Love Casts out Fear

Easter Sunday Sermon – 7:30am Rite I Eucharist Service, April 24, 2011

Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN

Scripture: Acts 10:34-43, Psalm 118:1-2,14-24, Colossians 3:1-4, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon Text:

Easter is a joy-filled celebration,

but it is also a celebration of Love,

and living in the knowledge that Jesus died for love of us,

conquered death,

and rose to new life, shows us the power of that love.

But as we approach the empty tomb with Mary

this early morning,

we notice that there is also fear.

As we think about the world around us,

it can often seem like things aren't that great,

for them it was an approach of despair,

going to annoint the body of their leader,

and the absence of His body, and the presence of

an otherworldly being, created fear,

the evidence was in their faces,

and they were afraid,

but love casts away fear.

for us sometimes the evidence of His resurrection is

not so clear, and we also begin to be afraid

we miss the evidence of the Resurrection

because it seems pale in comparison to the suffering

that continues on earth.

I think for that reason,

I was struck especially this Easter,

by the passage from Paul to the Colossians.

He says, “your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

For serious Christians,

(and if you're at this early service on Easter Sunday,

I think I'm probably speaking to you,)

It can often seem like we miss out

on enjoying the redemption of the world,

as we see so much more that needs to be redeemed.

There are so many ways in our own lives

that we're hurting,

and there are so many others hurting more than we are.

I know there have been many times,

especially since I grew up in the church,

that I kind of took for granted,

the grace-filled life we enjoy,

and even thought things aren’t well at all.

Of course, that kind of thinking leads to fear,

and we know how the women

who approached the tomb were afraid.

Love casts away fear.

The angel says to them, as angels always say,

“do not be afraid!”

Right after greeting them, Jesus says

“Do not be afraid!”

From that moment onward,

the redemption of the world,

of all creation was being accomplished.

There was reason to no longer be afraid,

though there was still much to be done,

much to endure,

and a long way to go

before the world was fully recreated.

We see love casting away fear in the early church,

If it had not been for the Christians in Rome,

society would have been utterly destroyed by the barbarian invasions when the empire fell.

It was the Christians, headed by the bishop in Rome,

who took care of all the starving people,

all the sick, all the widows and orphans,

the bishop of Rome negotiated with the leaders of the invaders, for mercy.

We see it in the middle ages,

as it was the Christian Church,

the risen body of Jesus in the world,

who provided stability to an otherwise

horribly difficult time,

full of war, famine and plague.

We see it throughout history,

that the resurrected Jesus is working among us,

making all things new,

but don't get me wrong,

this is not a misguided 19th century ideal of progress,

of the progress of man to make the world perfect.

If anything, the people of the world

are as much involved in creating the fear we still see,

in the force that seems to always be trying to destroy,

what God is doing.

No, this is recreation of the world.

Love is casting out fear,

in spite of our ignorant attempts to remain afraid.

It’s something that God has been doing all along,

and that he continues to do,

though sometimes the glory of it seems hidden from us,

the abundant life Jesus gives us seems as hidden,

as his resurrected self is to us on the earth.

Christ is hidden in the “what-ifs” of our lives,

those seem to be sources of fear

that prevent us from seeing

how truly wonderful God has made things.

Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina,

wrote in his Easter message about those “what-ifs.”

They are the source of phobias,

those fears that prevent us from living.

I'd like to share with you some of what he said:

“When Marjorie Goff closed the door of her apartment

in 1949 she was 39 years old.

For her the door stayed shut for the next 30 years.

To be accurate there were a few exceptions.

She went out in 1960 to visit her family,

two years later for an operation,

and once in 1976 because a friend came to her apartment

to take her out for some ice cream.

Marjorie suffered from that metaphor of the human condition known as a phobia.

The list of recognized human phobias is legion.

There’s agoraphobia, aerophobia, acrophobia, claustrophobia, pyrophobia, thanatophobia—just to name a few.

