Why Read the Bible: To Learn How Not to be Afraid

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

–Luke 1:5-20 (NIV)

From today’s lesson, we gain insight on how to live without fear. The former bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, tells us that “don’t be afraid” is the most common phrase in the entire Bible.

But we are afraid. Why is that?

To learn the answer to this question, we need to look at what life in paradise looked like for humans. God created us to have relationship with him, the kind of relationship in which we acknowledge God is creator and we are his creatures. This kind of relationship, of course, is built on knowledge and trust. We trust God’s goodness and his intentions for us because we know him and submit our wills to him. When that happens, we really do have a sense of peace that passes all understanding. Why? Because we know God is far better able to care for us than we are ourselves. He is omniscient and omnipotent. He has an eternal perspective and more importantly, he loves us. Even when our Lord asks us to do hard things for him the way he did with Peter after Jesus’ resurrection (see John 21:15-25), we have peace because we trust God to take care of us and know we are doing his will. What could be better?

But sin intervened in the Garden of Eden. Humans wanted to be their own god and not submit to the one true God, and that got us kicked out of paradise. We have been living in fear ever since. We are afraid because deep down we know we really aren’t in control of many things. We can’t control our aging process. We can’t control how others feel about us or behave toward us. We can’t raise ourselves from the dead or heal ourselves of desperately evil diseases. We cannot really control events that unfold around us and all this makes us very afraid. But instead of seeking God’s will for our lives, instead of taking the time and making the effort to get to know God and his track record with his people so that we can learn to put our whole hope and trust in him and his good will for us, we seek to take matters into our own hands, even though we know that we do not have the power to do so.

In other words, our alienation and separation from God makes us afraid because try as we might, we cannot play God and we live in a world created good but marred by human sin and evil.

This doubt and failure to trust in God’s goodness is what got Zechariah in trouble in today’s passage. Instead of trusting in God’s goodness and power, he demanded a sign from Gabriel and was rewarded with an imposed silence until John was born. Luke tells us this can happen to even the best of us because he makes the point of telling us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were “righteous” people. Yes, God gave Abraham a sign when the latter asked for one but that is because Abraham did not have any antecedents on which to base his trust. He was the first of God’s called-out people, the Jews, and had no prior frame of reference or history with God’s dealing with his people. Not so with Zechariah. He had many examples of God’s mighty power to deliver his people from their suffering and exile. But he asked for a sign nevertheless and that is a telltale sign of doubt and disbelief. “Show me a sign, God. I don’t believe you or trust in your ability to deliver.”

Contrast Zechariah’s reaction to Mary’s when she learned she would be pregnant with the Holy Spirit. We moderns do not appreciate the precarious situation in which this put Mary. At best she could expect to be expelled from her family and village. At worst, she could expect to be put to death for perceived sexual immorality. But she did not question Gabriel the way Zechariah had. She did not ask for a sign. Instead she trusted God’s good intention for her even when she did not understand it all (see tomorrow’s lesson, Luke 1.26-38).

That’s faith in action and that is the secret to living your life without fear.

And lest you think I am pontificating about this from afar, think again. I have recently learned that my job as priest at St. Andrew’s as been eliminated because of budget shortfalls. Since I am in the ACNA, I have nowhere to go because our young province is so new there is no existing infrastructure of churches to which I can go. If I want to work I must plant my own church. Talk about a skill-set that is not in my repertoire! Talk about having every reason to be afraid! But I am not afraid, at least about this turn of events, because I know God is in charge. I know he will lead me to where he wants me to go. I am sure the days ahead will be difficult and challenging. But if I am truly doing the Lord’s will, how can I be afraid because I have the promise of Immanuel, God with us, and based on my past experience with God, I know his promises are always true.

If you have not done so already, may you too learn the secret of living your life without fear, even in the darkest hours, because you too know Immanuel. You too know his goodness and love toward us. You too know his track record on delivering on his promises to end our exile from him once and for all. How can we possibly be afraid?

4 thoughts on “Why Read the Bible: To Learn How Not to be Afraid

  1. I know; and I knew you would say that too. But my emotions don’t always heed what my mind knows….

  2. Pingback: Why Read the Bible: To Learn How Not to be Afraid (2) | The Anglican Priest

  3. True. But this ultimately gets back to my point above about us not trusting God and his good intentions for us. God knows what is down the pike for us but we want to be in on the joke as well.

  4. And we’re afraid of change, because we cannot see what is ahead. I’ve been afraid of change because things were good and I was enjoying that, and now I don’t know if they can be as good.

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