Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost Year C 2010

Do Not Be Afraid

You know I went by to see the Hatchers yesterday because their grandson, as many of you know, has gotten a very serious diagnosis and they've had a hard, scary week. He's doing better, and we're hoping he's going home tomorrow. We'll certainly be keeping little Griffin in our prayers.

But as I was thinking about my sermon this morning, I was wondering how the Hatchers reacted when they got the call that Griffin was in ICU. I wondered if they said to their son, "We're not ready. We're not worthy to come and be with you and Griffin." Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? I didn't ask them but I'd be willing to bet they were in their car and driving in no time at all, praying all the way there.

God tells Jeremiah, "Do not be afraid."

What is it that Jeremiah is afraid of? Jeremiah's afraid that he won't have the guts to go to people who are incredibly powerful and tell them, in the name of the Lord, to shape up. He won't have the eloquence to argue with people who are older and smarter than he is.

Jeremiah is in the wilderness, cold and hungry, because he is evaluating his own fitness for the mission to which he is called. God is telling him to go and do this thing, God is inviting him to Mt. Zion, but he's still at Mt. Sinai going through the commandments and finding out how far short he really falls.

The Hatchers were in their car and on the way before they even thought much about it. Were they scared? Sure they were. Did they doubt that they could do much to help? Probably. Did any of that stop them from getting up and answering the call? Nope.

And yet when we're asked to take part in saving the world, when we get asked to come to Mt. Zion, we say, "No, we're staying out here at Mt. Sinai for a while longer; we've got a lot more self-improvement to do before we're ready."

Why do we do this? Is it because we're scared of the job? Certainly. Conventional wisdom and common sense tells us that we can't save the world. We have all kinds of smart people who tell us all the reasons why saving the world is someone else's problem. We just don't have the power, the insight, the reach.

But I think there is another kind of fear we have about this call. I think we can't let in the possibility that God really wants us that close to God, that God would really entrust something so important to us, that God would draw us that close to God's heart.

God's response to Jeremiah is God's response to each one of us here this morning, each one of us who have also been called to help God save the world.

God says, "Have you forgotten that I knit you together in your mother's womb? Do you think that your work depends on your skill and wisdom? Who do you think is the source of all skill and all wisdom?"

Our perennial problem is that we confuse Mount Sinai with Mount Zion. At Mount Sinai, we are meant to respond with fear, and on that basis, obey. And that is a step in the journey for sure. It's a necessary stop we have to make on our way to the kingdom of God. Mt. Sinai is the place where God's thunderous voice tells us right from wrong, and we shake in our boots because we know where we come out on that score.

But it's not the kingdom of God, no matter how many preachers like to preach from there. Yes, it makes more sense. It's a lot more like the way of the world. It's certainly gets our attention much more powerfully. "Do this and you will live, but fail to do it and you will die!" "Do this and go to heaven, but fail to do this and go to hell!" "Work hard and save your money and you will be happy, fail to do this and you will be sad!" "Be nice to your neighbors and you will feel good about yourself, fail to do this and you won't!" "Work for peace and justice, and you will be fulfilled, but fail to do this and you will be empty!"

All of these things are true, but God is inviting us to a new place, just as he invited Jeremiah.

Sooner or later, in the course of our journey, God invites us across a line. And the line is between Mount Sinai, where it's all about saving ourselves, and Mount Zion, where it's all about saving the world. At Mount Sinai, we obey God because we want his blessing and we fear his condemnation. At Mount Zion, we obey God because we're passionately in love with God. God invites us across the line from being good to being God's.

The synagogue leader is not a moral hair-splitter. He's not a religious hypocrite we need to dismiss. Yes, he's still at Mt. Sinai, but Mt. Sinai is a very holy place, and a lot of us are still there, stuck there, not really sure how to get away. The synagogue leader might have reasonably been concerned about forgetting the purpose of Sabbath, the day we're supposed to be in worship, by getting into a healing free-for-all. And to be perfectly honest, our culture has gotten pretty bad about keeping the Sabbath. We might do well to pay some attention to this man.

And Jesus, we must be careful to note, does not disagree. He doesn't dismiss the law. Mount Sinai is on the way to Mount Zion. But Jesus does invite the old rabbi across the line, where Sabbath-keeping goes from being something we do because we're seeking God's blessings and avoiding God's judgment, to something we do as the new creations of God, free of our crippling and fearful self-interest that keeps us bent over, staring at the ground at our feet.

Do not be afraid. God is leading you a whole new existence. Stand up, grow up, be what God intends you to be. Forget about whether it will make you happy or not. Just answer the call. Just go for it. Just give up searching for fulfillment and fall in love with God.

You're headed for Mount Zion, to the company of all the saints, to the festal gathering, to the feast to end all feasts. Yes, we know you've never been there before, and the freedom of the place may feel like falling off a cliff, but this is what it means to be a grown-up Christian. It's not about you anymore. It's not about what choices you make. It's not about what you get out of it.

It's not about saving yourself. It's about saving the world.

Do not be afraid.

Amen.