Pentecost 5
Matthew 10:24-33
You know that your company is downsizing, and your boss asks to see you in his office.
This is the first year that you fill out your income taxes by yourself, and the I.R.S. informs you that you are going to be audited.
You go into a routine check-up at the clinic, and the doctor drops the "C" word on you, cancer, and gives you a very short time-table to get your affairs in order.
Knowing that your teenage child is out with their friends, you get a 3:00 a.m.call from the police requesting you to come down to the Coroner’s Office.
What do all these situations have in common? Fear. Our sinful and unstable world gives us a lot of reasons to fear, and we are filled with feelings of fear, and fear’s close cousin Worry, probably more often than we care to admit to ourselves. And what makes us fearful is that we cannot control every aspect of our lives. I mean, you can be the most careful driver in the world, and all it takes is one nut to run a red light and plow into your car, possibly injuring you, possibly killing you, possibly killing your family. And because we cannot control everything, knowing that there is an element of danger in everything that we do causes us to have some worry, and if we worry about it too much, it gives birth to full-blown fear.
Our text for this morning gives us a different way to live. A much better way. It’s a way that is free from fear. Impossible? Is it impossible to live without fear in this crazy world of ours? Absolutely not! Our text for today is all about fear, and overcoming fear. And it’s about making fear something that isn’t even part of our lives anymore. Yes, today we are going to see that Fear is Foreign to the one Full of Faith.
Part I
Do you notice how many times in our text it talks about fear and being afraid? And given the theme of our sermon, we might expect that there’s nothing at all that we human beings have to be afraid of. But that’s not quite the case, is it? We do have that rather onimous verse, "be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." And then our text finished with Jesus’ words, "whoever disowns me before me, I will disown before my Father in heaven." And we also have in the beginning of our reading that God expects his followers to be persecuted in this world.
Of course, we have nothing to fear, right? I mean, we are such good people. I’ve often thought how lucky God is to have a person like me on his team. Because I’ve been that perfect student of Jesus. I’ve made sure to live my life in such a way that I don’t care what other people think of me. I have always put the Lord first in my life, and I have taken advantage of every opportunity to proclaim from the rooftops my beliefs to this world.
I guess if that were all really true about me, I wouldn’t need a Savior. But really, can any of us not read the last verse of this reading and not be filled with anything but fear? When Jesus says, "whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven," that really terrifies me. The picture is that if there is ever a time when you try to hide the fact that you are a Christian, if you are not the absolute best faithful witness of Jesus to the world, well, Jesus is going to hide the fact that he knows you when you are standing waiting to get into heaven. And that scares us, because not one of us has been able to do that.
Part II
It seems like I goofed coming up with a theme for this text, "Fear is Foreign to us...?" On the contrary, when I see what God expects of me and then compare that to how I’ve been living my life, I’m plenty scared.
If you feel a little twinge of guilt as well, if you are tired of the way that you are, if you are sick of carrying around your sins and feeling bad about them, Jesus has some good news for you. At one time Jesus made this open-ended invitation, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Notice whom Jesus is inviting, the weary and the burdened, those feeling bogged down by their sins. Jesus doesn’t say, "Come to me, you proud, you people who don’t think you need a Savior, you people who don’t want to give up your sins." Christ’s invitation is not for them. Rather, it’s for the ones who have been crushed by the Law, who beat their chest and humbly cry out to God like the tax collector, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." And then we hear Jesus’ words and promise, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Jesus lifts that burden of guilt off the sinner and makes it his own. Jesus gives the person who hasn’t been the most faithful witness a full pardon from their sins. And so we see that the full theme is actually true: Fear is Foreign to the One Full of Faith. For us who believe in Jesus as the one who died on the cross for our sins, we have absolutely no reason to fear the wrath of the Father.
Part III
And just as Jesus died for us and our sins, so also he died for the world’s sins. The world needed to know that, so Christ sent his followers out to let everyone know what he’s done for them.
It would have been good enough for Christ’s followers to simply to have their job being to prclaim the best news ever, but Jesus gives other things to cheer his witnesses.
First of all, he said that we will run into rejection. They called Jesus Beelzebub, and the world is going to call Christ’s followers other nasty things as well. While on the surface that might not seem like a positive, it is when we remember that it is not we who are being rejected, but rather when people treat us badly for being Christians, they are really rejecting the Lord. Now the rejection that we face these days may not be as life-threatening as the brand that the disciples faced. In fact, on the surface, a lot of unchristian people will want to like you, to be your friend, be your buddy. You better believe that they will be watching your life, and seeing how similar it is to theirs. And if unbelievers around you see that your language, your attitudes and your lifestyle are pretty much the same as theirs, that makes them feel secure. That makes them think, "hey, if a Christian acts about the same as me, I must be on my way to heaven also." Out of love for Christ and out of love for our neighbor, we need to strive to give a clear testimony about what makes us tick. And when you do run into persecution, rejoice, because that just proves that you have been a good witness for God.
And have no fear for what the world can do to you. Jesus says that the absolute worst that can happen to the Christian is that our lives can be taken. Which again, might at first sound scary, but not when we remember that our last day on earth is our first day in heaven. And besides, Jesus says, nothing is going to happen to you that the Father doesn’t have knowledge of and the Father doesn’t approve of. We are reminded of the promise that God is not going to send us any more than we can bear. The God who takes care of the birds is surely going to take extra care of you, the crown of his creation.
And finally, the ultimate comfort: we Christians who tell others about Christ will have Jesus telling his Heavenly Father about us. A bold confession of Christ in our violent world may cost the confessor, perhaps even their life. But to those who are willing to pay the price a promise is given: on the Last Day Jesus will acknowledge them as his own before the Father. Such a promise moves us to be bold confessors. Because who of us would exchange the approval of the Father for the approval of men? And who of us would let the abuse of men keep us from obtaining the glorious reward that comes to the faithful. Yes, you don’t need to be afraid to share your faith. In fact, Fear is Foreign to the One Full of Faith.
Conclusion
FDR in his inagural speech in the mid 1930’s, during the height of the Great Depression, uttered those now famous words, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Sometimes we Christians get so wrapped up in our fears, worry about what other people are going to think about and do to us, that we are paralyzed to do or say anything. But as we just studied, the person who repents of their sins has absolutely nothing to fear, not from God, and not from people. We’ve been reading about the Partiarchs, Abraham and Isaac, and how they sometimes showed fear. But it was only when they didn’t trust in God. When they placed everything in the Lord’s hands, they had nothing to fear. God took care of everything. The same is true of you. Don’t fear. God’s going to take care of everything as you work and witness for Christ. Amen.
sdg
