josephholubsermons


 

June 20, 2010
Pentecost 4
Luke 7:36-50

A Grace Place Beyond Fear!

“Let us go to the other side of the Lake.”  - Luke 8:22
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them… there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear… and whoever fears has not reached maturity in love."  - 1 John 4:16, 18.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is with his disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee or Lake Gennesaret, as it was also called.   But Luke includes a critical little detail that, for me, focuses the meaning of the  story. Luke’s Jesus said to his disciples before they embarked, “Let us go to the other side of the lake.”  If this were simply a story about  a miracle that Jesus performed and nothing more, that detail wouldn’t have been necessary.  Luke could have merely began with something like, “One day when Jesus and his disciples were in their fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee…”  But that is not how Luke tells the story.  The story begins with Luke’s Jesus saying, “Let us go to the other side of the lake.” 

There are a couple of ways to understand the gospel stories about Jesus.  One way is to take them strictly literally, as historical narratives; to see and understand them as actual literal history that we  could have taken a photo or video of had we been there with our modern technology.  If we employ the literal approach we can get hung up on whether or not it "really happened"  the way Luke describes it or not - and never really get to the deeper meaning of the story.   

Another way to see and understand gospel stories is not strictly as literal historical narratives, but as what many biblical scholars call metaphorical narratives.  Metaphorical narrative recognizes that the gospels went through a process of shaping and development in the early Christian communities.  In this understanding, the stories are seen as having a profoundly metaphorical aspect to them that reflect the early Christian community's ongoing experience of Jesus decades after he was gone.  The metaphorical approach takes seriously what Jesus meant for those early communities that sprang up around him in the decades after him; communities who shaped their lives around him; communities who named him Lord.  This approach says that the deeper meanings of the stories are found in their metaphorical nature rather than in a strictly literal sense.  For me, this metaphorical approach opens up vistas of understanding and dimensions of meaning in these amazing stories about Jesus and the impact Jesus had on the early communities that followed him. 

Luke’s introductory line, “Let us go to the other side of the lake,” is a portal into the deeper meaning of the story.   It’s a line that suggests the meaning of the story is connected to something on the “other side of the lake.”  It’s Luke’s way of saying what happened on the lake must be seen in the context of the “other side of the lake.”  So what was it about the “other side of the lake” that we need to know? 

The "other side" was not merely a destination a few miles away, but culturally, socially, ethnically, politically and religiously it could have been a million miles away.  The Sea of Galilee was not just any body of water.  Much more lake-like than sea-like merely 14 miles long and 3-7 miles wide,  it also served as a border that separated two regions: a Jewish region and a Gentile region.  When Jesus said, "Let us go to the other side," he was transporting his disciples across a significant  border from a Jewish region to an area referred to as the Decapolis. The Decapolis, a word meaning "ten towns," was a region of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire located in what is today Jordan and Syria, including an area known as the Golan Heights, which is still a contested area. The “Decapolis” cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture - a Gentile region. 

It was on their journey across this border that they encountered the fierce resistance of gale force wind and waves.   With fear and terror in their voices they turned to Jesus shouting, “Master, master, we are perishing!”   In part, this is a story about the power of fear, and fear’s ability to take over and dominate.  

Many years ago I traveled with a group of high school youth to the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior.  Our group got caught in a small boat in a vicious squall on Lake Superior.  The thing I vividly remember most is the sense of sheer terror I felt.  The desperate and fear-filled cry, “Master, master, we are perishing,” captures perfectly what we felt on that day.  The outer storm was dangerous and life-threatening.  However, the inner storm of fear I felt was equally as dangerous because it clouded and distorted my thinking, and if it wasn’t for a very wise and seasoned guide who was in the boat with us, I am certain I would have made bad and uninformed decisions – decisions that could have easily led to our demise.   But we trusted the directives of our guide in the midst of the storm and were guided to a safe landing.  Our guide was the one person in the boat not controlled by fear, but controlled by a deeper knowledge and wisdom. 

I did some reading this week on the human brain and the fear response.  It was extraordinarily interesting.   The human brain is wired in such a way that the brain’s fear circuitry is more powerful than the brain’s reasoning faculties.  The reasons for that are related to a self-preservation response in the face of danger.  To put it simply, the brain is wired to flinch first and ask questions later – sometimes much later. 

