Fear

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, September 11, 2022.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 1:5-14.

            Today is the twenty-first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

            Those of us who lived through it will never forget it.  I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard about it.  I can tell you exactly what I thought and how I felt.  I suspect many of you can do the same thing.

            It was an incredibly shocking thing.  My first reaction, when I heard about it, was disbelief.  I thought the person telling me about it must be exaggerating.  Those huge towers could not possibly have fallen.  It was not until I went home, and could actually see the video of it myself, that I truly understood what had happened.  I suspect that’s true of some other people, too.

            In the immediate aftermath of it, one of the main feelings people had was fear.  We were wondering what might happen next.  Would there be more terrorist attacks?  Were we going to be at war?  There were all sorts of rumors flying around.  People were frantically filling their gas tanks, because the rumors were that gas was going to eight, nine, ten dollars a gallon.  What else might happen?  Nobody knew.  And everybody was scared.

            Fear is a powerful thing.  If we look around, we can see a lot of things to fear in our world right now, too.  COVID and its variants.  Inflation.  Crime.  Shortages.  The constant threat of war.  Rights that we’ve taken for granted, in some cases all our lives, being threatened or restricted.  There are a lot of things to fear in our world right now.

            But you know, there were a lot of things to fear in the world the Apostle Paul lived in, too.  There were all kinds of diseases back then, and very little that anyone could do about them.  I don’t know what their economy was like, but there was certainly crime.  And they had very few rights at all.  In fact, Christians were under constant threat of persecution from the government.  They could be thrown in jail simply because of the fact they were Christians.

            And in that society, Paul writes to his young friend, Timothy.  And he tells Timothy not to be scared.  He says Timothy should “fan into flame” the Spirit of God, which has been given to him.  And then Paul says, “For the Spirit of God does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”

            The Spirit of God does not make us timid.  That’s the words of the New International Version of the Bible, which is the version we normally use.  Some translations say it as “God did not give us a spirit of fear.”

            Whichever way you say it, the meaning is the same.  God did not create us to live our lives in fear.  God did not create us to be scared.  That’s true no matter what the situation is.  That’s true no matter what’s going on in the world.  God did not create us to live our lives in fear.  God gives us power, love, and self-discipline.  In fact, Paul says, “God calls us to live a holy life.”

            You know, we use that word all the time.  “Holy”.  One of the most famous old hymns is “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  We say God is holy.  We talk about God’s Holy Spirit.  The word “holy” appears in the Bible approximately five hundred fifty times, varying a little depending on which translation you use.  

            What does it mean?  Can you define it?  That word “holy”, that we throw around all the time in church–what does it actually mean?

            Well, what it means is “dedicated to God”.  When Paul says, “God calls us to live a holy life,” Paul is telling us that God has called us to live a life that’s dedicated to Him.

            And God calls us to do that regardless of the circumstances.  God calls us to do that no matter what may happen to us as a result.  In other words, God calls us to dedicate our lives to Him, and to do that without fear.

            Now, that’s easy to say.  But Paul had the authority to say it.  Paul, at the time he was writing this, was in prison.  He references that.  He says, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.  Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.”

            Paul lived a life dedicated to God.  And Paul was going to live that life no matter what happened to him because of it.  And he was not afraid of what might happen to him because of it.  He was not afraid of being in prison.  He was not afraid of being killed.  In fact, Paul said, in the first chapter of Philippians, that to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If he kept living, it meant he got more chances to serve the Lord.  If he died, he could go and be with the Lord.  The way Paul looked at it, either way, he won.

            That’s what having God’s Spirit in our hearts does for us.  That’s what living a holy life, a life dedicated to God, does for us.  It takes away fear.  It gives us a Spirit of power.  We don’t have to be afraid, because we win no matter what happens.  Either we’ll be on earth, and serve God, or we’ll go to heaven and be with God.  

            But of course, we have things we fear other than death, don’t we?  In fact, sometimes death is not even one of our major fears.  Now, in saying that, I don’t mean in any way to diminish the sadness of losing a loved one.  I know many of you here have lost loved ones–in fact, I conducted some of their funerals.  It’s not an easy thing at all.  It’s something you think of pretty much every day.  I don’t mean to in any way sound like what you’re feeling is not a big thing, because it is.

            But what I’m saying is that, sometimes, we fear other things even more than death.  Loneliness.  Rejection.  Not being able to take care of ourselves.  Letting people down.  Not being able to do things we think we should be able to do.  Feeling worthless or incompetent.  There are all kinds of things we fear in our lives.

            What would Paul say about those things?  Well, I think Paul would say the same thing that he said to Timothy.  We are called to live a holy life.  We are called to live a life dedicated to God.  And we are called to do that regardless of what may happen to us as a result.  

            Again, it’s easy to say.  It’s not so easy to do.  Paul did it.  I don’t know that it was easy for him to do, but he did it.  How was Paul able to do it?  He tells us.  It was through the grace of Jesus Christ.

            Listen to what he says.  “He has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

            Christ has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  That’s why we don’t have to live our lives in fear.  It’s not just that we don’t have to fear death.  It’s that we don’t have to fear anything.  Because whatever we might fear in this life, it’s only temporary.  Everything in our life is only temporary.  What we have ahead of us, through our faith in Jesus Christ, is eternity.

            That’s where we need to keep our focus.  If we keep our focus on eternity, we can live a holy life, a life dedicated to God.  And if we live a life dedicated to God, we have absolutely nothing to fear.  Any bad things that may happen in this life will only be present for a little while.  And they will be more than outweighed by the glory that’s waiting for us in heaven.

            So think about what it is that you fear.  And whatever it is, realize that God has given you a Spirit of power that will allow you to overcome that fear.  God’s Spirit will allow us to live holy lives, no matter what may happen as a result of that.

            September 11, 2001 was a terrible day.  There have been other terrible days since.  There will be more terrible days to come.  The world gives us lots of reasons to live in fear.  But God did not give us a Spirit of fear.  God gave us a Spirit of power, and a calling to live holy lives dedicated to Him.  If we do that, we can overcome the fears of this temporary life.  We can live lives without fear, looking forward to eternity with Jesus Christ.