“The doors were locked for fear of the Jews”
Bolt it.
Double lock it.
Put the chain on.
Fasten the padlock.
“The doors were locked for fear of the Jews”
Let me share with you two stories that happened within two years of each other in the second decade of the Twentieth Century.
The first you will know. On April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the starboard side. As one survivor put it - "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people."
We all know the fact that there weren’t enough life boats, but even taking that into account - far more people drowned than needed to. When the twenty life boats were launched, almost all of them were only partly full. One sole Lifeboat No. 14 did row back to the scene after the unsinkable ship slipped from sight at 2:20 A.m. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few. Incredibly, no other boat joined it.
The other 19 boats hung back. They cries of people in the water. Those people had lifejackets. They clung to bits of wreckage. Very few of them drowned. Most of them died slowly of hypothermia. And 19 boats sat there, heard their cries and didn’t save anyone.
Why? Because of fear. They feared that a crush of swimmers would cling to their craft, swamp the boats and perhaps, perhaps they too would drown. Note that no one drowned in boat 14, the boat that went back. But out of fear not one of the other boats went back (1)
Meanwhile, December 5th 1914, Ernest Shackleton and a team set out on a challenge - to cross Antartica from one side to the other. Only a few years earlier Roald Amundsen had just become the first person to reach the south pole. The one remaining challenge was to cross the icy continent from one side to another. On Dec 5 1914 Shackleton set out for the Weddell sea on the ship Endurance with a crew of 27 men. Just a few days out from South Georgia, the ship encountered mile after mile of pack ice and became stuck as he described it “like an almond in a piece of toffee”
The Endurance was stranded for 10 months until on Nov 21 1915 they had to abandon ship as it was crushed by the pressure of ice - three life boats headed for tiny Elephant Island, as they watched their crushed vessel sink like the Titanic to the bottom of the sea. There on the desolate Elephant Island, Shackleton left behind all but five men - and set out on a hazardous 800 mile journey to find help - which eventually he did, returning to the crew mates. All this while the first world war was raging around them.
Two stories about sinking ships. But the amazing thing about this second story is that through the whole ordeal - not one person died! There are no stories of people eating each other; no mutiny; no fighting about who gets into the life rafts, no abandoning of other people to die.
This is only two years after the Titanic - yet on the Titanic - because people acted out of fear, they let others drown. Here because people acted as a team everyone survived. No one was left behind - they came back and rescued every last member of the expedition. (2)
“The doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood amongst them and said “peace be with you”. After this he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord”
We often look at today’s bible reading and think of Thomas, poor Thomas who wasn’t there and ends up getting labelled as the sceptical one, but luckily Jesus came back for him and showed Thomas too his hands and his side.
That is true, but is only partially true.
Because a week earlier, when those doors were locked for fear of the Jews, the other 11 disciples should have believed, but they didn’t. Mary Magdalene had come back telling them how she had seen Jesus at the Tomb, but they didn’t believe her and the doors were still locked. Two of their number who left in the afternoon to go home to Emmaus came running back to say Jesus had risen, but they clearly even still didn’t believe, and the doors were still locked. And then, in the midst of their fear, Jesus came back.
Before Jesus comes back for Thomas, he comes back for the other ten disciples.
The American Marine corps have a motto “no man left behind”. I believe that was the sort of community Jesus wanted to fashion with the first disciples, and I believe that is the sort of community Jesus wants to fashion here at St Barnabas. Not like the Titanic where fear caused people to row off leaving others to die, but like Shackleton’s crew working together as a team where no one was left behind.
Ghandi said “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is fear”. 1 John 4:18 says “Perfect love casts out all fear.”
In a church community we are human beings, so sometimes we can get overwhelmed by fear, just as the disciples locked the door for fear of the Jews. In a fearful church people aren’t there for each other, people start to blame each other, rumours spread, a fearful church can’t take risks because no body knows if anyone else will back them up if things go wrong. A fearful church becomes like the half empty boats of the Titanic, everyone rowing off in their own direction. But Perfect love casts out all fear. Just as Jesus goes back first for the two on the road to Emmaus who already disbelieved Mary Magdalene, then for the ten disciples, then for Thomas, so he calls us to be a community where we know that if something goes wrong, someone will always come back for us.
