"FEAR NOT" - Matthew 10:24-39 (June 22, 2008)

Our Lectionary reading for this morning have caused me to have a slight problem. The reading from Matthew were words originally spoken by Jesus to prepare his disciples for persecution. Jesus was commanding his disciples to “proclaim from the housetops” the words that had been “whispered” to them. That is, he was asking them to spread abroad everywhere, in quite fearless fashion, the teachings he was giving them in not only his public sermons but in many of his private conversations within their select company.

And he was warning them that if they did so, their very lives would be in danger. So he told them not to be afraid of those who would “kill the body.” That’s easy enough for me to read 20 centuries later, in the pleasant comfort of our place of worship. I can’t say that I have suffered many threats of martyrdom for my preaching. I have observed some sleeping, some amen’s, and confidentially, sometimes the worst fate I experience with my sermons is that they are in danger of being treated with indifference or not taken seriously.

Well, here’s my problem. How do I preach this text rightly to myself and to you in the world in which we live? I don’t want this sermon to be simply a lesson in history, regarding the way the apostles died for their faith. These are true, wonderful and inspiring stories, but they may do us no more good than a movie or a romantic song that brings tears to our eyes. Nor is it the point of this sermon to report that thousands, indeed, millions of Christians face death in the very days we live here and now, in numbers of places in our world. Yes, Christians are in peril at this very moment.

Again, these are wonderful stories. They inspire me and make me want to be better and sometimes they also make me pray that I will be just as faithful if such peril should ever come to me. But as things now stand, I don’t really expect such peril in my life, so if I keep the sermon and its text at that level, the sermon is rather safely removed from where you and I live.

So does this text have any meaning for you and me, other than a lesson in apostolic and church history, or perhaps a study in the persecuted church abroad?

Let me tell you where I think you and I live, and how Jesus might perhaps apply these words to us, today.

• North American Christianity today, has for the most part, become blasé, sadly much like the church in Europe. We are still doing what we did in the 50’s and are wondering where the people are.

*We don’t grasp spirituality

*We don’t know how to deepen our spirituality

* Therefore we don’t know what the “Good News” is and therefore do not know to share the good news with others,

* we are afraid,

* We have allowed our spirituality to become too individualistic

* We have accepted Satan’s lie that we don’t need others to experience true Spirituality.

* We think we can do it alone, therefore we don’t care about others

• Share about the flight from Richmond to Charlotte

*As we were ascending through the clouds and the flight attendants were beginning to serve the drinks and meals the plane suddenly banked sharply to the right

* The senior flight attendant came from the front of the plane and whispered to the other attendants. They quickly pushed their carts back to the front and began collecting the trays they had already passed out.

* The pilot came on the intercom and told us we were returning to Richmond and would be on the ground for a short while before proceeding to Charlotte.

* As we approached Byrd Field in Richmond the Flight attendant came on the intercom to tell us that a fire light had come on in the cockpit, indicating a possible fire aboard the plane, and we needed to get off the plane as quickly as possible once we had stopped. She said for us not to pick up anything, just get to the nearest exit to evacuate the plane as quickly as possible.

* She said we may even use the slides.

* As the airplane made its final bank to line up with the runway those on the right side of the plane noticed the fire trucks proceeding to the runway.

* When the plane came to a stop it was interesting how many passengers got up, opened the overhead bins and began asking other passengers which bag was theirs. Others began pulling bags out from under their seats and taking up way too much time picking up their personal belongings.

* They did not heed the instructions from the Flight Attendant, they took their own sweet time getting off the plane and slowed the process down, causing anxiety among many other passengers.

• The complacency exhibited on the plane that day was repeated in Baltimore on another evening when I was interviewing potential sales reps at a hotel when the fire alarm began sounding. The candidate I was interviewing did not want to interrupt his interview to leave the building.

• Both of these stories paint a picture of what is happening in the church today.

• We have become complacent, comfortable, in a routine of doing things as they always have been done.

• We are content to do the same things we have done year after year.

• But are these the things Christ has told us are the “Important things”?

• We don’t experience the urgency in our Masters teaching to go forth and share the Good News.

• I do not believe our contemporary culture is not religious; it is simply pre-occupied.

• That’s another way of saying that it has become secularized.

• Christianity is being pushed aside because so many other things claim our attention today.

• I’m not blaming anybody or passing any judgments; I’m just telling you what you must already sense.

• And here is the unfortunate part of the story: You and I, we Christians, have something that needs to be shouted from the housetops, and most of the time we’re whispering it to our family, if even that.

• Jesus told the disciples to shout it from the rooftops . . .”What I tell you in the dark, tell it in the light, what is whispered, proclaim from the housetops.”

• If you intended to keep the news within the family, you would have whispered in the kitchen or bedroom.

• Christ calls us to move to the housetop because the Good News needs to be heard by as many as possible.

Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not asking you to preach on the street corner, like I observed during the Arts Festival in Bricktown this year, and I am not even suggesting necessarily that you write a letter to the editor.

I’m saying simply that we ought to make our faith a part of our daily walk more often,

Our calling is not only to “Follow Christ” or proclaim Him Lord and savior, but to witness to the HOPE that is grounded in Jesus.elixir that eliminates all the world’s pain and suffering of life.vision that sustains us in the midst of suffering with the promise that we do not suffer alone, in vain, or unceasingly. This vision impels us to witness with our lives to the God who will transform and heal creation.

I was no different with the apostles. According to tradition, all of the apostles suffered quite violent deaths of martyrdom except the apostle John. But Jesus told the apostles not to worry about any such threat to their bodies or their lives; they should worry only about the possibility that both soul and body might be destroyed in hell. Then our Lord spoke a very comforting word: Two sparrows are sold for a penny, yet when one of them dies, God takes notice. You’re worth more than many sparrows. In fact, Jesus said, God holds you in such regard that he counts the very hairs of your head.

Then, Jesus went on to say something that was both comforting and frightening. Everyone who acknowledges him before others, Jesus will acknowledge before God. And on the other hand — and this is the frightening part — anyone who denies Jesus before others, Jesus will deny before his Father in heaven.

Jesus tells us not to worry as we go about sharing in this Good News, God cares for us. He values us, and cares for us. Therefore let us proclaim with our lips, our actions, our lives, the good news of Christ to all those around us. Let us be the change we want to see in the world (Mahatma Gandhi) Let us be commit ourselves to grow spiritually so we will be able to emulate our Lord and Savior in all we do and people will see Christ in us.