When Fear Distracts Us
Sermon by Carrie Houston
February 11, 2018
What are you afraid of?
Are you afraid of snakes or dogs or afraid of heights? Does
the dentist scare you? Do you have a fear of falling, or have a fear of being
in an enclosed space? What about clowns? Do you fear failing, afraid of
disappointment? Does your fear of losing a child or a spouse keep you up
at night? Are you afraid of global warming, nuclear weapons, war, or maybe
losing your job? Do you fear coming out to your friends and family? Are you
afraid of being rejected? Do you fear dying?
Fear is inevitable. It’s no wonder the Bible mentions fear
over 300 times. It’s one of our most basic and primitive
emotions. It exists to protect us from danger and prepares us to
deal with immediate threats to our safety. You know, that feeling you get in
the pit of your stomach when someone jumps out at you at a haunted house.
It’s a highly effective biological response to keep us alive. It triggers our
freeze, flight, or fight response.
When your brain senses fear, your brain floods the body with hormones
that increase your pulse and blood pressure. Your blood vessels in your
stomach, hands, and feet constrict, while the vessels in your heart, brain, and
large muscle groups dilate allowing more blood to the organs that can help you
outrun danger. your pupils dilate so more light can get in. the
metabolism speeds up giving you a jolt of energy. Our body’s response to
fear is how it’s possible for humans to have supernatural strengths, like in
the story of two teenage girls from Oregon lifting a tractor to save their
father pinned underneath, or the story of Lydia Angiyou saving several children
by fighting a polar bear in Quebec.
Fear is a powerful emotional response. “Feeling fear is
neither abnormal nor a sign of weakness: The capacity to be afraid is part of
normal brain function. In fact, a lack of fear may be a sign of serious brain
damage.”[1] But what happens when fear clouds
your judgement? When does fear turn from a protective mechanism to something
that hinders your ability to think clearly and rationally?
A few months ago, Josh and I made a huge decision to “cut the
cord,” and cancel our cable subscription. Like other millennials, the thought
of paying $!50 for channels we don’t want to watch seemed silly. Think of
all the Starbucks I could drink each month if we saved $150 a month. It’s
called, priorities. Now we use a cheap antenna to pick up free channels
broadcasted through the air. I find myself watching shows I’d never watch
before. For example, one night Ellen’s new game show, Game of Games, was
playing in the background as we waited for This is Us to come on. In one
segment, contestants have to answer trivia questions for a chance to win
$100,000. Let’s see how well you do. Here’s the first question-
“Allesia Cara sings the song, “Scars to your beautiful.” What shape is
the scar on harry potter’s forehead? Or “When life gives you
lemons, you make lemonade. Who released an album called lemonade?” These
questions aren’t jeopardy hard questions. They hardly qualify as
questions worthy of a $100k prize. But what makes this game difficult, is
that contestants are standing on a three-story platform with the threat of
falling down below if they answer incorrectly. All Ellen has to do is hit the
red button, and the floor comes out from under them. Fear is causing adrenaline
to surge through their bodies as they anticipate the floor giving way.
And for someone like me, who’s number one fear in life is falling from a
high height, adrenaline is on overload.
When placed in fearful situations, we all react differently. We
see this in the gospel story this morning.
Jesus takes his disciples Peter, James, and John, only these
three-his inner circle, and leads them up to the peak of a high mountain, away
from everyone else. Gaining a few thousand feet in elevation takes
a significant amount of time. Trails don’t go straight up. They wind
around and around, indirectly leading you to the top. Some parts are steep.
Others are relatively flat. But you when you’re with Jesus, you keep going, for
as long as it takes, anticipating the summit.
This past summer, I took 13 teenagers on an outdoor adventure trip
to Colorado. On the last day, we were scheduled to hike a 12 mile trail with
the goal of reaching the peak of the mountain. As if we weren’t tired
enough from white water rafting, rock climbing, and countless games of
volleyball, we were now expected to hike to the top of a 12,400 foot mountain?
We’ll see about that. So, we drove 35 minutes southwest to the ghost town
of St. Elmo, Colorado. I could tell the kids were excited to begin our hike
when it was impossible for me to tear them away from feeding sunflower seeds to
chipmunks that ate directly out of their hands. In all honestly, they were
really fun to feed and I could have sat there for hours watching Alvin and his
rodent friends shove sunflowers into their cheeks. I can imagine jesus and his
disciple’s hike went much like ours- Winding trails, steep sides, rocks
tumbling down when someone sets their foot in the wrong place, teenagers
grumbling about how tired they are or how hungry they are or how someone has to
pee. Ok, maybe not that part. But maybe? Has someone asked Jesus where they
were going? Did John ask for a sip of water out of Jesus’ water bottle because
he left his at base camp? Did James need to sit down for a few minutes
because his legs were tired? Did Peter try to take over navigating?
They finally reach the summit. Exhausted, they find a place
to sit. The trees are still. Silence. It’s just us up here. Breathe deep. Relax
for a moment and listen to the birds chirping. Nature is at peace. Pray.
