The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of You, “Seek His face!” Your face, Lord , I will seek. Do not hide Your face from me, do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Saviour. (Psalm 27:1-9)

 

 

     Fear is one of the great industries of our time – or maybe, more precisely, I should say that the promotion of fear has become one of the great industries of our time. Maybe even that's not exactly precise. Promoting fear has always been a big time industry. Sometimes I, along with Paul, speak of the principalities and powers – not as demonic spiritual beings, but as the everyday institutions that can take control of our lives and set themselves up in place of God for us in one way or another.  And there are a lot of principalities and powers – and most try to function on the basis of fear. One is the church. Historically the church has often been guilty of promoting fear. The church has often tried to scare people with threats of hell and damnation; frighten them into the Kingdom so to speak, rather than emphasizing the divine love and grace that Jesus emphasized during His own ministry. When I met with a family regarding a recent funeral and talked to them about what they wanted in the service, one of the first things they said was, “please, no hell and damnation preaching.” Obviously, somewhere along the way, they'd been exposed to that strategy. If Christians believe God is love and trust the scripture that says that the Spirit of God is not a spirit of fear then why Christians would consider resorting to fear as a means of spreading good news is a mystery. But it goes beyond the church. There are lots of principalities and powers that try to scare us. The whole insurance industry is built on the basis of fear -  what might happen if we don't have it? That's not to say that insurance is evil – many of the principalities and powers in their own way are good and do useful things -  but it does work on the basis of fear. Governments and politics in general works all too often on the basis of fear. The response to 9/11 hinged on the promotion of fear as people were convinced that they had to give up more and more of their rights and their privacy in order to be secure. I've always appreciated the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin - “those who give up essential liberty to obtain temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.” And then remember a few years ago the TV commercial suggesting that if Stephen Harper were ever elected there would be troops in the streets? I haven't seen the troops yet, but it was a play on fear. And the whole “law and order” agenda – which implicitly suggests that crime is out of control and we're in danger, in spite of the fact that virtually every measurable statistic says that crime – and especially violent crime – is in decline. But fear works. It convinces us to be more and more compliant to those who promise to protect us from the things they've been able to make us afraid of. When fear rather than faith becomes the dominant force in a person's life – that's a very sad thing, indeed.

 

     The Bible suggests that fear should not be the characteristic of a life of faith. Psalm 27:1, which we read earlier, tells us that “The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?” The obvious answer is that we shouldn't be afraid; we should never as people of faith succumb to fear. But fear can be a powerful thing. It can take us over; it can take possession of us. And when fear possesses us we stop being the church, because we start to play thing safe – always safe. When fear possesses us we start to put ourselves and our own well being and our own survival above everything else – which is, of course, a denial of the example of the one we supposedly follow. Jesus, of course, didn't embrace the hardships that He faced, and He certainly didn't embrace death. But He had faith. He lived in a close and intimate relationship with His Father which assured Him that as much as He didn't embrace what He was called to – which was nothing less than His own death – He accepted that this was what God was asking of Him, and He didn't act in fear. He acted with faith. He understood the words of the author of Psalm 27: “The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?” He understood that with God there truly is nothing to fear. Which perhaps explains, as I've mentioned many times, why He could repeatedly say to His disciples, “Do not be afraid.”

 

     The words in some ways sound strange, considering how prevalent fear is in our society, and how many there are who try to convince us that we should, in fact, be afraid. Frankly, two thousand years ago, there was no less reason to be afraid. In fact, there might have been more. It was a society in which tyrants were rampant and there was really little way to control them. And yet, in the face of all that, Jesus was still able to say, “do not be afraid.” In the face of life and death, in the face of hatred and persecution, in the face of trial and execution – Jesus could say “do not be afraid.” It's strange. It's good news. But it's strange good news. In the midst of a world that so often seems frightening and into lives that are so often fearful, Jesus continues to say, “do not be afraid.” Jesus wants us to banish fear from our lives because fear prevents us from living the abundant life He wants us to live, and instead holds us hostage, keeping us in bondage, distancing us from God and replacing faith as the motivating factor in our lives.

 

     By telling people not to be afraid in a world that seems so filled with fear, Jesus is telling His disciples that they are to have a deep and radical and powerful faith in God – a faith so powerful that it makes almost no sense, because it can stand firm in any circumstances and not be shaken. A faith that sustained Jesus as He faced the cross, or Peter and Paul and Stephen and other early disciples as they faced execution, or the early church as it faced severe persecution – or the church today in parts of the world where it still faces severe persecution and yet continues on in the face of it, while so much of the church in the Western world – where it's so easy and so convenient to be a Christian – seems lost in despair and succumbs to fear, feeling little hope for the future. We as 21st century Western Christians would do well to learn lessons from our Christian forebears and from our contemporaries who fight for existence on a daily basis. We as 21st century Christians would do well to listen to Jesus as we face what we perceive to be our struggles - “do not be afraid.” Implicitly I think Jesus is saying – “Just do what God is calling you to do, and even if you die doing it, what's the big deal – so did I!”

 

     “The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?” The answer is – there is no one and nothing to fear when God is with you!