The biggest lie…and our weakest foe

August 13, 2023

Scriptures: Matthew 25:34-45, Matthew 14:22-33

So often of late, in conversation with all manner of folk, I have heard only of doom and gloom…so much so that I found it almost disheartening myself. Even among people of faith I have heard whispers of resignation and fear…as though there is little we can do on so many fronts to push back against the rising tide of negative feelings, thoughts, and most of all deep-seated fear that seems to have so many in its grasp.

And it is a real fear…a fear that we have not only reached, but crossed a tipping point on several fronts…and not just in the way we fulfill our God-given call to lovingly and carefully ‘steward’ or care for the earth which is our home, but perhaps even worse, a fear that we are fast losing our ability to come together on so many important issues of concern to us all.

In fact, I would offer that our country has not been this divided, or at odds on what seem to be issues central to our faith since the terrible civil war that threatened to tear our country apart over 150 years ago. We heard in our second reading from Matthew 25, a few of the things our Lord asked of us in terms of how we are expected to treat one another, and in fact, to cherish each other.

In point of fact, the truest expression of our Christian faith, is that which in its practice is indistinguishable from the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. And yet, it seems, when it comes to a number of the needs highlighted in those same verses, we actually find our greatest sources of division, exclusion, isolation, and even bitter anger. I swear it is almost as if the words we hear Jesus so carefully and urgently share with his disciples are not in fact instructions to live by at all…as though the most basic of his promises and words of love and guidance, are but ancient dreams not well-suited, applicable, or even meant for the world in which we find ourselves today.

In fact, I would submit that the crisis in faith expression that is so widespread today, and which is found throughout all of the major faith traditions, is deepening every minute of every day…making it not surprising at all that so many have crossed over from hope which those faiths seek to offer, into fear, bitterness, and even at times, hatred. Indeed we are at a tipping point, and the need for individuals who are willing to commit to an even deeper and more inclusive and authentic practice of loving one another as Christ loved, has never been more urgent. And the shame of it all is, that for those who trust in and believe in the words we find in all four gospel accounts, this is but a small, and perhaps only illusory roadblock on the path before us…even though for many it seems totally insurmountable.

And I say ‘perhaps illusory’, because we truly are but one embrace, one moment of willingness to listen and to understand, or one decision to choose hope over fear away from finding, and then learning to dwell in that ‘peace that passes understanding’. Indeed, it is this peace in the face of terrible struggle and hardship, that has sustained the faith since its very beginning. Just ask any one of the martyrs who gave their lives for refusing to deny our Lord Jesus during the first century of the church’s existence.

In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he writes that, ‘faith, hope, and love remain, and the greatest of these is love.’ In comparison, and by cruel contrast, it seems that so many today are living their lives believing that ‘self, security, and fear remain, and the greatest of these is fear.’ Because of this, I honestly believe that fear is at the root of pretty much every one of our ills as a society, as a people, and indeed as a human race. It is fear of so many things that underlies and gives power to all of the evil words, thoughts, beliefs, and actions that are at the heart of our current instability. Fear, and not faith, in all that our belief promises to us, is the primary driver of all that ails us.

We so quickly forget, if we really ever believed, that the words of Jesus, where he seeks to tell us that we but need to look around to see, that ‘the kingdom of God is already present among us’, meant what he actually said. That this wondrous Creation of our Lord was meant for good, and still holds a wondrous future ahead of us. Jesus didn’t say those words just once, but rather in his work and ministry of love and justice, of ‘bringing mountains low, and raising valleys up high’ he demonstrated that God’s closing words on the sixth day of Creation, proclaiming that, ‘indeed, all that had been created was very good’, were offered as the start of a glorious opportunity for each one of God’s children…challenging each one of us to live into that day spoken of by the Prophet Amos, where ‘justice does indeed roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.’

But how so many ask in the face of such strife and division? How are we even to begin to counter the rising tide of hopelessness and resignation that continues to fester in so many corners of our society? How can any single one of us make any real difference, in light of how far we all have traveled into worry, and yes I fear, forgetfulness of these words and promises of our Lord Jesus?

For the answer to that, I think we need to turn to our reading today from the 14th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. This passage picks up immediately after Jesus performed the miraculous feeding of the 5000 we looked at last week. However now at the end of this extremely long and tiresome day, Jesus truly does need a moment to be alone to pray, and so he sends the disciples on ahead of him across the lake. Even here he was preparing to teach them another important lesson…perhaps one which they would need the most in the days ahead. Out on the lake, a storm arose, and as the waves buffeted the small boat deep, dark fear settled into the minds and hearts of the disciples.

Sensing their plight, Jesus begins to walk towards them across the surface of the windswept lake. Seeing him the disciples feared even more, as they thought at first that they were seeing a ghost. However Jesus tried to comfort them, assuring them that it was in fact he who was walking towards them. Peter, perhaps hoping, but still filled with doubt, challenged Jesus, telling him that if it was indeed him, for him to invite him to walk out on the water as well. Jesus accepts Peter’s challenge and beckons him, whereupon Peter indeed stepped out of the small boat and began to walk across the surface of the lake towards Jesus.

And it is in this very place, this very circumstance that we so often find ourselves…in that same moment where we too have been invited to step out of the ‘little boat’ of our comfort and our accepted reality, to set all fears aside, and to focus solely on the one who has called us. And if we never have done so before, it is here that we must acknowledge that Peter was walking for each one of us, and then of course, he acted pretty much like all of us would as well.

Realizing the magnitude of what he was doing, and the odds of success being so stacked against him in terms of truly walking all the way over to Jesus, Peter took his eyes off of the Lord, and in fear remembered the winds and waves that were buffeting him on all sides. And the moment he surrendered to that fear and allowed it to rule over him, he began to sink down into the water. ‘Help me Jesus’, he implored desperately, whereupon Jesus immediately reached out and lifted him up out of the water and the two of them stepped back into the boat.

In Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inauguration speech in 1933, he uttered those now famous words, ‘The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself’. Words which not only underpin our gospel message today, but words which also provide both a pathway forward, and essential guidance with which we might successfully and visibly navigate these truly tumultuous times.

I started out by sharing how much negativism and fear, how many dire warnings and predictions I seem to be hearing from so many quarters of late. But I refuse to believe that the grace of our Lord, the promises of my Lord Jesus, and the goodness I know to be within the hearts of those I meet, has come anywhere near to being fully conquered or overrun by fear. I know for a fact, that there is a bright and beautiful day ahead for us all…I know, for I have seen so much evidence of it breaking out all around us…in fact I see it every time I see any one of you giving of yourself to another in love, or sharing of your gifts and your talents, or embracing and holding one another in the love of our God. First John Chapter 4 and verse 18 reminds us that ‘perfect love casts out fear’…And I can attest to you that that is as true as true can ever be.

‘Fear not’, Jesus said, ‘for I am with you always’. My friends, my brothers and my sisters…I am here to tell you…our Lord meant that when he said it!

So let us seek the good, let us share the grace, and let us conquer that weakest of straw men…that of fear itself…

…for we have a wonderful life to live…

…amen