Fear Not: A Sermon for 3 Pentecost
Yesterday, I was in Pensacola for our Diocesan Standing Committee’s annual planning retreat. The Standing Committee in many ways functions like the vestry for the Diocese and Bishop. And while spending all day Saturday in a committee meeting four times a year isn’t my idea of fun, I have learned a lot and feel glad to be able to serve the diocese in this manner.
We spent our time doing some group exercises related to themes of post-pandemic life, interdependence, and programs and events. Without getting too much into the weeds, the process we were using involved asking the question “why” after every statement. So, for example, in the area of post-pandemic life, one statement was that we needed to focus on growing the church. So that was written down, and then we asked “why?” To which someone might say something like, “If we don’t grow, we will die.” And then we asked “why?” To which someone said, “The church has to have members to live.” And so on.
After three or four of these types of exercises, we began to notice that a common theme that kept emerging from our discussions was fear. So much of what we were discussing was from a defensive posture. “We have to grow or we will die.” As we kept asking “why”, inevitably the answer would be something along the lines of “because if we don’t do more of this, we will die.” If we don't do evangelism, or outreach, or fellowship, or discipleship, or whatever better, we will die.”
But thankfully, we didn’t stop there. Because when we kept asking why, we were able to go deeper into missional territory instead of defensive territory. We evangelize to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others, just as Christ commanded us to do. We have the greatest story ever to share and tell. So let’s go tell it. That’s a much more compelling vocation than practicing evangelism so that the Episcopal Church won’t die.
Yet how ironic is it that this God who we have come to know in Jesus Christ did just that. He died. And if we applied yesterday’s workshop methodology to the fact that Jesus died, and asked “why,” we might say for the redemption of all creation.
Why? So that we might have life, and have it abundantly. Why? Because that is who God is, what God does, what God’s love looks like.” And so on.
If there was anybody who had wrestled with and perhaps conquered the tendency to be dominated by fear it was the Apostle Paul. Prior to his conversion, Saul was indeed a man who practiced his religion from a fear-based, defensive posture. But one of the many outcomes of his conversion and subsequent missionary activity was the paradigm from which he operated. In our lesson today, he is addressing the church in Corinth who have been led astray by what scholars sometimes refer to as the “Super Apostles.” They were other apostles who we might call false prophets or false teachers. And they tried to undermine Paul’s ministry by presenting a version of the gospel that was much more about outward appearance than from the heart. While the Super-Apostles may have presented well, they, according to Paul, did not model authenticity, vulnerability, and humility. They, like so many of us, were likely too afraid to go there.
Paul might be mistaken for using fear-based pedagogy when he writes “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others…” But I think that Paul’s “persuasion of others” is always grounded in Paul’s firm belief that it is Christ’s righteousness upon which Paul stands, not his own. And such is the case for all of us. If, come judgment day, we are counting on our own righteousness to bring about reconciliation between God and humankind, we are all doomed. No amount of good deeds, church services attended, terms on the vestry, or volunteer hours will make us fully righteous in the eyes of God. Our only hope on judgement day comes from Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.
And for many of us who like to be in control, the Super-Apostles’ gospel might actually be more appealing. As Paul notes, they focused on outward appearances, and don’t you know that that is one of the hallmarks of Episcopalians. We like things and people and places to look nice. And we like to act nice and to do nice things for people. And don’t get me wrong - these aren’t bad things! But they aren’t the heart of the Christian gospel. The heart of the Christian gospel is summed up by Paul when he reassures his flock that they need not be afraid, because “the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them...So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
My friends, that is the best news we could ever possibly receive, as individuals and most importantly as Christ’s Body in the world today. As baptized Christians, as a parish, as a diocese, and as The Episcopal Church, we have been empowered to live no longer for ourselves, but for Jesus, who died and who was raised for us. And because of that great Good News, we are a new creation. And as people of a new creation, we do not have to be afraid. Our mission is not to protect the Church from dying. Our mission is not to assume a defensive posture. Among many things, our mission is, as we prayed in today’s Collect of the Day, “to proclaim God’s truth with boldness, and minister God’s justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ.”