Fear Not
Luke 2:10-11
Harpeth Presbyterian: December 24, 2006: David Jones
Luke 2: 10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Today we lit the candle of peace. The Shepherd’s candle.
What do we know about the shepherds?
The first thing we know about the shepherds is:
The Shepherds were afraid.
The children’s sermon pointed it out nicely, they were sore afraid. They were so scared it hurt.
We can identify with the shepherds. What is the defining characteristic of humanity? Fear.
I used to think it was sin. “Total Depravity” is what John Calvin called it. I don’t think so anymore for two reasons:
a. working with people.
When I was in my early twenties, I used to teach swimming lessons.
Now, I always taught little children. “Look what Jimmy’s doing.” Then I got to teach a couple of adults.
They wouldn’t take their feet off the floor. “Come on.” Because I was in my twenties and knew everything, I knew what the ladies needed. I took the two ladies to the deep end. Thirteen feet deep. It was the diving well.
I got them to push off and glide. Fine, until about half way. Then they went vertical.
“AHHHHHH!”
They climbed all over me trying to breathe.
Were they trying to kill me? Were they murdering sinners showing their total depravity? Were they evil and about to disregard one of the ten commandments – thou shalt not kill? No. They were two frightened humans just trying to breathe.
b. my second encounter that led me to believe that fear is one of the primary defining characteristics of human beings was reading the Bible, especially the gospels.
In Luke, fear begins with the shepherds, they see an angel and are afraid. In Matthew, Herod hears of the birth of the Messiah and is afraid and all of Jerusalem with him. Herod is afraid and orders all babies under the age of two killed.
In encounter after encounter with Jesus, people are afraid. Especially the disciples. He walks on water, they are afraid. He calms the storm, they are afraid. He says he’s going to Jerusalem to die, and they are afraid. He dies, they run away afraid. He rises again at Easter, and they are afraid. Every time an angel shows up, the angels have to say to them, “Fear not!” Because they are always afraid.
Thinking again about the shepherds,
The shepherd’s fear was likely magnified by their sense of responsibility.
As humans, not only are we afraid, but our fear is magnified by a sense of responsibility.
What do we know about the shepherds? They were afraid. And as shepherds, they’re job was to look after others – the sheep, and other shepherds.
This gives great insight to our fear. What I have found, the more responsible I feel for another person or a group, the more afraid I become.
In my twenties, very little frightened me. Then, in my thirties, I became a parent.
As a parent, I discovered, everything is dangerous because the child I am responsible for is very vulnerable. Electrical outlets, stoves, stairs, bathtubs full of water, cars, streets, pavement, even small change became terrifying to me.
When we just had Cayla, and she was just about a year old, we went to Western Sizzlin. We managed to navigate out of the car, across the parking lot, into the restaurant. Carrie waited in line while I settled Cayla into the germ covered child seat from the restaurant. Settled! Success. Then an image flashed in my mind. On the table was a dollar and only a dollar. I seemed to remember some change. I pulled $.70 from her mouth.
Pennies, of his sisters.
“Nathan, did you put a penny in your mouth?”
“Huuuh,” which is Nathanese is usually yes.
“Did
you swallow it?”
“Huuuh.”
I won’t describe to you the next twenty minutes of panic before I realized that I had put the pennies in my brain in Nathan’s stomach. He had choked on juice. The juice cup was right beside him.
For the first three years of a child’s life, the parents running around yelling, “No!”
He’s going near the stairs! “No!”
She’s about to grab the iron! “No!”
He’s sticking the fork in his ear! “No!”
Abbie thought her name was “Abbie No!” because she heard “Abbie, no” so often.
So a teenager who asks, “Can I…” The answer is already programmed. “No!”
Why do I do that? Because I know all that might happen.
Although they were afraid, the shepherds don’t run away.
It is significant to point out, although afraid, not one of the shepherds is reported to have run away.
Running from our fears can be the end of us.
Chuang Tzu told this story, 'There was once a man who was so afraid of his shadow and so disliked his own footsteps that he determined to run away from them. But the oftener he raised his feet the more footsteps he made, and though he ran very hard his shadow never left him. From this he inferred that he went too slowly, and ran as hard as he could without resting, the consequence being that his strength broke down and he died. He was not aware that by going into the shade he would have got rid of his shadow, and that by keeping still he would have put an end to his footsteps. Fool that he was!
