon prep. I am not doing any. None. Nothing. Why so daring? Because my topic is the Love of God. 1 John to be specific, with a little John 21 thrown in for good measure. And, frankly, if, after nearly 20 years in ministry, I cannot talk to someone about the Love of God for ten minutes without writing something down I might as well open a used bookstore in Vermont and grow a really long beard.

And when I say none, of course I mean a little. But the point is that we preachers can risk being so intent on looking up what everyone else thinks about a text that we fail to truly discover what we think of it. Truthfully the best sermon prep, from the perspective of 20 years of preaching, is simply to be fully alive to both the world around and the world within and bring that aliveness to the scripture. Over the years the preacher learns to trust that the questions, doubts, fears, and affirmations of his/her own journey are the richest vein to mine. Hopefully all of that study over the years should pay off at some point.

The temptation to divert the responsibility of authentic scriptural encounter is shared equally by preacher and listener. The preacher may lean too heavily upon the commentaries but the listener leans too heavily on the preacher. There are those who express their frustration that I do not “tell them what to believe”. But they do not really mean this. What they are really saying is “please validate my existing world view so I do not have to go through the difficult process of integrating ambiguity and mystery into my engagement with the world”. Perhaps more people would come to worship if I did rain down upon them the appropriate mix of judgment and confirmation, making it easy for them to sit there and passively receive. But that is not my calling.

So this Sunday no carefully poured over manuscript. Still, just to be safe, I think I will write one or two talking points on my hand.

How Worried Should I Be?

So I'm in the bookstore looking at fiction for pre-teen, early teen girls and there is this large assortment of vampire offerings. Ok, nothing new. Until I see this particular book with a certain critical blurb on the cover which catches my eye....

"with a heroine any goth girl can identify with"

Morbid Outlook Magazine

Morbid Outlook Magazine? Really?

They have a website, although it appears to be on haitus. Still, lots of information.....

My issue is not "the Goth lifestyle" as such. Or even the interesting "Ask Witch Hazel" segment. I understand that there are many means of self-expression. My issue is the word morbid. Morbid is defined by the OED as principally related to disease and lack of health. But the second definition needs to be seriously considered. "of mental conditions, ideas, unwholesome, sickly, chiefly applied to unreasonable feelings of gloom, apprehension, or suspicion. Hence of persons: Addicted to morbid feelings or fancies"

As the parent of a nearly teen girl, I am not sure I want such an outlook represented as an endorsement to read a book. Or buy a book. Or do anything at all. I try to be openminded, but would prefer we not actively market unreasonable gloom and mental unwholesomeness to our young people. I will concede that there are many paths to wholeness. Morbidity, I feel, does not qualify. It is not a path. It is a dead end.

What do you think?