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Be Afraid—Be Very Afraid
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
The Bible is constantly telling us to do two things: Fear God, and do not be
afraid. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” we are told. Yet over
and over in response to God appearing or doing something, people are told not to
fear. For example, at the end of Matthew’s gospel, the women leave the tomb on
Easter morning with a mixture of fear and joy. Suddenly they run into Jesus, and
they fall down and worship him, and the first thing he says is: “Do not be
afraid.” What’s going on? Fear God. Don’t be afraid. I warn you not to take of
short cut out of this dilemma by appealing to Matthew 10.28, in which Jesus
instructs us to fear God but not to fear anyone or anything else: “Do not fear
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can
destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Why can’t we take the shortcut and be done with it? Because, as I said, often in
scripture the command “do not fear” comes in response to God showing up or doing
something. True, if you trust God you need not fear lesser things—our sermon
last week touched on that. Yet scripture tells us to fear God, yet also bids us
not to be afraid.
Here is what I hope to do in this sermon: (1) help you understand what it means
to fear God and (2) explore the relationship between love and fear.
Specifically, how does God’s love change our fear of God? And, how can we both
love and fear God?
Here is why I want to do these two things: I think that much modern Christianity
is anemic. Peter Kreeft calls it psychobabble. In a quote from him on the front
of your bulletin, he contrasts prophetic religion with therapeutic religion. “In
the prophetic model, God commands us to be good. In the therapeutic model,
people use religion to make themselves feel good” [“Perfect Fear Casts Out All ‘Luv’”].
You see the difference. When we come to worship, do we seek the living God, or
are we playing a game?
The reality is that in our culture, people are going to listen to preachers they
like. It is always tempting to tailor the content of the faith to what people
want. If they want to feel good, make them feel good. Preach happy, affirming
messages. Forget sin, holiness, and the rest. The danger is: We will not know
our Father in heaven who judges and saves us, but we will imagine in his place a
grandfather in heaven who does not judge us, but for that very reason also does
not save us. Many in our culture want a god who affirms them just the way they
are and wants nothing more than to make them happy. The God of Christianity
loves them in spite of the way they are and wants nothing more than to transform
them and make them like Jesus. A god who does not inspire fear is popular, but I
must give you the God of Jesus and the Bible or I am a failure.
Be advised: I am not joining the ranks of hellfire and brimstone preachers who
peddle fear. You probably know that by now, but let me say it again and explain
why. Some preachers, in a sincere effort to scare people into making a Christian
commitment, make God sound like a monster. If you grew up with that sort of
thing, you heard sermons in which loving Jesus appeases his angry and vindictive
Father. So you love Jesus and fear and maybe hate the Father; but that is all
mixed up. Jesus and the Father are one. Beyond their carelessness with this
implication of the doctrine of the Trinity, the brimstone boys are wrong because
they caricature and exaggerate. Although I dare say they are closer to the truth
than those who preach a syrupy-sweet, cuddly god that is more like Elmo from
Sesame Street than like Jesus.
So … I want neither to manipulate you with fear nor pander to your selfish
religious instincts (or to mine, for that matter, because I am just like you). I
want for you and for me the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. So
what is this proper fear of God? Let’s see.
To answer that we first need to know what fear is. Peter Kreeft offers help by
distinguishing three kinds of fear: respect, awe, and terror. Respect is too
small for God. Respect is what you might feel for a police officer or the
President. You are 10 miles over the limit, and you see blue lights behind you.
They are not flashing—yet—so you slow down. Visit the capital or the White
House. You feel something. Hopefully it is respect for the power and venerable
traditions of government. God, being God—the Almighty Creator who called
everything into existence out of nothing; the infinite and Holy One; the Lord of
Hosts; and so on—is worth more than mere respect.
Awe is more appropriate to God. Awe contains a sense of wonder at something
beyond our control and understanding. Awe recognizes the beauty of its object.
Awe is a manifestation of fear, for awe acknowledges the greatness of its object
that reduces one’s own self to nothing in comparison. The fear of the Lord is
awe. The proper fear of God begins and ends with awe. Yet there is more.
Terror is Kreeft’s third division of fear. Terror is, of course, abject dread. I
could try to explain more, but we have all experienced it at one time or
another. Kreeft argues that terror is also part of our proper fear of God. Why?
Because God is holy, and we are sinners. “The sinful self is naturally and
rightly terrified of the goodness of God, which is sin’s enemy,” he writes.
“[Terror] is meant to be cast out because God saves us from sin, and then the
relation changes from enemies to friends, and from terror to wonder.”