Robert L. DuPont a past director of the Washington Center of Behavioral Medicine called phobias,

“The malignant diseases of the ‘what ifs.’”

“What ifs” add up to fears,

and fears are right smack dab

in the middle of the Easter story.

Matthew’s gospel tells of the chief priests'

and the Pharisees’ fear of a hoax by the disciples.

So they pressured Pilate to send a guard of soldiers to secure the world against a scheme (Matthew 27:62-66)...

Mary Magdalene however didn’t know this,

so she was fearful for quite other reasons

than the priests and Pharisees.

When she returned a second time on Easter morning

to the empty tomb and to face a fearful future

without even the dead body of Jesus to console her,

the “what ifs” got the better of her.

The Gospel of John recounts how she mistook the risen Jesus for the gardener.

“Sir,” she queried, “if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him…”

Our fears and “what ifs” as did hers

may well hide from us the presence of the risen Christ.

No wonder in the Easter narratives the attending angels

and the risen Jesus tell the disciples “Do not be afraid.”

It is Christ’s victory on the cross and in the tomb

over every mortal enemy of humankind

that makes these words have substance

and therein makes them liberating.

“Christ is risen—Jesus lives”

that is the telling message of Easter:

even in the face of Death, Sin, Hell, Judgment, the Devil,

and all the “what ifs” of fear— Jesus lives!

After all these enemies of mankind have done their worst,

He still Lives—and He still delivers.

This is what gives truth

to those wonderful words of Julian of Norwich,

“All is well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

She too lived like Marjorie Goff in a room with a closed door. She was an anchoress.

Her room was attached to a cathedral.

She had only two windows in this room.

One looked in towards the altar of the Norwich Cathedral. The other looked out to the world.

Unlike Marjorie, however,

it was not fear that kept Julian behind a closed door.

It was love—love for Christ and love for a needy world.

It was for this world that Jesus died,

and for which He now lives to make intercession,

and within His love and intercession

she presented her intercessions and so can we.

C. S. Lewis once wrote of Christ’s resurrection: “He has forced open a door that has been locked

since the death of the first man.”

It is this opened door that made Julian of Norwich free,

free enough to be joyous in a single room,

two windows and a closed door so she could live devotedly with an open door of abiding prayer (Revelation 3:20).

It is the Gospel, the Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection that when rightly heard and understood

will open the doors and lives of those like Marjorie Goff who have lived in the fear of “what ifs.”

I have seen first hand, the way love casts out fear here,

in a small but very significant way,

in the ministry of a few of our men,

to a formerly homeless man named Cecil.

When we first became acquainted with Cecil,

(through the Circles of Support program of Compassion Coalition,)

he said barely a word to us,

he was so afraid of everything.

Or as he would say, he was askeered.

It was the love these men showed,

that came from their shared love of the risen Christ,

their faithfulness in seeing him each week,

that has made a difference

in how he interacts with the world.

Now he talks freely,

now he engages the conversation with these men,

and with others.

He has even been able to come to a social gathering

of hundreds of people here at Ascension.

The love of Christ, shown through these men

and their simple service of being a friend to him,

cast out fear, and continues to heal him to this day.

There are many more stories of the risen Christ

casting out fear, in our community,

in the world around us.

Those stories are hidden among us,

as our lives are “hidden with Christ in God.”

I would say there is probably at least one story

for each person in this room.

Be encouraged by all of those evidences of Christ

being alive, and making all things new.

Even more importantly, as you become aware of them,

share those stories with others.

So that your experience of his Love,

Can cast out the fear of those around you.

Invite others them to come

and hear of the resurrection life this year,

during the Great Fifty Days of Easter,

is a wonderful time to bring a friend to church.

Perhaps if enough people hear this Good News

and of the door that Christ has opened for you

and keeps open for them as well,

his life, our life will not remain hidden,

but will be revealed for all to see.

Alleluia – Christ is Risen!

Amen