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“To THOSE OF A FEARFUL HEART NOVEMBER 25, 1973 (BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHUKCH

te 5:3-10 LAFAYETTE, INDIANA

| John, 4:13-18 , JOHN M. BUCHANAN
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{ Khe Old Testament Lesson this morning is one of those strange sounding passages that
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we associate with the Bible but Reker mepemby ,

utopian -| "The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped: fthen
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shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue o&_ the dumb shall sing with joy.| waters

The imagery is futuristic -
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Shall break forth in the wilderness...streams in the desert, the burning sand shal! become

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a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water."

Someone has suggested that our minds shift intr neutral when we hear passages like
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trat.\We know the bible is full of them, but we haven't the slightest notion of what they

mean \ The imagery is strange, and besides they sound like the kind of promisory note,
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pie-in-the-sky religion that we have come to distrus
Well, before we dismiss this passage it might be helpful _to_look a little closer and
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discover to whom it was written, and why it was weitten.| The key is in the fourth verse:
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| "Say to those of a fearful heart, 'Be strong fear not!| Behold your god". "| That beings it

a little closer to home:("to those of a fearful heart." } That includes just about all of

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us, | would suggest | at some time or another we =eteus fall into that category \ In any

case the "fearful of heart" in Isaiah 35 refers to that part of Israel carried off into
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Babylonian exile\ Captives in a foreign hand, cut off from their culture and relatives, the

exiled Jews play a pivotal role in the developing faith of lsraet \ The material written

about them and to them in the form of let ters is included mostly in the Book of the

Prophet Isaiah, and it has become among the most important Biblical material because it
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deals with a chosen people who are in serious troup le.\ Put very simply, they were afraid.

afraid for their lives, but more than that real lyatraid because the nation, the tradition,
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the culture, the religion was threatened. afraia because their historic trust in a God who
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lives in man's history looked bankrupt for the monent. \ I'm always helped by that information.

It was to these people, in this situation that the word came. nd while | may have some
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difficulty tying into the image of a desert blossoming, | think | can identify with those

"fearful of heart."

Fear - who doesn't know what it feels like to be afraid@ The capacity for fear is so

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deeply built into the natural scheme of things that life would be impossible without it.

"TO. THOSE OF A FEARFUL HEART NOVEMBER 25, 1973 PAGE 2
Atl animal life reacts To threat at a level That is instinctive. Startle a bird and if

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doesn't sit and analyze the situation, it files away. \ startle a man and he jumps, which
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ts the Instictive beginning of flight - away from the threat \ Frighten a man _and his

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hair stands on end, which Is simply the anthrapols gical remnant of the way our ancestors

responded to a threat ~ namely by puffing up their hair to lake themselves look larger

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and more Seattte-| The apes still do it, of course.\ wher fear grips a man, instinct take-
over: [the adrenalin ftows,| the eyes widen in order to see bdtter, muscles tighten in ord
to react quicker, the heart beats faster preparing the body ‘to respond it's all rather

amazing, and rather good. |
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Conscious fear, fear stemming from a threat we understand and can think about rationally,
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likewise is a positive factor.\ The fear of having an accidént motivates us to drive care-
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fully\ Fear of disease motivates medical research \ fear of | “floods motivates us to build
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dams \ fear of a nuclear holocaust has cervainly motivated the nations of the world to
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steer a more creative course in international] relations. \ eer can be a creative force.
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But precisely because It is so much a part of our nature, and precisely because it
is so very powerful, fear can be exploited, played wzoo.\ we can be manipulated by people
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who know how to get at this very vulnerable point A. Think how many of the world's prob.
cpegenaervierealdie ( emnaml ”
art elk aX SOWERM | aie sit Swaine ants fae
anid tensions | Racism, for instance, has in it a strong. element of fear u.

black people.) White people in South Africa live with fear bys a constant companion, and
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act it out politically in a system of total separation cal led Apartheid.) Think tow mary

of the important’ decisions our government has made since World War_ |} have been based on

the fear of communism.\ had the rare privilege lagi week pf spending an afternoon with

Father Joseph Ryan, a Jesuit priest who has spent the jast 20 years in the Middie Eas:.
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And his conclusion is that fear is the predominant issue int the continuing conflict be-

tween Israe! and the arabs. \ Arat fear cf tsrael's territorial! intentions. \ Isreot's

