15 Pentecost

 Sept. 5, 2021

Isaiah 35.4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2:1-10,[11-13],14-17; Mark 7.24-37

 + So, I know you have been asked this question before:

  “What command do you suppose is the most repeated in the Bible?”

 Do you remember?

 If you don’t, don’t worry.

 I’m, not grading anyone. I promise.

 But think about it a bit.

 What command do you think is the most often repeated command in the Bible?

 No doubt, the first thought to come to you is probably one of the ten commandments, I’m sure. “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” Or “You shall have no other gods.”

 If we look beyond the Ten Commandments, we might try to find a few others that sound good.

 Certainly, we might think about the command Jesus gave us,  “Love one another as I have loved you.”

 I can just imagine what people outside the Church might think when they are asked about what is about most repeated command.

 No doubt they will think of something that begins “Thou shalt not…” and includes some sort of shame.

 Or certainly with all the issues going on in the Church today, they’ll think of a commandment that has something to do with sex, since that’s all the church seems to be able to talk about oftentimes.

 But none of those are the most often repeated commands.

 The most often repeated commandment in both the Hebrew scriptures and New Testament is  “Do not be afraid.”

 Certainly it was, by far, the most often repeated commandment of Jesus in the Gospels.

 But we do encounter it quite often as well in the Hebrew scriptrures.

And sure enough, in our reading this morning from Isaiah, we do in fact find it here.

 “Do not fear,” God tells us through the prophet Isaiah.

 Those are soothing words to most of us, because, let’s face it: we all feel fear at times.

 We live in scary times.

 There is a pandemic still going on.

 There are neo-Nazis and white supremacists and people who have been deceived by lying and false science and conspiracy theories.

 There is still hatred it his world, there is still so much anger and bigotry and racism and homophobia and ableism and sexism in our world.

 And I’m not even going to get into what’s happening in Texas right now because I will be up here all day.

  There is illness, there are setbacks, there is frustration and there is a whole lot of hurt out there in the world and, and not just out there, but right here in our midst as well. 

 As much as we want to think the world is nice and happy and wonderful, it isn’t always.

 The world we live in is not always a pretty place.

 So, most of us are longing to hear God say to us , “Fear not.” We want God to command us to put aside our fears.

 The fact is, it sounds easier than it actually is.

 After all, when anyone usually says something like this to us, we shrug our shoulders and roll our eyes and think, “Right. Sure. Easier said than done.”

 We can tell ourselves all we want to not fear but the fact is the fear will probably remain.

 However, it is more than just a matter of saying it.

 We need to believe in our fearlessness and we need to live out in our lives.

 Those words—Fear not—need to be the “call words” for us throughout our entire lives.

 We need to be reminded of again and again in our lives. 

 No matter how much we claim our own braveness, we do feel real fear.

 And we’re not the only ones.

 Isaiah and the people he was prophesying to in our first scripture reading from today knew a few things about fear.

 Isaiah’s message for today  came in the midst of a message few people wanted to hear.

 He was telling those people that the world they knew and cherished was about to come to an end.

 Armies were amassing, ready to overtake the lands of Judea and Israel and send its people off into exile.

 Most people who heard Isaiah, of course, didn’t believe him.

 How could we—God’s chosen people—be driven out of this land that God led our ancestors to?

 As you can imagine, prophets were not always popular people.

 They were popular when the prophecies foretold good times.

 But those prophets of joy and happiness were few and far between.

 Most of the prophets were prophets because they were the vessels through which God wanted to warn people.

 More often than not, a prophet was one who had to stand up and say, “unless you repent, punishment will come upon you.”

 Let’s face it, none of us would want to hear that—especially from someone who claims that God told them to tell us that.

 And I’m sure none of us would want to be in the prophets place either.

 Imagine for a moment, having a prophecy of a future disaster that is about to befall an entire nation.

 Would you seriously want that responsibility?

 Would you want the responsibility of saying to people, “Listen, if you don’t turn away from your wayward habits, there is going to be some major destruction coming your way.”

 These poor prophets were not lucky. Yes, God chose them and spoke to them in a special way.

 But the words God spoke to them became yokes to them. They became weights on their shoulders.

 They had many years of toil ahead of them as prophets—struggling under the weight of God’s words in their life.

 And often the reward many of them received for their toil was exile and occasionally violent deaths.

 Isaiah, it is popularly believed, died after being put inside a hollow log and sawed in half for what God compelled him to speak.

 So, even Isaiah knew the power fear had over people.

 But in the face of these stark realities, in the face of the stark reality of the exile that awaited the people of Judah and Israel, God was still able to speak through Isaiah that somehow, despite all the bad things that were about to happen, ultimately, God would prevail.

 Even in the face of the invasion by foreign armies, God was still able to say to those people with real conviction, “fear not.”

 This call is not some “pep rally” cry. God isn’t telling them not to fear just so they rally and win the big game.

 The “fear not” from Isaiah is a command of real integrity.

 It is a command of true bravery and real spiritual strength.

 God is saying to them through Isaiah that, yes, terrible things are about to happen to you, but what is more important than these terrible things?

 God is.

 God is more powerful than anything that can possibly happen to you.

 So, even in the face of overwhelming defeat you can truly not be a slave to fear.

 Let’s face it: fear is crippling. It is a prison. Fear blocks us from carrying out what God calls each of us to do.

 If fear rules, we cannot live our lives with any sort of fullness.

 If fear rules, God becomes an afterthought.

 God loses out to fear if we let fear control our lives.

 Certainly, we all must face our hardships in life.

Now, maybe violence in not in our futures (I hope it isn’t in any of our futures), but we do all have much to face in our lives before our own journeys are over.

 We all have much to be afraid of at times.

 We still have to get through this pandemic.

 But in those moments, the words of God cut through those uncertain futures like a blinding light.

 “Fear not,” God is saying to us still.

 Nothing you suffer from this time forward will be hidden from your God, who loves you.

 Nothing you have suffered so far can be hidden from God. God knows what you’ve been through and what you will go through.

 God is not turning a blind eye to you in the face of these hardships.

 Why? Because you are valuable.

 Just as we hear throughout scripture that we should not fear, we also hear that we are valuable.

 We are precious in the eyes of God.

 Each and every one of us is important to God.

 In a sense, fear is an illusion.

 Fear is somewhat like a nightmare.

When we are actually going through the nightmare, it seems so real—so horrible. But when we awake, the nightmare just sort of fizzles in our memories.

 That is what fear is like.

 When we are afraid, there is nothing else like it.

 It dominates our lives.

 But when we are beyond the fear, we forget in many ways how terrible it was.

 God came to us and told us “Fear not.”

 God came to us and said to us in our uncertainty those words we  long to hear.

 “Fear not.”

 So, let us take to heart what God is saying to us in the prophecy of Isaiah and through the words of Jesus and through all of scripture: fear not.

 Rather, let us rejoice.

 Let us rejoice in God’s love and presence.

 And let us know that nothing can separate us from a God who longs to know us and to take our fear from us.

 Let us pray.

 Loving God, you command us to flee from fear and to trust in you; do not leave us disappointed. When we do so, come to us when we call, comfort us when we sorrow. Give us hope when all seems bleak. And let your Light shine through any darkness or dears that mat encroach upon us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.