Be not afraid

Advent is starting, and I was recently reading through the opening Chapters of Luke in preparation.  There we have the most detailed version of the Christmas story.  This time, as I was reading the story it hit me.  Wow, there is a lot of fear here. A lot of.. reluctance.  That is amazing…. Because we have some big names here.  Mary and Joseph.  The shepherds!  And Zechariah!

But every time we turn around there are the angels saying, “Wait, relax, be not afraid… be not afraid… be not afraid….”   It seems like everyone in the story enters the scene in fear.  Not in joy, expectation, or hope, but in fear.

Mary was afraid.  Joseph was afraid.  The shepherds were afraid.  Of whom, of what where they afraid?  Was it God?  Perhaps it would be better to say they were afraid of what was unfolding.  Because what was unfolding was, different, mysterious, unexpected.  It was a shift, a radical shift, from the status quo.  From what had been expected.  Even from what seemed rational, logical.  No, it was no easy task to go along with God as he revealed, unfolded a new plan, a new direction.

Now this fear was not totally inappropriate.  I mean look at Mary – there she was, a young, inexperienced girl who was given startling news.  She was going to give birth to the Messiah.  And this birth was out of wedlock.  Socially unacceptable.  Yes, she had reason to fear, not only the girth, but Joseph’s reaction, the community’s judgment.  Joseph, he was simple carpenter – asked to play a difficult and important role, and  was called to accept, well something that must have seemed ludicrous, that his now pregnancy fiancée was not unfaithful.  The shepherds, those shabby watchers of sheep.  What they experienced had to have shocked them to the core.

But what about Zechariah?  Zechariah was a priest, a holy man.  In this story Zechariah has been chosen by God through the cast of the lot to offer incense on the great altar in the temple in Jerusalem.  This was THE most prestigious thing a priest good.  And of course the belief was that God would use the lot to choose priests who were uniquely qualified - the spiritual elite. 

So here we have this holy man, doing his job, and suddenly and angel arrives and tells Zechariah about his part in the divine drama which was about to unfold.  And Zechariah was afraid!  I supposed we shouldn’t be too afraid at this initial response.  I mean powerful encounters with God of any sort do tend to be a bit of a shock… Who wouldn’t be surprised to suddenly run into an angel of the lord, and to hear startling news of a soon to be son?

But what is surprising is the continued fear.  Even after the angel outlined God’s plan for him, a plan that was truly exciting, Zechariah was fearful.  Even after the news was offered that he would finally have a son, something he had prayed for… so this wasn’t even a new plan… he was fearful.  So fearful that God silenced him, literally, until the baby was born.

What was it was with Zeke?  What is it, so often with us!!?  God comes – one way or another God reveals his purpose…  reveals a new option… opens a new door… inspires us, moves us….. and we get scared.  We hold back.  We entrench.  

I think there are many reasons.  I tried to think about the reasons I have often been afraid to really open up to God’s call for my life, God’s leading, God’s power!  Sometimes there is a fear of what God is asking for.  God’s call can be costly sometimes.  We might have to give up things…Go against some of our own deeply held dreams, in order to go with God.  Most of it, I think,  has to do with vulnerability! Sometimes I’m afraid that I’ll fail- there is that deep seated fear that I’m just not enough.  Aren’t spiritual enough, talented enough, deep enough. 

At other times there is a fear of exposure.  Doing god’ work requires openness, honesty. We can’t fake it.  Can’t pretend.  Can’t act together when we are not.  Can’t pretend we have the answers when we don’t.  What is it for you?  It’s worth a thought. 

But lets get back to Zeke… Zechariah was fearful.  He hesitated.  In fact he never did say, “Yes” to God.  But in the end?  God made something happen.  That is the way God is.  In spite of ourselves, God uses us

It is amazing how God can break through fear, efforts to hold back, unwillingness – and accomplish incredible things.  We need to understand what God can do with human inadequacy.  We have to banish the myth that God works only through strength.  That God uses only the talented, the special, the strong… not so.

Look at the Christmas story.  Zechariah, priest of little faith.  Elizabeth the barren.  Mary the young.  Joseph the simple and uneducated.  Shepherds, dirty and rejected…all them are limited, marginal – and all of them are important. All of them are used by God.  And the result, something incredible emerges.

Nine months later Zechariah, who has been through terrible times, who has been mute, puzzled, humiliated, tossed and battered, now holds in his arms a little bundle of joy - John, soon to be the John the Baptist.  The forerunner of the Christ.

In spite of fear, silence, frustration.  Though tired and reluctant servants

God carried out his plan, and fear blossomed into joy!  So it was.  So it can be.  To each of us the call of God will come. To each of us the Spirit of the Lord will speak, and God will say… “I have a plan, and you are a part of it.”

And the slightest opening is there  -- if there is the smallest bit of receptiveness in our heart – perhaps even if there is not - God’s transforming power will do its work.  And in spite of ourselves  --  Our greed, selfishness, lack of vision, feeble faith, weaknesses, our fear… God will work his purpose out, and there will be joy!

Yes, God can use us!

