Living WIthout Fear
As I was wrestling with the Bible in preparation for this week’s Tuesday night Bible study I came to a startling realization: the opposite of faith isn’t faithlessness or doubt. The opposite of faith is fear.
As I pondered this further, I also came to a place where I realized that the opposite of hope is also fear.
I think this is one of the reasons that the most often quoted commandment in the Bible – given by angel, prophet, God and Jesus is Do not be afraid, fear not.
However, the same cannot be said for love. The opposite of love can involve fear: fear of the one not being loved (they don’t look like me, act like me; they scare me. . .). But, the opposite of love is indifference: absolute carelessness. Ennui. Passive rejection.
In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is asked a question by a lawyer: what is the most important commandment? Luke, the author of the third Gospel remembers this story a little differently. He also remembers a lawyer coming to ask Jesus a question to test him, but the question is different: what must I do to inherit eternal life.
Two different questions by a lawyer, but the same answer from Jesus: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and. . . love your neighbor as yourself.
These are two ultimate questions, and Jesus gives an ultimate answer. And the answer has nothing to do with all the ‘thou shalls’ and ‘thou shalt nots’ – but it has to do with an encompassing love of God and fellow humanity.
The thing that scares me, and worries me most about our modern society isn’t the blatant irreligious behaviors and attitudes of the day. It isn’t all the squabbles that churches and denominations can have about biblical interpretation or Christian ethics. What worries me the most is the profound indifference that pervades our world.
There are vast numbers of people who aren’t wrestling with the existence of God, or how a God of love can let bad things happen in the world, or even wrestling with the deeper issues of institutional religion and genuine faith. There are vast numbers of people who just don’t give a hoot about God.
About a year ago someone, I’m supposing coming home from a night of drinking, threw a beer bottle at St. Peter’s, breaking a window. That’s indifference. That’s absolute carelessness about God.
There are throngs of people who just turn off when they hear the word “God” or “Bible” or “church.” They just don’t care.
In our Gospel lesson this morning, and in several other places in the Bible (including Deuteronomy, which Jesus quotes word for word here) God asks us to love Him. Did you ever wonder why?
It is a little odd to think that we’re ‘commanded’ to love. I don’t command Zoë to love me, I just hope she does. I don’t command Karen to love me, I just hope she does.
Why does God ask us to love him? Well, I think the answer is a little painful: because God has to. Somehow we just aren’t wired to love God the same way that God loves us.
And all God asks from us is that we love him. He gives us life, and our families, and health, and this beautiful planet, and all the blessings of this life. He gave us His only Son, and His Son gave up His Life for us.
And we’re not asked to pay God back. We’re not asked to make up for all the things that have been lavished on us – as if we ever could. All we’re asked to do is love in return. To not be indifferent.
If I had to ask Karen to love me, that would be a pretty sad statement on our relationship wouldn’t it? It would make me seem and feel pretty pathetic.
That God has to ask us, reveals so much more about us than God though. It shows our weakness, our sin, and humanity’s predisposition to turn from God and turn to our own desires.
That so many people completely ignore God, act completely indifferent to God, throwing beer bottles at symbols of his Presence and existence must break His heart.
Our job as the church is to reflect the love that God has for us onto the world. Our job is to help the world realize that God loves us – all 6 billion of us. And, our job is to be an example of how to love God and our fellow humanity in return. We are to be known by how we are loved and how we love.
When the Church fails to do this, I would say that we’re not only falling short of our Christian duty, but that we are failing to be the Church at all.
We are to have faith, not fear: resting in the knowledge that God exists and that God loves. We are to have hope, not fear: resting in the knowledge that God loves us no matter what, that God’s in control, and that all shall be well. And we are to love, not be indifferent: loving because we are loved, and loving that others may know the Source of all love.
Amen.
As I pondered this further, I also came to a place where I realized that the opposite of hope is also fear.
I think this is one of the reasons that the most often quoted commandment in the Bible – given by angel, prophet, God and Jesus is Do not be afraid, fear not.
However, the same cannot be said for love. The opposite of love can involve fear: fear of the one not being loved (they don’t look like me, act like me; they scare me. . .). But, the opposite of love is indifference: absolute carelessness. Ennui. Passive rejection.
In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is asked a question by a lawyer: what is the most important commandment? Luke, the author of the third Gospel remembers this story a little differently. He also remembers a lawyer coming to ask Jesus a question to test him, but the question is different: what must I do to inherit eternal life.
Two different questions by a lawyer, but the same answer from Jesus: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and. . . love your neighbor as yourself.
These are two ultimate questions, and Jesus gives an ultimate answer. And the answer has nothing to do with all the ‘thou shalls’ and ‘thou shalt nots’ – but it has to do with an encompassing love of God and fellow humanity.
The thing that scares me, and worries me most about our modern society isn’t the blatant irreligious behaviors and attitudes of the day. It isn’t all the squabbles that churches and denominations can have about biblical interpretation or Christian ethics. What worries me the most is the profound indifference that pervades our world.
There are vast numbers of people who aren’t wrestling with the existence of God, or how a God of love can let bad things happen in the world, or even wrestling with the deeper issues of institutional religion and genuine faith. There are vast numbers of people who just don’t give a hoot about God.
About a year ago someone, I’m supposing coming home from a night of drinking, threw a beer bottle at St. Peter’s, breaking a window. That’s indifference. That’s absolute carelessness about God.
There are throngs of people who just turn off when they hear the word “God” or “Bible” or “church.” They just don’t care.
In our Gospel lesson this morning, and in several other places in the Bible (including Deuteronomy, which Jesus quotes word for word here) God asks us to love Him. Did you ever wonder why?
It is a little odd to think that we’re ‘commanded’ to love. I don’t command Zoë to love me, I just hope she does. I don’t command Karen to love me, I just hope she does.
Why does God ask us to love him? Well, I think the answer is a little painful: because God has to. Somehow we just aren’t wired to love God the same way that God loves us.
And all God asks from us is that we love him. He gives us life, and our families, and health, and this beautiful planet, and all the blessings of this life. He gave us His only Son, and His Son gave up His Life for us.
And we’re not asked to pay God back. We’re not asked to make up for all the things that have been lavished on us – as if we ever could. All we’re asked to do is love in return. To not be indifferent.
If I had to ask Karen to love me, that would be a pretty sad statement on our relationship wouldn’t it? It would make me seem and feel pretty pathetic.
That God has to ask us, reveals so much more about us than God though. It shows our weakness, our sin, and humanity’s predisposition to turn from God and turn to our own desires.
That so many people completely ignore God, act completely indifferent to God, throwing beer bottles at symbols of his Presence and existence must break His heart.
Our job as the church is to reflect the love that God has for us onto the world. Our job is to help the world realize that God loves us – all 6 billion of us. And, our job is to be an example of how to love God and our fellow humanity in return. We are to be known by how we are loved and how we love.
When the Church fails to do this, I would say that we’re not only falling short of our Christian duty, but that we are failing to be the Church at all.
We are to have faith, not fear: resting in the knowledge that God exists and that God loves. We are to have hope, not fear: resting in the knowledge that God loves us no matter what, that God’s in control, and that all shall be well. And we are to love, not be indifferent: loving because we are loved, and loving that others may know the Source of all love.
Amen.
posted by Fr. Rick Morley at 8:54 AM
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