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fear of the Arab's overwhelming numerical supertority.\ Fear is 6 pqugrtul factor in our
life, and it can be very easily used by anyone who wishes fo manipulate us.
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But there is a deeper fear that fs part of our lot. \ Me do differ from the reat of

the animal kingdom in that we can step outside oursieves anid analyze our situation: we can

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ask,t "Why am | here? \wrats {ife all about? What's going £0 happen to no? \ We are

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"TQ THOSE OF A FEARFUL HEART NOVEMBER 25, I973 PAGE 3

capable of playing that favorite partor game called “What iu until we are reduced to

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quivertng nerves and hand wringing. \ unfocused fear is anxiety, and it is particularly

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characteristic of twentieth century man A Edmund Steimle desqribos our situation like This:

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“Hare we are, set in a dangerous world with nothing much in the way of teeth or claws

to defend ourselves or to secure food and shelter except for jour wits and a remarkable

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thumb | with no ultimate control over tife or death er what will happen to us in the furTure
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despite all our insurance policies and nest eggs and resid plans. \ We are understandably

anxfous!| (The Protestant Hour, |1/25/71)

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"No ultimate contre! over Life or death or what will happen to vse! [our problem¢ is
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that wa know that about ourselves:f{we wake up at night sometimes knowing that about our-
wrseluer:|we wake yp oF night sorer lace krowing Matgeut

selves In a way That is terribly real and immediate} That's what anxiety is - That dim
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awareness that comes bursting through our consciousness on odcas ion that we are not finally
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in control, that all too casily something or someone can pul f the rug out from under us.

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Rollo May defines the difference between normal fear and anxfety in terms of being

caught in the middle of a street with a car speeding toward you.| Fear causes you to react:

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you see the car, instinct takes over and you jump out of the way. \ In anxiety you can! F

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quite see the car, although you know fis coning, [your VTL aes» you feel panicky and
don'+ know which way to turn, \ Did you every have that most dommon of dreams? | You are

running from something -but your fegs aren't getting the job jjone, and you wake up in an

agitated state.\ That's anxiety, mitling around in your subednse lous and finding a way to

break into your thougnts\ It's the feeling of being "caught or "overwhetmed",
Well, I'd suggest that this is what the Jews in Baby lon jwere experiencing | a sense

of being caught and over ineds\ an that this fs what life does to you and me with crue!

regularity... We worry a lot - about things we need to worr aiout like mortgage payments,
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and how the kids are going to get to college and the cost of, Living. But beneath it ail is

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this sense af ultimate insecurity: | that no matter what we do | we arc not ultimately safe.

One theclogian calls it the "infinite void of insecurity" Mirl-

WhtdetetdGes and maintains that most of our behavior is an acting out of this basic anxiety.

In the middle ages men built fortress castles with walls thirteen feet thick to insure

their security| In the twentieth century we seck That same gafety in financial security.

"TO THOSE OF A FEARFUL HEART NOVEMBER 25, [973 PAGE 4

Money in the bank, insurance policies, pension plans - There are the fortresses we give

our lives to buitd.\ But it never quite works, because [t's never _quite enough, because

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The anxiety we are really acting out is unfocused and ultimate.

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Langdea Gilkey points out how this universal quest turns up id the most untikely places fn
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the most unfikely ways ( We aré continually building defenses for our jobs and careers 1
he wreite§ "by all sorts of political and public relations ‘maneuvers at the office, at
the minister's convention, at the faculty meeting Zi or dar to be secure for the future |
(P.322) “Our infinite human hunger for weatth, prominence, and place is in targe part an

effort to amass power in some form or another so as to guard against the threat of fate,
: seeasieencrs

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that unpredictable force tiny that c: om our inge 2 guard
ha predicta ferce of destiny that can snatch from our contingent hands these guards

for our security.”