Two films. The 2014 film “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and the earlier “Lilo and stitch”.
In the Dawn of the Planet of the apes, small groups of human beings and intelligent apes have both survived a deadly plague. A group of humans trying to restart a hydro electric generator stumble across the apes. Fear grips hold.
A man called Carver left alone at the truck first spies the apes - he reacts in fear and shoots the ape Ash. It takes all the might of the scientist Malcolm to calm things down, and to persuade the ape leader Caesar to let them start work on the dam. Then some of the apes spy the human armoury and fear takes hold. A preemptive strike must be made. But Caesar prefers peace. So another ape Koba manipulates the other apes through fear - He burns a hut and shoots Caesar and blames humans. Despite the best efforts of the ape Ash and the human Malcolm (and indeed Caesar when he recovers) to work for peace, fear has taken it grip and war follows.
Contrast Lilo and Stitch. The film begins with two orphaned sisters. The grown up Nani looks after the troubled younger sister Lilo, but despite the efforts of social services to take Lilo away, Nani refuses to give up on her younger sister because
“ohana means [get them to say] {family} and family means [get them to say] {nobody gets left behind or forgotten}”
Lilo somehow ends up adopted the genetically engineered alien Stitch, mistaking him for a dog. Stitch has been designed to destroy. But because of the love she has received, Lilo shows Stitch love. Stitch is drawn in to Ohana and….
“ohana means [get them to say] {family} and family means [get them to say] {nobody gets left behind or forgotten}”
And so Stitch is impossibly changed from violence through love to love. As St John of the Cross put it “where there is no love, put love and you will find love”.
Rabbi Doctor Edwin Friedman, the founder of Family Systems therapy, talks about the concept of a “Non-anxious presence”. (3) When a leader exudes a “non-anxious presence”, the people around her or him become less anxious. The result is that slowly fear dissipates and calm spreads and the community begins to be able to take risks.
“the doors were locked for fear of the Jews”
On Good Friday, the disciples were absolutely riven by fear. What is Peter’s response to the arrest of Jesus? He takes his sword and strikes off the high priest’s servant’s ear. Contrast this with 53 days later on the day of Pentecost, when Peter stands up with absolute confidence to preach to the crowd. The Sanhedrin can throw him in jail. Still he maintains his calm. Still he preaches despite all the can throw at him. And the early Jerusalem church take the risk of sharing all their good with each other, knowing it is safe to do so because “ohana means [get them to say] {family} and family means [get them to say] {nobody gets left behind or forgotten}” What changed?
Jesus - the non-anxious presence. Jesus who tells Peter to put away his sword and then heals the high priest’s servant’s ear. Jesus who shows them that the worst can happen - death on a cross, and yet he remains calm and comes back from death. If not even death can defeat you, then what is there to fear? And Jesus who keeps coming back to the still frightened disciples. Coming to Mary Magdalene and when they do not believe her coming to the two on the way to Emmaus and when that is not enough coming to the group in the locked upper room and when Thomas is missing coming back for him, and when Peter still feels wracked by the guilt of his betrayal, coming back on the beach to show all is forgiven “feed my sheep”. And finally, sending his Spirit, to give them the ultimate reassurance in their hearts. So Jesus, the non-anxious presence, keeps coming back because “ohana means [get them to say] {family} and family means [get them to say] {nobody gets left behind or forgotten}”
Two final stories -
A woman for ten years could not sleep because she worried that her home would be burgled. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he found a burglar. The husband said to the burglar, "Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you." A real burglar can steal from you once; worry can steal from you night after night, for many years. (4)
A second story. The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. (5)
By defeating death, Jesus wants to take away the invisible wall of fear, to allow us to be the gazelles we are made to be, to leap high.
The community I believe Jesus wants us to be at St Barnabas is one of Ohana, where because we know other people will always be there for us, we know we will never be left behind. It is because of this, I believe, that we are a community where the doors of our hearts are unbolted. Because of this, I believe,unafraid we can be a community that dares to take risks. Amen?
Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us.
(1) adapted from an illustration on this site by Ryan Johnson, Glen Elder Christian Church
(2)facts taken from “Start with why” by Simon Sinek, although he draws different conclusions from it.
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Friedman
(4) illustration on this site by Dana Chau, Marin Asian Community Church
(5) (Illustration by John Emmons)
