“Do not be afraid…” Some thoughts on fear and the security of the law

 

 “…do not be afraid…” Matthew 1:20

 

How many times have I read this section of Matthew, these first two chapters that are so familiar from Christmas readings and church services?  They are so familiar that I hardly pay attention to them anymore. If I am reading the Bible, I tend to skim over them. Who needs another list of begats and begottens? We all know what happens. Mary gets pregnant. Jesus is born. The shepherds and the Wise Guys notice.  And then Herod gets mad and bad stuff happens. 

 Some things, some stories, some truths, some people, seem so familiar that we hardly notice them.  We begin to take them for granted. They can’t surprise us anymore (we think).  We put a label on them and file them away and stop paying attention. He’s my sports friend.  She likes to read. Math is hard. Cats are evil. (And so is okra.)  It makes life easier (we think). 

Or do we?

And so here I am once again reading the Nativity story and thinking: Yada Yada Yada… Yeah. I know. Let’s get to the good part.  But then suddenly I hear a voice in my head saying:  Isn’t it interesting that this version (Matthew’s) focuses on Joseph more than Mary[1]?  Hmmm.  That’s right.  I wonder if I ever noticed that before? 

 And then I saw those words:

… the angel of the Lord appeared to him and
said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary home as your wife…’

 And I wondered, why did the angel say that? Why tell him not to be afraid?  If we look at the context—something I always remind my students to do—we see that Joseph was about to divorce Mary.  My translation says, “Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally.”(Mt 1:19)

 Basically, Joseph was following the law. He was being compassionate and merciful about it; he could have had her taken outside of the town and stoned to death. But, instead he was going to quietly and without public display abandon her.  It was the right thing to do.  Yes, it would spare her disgrace, but what about him? It would also spare him the disgrace of becoming a cuckold; married to an adulteress and raising another man’s child.  What would that do to his public standing? What would that do to his reputation? His carpentry business? That was too much! He couldn’t risk it.

 And perhaps that is why the angel says: Don’t be afraid.

 Fear not. Don’t be afraid.  That is a constant refrain in scripture.  God is constantly reminding us not to be afraid.

 Not because bad things won’t happen. Not because Faith makes us immune to sorrows and hardships. But, because regardless of what happens—God is with us. And truly, that is all that matters!

So, even when the hurricane comes (or two of them at the same time), even when the flood waters rise, even when your fiancé suddenly shows up pregnant—don’t be afraid.  Be secure in God’s love.

 Joseph isn’t doing anything wrong. In fact, he is going above and beyond the call of duty by intending to divorce Mary quietly. So, why is he sent this message: Do not be afraid?

 Is it because too often when we turn to the law or rules to defend our position, we are searching for something that isn’t there: stability, safety, security.  We are acting not out of love, not out of faith, but out of fear? 

 Even if we are trying to do the right thing, are we holding back? Are we hiding behind the law to avoid doing the harder thing? Protecting ourselves by hiding behind the law? Protecting ourselves from gossip? From scandal? From discomfort or hardship?

 But, like Joseph, are we actually only protecting ourselves from God’s grace? From letting ourselves fall completely into His hands?  From giving ourselves fully to His beautiful, mysterious, loving plan?   

And is the real problem here simply that we think we know how this story goes? So we don’t bother to pay attention to the truth.   That God is in charge.  What are we afraid of?

 Open your eyes. Pay attention to the voice that whispers in your ear: Be not afraid. God is calling you, and His plans are much bigger and much better than anything you could imagine.

 Do not be afraid.  

 

   

---

[1] The Nativity of Luke focuses almost completely on Mary (annunciation, visitation, presentation, storing things up in her heart), while the Nativity of Matthew focuses almost solely on Joseph (and his dreams).  I don’t know why, but—there you go.

Jonah & the comedy of Faith

“Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth
and call loudly to the Lord…” (Jonah 3:8)

The book of Jonah is collected with the prophecies of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament, but it contains no actual prophecy, instead it is a comical short story about what it means to be a prophet.  It is such a simple story it feels like a fable. And because it is so very familiar to all of us with its story of a man swallowed by a whale, we feel like we know it, even if we’ve never read a word of it.  But, I challenge you to open your Bible and find it (between Obadiah and Micah) and take a few minutes to read it.  It truly is a SHORT story. Four brief chapters, in my New Jerusalem Bible Jonah takes up two pages; if the print in your Bible is larger it may stretch to three. But you can definitely read this story in about 10 minutes.  I highly recommend it. Ten minutes will rarely be spent more productively and delightfully.

It is a masterpiece of comedy. A satire about an unwilling prophet and his efforts to escape God’s call, it also contains a beautiful message of hope about the mercy of God and His transcendent love. 

The basics of the story are this: God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to them about their wickedness. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a nation that had been terrorizing the world (and the Israelites) for a century or more, sacking, looting, plundering, dragging people off to slavery and worse.  Jonah doesn’t want to go, so he runs away from God’s call and tries to hide in a distant land. That is where the whale comes in and before long Jonah is spit out on the shore and walking the streets of Nineveh proclaiming that the end is near!  But the people of Nineveh hear this and take it to heart and they repent and God relents and shows them mercy and Jonah falls down in the dirt like an angry child and says: See!  I knew you were going to do that! That’s why I didn’t want to come here in the first place.

