FEAR NOT
There once was a much beloved priest who preceded me in a congregation I served. Everyone told stories about Fr. Cobb. Some were about his eccentric nature, but most were about his loving care and devotion to God. You could see, even years later, his influence on the way people worshiped, treated one another with respect and affection, and always the hushed response when his name was mentioned.
One day Fr. Cobb was visiting a parishioner. It was a spring day, and spring in Kansas is always fraught with tornadoes. Sure enough, while Fr. Cobb was visiting the tornado warning sounded and everyone went to the basement. After the "all clear" Fr. Cobb left. My friend told me her daughter Martha was usually terrified of tornado warnings, but she was very calm that day, despite the need to seek shelter. Her mother remarked to Martha about her calmness, and Martha replied, "Mother, I wasn't scared at all – because God is pleased with Fr. Cobb."
That story about Fr. Cobb might be a re-telling of the Christmas story in brief. Jesus' birth is God's message to human beings that God is pleased with all of us. Not only is God pleased, God chooses to live among us, be like us, and know us better. The message of goodwill to all people is universal and broadcast on every frequency to those who would hear it. Now we need no longer be afraid.
Really, do we need not be afraid? If God with us, Emmanuel, means what I think it means, no – we do not need to be afraid.
But we are afraid: of loss, of change, of economic disorder, of sickness from a host of diseases we cannot cure or sometimes detect until it's too late. We're told over and over not to be afraid, but fear governs much of what we do; it often determines even how we live.
At the time of Jesus’ birth there was virtually a universal peace, the Pax Romana. It was a peace achieved through victory and maintained through fear. Anyone attempting to upset the order, any conquered people in rebellion, knew that retribution would be swift, deadly and graphic.
The proclamation of the angels to the shepherds reminds us there is another kind of peace; peace through justice. God is much more interested in that kind of peace, that peace that frees all of us from fear, and brings us closer to what God imagined in creation. That is why the Church at its best is interested in those who have little or nothing. That is why Jackie, our parish friend in India, is building a school for children at the cost of a mere $3,000. That is why we send money to single mothers in Guatemala, support Flint Street and ECHO in our own community, and provide Christmas baskets to the poor. It is peace, through justice. And whenever we participate in it, we push fear back further into a corner.
Charlotte Diggs (Lottie) Moon [Dec. 14, 1840-Dec. 24, 1912] Southern Baptist missionary to China. During a famine, she stopped eating in solidarity with the people she served. As her health deteriorated, she was sent back to US but died on Christmas Eve when the boat reached Kobe, Japan. The Southern Baptists still hold a Lottie Moon Christmas Food Offering for mission work. This is peace through justice.
So, in Fr. Cobb, in sister Moon, in Jackie, we see the results of the birth of this child, born to us, everlasting, prince of peace.
This Christmas may the Christ child grant you peace. May it be peace that drives out fear, and replaces it with desire and passion to serve others. May it be a peace that causes you to be less concerned about victory and more about doing that which pleases God. May it be a peace that frees you from fear so you can do what God has called you to do, using your talents and gifts freely and with abundance.
God has a plan to redeem the world. Tonight, through this gracious gift of Jesus born to us, all of us are called to join in, feeling less fearful and more at peace as we engage in our part of that plan.
The Rev. Ben Helmer
St. James' Episcopal Church
Eureka Springs. AR
December 24, 2009 12.09