Have you ever noticed how some people are always expectant?  No matter what kind of beating life gives them, they always seem ready to look ahead.  To believe in the future.  For them life is full of possibilities.

There are on the other hand people who always seem reluctant.  Somehow they just cannot grab a vision for the future.  They are fearful and hesitant, unwilling to risk or grow.  One such man was complaining to a friend.  “Life” he said, “is terrible.  No matter what I do I fail. All my relationships are shallow, my job is the pits, I don’t know why I as even born.”  His friend said to him, “You just can’t look at life that way.  God created you for a purpose, and I know he has a job for you to do.”  At that the complainer replied, “Well I can tell you right now, I’m not going to do it.”

Sometimes as we think about Biblical heroes, we tend to think that they must have all been the positive, expectant types  -  people so receptive to God that they would go anywhere and do anything for Him.

The fact!  Not even close!  Let me offer an example.  The Christmas story.  As I was reading this story it suddenly hit me.  Wow, there is a lot of fear here. A lot of.. reluctance.  That is amazing…. Because we have some big names here.  Mary and Joseph.  The shepherds!  And Zechariah!  But every time we turn around there are the angels say… , wait, relax, be not afraid… be not afraid… be not afraid…. It seems like everyone in the story enters the scene in fear.  Not in joy, expectation, or hope, but in fear.

Mary was afraid.  Joseph was afraid.  The shepherds were afraid.  Of whom, of what where they afraid?  Was it God?  Perhaps it would be better to say they were afraid of what was unfolding.  Because what was unfolding was, different, mysterious, unexpected.  It was a shift, a radical shift from the status quo.  From what had been expected.  Even from what seemed rational, logical.  No, it was no easy task to go along with God as he revealed, unfolded a new plan, a new direction.

Now this fear was not totally inappropriate.  I mean look at Mary – there she was, a young, inexperienced girl who was given startling news.  She was going to give birth to the Messiah.  And this birth was out of wedlock.  Socially unacceptable.  Yes, she had reason to fear, not only the girth, but Joseph’s reaction, the community’s judgment. 

But what about Zechariah?  Zechariah as a priest, a holy man.  He had been chose by “the lot” to offer incense on the great altar.  Big affirmation.  This was the modern day equivalent of being asked to preach at the White House?

But then God came.  And he revealed to Zechariah his part in the drama.  And Zeke…. Well he was afraid!  I supposed we shouldn’t be too afraid at this initial response.  I mean powerful encounters with God of any sort do tend to be a bit of a shock… Who wouldn’t be surprised to suddenly run into an angel of the lord, and to hear startling news of a soon to be son.  Not surprising.  But what is surprising is the continued fear.

Even after the angel outlined God’s plan for him, a plan that was truly exciting, Zechariah was fearful.  Even after the news was offered that he would finally have a son, something he had prayed for… so this wasn’t even a new plan… he was fearful.  So fearful that God silenced him, literally, until the baby was born.  What was it was with Zeke?                             What is it, so often with us!!

God comes – one way or another God reveals his purpose…  reveals a new option… opens a new door… inspires us, moves us….. and we…. Well, as we look as this new option for our lives…. we respond with fear.  We get scared.  We hold back.  We entrench. 

Sometimes there is a fear of what God is asking for.  God’s call can be costly sometimes.  Most of it, I think,  has to do with vulnerability!  We are afraid we just not enough.  Aren’t spiritual enough, talented enough, deep enoughAt other times I’m afraid I’ll be exposed. 

But lets get back to Zeke… Zechariah was fearful.  He hesitated.  In fact he never did say, “Yes” to God.  But in the end?  God made something happen.  That is the way God is.  In spite of ourselves, God uses us

It is amazing how God can break through fear, efforts to hold back, unwillingness – and accomplish incredible things.  We need to understand what God can do with human inadequacy.  We have to banish the myth that God works only through strength.  That God uses only the talented, the special, the strong… not so.  Look at the Christmas story.  Zechariah, priest of little faith.  Elizabeth the barren.  Mary the young.  Joseph the simple and uneducated.  Shepherds, dirty and rejected…all them are limited, marginal – and all of them are important. All of them are used by God.  And the result, something incredible emerges.

So it was so it can be.  To each of us the call of God will come. To each of us the Spirit of the Lord will speak, and God will say… “I have a plan, and you are a part of it.”

And in spite of ourselves  --  Our greed, selfishness, lack of vision, feeble faith, weaknesses, our fear… God will work his purpose out, and there will be joy!

Lost and Found

I have been thinking, in this time when our society seems all too willing to abandon the vulnerable, about this thing called love. As we hear about services to the poor being cut, the privileges of the wealthy be extended. As we see immigrants, the mentally ill, the poor being minimized, we have to think about what it means, as Christians, as church, to love. Suffice it to say that love is not all fun and games. It can be difficult. After all, Jesus clearly asks us to love those who by objective standards don’t deserve it.

Many years ago, when I was in high school, I would work on a ranch in Plush, Oregon. A group of us would start out in Plush, and then for about a month, move the herd of cattle from water hole to water hole out on the desert. It was a lot of fun. But I remember well the “one horned cow.” We hated that cow. She just wouldn’t go with the herd. We would start out, and all would be well, then suddenly we would realize that we had lost the one horned cow.