Awe and terror are alike in that both have in common passion and mystery. But
while awe is meant to be permanent in our relationship with God, terror is
supposed to be temporary. Terror is the right response for a fallen human being
to have toward God, but God’s love and grace casts it out. This is the “do not
be afraid” we find so often in scripture. Kreeft goes on, “If there is no fear
for love to cast out, the love will not arrive as a conqueror. If there are no
dragons, a knight is just a boy in a tin suit.”
If God were like some Elmo-in-the-sky, what would his love mean? What would it
be worth? For what would we hope? If all God wants is for us to be happy, he’s
done a poor job setting up this world. In truth, God loves goodness and justice.
He wants our well-being and happiness; but we act against our own interests by
rebelling against him. But he will not leave us to our misery. He will set
things right. He judges, and he saves. And these two are one action—the act of
making things right. God is more than worthy of our terror, but he would not
have us live in dread of him, so his love casts out our terror but leaves us
with awe.
Kreeft’s insight helps me, but I have a few more thoughts gleaned from pouring
over the fear of God in the Bible. What is fear? Fear is a reaction to a human’s
encounter with force. Fear is an emotion. We can separate fear as a gut reaction
from our reflection on the experience. I want to do that and to classify fear
based on what it leads to. You encounter God or have an awareness of God (it
could even be from something you read in the Bible or hear in a sermon), and you
fear. Does your fear cause you to despair … or to glorify God? Often in
scripture an encounter with God inspires fear, the person is told not to fear,
and the response is glorifying God. Think of the shepherds at Christmas or of
Mary when the angel announced Jesus’ birth. God reveals himself—either through a
messenger or more directly. The human recipient of his revelation is afraid. Not
full of respect. Stark raving terrified. Then God delivers Good News of his
love. And what happens? The human glorifies God.
If your understanding of God causes you fear, is this good or bad, healthy or
unhealthy?
Well, that all depends on what it leads to. If your fear of God causes you to
despair, that’s bad. As a child you grow up in church listening to a fire and
brimstone preacher, and for the rest of your life you live with a constant
nagging despair that God doesn’t love you, that you have displeased him too
much, and so you are afraid that in the end God will cast you out, despite the
fact that Christ died for you. That is bad. In contrast, what if your fear leads
to glory? You become aware in some small way of how great God must be—how
awesome and holy and powerful—and you feel small and guilty and afraid. But then
the Good News breaks into your heart like the morning sun, and you know in your
heart, your mind, and your bones that God loves you. The cross cannot be
refuted. And what do you do? You love God. Like the woman who anointed Jesus’
feet with perfume, you love much because you have received great grace. That is
good. That is the beginning of wisdom. You hear the command, “Be not afraid!”
Love casts out terror. Awe remains. And you are changed. God is worthy. He is
worthy of your fear. He is worthy of your love. The two go hand in hand.
In our scripture reading from Luke we find Peter, James, and John feeling the
natural human response to God’s presence. The Transfiguration of Jesus is an
important event in his life. That’s why we celebrate it with a special Sunday,
which is today. When Jesus was baptized, just before he began his ministry, his
Father in heaven claimed him and gave him his blessing. Now, just after Jesus
has announced to his disciples that he must die on a cross and just before he
sets off to do it, the Father again claims him and blesses him. Is Jesus on the
right path? His disciples doubt it, but what happens on the mountain should
settle the matter. His three closest friends are there. They witness something
beyond amazing. And at the end, the cloud of God’s presence overshadows them.
The cloud of God’s presence is familiar to anyone who has read the Old
Testament. The idea is: God’s glory is too awesome to behold. He is too holy.
Too bright. Too glorious. No one can see God and live, we are told. So God hides
his glory in the cloud. But the cloud that hides is glory is an unmistakable
sign of his presence. Luke tells us, “They were terrified as they entered the
cloud.” As well they might be. All their lives they had heard about God and
worshipped God. No one understands God fully, but they knew enough (and had
sense enough) to be terrified. God is the Holy One of Israel, before whom the
nations and rulers of the earth are as nothing; he speaks and the earth
trembles. He is mighty, and he uses his might to establish righteousness and the
glory of his name. They knew their Old Testament. They knew Jesus’ teachings.
God was far beyond their comprehension, but they reacted in exactly the right
way. No wonder they didn’t tell anyone for a long time about what happened to
them. How could you begin to describe it? They were wise, and their wisdom
served them well both when they received God’s grace and when Jesus sent them
out to tell others. Love cast out their terror. Awe remained. And all their
lives they gave glory to God.
