WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

A Sermon by Bill McDonald from Psalm 27:1-9

January 20, 2008

 

Psalm 27

1    The LORD is my light and my salvation;

       whom shall I fear?

     The LORD is the stronghold of my life;

       of whom shall I be afraid?

2    When evildoers assail me

       to devour my flesh—

     my adversaries and foes—

       they shall stumble and fall.

3    Though an army encamp against me,

       my heart shall not fear;

     though war rise up against me,

       yet I will be confident.

4    One thing I asked of the LORD,

       that will I seek after:

     to live in the house of the LORD

       all the days of my life,

     to behold the beauty of the LORD,

       and to inquire in his temple.

5    For he will hide me in his shelter

       in the day of trouble;

     he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

       he will set me high on a rock.

6    Now my head is lifted up

       above my enemies all around me,

     and I will offer in his tent

       sacrifices with shouts of joy;

     I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

7    Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud,

       be gracious to me and answer me!

8    “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”

       Your face, LORD, do I seek.

9      Do not hide your face from me.

 

 

What are you afraid of?  When I was five years old I was bitten on the lip by a spider which was floating on an ice cube in my soft drink.  A polar bear spider, no doubt, driven south by global warming.  This incident caused me to have a horrific phobia about spiders that lasted for decades.  Of course, today I have conquered that fear and now even seek out spiders to touch them—with the sole of my shoe.  What are you afraid of?  The dark, criminals, crowds, snakes, telemarketers, computer viruses, identity thieves, Ohio drivers, airplanes?  An airline pilot wrote that on a particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard.  Knowing how frightened some people were to fly anyway, he knew that someone was going to have a harsh comment for him as he stood by the door as people departed and repeated, “Thanks for flying our airline.”  To his surprise, no one said anything as he stood there unable to look them in the eyes.  They were down to the last passenger off the plane, a little old lady on a cane who stopped and said, “Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?”  “Why, no Ma’am,” the pilot said courteously, “what is it?”  The little old lady arched an eyebrow and asked, “Did we land—or were we shot down?”

 

There are a whole host of fears that beset us.  Economically, we are afraid of falling interest rates on investments, a recession, the weakening dollar, living on a fixed retirement income, whether Social Security is secure.  Globally, we are afraid of terrorists, nuclear weapons expanding beyond the six or so countries who already have them, the growing world hatred of Americans.  Socially, we are scared about not finding success in our careers, never meeting the right soul-mate, whether we will make friends.  In church, we worry about having enough money to run our programs, growth in numbers, and maintaining our buildings.  On a metaphysical level, we are afraid of not finding a purpose, a reason to live, a set of life goals to pursue.

 

How do we overcome our fears?  I went to Gordon Elementary School in the low-income neighborhood just north of downtown Memphis.  I was skinny and insecure, sheltered by my mother, and an easy target for the ever-present school bullies.  But I had a great time in elementary school!  Know why?  Because of Nicky.  I met Nicky in the third grade and we became best friends.  He wasn’t real big, but he was the toughest kid in school.  Bullies shied away when he walked on the scene.  He wasn’t a bully himself, but he really loved to fight.  While all the rest of us worried about getting hit, Nicky could take a punch with a smile on his face, knowing that it gave him permission to lay into the hitter.  Not the best student, not the most popular kid, but probably the most powerful kid in our school.  Nobody messed with Nicky—or with Nicky’s friends.  And I was his friend.  So my elementary days were mostly trouble-free and, when I did get into a scrape, I knew that I had an ally who was more powerful than any other force in my small world.  To relieve our fears, we have to have a connection to a Power greater than any other.

 

Hear the truth of that statement, but don’t carry my Nicky analogy too far.  God isn’t always spoiling for a fight, but God never walks away from us when we are in trouble.  God would never leave us defenseless, never abandon us, never turn and leave us.  But we need a connection.  The connection to Nicky would never have worked for me if it had not been for the closeness between us.  He protected me because we knew each other deeply and loved each other completely.  Do we have that kind of relationship to the Power in our universe, to God?  The psalmist seems to:  “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”   So how do we get that kind of confidence in God’s power and protection?  How do we establish such a connection with God?  The clues are in verse four: “One thing I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”

 

To live in the house of the Lord all my life.  No, I don’t want you bringing your cots and pets and lava lamps and setting up house in the Chapel.  But I do believe that you can benefit by being here “every time the church doors are open,” as my old relatives used to say.  It just makes sense.  Can you connect with God better at worship or at a Sunday soccer game?  Will a night at home watching your favorite TV programs (and by the way they are all reruns, the writers are on strike, you know) strengthen your faith more than a Bible study group or a program on doing God’s work in the community?  Which grows the connection more, a habit of daily newspaper reading or of daily Bible reading?  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not opposed to TV or soccer or the newspaper—unless they are blocking the connection.  And certainly, God’s house is not defined by these walls.  If the winds two weeks ago had blown these buildings flat, God’s house would still be here among us and within us.  But are we living in it?  That’s the question.  I can remember as a small child lying awake in my bed afraid of the shadows and the creaking in my old frame house.  My imagination ran wild with fantasy terrors.  I would lie there sleepless—until midnight when I would hear my dad’s car crunching up our gravel driveway.  Then I could relax—the strongman was in the house; he would do battle against anything that dared come near or harm me.  At that time I didn’t know how to live in the Lord’s house.  Do we know how now?  We have to remember that we belong to the Almighty God.  And God is in the house.  In this busy, frightening world, don’t forget to live in the Lord’s house.

 

To behold the beauty of the Lord.  I have seen paintings in museums that are so beautiful that I stand before them transfixed, unable to take my eyes away.  In those moments when we really catch a glimpse of God, that is how we feel also.  Breathless, awestruck, filled to bursting with love for this gracious God who loves us so much.  In those moments we know that nothing can match God.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God.  We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate.  We have worshipped the God of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived.  We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity.  These transitory gods are not able to save or bring happiness to the human heart.  Only God is able.  It is faith in Him that we must rediscover.”   That is part of how we make the connection.  Turn from the false and soak in the true.  Admire the beauty of God, stand transfixed and behold.

 

To inquire in his temple.  It’s odd, isn’t it, how we strive for a faith that is confidant and unwavering and yet we are allowed to come to God’s feet and ask questions!  The more we ask, the more we understand.  The more we offer up our weaknesses, the stronger we become.  The more we confess our fears before God and God’s people, the less those fears possess us.  It is two friends sitting in the dark, no need to pretend, to fake bravado, and the truth makes the darkness lighter somehow.  The connection softens the fear; we know we are not alone.

 

Ah, the psalmist was a wise person.  “One thing I asked of the Lord…: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”  And the connection is made.  And the fears flee before it.

 

Archaeologists on a dig in the desert discovered a deep, narrow shaft and wanted to know what was down there.  They decided to lower someone small down to see, but none of the local boys would allow themselves to be lowered into the menacing darkness of that pit, not even for a huge reward.  Finally, one boy stepped forward, accompanied by an old man.  And he said, “This is my father.  I will go down into the darkness if you will let him hold the rope.”  What are we afraid of?  God is holding the rope.