When you pass through the waters

 ‘So have no fear of them’ (Matt 10:26)

Matthew 10:26-33 (Year A: Second Sunday after Trinity 25^th June 2017)

Fear and its twin sibling, Ignorance, are more widespread than one might realise.  Take oneself for example. One can be afraid of some or all of the following:

• Looking foolish in front of colleagues or family
• Being the bad guy in the extended family
• Losing one’s job
• Taking a pay cut when the organisation goes through a rough patch
• Not having enough to live on in retirement
• Not making it to retirement
• Losing friends, family and others
• Growing old
• Getting sick
• Losing our memory and dignity
• Dying
• Facing Judgment of a particular kind (if that was the type of religion one was brought up in)
• What lies ahead for oneself beyond death
• What lies ahead for others beyond death
• What lies ahead for oneself before death
• What lies ahead for others before death
• Etc.
• Etc.

Then again, whole communities and societies are bound together by a shared fear – fear of the ‘other’, fear of losing identity or autonomy, fear of change, fear of dissidents, fear of events and trends outside our control.

Ignorance means not knowing.  Not knowing is part of living in the here and now. The phrase ‘God knows’ takes on special significance when we acknowledge our ‘not-knowingness’.  God is not afflicted (according to most Christian schools of theology) with a-gnosis or not-knowingness. But, we are.  In ignorance, we walk cautiously forward. Sometimes we might have to jump in a state of not-knowingness. We might imagine ourselves beside a river and knowing that we have to jump and try to swim across to the other side (which we cannot see due to fog). If we stay put on this side of the river we are not in a pretty place. The choice is a terrible one between risking all or staying put and facing just as bad or worse.  Whatever choice we make is overshadowed by a not-knowingness.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you (Isaiah 43:2)

A recurring theme in the scriptures is what I call the trilogy of: Fear, Reassurance and Trust.  The prophecy of Isaiah, for example, is full of this. In the New Testament Jesus, again and again, calms our fears and stormy waters and invites us into a trusting relationship with him and Our Father.  Even today, in the midst of personal, familial, communal or societal anxieties and traumas of one sort or another we hear this call to trust in the One who is Peace at the very heart of our beings.  Knowing this trust and this peace does not take the pain away of what happened or what is happening right now to each of us.

Fear, itself, is a necessary and natural part of life. We fear and recoil from pain or from danger. After all, if we didn’t have some measure of fear we might end up in much more trouble!  However, fear cannot and must not control our lives. Too often we are controlled by ignorance or fear or both without realising it. Many relationships between persons, groups and countries are destroyed by a lack of mutual knowledge and by fears stoked by prejudice, resentment and greed.

The limits of inter-personal trust

Nowhere in the Bible are we enjoined to trust others. Rather, we are invited to trust in God alone. Yet, we must trust others at least some of the time and, perhaps, all of the time in the case of someone who is so close and to whom we are bound that trust is ‘effortless’ and natural.  Easy as it is to trust someone we trust and love; the more awful it is to experience a betrayal of trust by someone we always trusted. We cannot gain trust by means of a foolish trusting. Trust is not blind and it is not manipulative. It is born of practical experience, observation and reciprocated goodness.

The word ‘fear’ is used 66 times throughout the Psalms (at least the English language version of the Grail Psalter). However, the word ‘trust’ is used 63 times while ‘peace’ is used 30 times.  We must fear the Lord and not people. Yet, to love the Lord God our God perfectly (in other words, with all her hearts and minds) we can let go of fear.   The evangelist, John, puts it more succinctly and more accurately than any modern day writer:

 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. (1 John 4:18)

And the psalmist declares (39:4)

He put a new song into my mouth, praise of our God. Many shall see and fearand shall trust in the Lord.

Not knowing

We may experience a feeling of fear in relation to the path ahead with all of its uncertainties, risks and unforeseen outcomes. We may even fear what is certain or near-certain (the most certain of all is death).  Whatever we fear, we must

• Believe in what is true
• Do what is right
• Avoid what is evil for ourselves and others.

In that blessed call to be fully human, we find our peace through trust in a higher purpose and love.

Standing up for what we believe in can take courage.  References to witness in the face of opposition as the early friends of Jesus went forth can bring out images of a major showdown in public as someone is forced to deny their faith and refuses to do so.  Sometimes, religious zealots confuse witness with making a public show of their opinions or piety and that in the context of showing others that they are ‘wrong’ because ‘I am right’.

The challenges of discipleship vary and can, in a great many cases, demand small daily examples of kindness, self-denial and courage rather than the mighty gestures of someone about to be condemned, hung, drawn and quartered (although that scenario is not unknown for followers of Jesus in many parts of the world even today).

We live in challenging times and many of us are called on to undergo much suffering for what we believe in and the values we live from (even if the two are not always in harmony). In many parts of the world to be a person of faith – faithful to the social gospel of true freedom may demand martyrdom (to which the root word in Greek is linked to witness). It is idle fantasy to try to imagine what we might do in this situation or that. It is enough to embrace the small trials and tribulations of each day. The most credible witness is to be true to ourselves even to the point of exclusion, ridicule and condemnation.  The one we follow met such and we cannot expect less. Discipleship costs and following the Risen Lord is costly as Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced and wrote about.

A 16th-century mystic, St Teresa of Avila wrote:

Let nothing disturb you,Let nothing frighten you,All things are passing away:God never changes.Patience obtains all thingsWhoever has God lacks nothing;God alone suffices.

If we jump and swim across that river we will find a surprise on the other side. Jesus whom we trust and believe in and who waits for us on the other side greets us not so much with the acclaim ‘Welcome’ but ‘I was with you while you struggled and swam across and you didn’t see me and I am with you now and I will be with you on your onward journey on this side of Life’s river’. ‘Fear not, I am with you, My Peace I give you’, says the Gentle Lover of our souls.

Postscript

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

To the One who gives me freedom to think for myself and to question;

To the One who gives me freedom to act responsibly in accord with my conscience;

To the One who gives me freedom to love without fear;

To the One who gives me Joy in the knowledge that God always loves me as I am;

To the One who give me Life to enjoy and share now and always;

To the One who loves us more than we can ever imagine or tell;

Glory, Praise and Thanksgiving,

Now and evermore,

Amen