2nd Sunday of Easter, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

The Power of Fear!
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 4/11/2010
Based on John 20:19-31

One of the majorly fun activities when one is a part of an overnight slumber party, youth lock-in at the church, or around a camp fire is the telling of ghost stories! Even on T.V. these days there are several programs geared around searching for ghosts, trying to prove or disprove that the structure that is the subject for that show does or does not have paranormal activity! There is a huge adrenaline rush that comes when we are listening to these types of stories where the lights are turned down low and the shadows of the room play with the images that our minds start to create and of course we are in a safe secure environment.
My favorite story comes from the movie The Addams Family, Family Values, where Wednesday Addams is telling a story to a group of spoiled, very rich girls at camp one night and talked about how an evil witch came one night to this group of girls and put a spell on them and when the girls woke up the next morning all their original noses had grown back! The girls went into a complete panic, for the idea of having your original nose grow back after having a nose job to make you look perfect was more frightening to them than any encounter with a wild animal or an ax murderer could be.
Fear is the most paralyzing emotion known to humankind! When we are overcome by fear, our ability to reason and to act is immobilized. William Sloane Coffin, a former United Church of Christ minister and a former pastor to Riverside Church in New York City, once said, “As I see it, the primary religious task these days is to try to think straight…You can’t think straight with a heart full of fear, for fear seeks safety, not truth. If your heart’s a stone, you can’t have decent thoughts – either about personal relations or about international ones. A heart full of love, on the other hand, has a limbering effect on the mind.”
As we read from John this morning, we see the disciples are hiding out behind locked doors for fear that the religious leaders or Romans would arrest them and kill them as they had done to Jesus, just a few days before. They already are aware that the body of Jesus had disappeared, for the tomb that he had been placed in was empty. “Who took it?” had to be in their minds, and who ever had taken the dead body of Jesus, could possibly come looking for them as well. Then out of nowhere, Jesus is in the room with them. Their fear must have been heightened tenfold as they gazed upon this abnormal vision of Jesus, his ghost. Has he come back to chastise them for letting him go to the cross and be crucified? Has he come back to harm them for their weakness under pressure and like Peter who denied knowing Jesus three times that fateful night? What is Jesus, this spirit, going to do to them? Fear had to be escalating.
Jesus could sense this fear; He had the power! This was his chance to get back at those who had professed to following him to the death, but when push came to shove, (they) fell apart and ran away from him, leaving him to hang out on the line alone. “Peace be with you!” were the first words from Jesus’ mouth. Jesus knew that before this group of men could hear what he had to tell them, their fears had to be released. Before these men could start to think straight, Jesus knew they were going to have to move beyond their immobilization that was fueled by their fear.
Once these disciples had been assured that they were not going to be harmed by Jesus for their failure to him, they began to realize what a miraculous event had taken place; that the empty tomb wasn’t empty because of someone stealing Jesus’ body, but rather it was empty because of Jesus himself! Then Jesus tells them a very important thing: “As my father sent me, so I send you.” In this great commission by Jesus to these men there comes great danger, for with this commission, Jesus was saying not only, “go out and preach the news of salvation”, but also there is a price to this message; as I was crucified by the world for telling the truth, you too must expect the same treatment. With this understanding the “Peace be with you”, becomes more meaningful. I think what Jesus was saying is, you must have faith that God knows what is going to happen in your life; you must have faith in the Truth and know that even though you may fall victim to the anger and milieus and selfish motives of those who oppose the truth, you must know that Truth will survive and prevail even thought you will be put to death.
Social justice issues are at the heart of Jesus’ message to this world. We may not like to hear that, but that is the truth. People like Fox News Commentator Glen Beck are people who are fear driven and do not want to hear the truth and at this moment, their voices are heard by millions on the airways in this country and the voice of Christ’s church is being challenged, dwarfed and denied at this very moment. Issues on human sexuality and human rights are such social justice issues. These are conversations that we as a congregation voted on in this past January’s business meeting. The particular topic is on human sexuality and of racism, as we will view a little later this morning a video that speaks to the Open and Affirming process.
We as a church are starting to examine just what does the Bible have to truly say about human sexuality, for believe me, brothers and sisters, the church has for far too long run away from the topic of God’s gift of sexuality. We, white people, as a social group with privilege in this country have not examined very closely our personal issues on race and how that affects so much of our lives. Why have we avoided such basic human rights issues for so long? Is it out of fear! We need to understand that at some level each of us has fear on most topics that deal with Social Justice issues, and that God deeply desires us to face those fears and receive Jesus’ challenge to go out and continue to deliver the message of “Reconciliation and mercy” to a world that is immobilized by fear. But in order for us to be able to do this, we need to truly accept the words that Jesus gave to his disciples, “Peace be with you.” For it is only through the sense of peace which comes from God that we will ever truly be able to accept the commission that God has for the church, “As the father has sent me, so I send you.”
This type of ability only comes with a personal encounter with Jesus. For the disciples it came in a locked room. For Thomas, it came from his physically touching the wounds of Jesus. For me it has come through the struggle of understanding who I am as a man who is homosexually oriented. Note I did not say “chosen life style”, for my chosen life style is that of being a Christian, a student, a follower of God through the teachings of Jesus. Only you will be able to know how this personal experience of Christ has become real to you. What I do know is that you cannot rely on someone else’s experience just as Thomas could not believe, for that will not give you enough strength to fight against the injustice that runs unchecked in this world. The resurrection that we celebrate through Christ only truly lives when we make it happen through our challenging the “darkness” that lives within this world. That darkness is everything that does not give equal value to each person; that darkness is the injustice that exists in God’s world! That darkness is found in the “un-forgiveness” that Christ says, we have the power to forgive. Let us as a body in Christ, take up this commission and begin to forgive ourselves first, so we can then forgive others! Amen