THERE, WHEN NEEDED

August 7, 2011
Pentecost 8
Genesis 37: 1-4;12-28
Matthew 14:22-33

(prayer)

There is a good scene in Star Wars Episode Five (The Empire Strikes Back), where Luke Skywalker seeks out the Jedi master, Yoda, but his first contact on the planet Degobah is a strange little creature who seems more concerned with supper than training.  Watch.


“I’m not afraid”

“You will be”

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Yoda told Luke to expect fear. Fear is among the most primal of emotions. Fear is that automated biological reaction to something being very “wrong” in our lives. It reaches its most extreme when life itself is threatened.

In less extreme versions, fear has always been a significant motivator within evolutionary cycles – a healthy respect for fear can keep one alive; a willingness to confront some fear can help us become more than we are; to broaden the possibilities of life.

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Both my wife and I grew up in Edmonton and regularly attended the summer fair at Northlands (once Klondike Days, now Capital Ex). My mom is a shareholder and volunteer with Northlands and is able to get us good deals on all day ride passes, so our kids have grown into the pattern of going to Capital Ex each summer. I have really enjoyed watching them over the years and seeing how their courage adapts to more ‘scary’ rides each year, including just a couple of weeks ago.

People often are willing to risk the fear of a thrill ride, because they are willing to trust in a certain level of safety and regulation that they (in the end have no real mortal fear).

Other than recreational (adrenaline rush) thrills, fear is not something we desire. No one likes to be afraid. As an issue of justice, no one should have to live in fear. To be a purveyor of fear is to engage in a wholly evil act. To confront and challenge systems of fear is the holy height of righteousness.

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Both of the scripture passages for today contain fearful situations. We get to see fear from two distinct perspectives.

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Joseph was a great-grandson of Sarah and Abraham, the founders of the Hebrew bloodline. It was Joseph’s father, Jacob, who really got the ball rolling on nationhood by having at least thirteen children. (He did have four wives!)

In the passage from Genesis today, we heard Jacob referred to by his nickname, Israel: “the one who wrestles with God”. Years later, his descendants will refer to themselves as the people of Israel. Eventually, it became the nation’s name.

Today, we heard that Israel (Jacob) gave Joseph a unique coat. The translation of the Hebrew adjective is unclear: many coloured? long sleeved? The text makes it clear that Joseph was particularly loved by his father: the first child of his most beloved wife, Rachel. This affection did not go un-noticed by Israel’s other sons, Joseph’s brothers.

You may have noticed that as I read the Genesis passage today I skipped over verses five to eleven – in those passages Joseph has a couple of cryptic dreams that seem to mean that the other eleven brothers will be bowing down before Joseph.

Long story, short – Joseph was not liked by his brothers. Beyond Jealousy – hatred!

And so when Israel sent Joseph to “check up” on his brothers, they had had enough! The devised a plan to kill him; they would tell their father that Joseph had been attacked by a wild animal – a perfectly plausible parable. And that’s what they did.

The only adjustment to the plan occurred when the opportunity came along to make some money by selling their brother into foreign slavery rather than killing him. He would be gone forever; he was as good as dead.

When the brothers brought Joseph’s special coat back to Jacob (all torn up and bloodstained) everyone believed the story that an animal had killed him.

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I imagine that when Joseph found his brothers out in the wilderness pastures, he approached them with a calm confidence that came with being his father’s agent sent to see how things were going.

These people were family – Joseph had no reason to be afraid.

It turns out he did.

“I’m not afraid”

“You will be; you will be”

Sometimes fear comes on us unexpectedly.

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In the story from Matthew, Peter was afraid of the wind and choppy water. He was a seasoned fisherman – he respected the weather and he honoured the power of the wind – all of his experience brought the fear front and centre when he tried to walk out to meet Jesus in the water. Now, he wanted to believe that the majesty of Jesus would protect him, but the fear got in the way; it wouldn’t work, why did he even try to walk on water; Peter was afraid he would drown.

“I am afraid”

“Not needed, is fear, not needed”

It turns out that Peter didn’t need to be afraid, Jesus reached out and they returned to the safety of the boat. With Jesus, things were different than what Peter had known before.

Sometimes, our fears are unnecessary because they come from the past, not the present.

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 It was an evil act for Reuben and the others to thrust fear into Joseph’s life.

 It was a righteous act for Jesus to remove fear from Peter’s.

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I don’t think I need to ask the rhetorical question, but I will anyway: which of these two should be our guide as we live and move and have our being in this world?

We know that it is right and noble “to seek justice and resist evil.”

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I know from my own experience and from what others have shared with me how devastating ‘fear’ can be. Modern people are faced with so many fears.

We worry about crime and murder rates; we worry about terrorism; we worry about the price of gas and the job market and debt; we worry about drugs ... and disease ... and a fragile environment and climate changes ... and that rogue asteroid (somewhere, out there) that is on a collision course with earth and will blast us all to smithereens sometime between 2:30 this afternoon and 50,000 years from now (or may when the Mayan calendar ends with the winter solstice in 2012).

Some of us are afraid that there won’t been any food to eat; some of us live in fear of rape or death squads or the crossfire of war; some of us are afraid to be honest about who we are because we fall short of a zealot’s definition of who is acceptable; some of us are bullied at school or on the playground or in the work place; some of us are not even safe at home.

