“We put the fear of God in them.” A common idiom that means to frighten or scare someone, usually with a sense of gaining their compliance.
There is certainly a lot 'fear' in the birth narrative of Jesus. Check out Luke 1:11–12 Zechariah visited by Gabriel, Luke 1:29 Mary visited by Gabriel, Luke 2:9 Shepherds visited by an angel. And these recipients of an angelic visitation are following a common pattern, see for example Daniel 8:16 when is Daniel visited by Gabriel.
To this we can add all the others fears around, from Mary, her parents, and from Joseph, including making a journey to Bethlehem. Even fear from Herod, that another king was born. And look how his fear played out!
But what are we to make of fear itself, there are around forty
verses in the Scriptures with the injunction not to fear. At the top of that
list must be 1 John 4.18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives
out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made
perfect in love.”
Fear and hope were the subject of a discussion group I attend
when I am able. We met last Thursday and
continued our exploration Bishop’s Guli’s Advent Book, ‘Listening to the music
of the soul.’ Our discussion kept
circling back to fear. Despite the many injunctions not to fear, we agreed that
‘fear’ is necessary to enable us to survive and navigate our way through life.
Fear and the crippling nature of misplaced fear is way beyond a short weekly
reflection, but I do encourage you to give some further thought and
consideration to what fear is, its purpose as a powerful motivating factor for
good and for ill - Herod's actions for example.
However, we can see here that even this perfectly normal and
rational fear could become irrational and debilitating. If we developed amaxophobia
for example, which is an extreme fear of vehicles, being near them or driving one or
being a passenger in one.
At it most basic level fear can be brought down to the level
of harm, injury or death. Hence, it is a perfectly natural and normal part of
our defence mechanism enabling us to survive.
But if we push that we can begin to see just how
crippling it can be at all sorts of levels. We might not have heard of amaxophobia
before, but I am certain you will have heard of xenophobia. And that ‘fear’ is
driving so much of our politics across the world currently.
And if we drill down even further and take the Scriptures and
the story they tell as a guiding principle and source of wisdom we note something
that resonates deep within the human experience. We live in the mind-set of either scarcity, which produces fear, or a mind-set of abundance.
The first story where we see this plays out is with Cain and Abel.
3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the
soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an
offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked
with favour on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his
offering he did not look with favour. So, Cain was very angry, and his face was
downcast.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why
is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not
be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it
desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
There is a lot in this story, but I would draw your attention to Cain being angry because it would seem that the Lord did not look with favour on his offering. (Which might be related to the tension between farmers and shepherds, something that continues to rumble on through the years. Those who want to settle and farm, and those who want to roam with flocks or with cattle put out to pasture) It would seem from reading the rest of the text that Cain considered that in accepting Abel’s offering, that God had nothing left for himself, Cain. He had a scarcity mind set. And he looked with a jealous rage against his brother. This rage God describes like a monster crouching at the door, if Cain opened that door then the monster would enter and consume him.
Which sadly, we learn is exactly what Cain did, he didn’t
manage to rule over his passion, his fear, his anger – and he rose up killed
his brother.
That story has continued to be lived out, individually and corporartely, and across nations.
The fear that there isn’t enough - food, land, homes, friends,
shelter, name what you will. We live in a world crippled by a fear of there not
being enough, a mind-set of scarcity.
‘Give us this day our daily bread’ – remember the provision of manna in
the desert. Gather only enough for the day. Living in fear and with a mind-set
of scarcity we gather not only for today, but also for tomorrow, thus depriving
someone else of their daily bread.
In our discussion we began to note that if we lived truly in
a community of reciprocal love than that would dissipate a lot of our fears and
a scarcity mind-set.
Let me give you a very real example of what this might look
like. Last night (Sunday morning) at around 4.30am Jane woke me as she was in
an incredible amount of pain and couldn’t move her leg. She was obviously in
pain and fearful, not knowing what was happening. Thus, I thank God for
both fear and pain on this occasion because it spurred us into action rather
than trying to ignore the situation, which obviously did need attention. Thankfully
I was around, thankfully we have a car and I can drive as NHS 111 advised us to go to Coventry Hospital. But what if Jane lived
alone. This is where a ‘community’ would then come into play, someone who could
be contacted to offer help. I would dare to suggest, this ‘should’ be the place
of the Faith Community, i.e. the Church. And I have known many occasions when this help
has been forthcoming from someone in the community. Knowing that people from the community
(however we see that constituted) are willing to help in times of need, helps to dissipate fear.
Knowing that if I fall on hard times, if I become hungry and
homeless, knowing somebody from the community who is living in the mind-set of abundance
and not scarcity will share their resources with me, because they trust there
is enough, helps to dissipate fear, because love practically expressed begins
to chase away the monster crouching at the door.
I might be naïve, but I am convinced that there is absolutely no need for anyone to fight for anything, no need for anyone to go hungry, absolutely no need for anyone to be without shelter. The ‘problem’ is not a lack of resources, but a lack of distribution because we operate out of fear and a scarcity mind-set.
Perfect love casts our fear.
As much as we can in our own sphere of influence let us
endeavour to be those who embrace an abundance mind-set, to recognise the value
of fear to keep us safe, but the danger when it slips over into becoming a
phobia.
And in all of this we celebrate heaven invading earth, flooding it with hope and love. Our task is to dig out the mud that has clogged up rivers of love and stopped them flowing. Our task is to speak against those who guard their own wells and not open them freely to others who are in need.
https://youtu.be/Z4nvVw8z6K8?si=VL7m1AbJ_y_ln7cd
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