In the late 1990s as I was finishing
school and about to start in my first parish, I saw an interview where Oprah
was interviewing the author De Becker and talking about his book, “The Gift of
Fear.” The book, still in print, has
mixed reviews – and you can google it if you want to know more. When I read the book I found it helpful
because he addressed the importance of what many call ‘women’s intuition.’ The
book addresses the socialization of girls and women growing up in a world,
where to get ahead, one learns to hide, down-play, and even ignore anything
that might be thought of as ‘women’s intuition.’ Instances are described where women had an
intuition before an potentially harmful incident happened, for instance before
violence was perpetrated toward them: the hairs on their arms getting prickly,
a sense of time standing still, a crawling sensation across their shoulders or
up their spine, a knot in the stomach, an immediate desire to throw up. De Becker calls this ‘the gift of fear,’ and
a gift that should be honed and practiced and shared...not downplayed or
ignored.
I think the book affected me because I
notice things – I intuit things. And
yes, I didn’t share those moments with others, lest they categorized me with
unfavourable adjectives.
The gift of fear should be honed and
practiced and shared. Today I begin with my recollections of this book because
we are going to take a look at FEAR. Last
Sunday, you will recall, that the readings were reinterpretations of the Law from
one generation to the next. The essence
of the Law remained the same, but the tidbits changed and the application of
the Law varied as society and circumstances changed across the centuries. The
starting point was consistent, love the Lord your God; relationship with ‘I am
the Lord.’
We are reminded of this again with the
words heard earlier from Leviticus: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God am
holy. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
Last week, as part of the explanation
of the text, during the Kid’s Corner, the children talked about commandment #5
-You shall not kill. Our
attention was drawn to Luther’s explanation of the commandment. The explanation begins: What does this
mean for us? We are to fear and love
God...
Every time I use the catechism and the
meanings provided, I receive feedback about the use of the word FEAR; fear in
relation to God. People don’t like it –
we are to fear God.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of
Arlington has Youtube videos dubbed, #2minutes2virtue. In the videos Catholic
priests from the Diocese explain a virtue in a quick and articulate way. They have one called, “Cultivating Holy
Fear.” The priest begins by asking, “Are
you afraid of God?” And responds, “I hope not.” Then asks, “Do you fear God?”
And responds, “I hope so.” Just so you
heard it, the priest asks, “Are you afraid of God? I hope not. Do you fear God?
I hope so.”
Some might argue that the questions
posed are just a discussion of semantics – that the questions are the same. I
like the tension between the questions because I think this is where Christians
live – in the tension- in 50 shades of fear, so to speak. We are to constantly
wrestle with our understanding and experience of God, the Law, and how it is we
live righteously or fail to do so. We are to wrestle with FEAR within this
discussion.
In cultivating holy fear, the priest
talks about how Christians have drawn too close to Jesus, in the sense that we
have made Jesus too familiar. Jesus is like us, our friend. Go to any art
gallery that has religious art, and you will see that Jesus is painted in a way
that looks like the artist – same skin colour, hair, body shape, clothing. What
has happened in our application of the Gospel is that we have found a
comfortable Jesus, retelling the stories that give us hope, reciting the
beautiful words and sayings that bring peace, and taking consolation in the
thought that Jesus died and rose for me.
We are not afraid of this Jesus. We
have no fear of this Jesus. In essence we have reduced God to our level.
On most top ten lists of what people
are afraid of one will find the fear of thunder, lightening, darkness, and
heights. Lists that delve deeper include fear of enclosed spaces, commitment,
intimacy, and death. All of these fears are articulated in the story of Moses
on the mountain receiving the Law from the Lord. In our Leviticus text Moses is
on the mountain with God receiving instruction. It is Moses talking with God;
the people have long since drawn back from being in conversation with God in
such a big way. When the cloud enclosed the mountain – dulling God’s glory for
earthy eyes – when the mountains shook with God’s voice, when God’s power
released in thunder and lightening, when God first connected with the people as
they arrived in the wilderness- leaving slavery for freedom- the people felt as
if they would die. The people feared the
Lord. The people pleaded with Moses to ask God not to come to them in such
manner, rather, Moses was asked to approach God and the people would receive
God’s Law through him. The experience
was too grand; God’s power too awesome; the intimacy of the moment too thorough
and all-knowing; the sense of one’s minuteness too overwhelming; the glory of
God – even in shadow, covered in cloud- was too abundantly expansive. The people
feared the Lord.
As a people we are far removed from
the mountain experience of the Exodus; and far removed from fear of the Lord. It has been argued that such fear has
diminished with the rise of science, the ability to explain thunder,
lightening, clouds over mountains, and earthquakes. This may be true, yet, attentive people -despite
knowing the science- experience awe and wonder in moments of Mystery provided
through nature; perhaps though shying away from using the phrase, experiencing
the fear of the Lord.
I think the problem with FEAR -as a
concept, an emotion- fear is talked about in negative terms. Fear does not easily
sit with the rise of the self-made human.
Fear becomes something to control; to overcome. One is not to fear; or
not to show it to others for that would be to give another power over you. Unfortunately
fear insinuates weakness.
As society has reached an epidemic
height of ‘its-all-about-me,’ there is no room left for fear of a power greater
than oneself. Whether one is egocentric, egotistical, narcissistic, attention
seeking, a drama queen- what-have-you; attention is not given to reflect on how
tiny human life is; how fragile we are as individuals and as communities; how
having fear and naming our fears would serve us well in conversations about
issues facing the planet today --- everything from global warming, changing
economies, the right to protest, the spread of viruses, the number of displaced
people, tyranny, the polarization of people.
The priest in the cultivating holy
fear video, say that Christians are to fear the Lord, for it is this fear, and
only this fear, that has the grace and power to deliver us from the false fears
that haunt us. We are to return to scripture from last week, from this week, hear
and digest the words, I am the Lord. This is the starting point, from
here we then are to go and love our neighbour, and as Jesus says in today’s
gospel, love our enemies. This very
suggestion should make us at least a little afraid and returns us to the
discussion of a comfortable Jesus, God reduced to our level.
We are not to find a comfortable Jesus
in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus continues his reiteration of the Law to those
who live the Law – expanding the Law from a simple set of rules, to a full
bodied discourse on relationship and reconciliation. It made people angry. It induced fear. If an
expanded Law was lived, life would change – for the individual, for the
community, for the world – it would mean a drastic change in power, a change in
economics, a change in public practices; social systems would be upended, there
would be a whole lot of loss and there would be gain; people -as people are-
would be fearful of living the turmoil and instability of such drastic change.
As example we were merely inconvenienced by the blockades of the past few weeks,
fear giving us a lack of vision for what could be, can be, in God’s eyes must
be. In opening ourselves to our biggest
fears – entering them fully- we will find the fear of the Lord waiting for us. Entering
a time of suffering and pain – honest fear- to birth God’s kingdom is outside
most people’s ability. But this is
exactly what Jesus’ followers are being asked to do.
We are to fear and love God so that
we...
are graced with a power that delivers us from the false fears
that haunt us; and inspires us to cultivate the gift of holy fear -- a gift that when honed, practiced, and
shared empowers God’s people to enter a time of suffering and pain – honest
fear- to birth God’s Kingdom, and work beyond human fear.
The Lord said, speak to the
congregation, to the whole community and tell them:
Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am
holy. Love your neighbour; love your enemies. I am the Lord.
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