Fear is in the boat

Fear is in the boat

Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me"

I don't like scary movies. In fact I pretty much hate them. However, back in 99 I found myself talked into going to see the Blair Witch Project with my friends Nick & Jared. I don't remember exactly how they convinced me to do so but I imagine it involved a free dinner & movie if I went. We also decided to see the latest possible showing of the movie which was around 11PM. That put us heading back from from Durham to Roxboro around 12:30AM. I get to my truck and head home from Nick's house a little after 1. I didn't realize how much the movie had spooked until I was driving home late at night all by my house. I decided that even if I got a flat tire I wasn't stopping for anything! Not going to let some witch hop out of the woods and get me! When I got home it was the quickest I had ever gotten out of my truck, got into the house and locked the door back then I had ever been in my life. It was safe to say that my fear had gotten the better of me.

"Let’s say there is a ship on the high sea, having a fierce struggle with the waves. The storm wind is blowing harder by the minute. The boat is small, tossed about like a toy; the sky is dark; the sailors’ strength is failing. Then one of them is gripped by . . . whom? what? . . . he cannot tell himself. But someone is there in the boat who wasn’t there before. . . . Suddenly he can no longer see or hear anything, can no longer row, a wave overwhelms him, and in final desperation he shrieks: Stranger in this boat, who are you? And the other answers, I am Fear. . . . All hope is lost, Fear is in the boat.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On January 15, 1933, in a Berlin church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor & theologian,  delivered a sermon entitled “Overcoming Fear.”

Germany was in the midst of fearful and turbulent times, indeed. The devastation of defeat from World War I, just 14 years earlier, was fresh on the people’s minds and hearts. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 compounded further pressures on the struggling German economy, driving the number of unemployed to more than six million. The new Weimar Republic lacked political stability and leadership, and fears of communism and extremism loomed large. As these dark waves battered them from all sides, many Germans—including German Christians—feared what the future would hold.

“Fear is in the boat, in Germany, in our own lives and in the nave of this church—naked fear of an hour from now, of tomorrow and the day after.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Fear is the opposite of love and hope. Fear destroys us. It hollows out our insides, removes our resistance and strength until we finally break down. Fear discreetly gnaws and eats away at all the ties that bind us to God and to others, until they finally break we retreat into ourselves devoid of hope and despair and in so doing fear conquers us.

 I can't help but notice amongst our congregation, amongst the church as whole, we let fear creep in a little bit further with each election cycle.  A cycle fraught with threats of terrorism, loss of religious freedoms and values, and the risks of immigration. Congregations sense it, fear it, even fuel it. Little by little fear threatens to take our hearts and rip the body of Christ apart. Yet, it never will.

Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

You see right here, right in the middle of this fearful world is us, the church. A place that is meant for all time. A place given a peculiar task that the world doesn't understand. We must continue to proclaim the gospel here. We must continue to proclaim to people over and over and over again. The same thing, fear is overcome! Don't be afraid. In the world you are frightened but in Christ there is comfort! Christ has conquered the world! Christ in in the boat! We don’t have to agree with someone or understand their experience to love them.  If they’re hurting, we try to represent God’s compassion. If they’re sinning, we let them know of God’s forgiveness through the gospel. If we’re not sure, we listen and ask questions.  This is the place where this kind of talk should be heard, should be shouted, should resound from our lips and our lives. From The Bible the living Christ is speaking, when that message reaches people, which it reaches us, our fear will sink away as Christ overcomes our fear.

2 Timothy 1:17 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind".

We have a choice to make each and every day. Do we let fear make our decisions or love? Yes, fear is in the boat. But, Jesus is greater then that fear and He is in the boat with us.
Sola Scriptura!

Pastor Glen