Fear Freezes

Fear freezes cats in trees; fear freezes Mr. Opossum to sleep; and fear freezes squirrels confused in the street.  Fear also freezes money in bank accounts where it gets stuck like ice in the winter, never to be spent because it is being saved, saved, saved for the rainiest of rainy days, which we fear will certainly come someday.

            Fear for our safety freezes countries into defensive and offensive modes of violence and war; fear freezes people in their homes when opportunities arise to travel abroad; fear freezes folks who are afraid of flying to the ground.  Fear of failure freezes us in anxious states and prevents us from trying something new - whether a new relationship or a new career.  Fear of what people will say prevents folks from trying a new style, a new political position, a new attitude, a new outlook, a new idea.

            Fear freezes hearts hard against the warm embrace of God.  Fear is an enemy of God and an obstacle to our communion, with God and each other. 

Finally, fear freezes kids perched on the launching place of a zip line, strung up high in a ropes course at camp.  You all know about a ropes course?

            Most of the summer camps I have ever been to have a ropes course.  Rope ladders and swings and various other climbing elements are suspended high in the trees.  The course is all about climbing through the trees to get to the zip line, which is usually at the highest point on the course.  Once a kid climbs to the perch that starts the zip line, the kid is met by an instructor of some sort who snaps the climbing kid into the zip line harness and then sends the kid careening a couple hundred yards down a metal cable to the ground below on an exhilarating zip line ride. 

Most of the kids at camp long anxiously for their turn on the ropes course and the zip line.  Many of them climb quickly through the course, to the zip line starting point and once they are clipped into the harness, they leap like mad fools off the perch and into the air - they zip to the bottom like little flying squirrel children, pop out of their harness once on the ground and want to race back through the course to ride the zip line again – no fear.

            Not everyone is so fearless.  Every now and then a kid, whether young or old, will make his way to the zip line, get hooked into the harness and then freeze.

            For whatever reason fear comes on … the perch is too high, the zip line ride is too long, and looks too fast, and well, they’re just not gonna go down it.  The fear frozen kid grips the counselor and the tree, and says fearfully, “get me down from here, now!”

            And so, the frozen-kid retrieval protocol kicks in and a team of folks climb the tree to buckle the kid into a lowering apparatus, and they peel the fear-struck-kid’s fingers out of the bark of the tree and the skin of the counselor, and they lower the kid down from the course, landing him safely on the ground.  And the funny thing is that in truth, the rescue was more dangerous than the zip line ride would have been, but, no matter, because fear is a powerful thing.  If the kid full of fear wants down, the kid is coming down.

The Pharisees are hoping to strike fear into the heart of Jesus.  The Pharisees are church folks.  They are famous for following the law strictly, and throughout the gospels they are pictured as opponents of Jesus.  They are trying to freeze Jesus with fear, saying “Herod wants to kill you,” so that he will cease with his ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing the sick and go away.

            Jesus is climbing to great heights in his ministry though.  He has been casting out demons, giving his most famous parables, he has been preaching and feeding people, sowing the love of God like seed all along the way, and he is not about to get off the ropes course just because the Pharisees say it’s dangerous.

            He says to them, “Boys, you go and tell Herod I’m on a roll, and I’m not stopping for anything.  Tell him I’m about to ride this zip line right on into the heart of Jerusalem and when I hit the ground, Easter’s gonna erupt and knock down his castle walls.

            Fear, we can see, does not freeze the Christ.

            Now (a bit of an aside) being fearful and being careful are not to be confused.

For instance, as we teach Gracie about looking both ways before she crosses the street and holding our hand in the parking lot, we are not trying to instill in her some freezing fear of being hit by a car, but we do hope to teach her about being careful and safe.

I hope she will let herself go down the zip line so that she can enjoy the exhilarating ride, but I do want her to wear the safety harness - careful not fearful.

            So, this morning’s gospel invites us to follow Jesus without fear.

            Again, following him without fear doesn’t mean run with our eyes closed out into traffic, rather, following Jesus without fear means letting ourselves fearlessly fall into the love embrace of God and each other.

            Don’t be afraid, the angels say to mother Mary, to accept the gift of Christ that God has planted in your womb. 

Don’t be afraid, God says to father Abraham, to leave your homeland and all your worldly security to follow faithfully the call of God on your life. 

Don’t be afraid, the angels said to the shepherds in the field.  Don’t be afraid, go to Bethlehem and look for Jesus.

            Lent is a good time, I think, to ask ourselves- is fear keeping me from following Christ as far down the road as I might be called to go?

            The world is peddling fear, or put another way, the world is using fear to peddle her goods.

            People my age are told over and over again that we should worry over whether we are going to have enough money for retirement.  I am afraid, people say, that you won’t have social security income, so you should be scared into gripping tight to all the money you can, save, save, save because who knows….

            Now, I am a common sense guy, I like a good savings plan.  I have a low tolerance for debt, and I like a good streamlined budget.  So I am not at all advocating running wild into the streets throwing our money away.  But followers of Jesus Christ cannot be ruled by fear, we cannot be hamstrung and hog tied and frozen in place by the fear that we won’t or don’t have enough money or whatever other resource.  Followers of Jesus Christ leave fear on the perch with the camp counselor and let ourselves go zipping down the line, following Jesus into Jerusalem and Easter.

So, what are we afraid to do?  Are we afraid to start a homeless shelter?  Are we afraid to say finally and firmly, “No, we will not support war?”  Are we afraid to give too much money, time, or whatever other resource away to the poor and hurting?  Are we afraid to risk a new relationship?  Are we afraid to consider looking at some position whether political, spiritual, or biblical differently than we have before?

Where in our lives does fear have us stuck in place?  Are we afraid to find out?

Following Jesus is letting go of our fears, and stepping off of our safe places and high up perches into the will of God for our lives, which is a wonderful, fearless zip line ride into love.

Amen.