Deep in the human brain is an area called the amygdala, a bundle of neurons near the brain’s center that processes the fear response.  This area of the brain can literally overwhelm and override the neo-cortex area of the brain which is the seat of consciousness, reason and rational thinking.  So, the other day when I stepped on a stick that I thought was a snake, and I screamed out loud and jumped away, it was the result of  the amygdala area of my brain that had kicked into gear.  The default setting of this area of the brain is a “better safe than sorry” fear-response-setting. 

The knowledge that fear can be more powerful than reason has be cleverly and relentlessly employed in modern and post-modern times in the political, religious and advertising realms.  18^th century political theorist Edmund Burke wrote, “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”  Fear is a powerful tool that is used extensively to sway the opinions of voters, consumers and religious followers.

Some researchers did an experiment that illustrates the power of fear at a large metropolitan airport where they offered two types of flight insurance.  The first type of insurance comprehensively covered “death by any cause.”   The second type of flight insurance covered only “death by terrorism causes.”  Despite the fact that the “death by any cause” insurance was significantly less expensive, people chose the more expensive “death by terrorism”  insurance over the other by a margin of 2:1.   Since 911, just the word “terrorism” can precipitate a host of irrational responses based solely on fear.   

During the 2008 presidential primary campaign, one candidate solicited potential supporters to contribute by writing checks to his campaign for $9.11 – again tapping into the power of fear. 

Fear is a very powerful manipulating tool that historically has led to incredible cruelties and monumental suffering in the name of God, religion and nation.  In 1927 Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, writing about a previous time in American, European and Christian history, said, “When men feared witches and heresy, they burned women.” 

I haven’t heard of any burnings at the stake recently, but I see fear regularly employed as a tool and weapon to demonize, marginalize and dehumanize whether it be minorities, immigrants,  homosexuals, those of another religion or one’s political opponent.  Skillfully instilling and sustaining fear is power!

Luke’s community of faith did not experience Jesus as a one who employed fear as a means of motivation.   Luke’s Jesus intentionally led his disciples across a formidable fear-enforced-boundary to embrace, with inclusive love, those on the other side.  As they were going they faced the frightening resistance and headwind of fear that would have swamped and halted them on the spot.  In their terror they turned to Jesus,  “Master, master, we are perishing!”   Jesus, not controlled by fear, responded,  “Where is your faith?”   It was an invitation to trust him and continue their journey to a place and the people on the “other side” of fear; a place beyond fear.  Jesus was the wise and seasoned guide in the boat of their experience to guide them past their fear to gain access to and embrace the humanity on the “other side of the lake.” 

But this was characteristic of Luke’s Jesus.  In fact, the Gospel of Luke is filled with examples and stories that characterize Jesus reaching across barriers of fear to embrace the real human beings quarantined behind them.  Emphasized more than in any of the other gospels, Luke’s Jesus reaches out to those that fear leaves out:  outcasts and the lost of various kinds, Samaritans, the economically  exploited and women. 

The Letter of 1 John reminds us of a similar truth, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear… whoever fears has not reached maturity in love.” 

We live in a cultural environment that is saturated with the rhetoric of fear and the skillful application of it;  an atmosphere of simplistic images and sound bites that appeal to the primitive part of the brain that keeps us locked-in to fear, and locked-out of creative/critical thinking and growing to maturity in love. 

The world needs something way better than that.  The earth and humanity face monumental problems on every front that require humanities best creative and critical thinking to solve and a maturity in love that moves us beyond fear towards understanding, toleration and reconciliation. 

The very essence of Jesus’ life and ministry was love not fear.  Jesus was driven by a powerful force of grace and compassion that would not allow fear to erase anyone’s face or write anyone off – even and especially those so many others feared and as a result had marginalized.  Anyone or any community that follows Jesus and shapes their life around his will likely have to bear a windstorm of the scorn and the fear of others.  But, the world desperately needs courageous and bold people who are willing who move beyond the fear that is tearing the world apart; to be reconciling links and connecting bridges. 

So, "let us go across to the other side."  It is the first bold step of discipleship.