—

Think of the Kennedy's. | The 2 it alt:|wealth d 2stige - h se it
hia ennedy 's | wy have If a wea RUE pong prestige as much security

as is given to human kind to col Lact | and at contingenc _ - tragedy - keeps comin
g enka fee y gency ~ falg_= tragedy ps_comihg .

and keeps proving that in this life theme are no quarantees |

To be human is te experience teor\ 10 be human is to Hive with anxfety ~ to act iT

out.) To be human is to know that there is nothing we can do ultimately to Insure our s

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security. | That fact can rule us - or - we can chose to deal: with it\ Christian Faith
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confronts it head on,\ May back in The days of the Oid Testament The peopla of God were

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fearning what it means to live with andety | Fe those of a fearful heart") the prophet

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wrote. | "Fear not = be strong - behold your god."'|You may now feel safe, but you are.

Years later Jesus confronted the fearsand anxieties of his people. And the prescrip-
tion he wrote for them was fove and service and discipleship. \eon' worry about yourcat® ™
think about your cetghbor') he said, and It has been the Christian experience down through
the centures that loving service to othurs is the way wa frep ourselves from dgadly anxiety.

But the best text of all was written by an ald man befote he died ta the young Chris-

tian Churches in Asta Minor.) He knew how people worried and, fretted about the future.
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He didn't use the language of philosophy, but out ef his Lond experience De knew the Jonel y
— is jove, and he wholbides In love abides in God
awareness of ultimate insecurity. \ And 50 ne plumbed the depth: "“"God& vand God abides in

him'fAnd then, "Thre is no fear in love, but perfect fove casts out fear."

That, It seems to me, [Is the best of all possible nows.| And that, it saems to me, is
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"TO THOSE OF A FEARFUL HEART" NOVEMBER 25, 1973 PAGE 5

the burden of the Church of Jesus Christ to carry to people who are atratd.\ "sod is love -

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there is no fear in iove.t{ey greatest impationce, because off that, is reserved for
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Christianity that has not only forgotten that word, but has bhosen To use and exploit

fear for the purposes of manipulating peop e\ Nothing, it seems to me, could be more

contrary to the Good New of Jesus Christ than to use the psythologtcal crowbar of fear

It's a favorite and respectable device, however, and hay ing established the power

to pry people into Church.
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of fear and our vulnerability to fear we need not underestimate ifs potency. | This summer,
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eur Scotiand Parish was visited by 3 Mission Team - which for two weeks devoted its time
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to scaring chitéren {od when our own children came home wondering if their hearts were

Black with sin, and if the devi! was for real, and if thay were going to hetl if they

died - our relationship with that particular endeavor came tb a sudden rath Religion

that plays on fear ~- whether the easily exploited fears of lvttte chitdren, or the more

sophisticated fears of adults exploited by your garden variety evangelist, just cannet

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be called Christian. \in fact, it is moving in precisely the joppesite direction.
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God ts love - there is no fear in jove.\ The answer to fear and anxiety is not

courage : |some of us have a lot of that and some of us are unapologetic covaras.| Lhe

antidote to fear - if tsaiah and Jchm can be trusted - is love.

The Good News is that the infinite void of fate isntt aivoid at ai \ it Is God, the

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source of all being - the all in all - and he is no wathtull judge \ He, if our sources
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knew whereof they spoke is Jove - eternal, unending, compassfonate love.
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Perfect love - that is to Say - God's love for you and me - casts out all tear. Gna

loves us - no matter what ha eps. \ He loved his people facing the future In Babyton -

he loved his son as he died on the cross ~ he loves the Keanddy's = he loves all of us
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with a magnificient, liberating love that has no limits.
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That's why his people have not been afraid - ultimate ‘of anything - even their own

death. } Because there {[s no fear In aveo~ just joy and seren tt and freedom,

Pope John XXII1 had hold of that when he wrote in his diary -

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"[ am about to enter the thirty-second year of my 1ite.\the theught of the past

makes me humble and ashamed;\the thought of the present is cansol ing because mercy is stili

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"TO THOSE OF A FEARFUL HEART” NOVEMBER 25, 1973 PAGE 6

being shown to mes the thought of the future encourages me In, the hope of making up for

lost rine. How much future will there bu? \ Perhaps a very shirt one\\ But long oor short 3s

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So - tgus - of fearful hearts -
_ "Be strong - tear not
there is no fear jin tove!l AMEN

it may be, O Lord, once more | tell you that if is all yours ( ASP therpeaaiaeplecfanntriintile 2 7 }

Father, we are afraid of a lot of things: things we can contrb| and things over which we

have no power. Help us to keep Tt all in perspective, and te live our dives in that ultimate

safety of your love. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN