Jesus said to his disciples, "Do
not be afraid, little flock . . ."
What were the disciples afraid of? And what are each of us afraid
of? This question of fear affects the
choices we make in every sphere of our lives.
Some of our fears are everyday sorts of fears: spiders, snakes, crowds,
flying on airplanes, bacteria and viruses--you can add to this list, I'm sure. Other fears concern bigger issues: we fear
growing old and losing our health; we fear someone we love having a serious
accident or getting a dread disease, we fear losing our job or our pension, we
fear serious life events after which we will never be the same. Then there what
we might call the existential fears: Do our lives have meaning? Is there more
than just what we know in our world--which is often quite horrible? How will it all end?
Physicists tell us that the components
of our universe are traveling apart from each other at accelerating speed. According to recent measurements, our
descendants many, many years from now will look in the sky at night and see
only darkness. That's something I would
fear, for I want my descendants to be able to look at the stars in the sky as
Abram did and not be able to count them all.
I also fear, because I really don’t understand what all this means. Here is the explanation of this phenomenon that
shows its complexity and doesn't quiet my fears a bit: "The metric
expansion of space is the increase of the distance between two distant parts of
the universe with time. It is an intrinsic expansion whereby the scale of space
itself is changed. That is, a metric expansion is defined by an increase in
distance between parts of the universe even without those parts
"moving" anywhere." I
want a universe that behaves in stable, not in strange, ways--but that
isn't what we have been given.
T. S. Eliot, a twentieth century poet,
wrote a poem called, "Hollow Men," in 1925, after the horror of
trench warfare in World War I, but before the nuclear age when world-wide
annihilation became possible. He writes
of a "Shadow" falling cross the futile lives of humanity and describes
the end of existence this way:
“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
(The Collected Poems and Plays: 1909 - 1950 - NYC: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.,
1952, p. 59)
Robert Frost writing in 1920 takes a
point of view similar to Eliot's:
“Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”
(From Harper’s Magazine, December 1920.)
Jesus speaks with quite a different
tone about the end of time, which he calls "the kingdom" of God. Jewish tradition taught that God's reign and
the defeat of all who opposed God's reign would be heralded by the arrival of
the Messiah. Especially, the Roman
oppressors would be conquered. Those who
occupied the bottom tier of society would be elevated in God's reign. Remember Mary's song that we now call
"Magnificat:" [God] has cast
down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. [God] has
filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away
empty." That's what Jesus'
disciples were hoping for when he told them not be afraid, "for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Hope which can overcome our fears:
that's what Jesus taught the disciples to practice in the passage we heard
today from Luke. To be ready, to have
your lamps lit, to be attentive for the return of the master--these are all
ways of saying, "Be hopeful for what will come next." The hope-filled image of the master serving
the slaves held incredible, if puzzling, power for the disciples. In the account of the final meal with his
disciples in John's gospel, Jesus enacts this parable much to Peter's
consternation.
Hope can sustain us when we face the
difficulties of life that come to us all.
Our "unfailing treasure in heaven" kept in "purses . .
that do not wear out . ." symbolizes our hope and our trust in God's abundant
love for us. God's love can shield us
from our fears that will lead to distrust and despair. Jesus' life and teaching, his death and
resurrection provided the disciples--and provides us--with assurance of God's
love for us.
All this can be summed up in the
definition of faith that opens the 11th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews:
"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen." Yes, we have been told about
the confusing nature of the cosmos. We
have witnessed, and will continue to witness, the shadow side of human nature
and the destructive force of hatred. But
we come to faith in Jesus Christ as the Holy One who has shown us hope. He provides the assurance of things hoped
for. Through him we become convicted of
God's abundant and unfailing love.
Because of Jesus Christ we know that our fears will not have the final
word. God's love will!
No comments:
Post a Comment