By not running, they could face their fears.
By staying, and not running away,
They encounter God
The angels know they are afraid. They begin with “fear not.”
By staying they start an upward instead of a downward spiral.
To encounter God, we must first face our fears and not run (no matter what the fear is). But the progression is not linear. It is not a straight line, but a spiral.
By facing our fears, we encounter God, by encountering God, we are empowered to face our fear, and by facing our fear we further encounter God…
The downward spiral, by running away, we separate ourselves from God, and by separating ourselves from God our fears are magnified…
That’s seen in the Eden story. They meet the serpent, are afraid, move away from God, are more afraid… life then is more like desert than garden.
The shepherds start the upward spiral by facing their fears. They encounter God and become braver, they hear more good news…
After overcoming their fear and encountering God’s message, they move forward
Fear is a block to encountering God. Must move through it.
Shepherd’s hear the good news that they don’t have to be afraid and they move forward. 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”
By facing their fears, and not running away, they encounter God and are empowered and move forward.
“Let us go and see,” they say.
Fear blinds, but moving forward lets you see. But you have to move forward!
This is one of the best stories I’ve found in a long time.
Long ago, in Tibet, there was a ceremony, held every hundred years, which Buddhist students could undergo in order to attain enlightenment. All the students would line up in their white robes. The lamas – the Tibetan priests – and the Dalai Lama would line up before the students. The Dalai Lama would begin the ceremony by saying, “This is the ceremony of the Room of 1000 Demons. It is a ceremony for enlightenment, and it happens only once every hundred years. If you choose not to go through it now, you will have to wait another hundred years. To help you make this decision, we’ll tell you what the ceremony involves.
“In order to enter the Room of 1000 Demons, you just open the door and walk in. The Room of 1000 Demons is not very big. Once you enter, the door will close behind you. There is no doorknob on the inside of the door. In order to get out, you will have to walk all the way through the room, find the door on the other side, open the door (which is unlocked), and come out. Then you will be enlightened.
“The room is called the Room of 1000 Demons because there are one thousand demons in there. Those demons have the ability to take on the form of your worst fears. As soon as you walk into the room, those demons show you your worst fears. If you have a fear of heights, when you walk into the room it will appear as if you are standing on a narrow ledge of a tall building. If you have a fears of spiders, you’ll be surrounded by the most terrifying eight-legged creatures imaginable. Whatever your fears are, the demons take those images from your mind and seem to make them real. In fact, they’ll be so compellingly real that it will be very difficult to remember that they’re not.
“We can’t come in and rescue you. That is part of the rules. If you go into the Room of 1000 Demons, you must leave it on your own. Some people never leave. They go into the Room of 1000 Demons and become paralyzed with fright. They stay trapped in the room until they die. If you want to take the risk of entering the room, that’s fine. If you don’t, if you want to go home, that’s fine. You don’t have to enter the room. You can wait until you are incarnated again, come back in another hundred years, and try it again.
“If you want tot enter the room, we have two hints for you. The first hint: As soon as you enter the Room of 1000 Demons, remember that what they show you isn’t real. It’s all from your own mind. Don’t buy into it; it’s an illusion. Of course, most of the people who went into the room before you couldn’t remember that. This idea is very difficult to keep in mind. The second hint has been more helpful for the people who made it out the other side and became enlightened. Once you go into the room, no matter what you see, no matter what you feel, no matter what you hear, no matter what you think, keep your feet moving. If you keep your feet moving, you will eventually get to the other side, find the door, and come out.”[1]
If you came to church today, looking for a Christmas present, here it is in the story of the shepherds.
1. You are afraid. That shouldn’t surprise you. The truth may hurt, but the truth also sets you free. Much of your life has been reacting to your fears.
2. You may have created for yourself a downward spiral, reacting to your fears and separating yourself from God and others. The gift is being able to recognize your downward spiral, stop running away and start running toward the God of Christmas. The upward spiral will take you closer to God and others.
3. You can create for yourself an upward spiral. You can move forward. You don’t have to stay locked by whatever you are afraid of. You can move forward. And there, God incarnate, God among us, waits for you just like he waited for the shepherds.
Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all people, for unto you is born a savior who is Christ the Lord.
And, what is he to save us from, if not our fears.
Fear not.