“What Do We Do With Fear?”

Kerry MacMillan

Readings - Genesis 21:8-21; Matthew 10: 24-39

Three years ago Nathan Nettleton wrote a sermon based on today’s readings from Genesis and Matthew and I acknowledge his significant influence on my reflection today. According to him, the most often quoted command in the bible is not, as you might expect, to “love one another”, it is “do not be afraid”.

In this Old Testament story, an angel of God tells Hagar “Do not be afraid: God has heard the child crying where you laid him. Get to your feet, lift the child up and hold him in your arms, because I will make of him a great nation.”

And in the Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples “do not be afraid of them. There is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered”…”Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul”…”have no fear; you are worth more than any number of sparrows”.

We hear this command: ‘Do not be afraid’, not because there is nothing to fear. Then as now, there is much to fear; but to encourage us to do what is right, what is just, and what is loving, despite our fear. God calls us to have courage and faith.

In this story from Genesis, it is not clear what makes Sarah so angry, but it seems reasonable to assume she is afraid that Ishmael poses a threat to Isaac’s inheritance. She acts to protect her family and her social position. The outcome is dire for Hagar and her son. They are at serious risk of perishing in the desert and Hagar is rightly afraid. Yet God blesses both boys, Ishmael and further along in the story, Isaac. Both boys become the fathers of great tribes. Tradition has it that Jews trace their descendents through Isaac, and Arabs trace their descendents through Ishmael. Yet despite their shared ancestry and God’s blessings, conflict, violence and fear of each other has marked the relationship between the descendents of Abraham to this day.

But let’s not just point the finger at the Middle East. The global ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement highlights the extensive and ingrained racism across much of the world. Closer to home, how can we continue to ignore the decades of racial inequality and abuse of Aboriginal Australians?

Whether it’s Aboriginal people, asylum seekers, the Chinese, the homeless, unemployed, mentally ill, drug addicts, far left, far right…. It’s Them versus Us. Them or Us. The story of Sarah and Hagar, played out over and over again throughout history: within and between families, communities and nations. Us and them – the other, whom God has also blessed.

But don’t you know? Resources are finite and what if there’s not enough to go around? If things go wrong, it’ll be someone else’s fault, and we’ll have to pay the cost. Other people don’t deserve what we’ve fought hard and worked for.

Of course we are afraid. Like Sarah and Hagar, we have valid reasons to be afraid: there are bushfires, pandemics, floods, climate change; there’s domestic violence, unemployment, computer scams, cancer, drunk drivers, home invasions…. Very real threats. And fear protects us. It prepares us to face danger. But when we act out of fear and self interest, we perpetuate the division of us and them, forgetting our shared humanity and God’s love for all of creation.

In Matthew, Jesus is telling us, you matter, just not more than anybody else. All people matter, but not more than the rest of God’s creation. So don’t be afraid to stand up and speak out for what is right; to call out injustice, hypocrisy and abuse. If we profess to be followers of Jesus’ way, then there is something worse than suffering for speaking up. It is to remain silent. To be part of the problem, perpetuating the status quo.

Jesus is talking to us too, here at Wembley Downs: those of us, who are the privileged ones; who have all we need; who are not victims of racial abuse; who have freedom and power to make choices of our liking. Do not be afraid, even though you have much to lose. This is the challenge of following Jesus: to have courage and faith to act out of love, in ways that affirm our relationships with each other and our environment, despite our fears.