DON'T BE AFRAID

“DON’T BE AFRAID”

            We have stepped into the season of Advent when the church begins a new year.  It starts with the birth of Jesus, and only Matthew and Luke have stories about the birth of Jesus.  John’s Gospel has a powerful theological introduction about the birth of Jesus, but he is not interested in the historical details as Matthew and Luke are.  Luke especially wants to place the birth story in the middle of the messiness of history, and his approach describes a feeling very similar to our time.  We should note that Luke does not begin his story with the birth of Jesus but rather with John the Baptizer, and we will look at that story next week. 

            When Luke does get to the birth story in chapter 2, he sets it squarely in his understanding of secular history.   Octavious, nephew of Julius Caesar, and avenger of his uncle’s death, has had himself crowned as the first Emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus.  He orders a census for tax purposes, and Luke tells us that a couple in Nazareth, engaged to be married, head for the man’s hometown of Bethlehem.  This combination of an emperor/dictator and taxes brings it home to us in our age, as all of us tremble for the future of our country and of democracy with President Trump’s leadership.  Is he looking to be emperor?  Does he want to be dictator?  However one answers those questions, it seems clear that he wants all power to flow through him.

            Luke sets his story right in the middle of these kinds of fears and anxieties.  Indeed, the Christmas stories are full of humans engaging our deepest fears and our deepest hopes at the same time.  As we will see later, when the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and asks her to allow herself to become pregnant with the Beloved, he tells her not to be afraid, even though he is asking her to assent to an action that will place her in danger of receiving the death penalty.   In Matthew’s account, when Joseph is wrestling over whether to allow the death penalty to be given to Mary, an angel appears to him telling him not to be afraid.  In Luke’s story on the appearance of the angels to the shepherds, the angelic chorus begins with the same phrase:  “Don’t be afraid.”

            The Greek word for “fear “ comes from “phobeo,” which is where we get our word “phobia.”  The admonition about fear in these Christmas stories is not about repressing fear but rather not allowing it to become a phobia, a dominant force that makes us unable to receive the gifts of God.  There is every reason to be afraid in these stories – Mary is subject to the death penalty;  Joseph is asked to take himself from the center of patriarchy to the margins of life,  and to allow himself to be hunted by government soldiers;  the shepherds are asked to leave their jobs and live under a new vision.  These Christmas stories, then, are not sweet and sentimental stories about the birth of a baby – there is obviously sweetness to them, but their point is to interrupt our lives in the midst of our fears and in the longings of our hearts.

            These Christmas stories ask us to consider an alternative vision of life in a time of hatred and violence and patriarchy and death.   These stories are not asking us to leave the world behind.  They are asking us to step more deeply into ourselves and into the world.  No escapism here, no matter what the culture does to these stories.  These stories are realistic about us and our lives and about life in the world.  They ask us to move from domination by fear to domination by love:  to act as Mary did and say “yes;”  to act as Joseph did and say “yes;” to be inspired by a new vision as those shepherds were.  As we enter this Christmas season in a time of great fear and trepidation, let us seek not an escape but the deepening of our lives and a consequent commitment to the power of love that is at the heart of this season.

            Howard Thurman put it this way in his fine book “Moods of Christmas:”

            “I Will Light Candles This Christmas”

            Candles of joy, despite all sadness,

            Candles of hope, where despair keeps watch,

            Candles of courage for fears ever present,

            Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,

            Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,  

            Candles of love to inspire my living,

            Candles that will burn all the year long.