The passage from Deuteronomy is a jewel. With readings like this, why bother
preaching? It speaks so clearly and powerfully. This particular passage is set
in a part of Deuteronomy that purports to be a sermon preached by Moses. If you
remember the Exodus story, God has just replaced the tablets of the Ten
Commandments, which Moses threw down in anger and broke. The Lord has sent the
children of Israel on their way from Sinai to the Promised Land. Here, before
they move on, Moses preaches about the importance of being faithful to God.
For our purposes, this passage is ideal. It brims to overflowing with three
things we are interested in: (1) reasons God should be feared, (2) assurances of
God’s love, and (3) ethics. Our fear of God and God’s love determine how we
treat others. All these come together in a rich mix.
We are told to fear and to love God. Why fear him? Because “heaven and the
heaven of heavens belong to him, the earth and everything in it”—including us!
The Lord is “God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome.”
Adjectives never do God justice, but we have to try. Human language is
inadequate to express God’s majesty, just as human minds are inadequate to
conceive it. We just stammer and stumble and try. And thanks be to God, we can
at least grasp enough to know in our gut how we ought to respond.
Why love him? Because of his love. God chose Abraham. Got made his descendants a
nation. He rescued them from Egypt. We could add that through Jesus the Messiah
he saved the world and grafted us believing Gentiles into his family. Why love
God? Because he loves justice and provides for the helpless and needy. “He is
your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things
that your own eyes have seen.” In context that quote refers to the miraculous
events of the Exodus, but we are God’s people too. What great and awesome things
have you seen with your eyes? What has God done for you? Ponder this question,
and you will have your own personal reasons for loving God. Has he brought you
through hard times? Delivered you from illness or disease? Given you blessings
too numerous to count? He has certainly given himself for you on the cross and
hopefully claimed you in baptism. (If not, that can be remedied.) When you
consider who God is and how he has loved you, how can you ot want to “fear the
Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul”?
Like all of the Old Testament Law and the Prophets, this passage urges concern
for widows, orphans, and foreigners. These being the most vulnerable members of
Israelite society. God cares about the weakest among us, and therefore we ought
to care also. You neither fear nor love God if you do not care about your
neighbor’s needs.
Very well … I have taken you on quite a ride. What can you hold onto and take
home with you? What does it mean—practically speaking—to fear God? Let’s end
qith a quick list:
1. To fear God means to love God, and vice versa. The two are not mutually
exclusive or even opposed. They are part of the same thing. Once love casts out
terror, awe remains. Awe is an aspect of fear, but also of love. This is why
Deuteronomy mentions fear and love in the same breath. If you fear God, you will
try to obey him. If you love God, you will try to obey him. In fact, you cannot
love God rightly if you do not fear him, nor can you fear him rightly if you do
not love him. The two go together.
2. To fear God means to dread evil and to despise doing evil. God loves
everything good. God hates everything evil. The person who fears God shares
God’s revulsion of sin. And, once again, the person who loves God feels the same
way. You will find this especially helpful when struggling with temptation. You
would not be struggling if the sin you are tempted to commit did not appeal to
you. It reaches you someplace deep in your soul and moves you, maybe in ways you
do not understand. You find it appealing. How do you overcome this? Only by
trumping it with something you love more, God. You love him and you fear to
displease him. A lot of times that works for me when nothing else would.
3. To fear God means to keep his commands and seek his will. In fact, scripture
can use the phrase “he feared God” as shorthand for “he kept God’s commands.”
The Book of Proverbs contrasts the wise person who fears God with the arrogant
fool who does whatever he or she feels like without caring what God thinks
precisely because he or she does not fear God. This goes with …
4. The opposite of fearing God is arrogance. The fool does not fear God and so
presumes to be a law unto himself. To fear God means to be humble.
5. To fear God means knowing that God is beyond your control and understanding.
God is God, and you are not. So many in the Bible learned that the hard way. So
many still do. You need not be among them. If the fear of the Lord inspires
humility, no wonder it is called the beginning of wisdom!
In conclusion, we who worship God and call upon him may, through familiarity,
lose our sense of awe. We may, with all our talk of his love, forget the fear he
so deserves. I hope we do not. And if we do, all it will take is a fresh wind
from his Spirit to stir us again. For he is God after all and worthy of fear. I
hope you know the terror only God can inspire, and I hope his love casts it out.
I also hope you will never lose the awe. Never settle for preaching that
comforts but does not threaten. Do not run from the brimstone so far that you
end up praying to Elmo. Seek God. Yes, the real God is threatening. Even when
you know his love, he will ask you to do things you would rather not do (like
love your neighbor). But never settle for less. For the fear of God should never
lead to despair, but always to giving him the glory, for he is worthy. Amen.
rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
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