So one of us would go back, and look around, and inevitably, there she would be… wandering off on her own agenda… so we would gather her in and force her back to the herd. A few hours later, she was gone again. The whole trip we fought that stupid cow. And I will tell you, buy the end of the trip we had a vision for that cow….. hamburger.

I am reminded of the parable of the lost sheep. Leaving the whole flock to go after one, especially one who is problematic, rebellious? Pretty crazy. But that is the way God’s love is, -- and that is the way our love is meant to be.

Fourteenth Century mystic Catherine of Siena is one of three women who have been honored by Catholic Christianity as Doctor of the Church, because of the depth of her writings on the spiritual life. She often began her prayers, “O Divine Madman.” While this brilliant, fiery Italian woman was asked to describe the God of her journey, she whispered “he is pazzo d’amore, ebro, d’amore”. He is crazed with love, drunk with love.

That is God. The mad one. One whose love is beyond logic. We see this illogical love reflected in the Jesus’ relational attitude toward his disciples. Brennan Manning expresses this attitude in a story he tells in his book The Importance of Being Foolish. “Jesus attitude was beautifully expressed” he writes, “on a tour through Sleepy Hollow Village on the Hudson River. Our guide’s only instruction was, “Please be gentle with the lambs. They won’t come to you if you frighten them.”

When Jesus eyes scanned the crowds, he looked with the eyes of compassion. And thus, except when people were afflicted, as were the Pharisees, with a fatal case of self-righteousness, he did not speak to them with words of blame and shame, castigating, moralizing, ridiculing, threatening, labeling.

No, he was gentle with the lambs. He looked at people with the eyes of love, and his goal was always forgiveness. He always sought to take that lost sheep, and return it to the flock. He took the initiative, over and over again, to seek out sinners, and draw them in to his circle… Matthew the tax collector, Peter the uncouth fisherman.

The woman caught in adultery. . . think about that scene. It’s incredible, really. He didn’t even ask her, as he forgave her and accepted her, whether she was sorry. He did not demand that she commit to change. He did not lecture her on the harsh consequences of future infidelity. He looked at the woman, love her, forgave her, and told her not to sin anymore. The lost sheep. Being brought back to the flock – not through guilt or fear, but through compassion. When we look at other people with compassion, we are recognizing that person as one created and loved by God. We are recognizing them as someone, not something. Not as an adjective. Poor, old, sinful, ill. But as a person, a child of God.

The Narrow Door

Once a man asked Jesus, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"  Jesus said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'  "But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' 

One of the things that struck me as I read this passage was the concept of the narrow door.  This is often where the focus goes when people look at this passage.  Whenever I’ve heard this talked about, it’s usually along the lines of it being difficult to find or enter through. And the focus is on what efforts we need to make to “earn” our way through that door.  But I think that this totally misses the mark. 

We are talking about entry to the kingdom here.  If we are going to have the image of a door, we have to think of a house.  Being the Kingdom, this house should probably be seen as a palace.  Palaces, which are grand houses, have several entrances. There’s the wide door, which is for honored guests, friends and relatives. And there’s the narrow door, which is the servants’ entrance. And this is what I think Jesus was talking about (and what would have been the obvious interpretation for his listeners). If we are to enter the Kingdom, we must not seek to enter through the wide door of honor, but through the narrow door of servitude.

Many will try to enter the house, Jesus says, but will not be able to. That is, I think, they will not be able to enter the wide door.  Why not?  Because those who would enter through the front door would enter the palace as those deserving the honor.  

Think about the end of the parable where Jesus responds to those who are offended by their inability to enter.  Why are they confused?  Because they saw themselves as being in the inner circle.  They saw themselves as the elect.  They saw themselves as those who somehow deserved special status.  “We ate and drank with you.  We walked with you and you taught us.  We are special”

But the concept of the narrow door suggests that the door into the kingdom isn’t for the privileged.  It isn’t for those who think they have special privilege, a special place.  It isn’t for those who think - because of what they know, what they have done, what they believe how they have behaved – that they they have the inside track to the kingdom.  Christ is reminding his listeners that no human being is worthy to enter God’s Kingdom as a right. 

In other words, no one gets into the kingdom through the front door. Instead people get into the kingdom through the side door.  Through the door of grace.  It is those who are not proud, not self-satisfied, not sure of their own deservedness (as compared to everyone else), who find that the door to the Kingdom is open.

In an odd paradox the people of privilege, it is those who see themselves as righteous, as those who are on God’s side (hey, God and I are “like this”) who find it hard to get in.  I have this picture of the TV evangelist, the super Christian, the person who is out there blowing his or her own spiritual horn, the one who is saying “I am on God’s side” standing at the front door, pounding, yelling… hey, open up, let me in! Demanding entrance and finding God not nearly as impressed with them as they anticipated.  And I see the sinners, the losers, the people who know they don’t deserve the kingdom, as quietly walking through the servants’ door into the kingdom, into God’s “space.”  Finding intimacy with the sacred through humility.

It is something to think about in this age when many are self-righteous, and attempt to use that so called righteousness as a club.