Without warning, the wind picks up. time and space seem to
collapse. What is happening? Jesus is now incandescent, emanating
light. He’s glowing. His clothes are so bright, it hurts to look at him.
No one else on earth looks like this. Such radiance, God’s very essence. But
It’s not just us up here anymore. Who is Jesus talking to? It can’t be.
Is that…. Moses? Elijah?
Peter notices his hands are sweating. His heart is pounding so
hard that he’s afraid he’s having a heart attack. Adrenaline surges
through his body. Am I going to die? He thinks to himself.
Overwhelmed and utterly afraid, peter blurts out, Tents! We
need tents!
Just then, a cloud comes up from the sky, terrifying the
disciples even further. It covers them, it’s unlike anything they’ve ever
experienced. The cloud moves fast. It’s dark. Alive. This isn’t a normal storm
cloud. And now a voice is coming from it. But clouds can’t talk.
The disciples fall to the ground, paralyzed in fear.
Did the disciples understand the voice from the cloud? Were they
able to hear the voice of God speaking to them, saying, “This is my son, the Beloved.
Listen to him!”? what did god’s voice sound like? We know the disciples audibly
HEARD the words, but were they able to comprehend what God was telling them or
were they too afraid? Fear has a funny way of distracting us.
Fear distracts us from
hearing what we really need to hear from God because we are focused on
eliminating a perceived threat. It says, “These are not the droids you
are looking for.” and we gullibly look the other direction. We fixate on
trivial things that eat up all of our time and we end up missing out on an
encounter with God. God is revealing who Jesus is and Peter is distracted
by a need to build tents. He misses the point! he misses an opportunity to be
in awe by God. He’s slow to see that one of the most important events of
his life is happening right in front of him.
We are addicted to distraction.
You’ve probably checked your phone a few times since the service started this
morning. Our smart phones are perfect vessels that distract us from
being present in the moment, from being present to each other. How many times
have you missed out on a moment because you were checking a notification from
Twitter or Facebook or Snapchat? We get side tracked
because something new beckons us to look at it….. and don’t get me started on
Apple watches. The constant glancing down at your watch in the middle of a real
life human conversation? Ugh. How can we be a community to each other when we
have our heads buried in a virtual world??
And it’s not just our smart
phones distracting us. Just look at the homepage of your favorite news source.
All of the headlines make our society look like it’s on the brink of
disaster. Our fear of everything falling apart puts us in a constant
state of alarm. We get angry, defensive, unwilling to work together.
It’s an us versus them mentality. I’m right. You’re obviously
wrong. It’s a serious disease that infects millions of us. It doesn’t help that
our politicians seem to fan the flames of our fear by trying to convince us how
unsafe we are. Take the most recent example from our last Texas legislative session. Bathrooms. It forced us to respond in order to
fight bigotry and discrimination. Meanwhile, legislators underfunded public
education, foster care, and mental health access and cut therapy for children
severely disabled in our state all while stoking fears about a misunderstood
minority of the LGBT community.
But you
can’t eliminate fear all together, because we know it’s a necessary biological
tool for our survival. But we can learn to manage it. Managing our
fears means we have to have courage to get to the root of them. We have
to analyze what our fears are and learn to recognize when they are irrational
or not. We have to have courage to find the “tents” in our lives that distract
us from living the way of Christ. What do you do when Jesus shows up out of the
blue with a new revelation of truth for you? Are you able to comprehend it? Or
are you busy making tents?
God is waiting for us on
the mountaintop, beckoning us to transformation. God’s glory shows up
like a violent cloud, when we least expect it, calling us out of the places
that are comfortable and asking us to step out in faith. And often, that means
we have to make changes. Why are we so afraid of change? Is it because we are afraid
of the conflict that may arise when we examine our lives? Is it that we’d
rather sit in the comforts of our tried and true routines instead of noticing
that God is calling us to something bigger? Are we afraid to give up
control?
Maybe we are afraid of the uncertainty of the future. A world of
infinite possibilities makes narrowing down a decision a tough one. What
if you make the wrong choice? What if it’s a huge mistake? what if you fall
flat on your face? So, the fear of uncertainty causes you to dig your heals in
and refuse to move. Because that feels safe.
But the gospel isn’t safe. It calls us to be radical in
love, adding to the kingdom, not kicking people out who don’t meet our criteria
and theology checklist. The gospel of
Christ calls us to love god with everything we have, seek justice, call out
racism, embrace diversity and inclusion of all people. The gospel is us
transformed by god’s power and love. And as Desmond tutu says, “We are god’s
agents of transfiguration. We work with god so that injustice is transfigured
into justice, so that there will be more compassion and caring, that there will
be more laughter and joy, that there will be more togetherness in god’s word.”
This is how fear loses it’s power.
What are the tents in your life that distract you from
living the gospel of Christ? May god give us the courage to tear down our tents
and live out the gospel in our lives. Amen.
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/smashing-the-brainblocks/201511/7-things-you-need-know-about-fear
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