Fear is out there. Fear is in here. There IS fear. Some of that fear is sourced in something beyond anyone’s control, but really, much of the fear in our world is created by someone’s actions and choices – most often affecting others intentionally as a means of control.

How does our desire to involve “spirit” in our lives affect this reality?

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“Seek Justice and Resist Evil”

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Both approaches are necessary – comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Be like Jesus and stand up to the likes of Reuben and the other brothers of Joseph. We are to be calmers of fear and opponents of those who use fear for the maintenance of their own power and advancement and wealth. When fear is used as a tool of control, it must be exposed for what it is and driven away.

If we are truly kin, if we are truly fellow travellers on the road; if are truly children of one God, then that’s not how we treat each other.

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The purveyors of fear are (ironically) some of the most afraid people in the world – they fear loss: loss of power, loss of abundance and excess, loss of status. They believe the world to be a scarcity and greed – and so they seek to be the winner amongst the legion of losers.

I don’t believe that the totality of our existence is scarcity and greed. I believe that we have been gifted with a world of abundance and we have been invited to live for the common good.

John 10:10 ... [Jesus said] ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’

1st Corinthians 12:7 [Paul wrote] To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Abundance and Good not Scarcity and Greed are the ways of the Spirit. I refuse to let the purveyors of fear try to convince me otherwise and I will work to expose the evil of what they do and I believe that change will come because over and over the message of scripture is “be not afraid”. As our immediate past moderator of the United Church, the Very Rev David Guiliano has said, ‘when you see that phrase be not afraid in the Bible, pay close attention because something amazing is about to happen. We can be people of amazement, I have to believe that!

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Almost lost amongst the summer news of Casey Anthony’s legal innocence and the mind-numbing, fear-laced negotiations for the US government to pay its bills this week has been the tragedy occurring daily along the Horn of Africa: over 800,000 famine refugees have fled Somalia for camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Years of war and struggles for power have drained away resources from the drought-prone region. We lament about 34 murders so far in Edmonton this year – hundreds of people are dying each day on the horn of Africa. We should lament that as well.

Even though, many of us are just learning about this famine in recent weeks and months, it has been years in the making as warlords battle over land and wealth at the cost of almost 600 famine-related deaths per day. Add to this that, in the refugee camps, a rise in rape and sexual assaults makes life for women and girls even more fearful. There is piracy on the high seas because of this conflict as well.

News of this wrong in need of righting is beginning to spread. Hunger advocates and agencies are on scene and resources are being shared. The government of Canada is basing its response on the individual generosity of its citizens matching donations dollar for dollar. There is an insert with today’s bulletin that highlights how the United Church of Canada is involved. As a body of compassion, the institutional church tries hard to ‘be there, when needed’; it’s one of the strengths of our structure.

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Fear is only truly released when the source of the fear is dismissed. Hunger pains can be eased by food; the fear caused by famine will linger as long as people are held hostage to the violence of the attitudes of scarcity and greed. Yes, let’s do what is possible to ease the fear of the moment, but let’s also do the just and right thing and put an end to the sources of fear (easy to see because they hide behind that language of scarcity and greed).

 Stand up to the bullies;

 Appreciate the abundance in your life, not the messages that you need more;

 Don’t let the racist or homophobic or sexist joke pass by without expressing your offence against it de-humanizing message;

 Love God with your whole being and love your neighbour as yourself!

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One of the goals of the compassionate life is to seek to replace fear with peace; to counter worry with comfort; to invade chaos with calm. We want to ‘be there, when needed’.

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I have been very fortunate that I have never really known what it is to fear for my life. But I have held (and still hold) a lot of “worry” – which is fear’s little brother/sister. A friend asking me recently if “emotional pain” every goes away. In the conversation, I responded – with what I believe to be true – that all pain lingers until the source of the pain is dealt with. For emotional pain, in particular, the source of that pain is often in the past. It continues to have hold of us because we keep it with us in the present.

I have benefited from the help of others who have assured me in the dark times that I am not alone – that others are there, when needed.

We say and hear that all the time – ‘call me if you need anything’. I think we mean it when we say it. But on the other end, it’s so hard to make that call. Lingering is a fear that (in the end) we are alone and must fend for ourselves, even when others have told us it is not true.

To release that fear, we must act on the belief that we are not alone! We must force whatever experiences we hang on to we have to be afraid because we are alone back into the past where it comes from.

Say it with me: “we are not alone”!

We are not alone,


we live in God's world.


We believe in God:


who has created


and is creating,


who has come in Jesus,


the Word made flesh,


to reconcile and make new,


who works in us and others


by the Spirit.


We trust in God.


We are called to be the Church:


to celebrate God's presence,


to live with respect in


Creation,


to love and serve others,


to seek justice


and resist evil,


to proclaim Jesus,


crucified and risen,


our judge and our hope.


In life, in death,


in life beyond death,


God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

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We are not alone.

Celebrate God's presence,

Live with respect in Creation,

Love and serve others,

Seek justice and resist evil,

Proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

our judge and our hope.

We are not alone.

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Live it.

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Make sure people know it.

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And ... be not afraid.

Let us pray:

Stay with us God as we face challenges that seem insurmountable. Reach out to us and give us the calm and peace we need to serve in Jesus’ name, unafraid. Amen



#675VU “Will Your Anchor Hold?”