FIRST LESSON: Isaiah 25: 7-9
SECOND LESSON: Luke 12: 4-7
April 10, 2016
“Uncertain Times”
Sermon © Lisa C. Farrell
We live in a much more fearful culture today than we used to be. We
even have a new term, “helicopter parents” who are so fearful of harm coming
to their children that they hover and control almost every aspect of their lives—
often into adulthood. But most of those fears are exaggerated. We’ve been fed a
steady diet of worry elevating stories from the media because that’s what sells,
and when danger and disaster is all we hear about, chronic anxiety is the
result. But beginning in 1968 with the first terrorist hijacking, a new element
entered our world, and that aspect has only gotten worse. Since 9-11 we have
lived with chronic fear, and added to the fear of Islamic fundamentalist
terrorism, is the fear of deranged people living among us getting their hands on
guns and committing large-scale murder for reasons known only to themselves.
It’s enough to make you want to lock your doors and never go out.
The point of terrorism is to cause terror. Sometimes there is a political
goal. Always hatred infuses the act. And when fanaticism extends to the point
where men and women are willing to commit suicide in order to kill, we’re
dealing with a very potent form of evil. The people terrorists kill are not the
targets. Victims of terrorist attacks are used to cause the billions of people who
are NOT killed to live in fear. We are the targets. Repeatedly we have seen
people from all nations take a public stand against acts of terrorism, declaring
loudly that they refuse to be terrified. But we all know that that is far easier to
say than it is to do. Terrorists have changed our world. We have been forced to
throw every resource we have into finding and stopping them. We have put
metal detectors in schools or layers of locked doors. When I went to Bala
Cynwyd Middle School, anyone could just walk into the lobby and go anywhere
they pleased. When my daughter went to Bala Cynwyd Middle School, there
were signs to register at the office. NOW if you try to enter Bala Cynwyd Middle
School you have to be cleared through a locked office first, and if you don’t
have a real good reason for being there, that’s as far as you get. Courthouses
used to be open buildings. Now there are metal detectors and security guards
everywhere. When I first flew to Scotland in 1978 there was NO airport
security. You could walk right in and get on a plane. The same cannot be said
for today. Fear of violence from Islamic extremists and mentally imbalanced
people living among us has taken over our lives. We have to consciously and
deliberately consider the facts to ground ourselves, facts like there are
approximately 1 billion Muslims in the world, and the overwhelming majority of
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them are not terrorists. But while critical and rational thought helps, Jesus
had something more to add to the conversation. He said, “I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.” He
doesn’t say, “Don’t be afraid because nothing bad will ever happen to you.”
That’s what we WANT him to say. On the contrary, bad things can happen and
do happen. But we are not to live in fear.
Jesus then spoke a word of warning. “I will show you whom you should
fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you
into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” It was part of the Jewish rabbinical style of
the time to phrase things in their most extreme form. When he told his
followers to cut their hand off if it caused them to sin, he did not mean it
literally. Here he uses extreme language to get the attention of people who
faced the very real possibility of persecution, and to challenge them to put their
priorities in the right order. These risks were real. Apart from Judas who took
his own life and John who died of old age, every one of the other apostles was
martyred. And yet, is that not what Islamic extremism does? The martyrs they
create are NOT their own people. Killers are not martyrs. Martyrs are those
killed for their religious beliefs. They seek to kill Christians and Jews because
they are Christians and Jews. They also kill Muslims who do not fit their idea
of Islam. In essence, this is religious persecution. But Jesus said not to fear the
one who could kill us, but instead fear the one who has the authority to throw
us into a place called Ge-ennen.
Most English Bibles translate Ge-ennen as hell. For some strange reason
English speaking preachers have also turned Ge-ennen into “Gehenna”. But
I’m not sure that we can just give Ge-ennen the blanket translation of “hell”
with all of the associations that come with that word, some of which are
actually pagan—like the idea that it’s underground. The Bible doesn’t translate
the word into Greek, so I’m not sure we should. Ge-ennen is a straight
transliteration from the Hebrew, a shortened version of Ge Hinnom, or the
Valley of Hinnom. What Jesus gives us is a picture, and he uses an actual
place to do it.
The valley of Hinnom is geographically located on the southwest side of
Jerusalem outside the ancient city walls. Originally it was a beautiful valley. It
was taken over by human evil when it became the worship site for the fire god
Molech, where the human sacrifice of infants was carried out. The reforming
King Josiah put an end to the worship of Molech, and deliberated desecrated
the site with dead bodies and garbage. In Jesus’ day fires constantly burned in
Ge-ennen because piles of trash were burned there. Dead animals, and
sometimes dead humans, ended up in Ge-ennen. The stench rising up from
Ge-ennen was hard to take. We’re talking about the city dump here. J.B.
Phillips translation of the New Testament gives us an interesting alternative to
the word “hell”. He says, “throw you into destruction.” We are being threatened
with the possibility of being thrown into destruction. God created us, and God
can uncreate us. Just like that angry mother who says to her disobedient child,
“I brought you INTO this world, and I can take you OUT OF this world.
Like any historical site, we can find the Valley of Hinnom today, and
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today it does not in any way resemble its dark past.
The point of these words is not to start making us obsess over hellfire
and brimstone. It’s to direct our attention to who’s opinion really counts. It is
very unfortunate that the generic word for fear is used in in both cases—the
fear of humans and the fear of God— because when we are to fear God we are
speaking of reverence and awe. To fear God is to give God all honor, respect
and obedience. But while previous generations may have gone overboard in
instilling a dread of God and God’s wrath, today we have swung far too far in
the opposite direction. Today no one fears God. Instead we trivialize God,
making God some kind of benign teddy bear. Today it is often only scientists
who hold God in awe. In light of the vastness and complexity of the universe,
we are but dust, but only those who study such things are aware of it.
Jesus did not only use strong negative language to make his point, he
also used strong POSITIVE language. “Are not five sparrows sold for two
pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many
sparrows.”
Sparrows were not used as sacrifices; they were among the cheapest of
meals for the poor. At the time people bought four for two coins of the smallest
denomination, the assarion, and got one for free, thus the “five sparrows for
two pennies.” Sparrows were inconsequential. No one cared about sparrows,
just as no one cared about the poor people Jesus was addressing. And yet God
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knows each and every sparrow, and each and every one of us. We are precious
to God, so precious that even the hairs on our heads are numbered. Every
problem, every need, every aspect of our lives is known by God. One of the
worst feelings in the world is being forgotten, of no one caring. But God will not
forget us. Even when hard times come, God cares and is with us.
Don’t be afraid, says Jesus. And his reasoning for our not being afraid is
not that nothing bad will ever happen to us! His reasoning is that eternity is far
more important than this physical life. We do not need to waste energy
consumed by fear and anxiety. Being chronically afraid does nothing but
weaken us. Corrie ten Boom said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its
sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” We can live fully and joyfully, knowing
that even if the worst should happen, we are in God’s hands. In the Sermon on
the Mount Jesus teaches us: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
(Matthew 6: 34)
We live in uncertain times. We could spend our entire lives in complete
peace and safety, or we could be caught up in the next act of violence. We have
no way of knowing. But Jesus says:
• Life in faith.
• Live in freedom.
• Live fully.
We are precious to God, and this world, and this life, is not all there is. Amen.
Isaiah 25: 7-9
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Luke 12: 4-7
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after
that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him
who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes,
I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of
them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
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