Genesis 15:1-6
Saint Luke 12:32-40
Jesus’ “Do not be afraid, little flock...” may be met in our day with a resounding, “Are you kidding?”
In his book, Facing the Future Without Fear, Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, the former Senior Pastor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church and Chaplain to the United States Senate, claimed there “are 366 ‘Fear nots’ in the Bible, one for every day of the year, including Leap Year! God doesn’t want us to go a single day without hearing his word of comfort: ‘Fear not!1
Scholars have debated Dr. Ogilvie’s count with estimates varying from translation to translation and since it is summer I have less than no inclination to sit inside counting to see if Dr. Ogilvie is right or not. It is one of those things about which my church history professor in seminary used to say: “If it isn’t true, it should be.”
Especially now, when there is so much to fear that we can become overwhelmed by it all. You don’t need me to give you a list, all you need to do is open a newspaper; turn on the television; spend a moment listening to NPR and you’ll have more than enough reason to go back to bed and pull the covers over your head.
So, maybe we need a “fear not” every day to help us to bumble and stumble our way forward through life.
“Fear not” and “are you kidding?” are continuing themes in Scripture.
Abram is having this conflict – wondering if God was kidding – as he and Sari are growing older and the offspring that were promised have not yet materialized. He is worried and fearful because he and Sari are still childless and, if something doesn’t happen, and happen soon, his chief servant Eliezer of Damascus, is going to inherit everything.
It sure looks like God was kidding because the nursery is still vacant; the baby furniture has years of accumulated dust on it, and Abram is beginning to feel like a bigger fool than he did when God got him into this project in the first place.
It couldn’t have been easy to give up everything and follow the call.
Dr. David Lose, the amazing preacher at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis reminds us:
Previously in Genesis – in the eleventh chapter, to be exact, which describes the first time God comes to Abraham – God says, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” And then the story continues with four words that are as remarkable as they are few: “And so Abraham went.” No doubt, no questions, no conditions. God promises, and Abraham simply trusts, obeys, and goes.2
The late Dr. Lewis B. Smedes, leaving his imagination to go wild, invites us to consider that not everybody might have thought this fearless faith in God was such a good idea.
I can imagine Sarah waking up at four in the morning, hearing the bustling noises of Abraham packing and Sarah says, “What are you doing, Abe?” “Packing” “What for?” “Well, we’re leaving” “Where are we going?” “I don’t know.” “Why are we going?” “Because He told us to.” “Who’s ‘He’?” “He didn’t tell me.” And then I could imagine Sarah calling her father: “What am I going to do?” Her father says, “I knew you shouldn’t have married that nut.”3
Then Dr. Smedes continues wisely.
Well, if he were my neighbour, and he said, “God came to me last night and told me to go out to the Los Angeles airport and that he would tell me which airline and which destination to go to, and I’m never coming back,” I would say to him, “Either you’re crazy, or God is doing something very peculiar.”4
Fear is beginning to set in as the years pass and today we have Abram asking God, “Were you kidding?”
And it is here that God does something lovely that calms his fears. I’d like to think that God takes Abram by the hand, leads him out of his tent, shows him the night sky, and simply repeats the promise. “Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!”5 And Abram believes again.
We may think that Abram was an easy mark. Show him some stars. Repeat a long-delayed promise and he’ll fall right into line, but Jesus did the same thing with his followers. He does the same thing for us right before he says: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”6
Before Jesus said “fear not” he took his disciples out on a little tour that actually fits better with his promise than the confusing hodgepodge of sayings that make up today’s Gospel.
Jesus takes us out into the field and asks us to look at some things with him and think about them.
“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you... seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”7
The Lord told Abram to look at the stars. Jesus told us to consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
Annie Lamont suggests that “a walk is a kind of prayer, and it changes you. Fields and woods are the kingdom. You don’t say, “Oh, there’s a dark-eyed junco flitting around that same old pine tree; whatever,” or: “Look at those purple wildflowers. I’ve seen those a dozen times. {P}rayer changes me. It breaks the toxic trance.”8 It breaks the cycle of fear. It reminds us that God isn’t kidding.
Our minds can become bogged down in that “toxic trance” as we wonder if things will ever be right again. Will we ever get a handle on the violence in our streets? Will we ever be able to stop weapons designed for war from falling into hands of people with evil intent? Will we ever stop the personification hate and bigotry from walking into a grocery store, a church, a synagogue, or school and shooting the place up? Will the murder and mayhem ever end?
When we are ruminating about all these things and more, it is then, Jesus tells us, that God breaks in with a “fear not.” It is just when our world seems broken beyond repair, and we would like to go back to bed and hide under the covers that God breaks in with a “fear not.” It is just when we have screwed up so badly in our personal lives that God breaks in with a “fear not.” It is in those middle of the night moments when we toss and turn over something that we have done or left undone that God breaks in with a “fear not.”
Sometimes, faith in God’s promises is easy. When that’s true for you, come here, to your church, in order to give thanks and to let your faith shine as bright as a star in heaven and encourage those around you. Sometimes, though, faith in God’s promises is hard. And when that’s true, feel free to go outside and look up at the stars {or outside and look at a garden} and remember God’s promise to Abraham {and Jesus’ promise to us.}
Or, even better, when faith is hard, come here, to your church, and see some of those stars of the heavens {or flowers of the field or birds of the air} now scattered throughout this congregation. God has given us to each other, you see, precisely so that we can remind each other that, while it sometimes may take a long time, God always keeps God’s promises.9
Not being afraid in troubled times is not easy but it just may be that the “Kingdom” Jesus is promising us is not some place afar off but the very presence of God right here, right now, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give it to us.
“Have no fear. Lord, are you kidding?” To which God replies more than 365 times a year in countless of ways, “Nope. Not kidding at all.”
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