What I find so fascinating in this tale isn’t the famous whale that swallows the prophet and vomits him up on the beach, but the depiction of a man (Jonah) trying to escape God’s call, because he thinks he knows better.  There is a great deal of spiritual sustenance to be found in this tale. Heck, even Jesus found it important enough to mention it a couple of times.  But, you have to read it yourself.  Let yourself get lost in the story. Let yourself laugh at the foolishness of men, and the strange wonders of God’s workings. Let it seep down into your soul. And when you get to the part about even the sheep and cattle dressing up in sackcloth and ashes, see if you don’t find yourself grinning at least a little. 

Something we too often forget is that reading the Bible can also be fun. If you are curious about reading scripture, this story is a great place to start.  And when you are done, you may want to look up the charming Veggie Tales movie version, too! I love those darned pirates who don’t do anything, and their catchy theme song.

Living the good life: a meditation on Ruth, Naomi & mercy

“…you are a woman of great worth.”  -Ruth 3:11

 

There are things worth waiting for. Things worth great effort. Work worth doing. Experiences worth having. People worth knowing. Worth loving. Worth waiting for. Worth the effort. People of great worth.  And the book of Ruth, one of the shortest in the Bible, is one of the most memorable; it is the story of a woman of great worth. A woman who is an example of how to become a person of great worth. And, interestingly enough, in this allegory of great worth, there is no character of any religious or royal significance; no priest, no prince, no prophet, no judge, no one of “real” importance. It is a simple story of simple people and a woman of great worth.

            The story of Ruth and Naomi is a familiar one. Naomi is a widow with two sons living in a pagan land (Moab). Her sons marry Moabite women and settle but soon they die, too. A woman without a husband or a son was quite vulnerable in the ancient world. One might say she was the equivalent of both a widow and an orphan. And living in a foreign land, she is a kind of exile, a stranger living in a strange land. Learning that life has improved in Bethlehem, Naomi decides to return to her homeland. Not wanting to force her daughter-in-laws to become exiles, she encourages them to return to their families and find new husbands. It’s the only thing that makes sense. She is saying to them, she has nothing left to give them. She has no hope for a better life. In fact, as far as she knows, she can only drag them down with her.  They need to go back to their families and look out for themselves. One does just that, but the other (Ruth) doesn’t. Instead, she puts Naomi’s needs ahead of her own:

“…wherever you go, I shall go,

Wherever you live, I shall live.

Your people will be my people,

And your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

(Wow. A drought, a famine, an uprooted family, a widow, 2 marriages, 2 deaths, and a return to Bethlehem –and it’s only verse 16. Geepers, talk about a page turner.) 

Like most fables and allegories, this is a whirlwind narrative, and the characters aren’t just characters. I imagine that just about everything in this story is a symbol of something.  Starting with the names: Naomi means sweetness, her sons are named Mahlon and Chilion –basically sickness and death—and then there is Ruth which means companion (someone who will walk the path with you). And later we will meet a very kind and just man named Boaz (basically “inner-strength”).  Something that bears mentioning: there are no bad guys in this story. No greedy relative or heartless official. No jealous rival or bitter enemy. Only the normal day to day evils of sickness and death.   

If we read the whole story allegorically we might ask ourselves, who is Naomi? As a Jew living in a foreign land, intermarrying with non-believers, after a period of bad judges and corrupt officials, is Naomi a picture of God’s chosen people gone astray? And her off-spring are nothing but sickness and death… Nothing to look forward to but woe…

But in her hour of distress and desperation, she turns back to God. And when she does, God gives her a companion to help her on the journey; a companion who treats her with compassion, who encourages her in her faith, and who reveals to her God’s mercy. 

Whether we read her allegorically or not Ruth is truly a woman of great worth. She models for Naomi and for us the fulfillment of God’s law.  She puts the needs of another before her own.  As Jesus tells us repeatedly:

“Anyone who would be great among you, must become your servant…” –Mark 10:43

Ruth becomes not just a companion, but a servant to Naomi. And by so doing, she becomes a helpmate for the journey, and a source of strength and renewed hope. Allegorically we might say she is Naomi’s (or Israel’s) faith rekindled, as well as a vision of God’s loving mercy. An icon of that never-ending grace and undying love that never ceases to seek after us, no matter how far we stray. 

She isn’t a queen. She isn’t a Judge. She isn’t a prophet.  She is just a young widow who selflessly puts the needs of another before her own.  And that is what makes her truly a woman of great worth. And a model for all of us who hope to be “of great worth” someday. 

Open your Bible and read the Book of Ruth. You can probably read the whole thing in 20 minutes (or less).  Like many fables and allegories, though it is fairly short, it contains profound depths that will inspire and challenge you and reward reading and rereading.

Dear Lord, on this Divine Mercy Sunday,

Renew us with Your love and open our hearts

with your merciful presence to the needs of others,

inspire us to put the needs of the weak and the vulnerable,

the widow, the orphan and the stranger, ahead of our own.

Let us find our greatness not in titles or power, or honors,

but in humility and service to others. Let us, like Ruth,

become bearers of Your mercy to the world.

.

Amen