“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.

My wife's birthday and the love of God

“Such is my love…”

--Song of Songs 5:16b

It is my wife’s birthday tomorrow and recently I found myself thinking about our first “date.”  We went out to breakfast at Butera’s on Montrose and she had oatmeal with currents and cream. I think I had the same—but with brown sugar and a bagel and cream cheese and maybe a fried egg and some grits and fresh squeezed orange juice and lots and lots of coffee. And we spent that entire day together. We drove around talking and seeing things, stopping places. We may have gone to the art museum. That part I can’t remember, but I remember the oatmeal.  And I remember how for hours we were just together, talking and sharing everything we loved and everything we hoped; favorite movies, favorite books, favorite songs. Driving around Houston in my beat-up old Honda Civic wagon, with the windows down. Bob Dylan or Merle Haggard blaring from the cassette player. I loved that car. It was white with plenty of rust and no a/c.  I called it Moby Honda!  We Hermans have to stick together on these things.  

And she seemed to love it too.

At some point during the day, I took her over to meet some friends—the Broadheads. I wanted them to meet her. I wanted her to meet them. I wanted to share them all.  I hadn’t said anything to her yet, but I already knew I was in love. And I wanted everyone else to know it too.  “Such is my love…”

I think we stayed and had dinner with the Broadheads and then I took her home.  I think I held her hand on the way home.  In my memory, I nervously took my hand from the stick shift and reached over and rested my hand on hers. Whether I remember it accurately or not, it is a day I will never forget!  We spent that entire day together giddily eagerly sharing everything we had. There was never a lull in the conversation. Our talk overflowed, the way people in love do. Starting and stopping sentences as ideas and words popped into our heads, eagerly agreeing and offering glimpses of the lives we had lived and the people we hoped to be. Pointing out places we remembered, places we loved, places and memories we wanted to give to one another.  I am almost positive there was a stop at a bookstore somewhere in that magical day (maybe Brentano's or Books, Inc. or Brazos), that wonderful never ending date.  Sure there may have been mistakes and momentary lapses of harmony but we were so ready to forgive because we were so ready to love.  I’ve been thinking about that, too. 

As I read my way through the prophets, I find myself again and again coming upon images of God’s love, His passionate love, His endless ever renewing love for His people!  And I think, perhaps such is my love for Lynne, my beautiful wife of 31 years.  And perhaps that memory of that first never-ending date, is a kind of icon of God’s overflowing boundless love for us.  “Such is my love…”   God’s love for us is like that feeling you had on that first date, the first time you held hands with the person you love most in the world, the first time you shared a coke, or offered her your last onion ring, or the last bite of your bagel. That first time when you knew you were in love.  The look in your eyes as you gazed into hers… Is it possible, that is how God looks at us? Is it possible that creation, is God’s way of sharing everything He can with us, everything He loves, all His favorites?  (That could explain Bob Dylan winning a Nobel Prize…)

Anyway, take a moment and see what you can remember about that first date, that never-ending first date. Maybe you want to make time to sit down with your beloved and remember it together with a root beer float and two straws. Holding hands, side by side.  Or go for a drive and listen to a favorite album: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynne...   And when you are done, thank the Lord for your love, because it too is a gift. A gift you were given to share. A reflection of His own... His overflowing love for all of us.  And I am so grateful it is. 

Happy Birthday Linus.

  

She is the Book of God's Wisdom--the feminine generosity of God's love

“She is the book of God’s commandments…”

--Baruch 4:1

She is.  In Hebrew literature, wisdom is depicted as feminine, referred to as “she.” And the first question I always stumble over is: why? Why would a patriarchal society depict this essential quality as feminine? There are those who argue that it is simply a figure of speech, like calling a car or a ship “she.” But, throughout much of the wisdom literature she is not only referred to with a feminine pronoun, but also with feminine traits, feminine attributes. As far as I can tell from my brief research, there isn’t an answer, but only speculation. But, for me the question itself seems so much more important:  Why? What did this patriarchal society see in the feminie that conformed to their archetype of wisdom?  Was it simply that they had seen too many men behave like fools? Too many men, kings, judges, priests, rabbis, merchants and even shepherds had made it utterly clear that wisdom wasn’t something that came easily to men?

I don’t know. But, in my own foolishness, I like to think about it.

And speaking of foolishness, here is a brief reflection on this passage.  First, Baruch is one of the Deuterocanonical books in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, but not a part of the canon in Protestant or Jewish scripture. It is a prophetic work attributed to Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch (app. 580 BC), though some scholars think it was actually written by an anonymous author in the first century. 

Now, back to that She who is the book of God’s commandments. This phrase comes near the end of a lengthy passage on the foolishness of Israel.  In ironic and sometimes bitter terms, the author dwells on Israel’s rejection of wisdom, in fact her almost complete ignorance of her ways.  “Nothing has been heard of her in Canaan, nothing has been seen of her in Teman…” (3:22) and no one seems to know her path.  The prophet tells the people, look around! You want to know why you were conquered and dragged off to Babylon?  Because you have “forsaken the fountain of wisdom!” And what is that fountain? The book of God’s commandments! The Word of God. The Law!  Israel is suffering in exile because she rejected the Law.  And –as we see time and again in the books of the prophets—to reject the Law of God is to choose exile; it is the path of foolishness.  God’s law is love, mercy, justice; to reject it is to dwell in anxiety and fear and isolation. A permanent state of pandemic, if you will!

So, how do we return from exile?  How do we find Wisdom? Open the book! She is the book of God’s commandments.  For us, today, we look at our Bibles and we might wonder, who can read all that? And where do you start?  For me, it was page 1; Genesis 1. But, for some, it might be easier to start with a psalm (open your Bible right at the middle and you will probably find yourself in the Psalms).  Or maybe you want to read one of the Gospels first. Mark is the shortest.  But, no matter what—open your Bible; just open the book. She is there; in fact, she is the book. She dwells there in the revelation of God’s loving presence; a wisdom beyond any you could imagine.

Lost in my Covid anxieties and distracted by movie making, I missed a few book of the Bible as I was reading my way through the prophets. I want to go back and pick up a few of these as I go. This is the first of one of those looks back.

I think one of the things God’s word teaches us, is to stop being so distracted. Be attentive, be present to the moment.  As Christ reminds us in Matthew, don’t worry about tomorrow. There is enough of life today, if only you will live it. 

This morning, a man and his wife were walking past as I sat on the porch. I waved, and they waved back. And then I noticed them pausing, and overheard him telling her,

“He’s that guy! The one who walks and reads at the same time.”

So, I got up and walked over to say hello.  As I came up, the man asked me,

“What do you have there?”

And I looked down to see I was still holding a couple of pages of poetry from a friend. I had been lingering over them as I sipped my coffee. As I started to tell them what it was, I heard his wife exclaim:

“Oh Lord, he loves poetry! You should see the shelves of books he’s got!”

And suddenly, on a Sunday morning, here I was standing at the curb talking with an almost stranger about something we both hold so very dear.  And I wondered: Does this happen to anyone else? I love this life. I love the way the squirrels leap about my lawn. I love the way the sunlight looks on the green of the leaves. I love the sudden comforting breeze on a July afternoon. And I love the way strangers become friends. 

Less than an hour later, this couple drove up in front of our house and the man got out of his can and handed me a book from his shelf, some poetry he loves and wanted to share. 

And that seemed to me a revelation of its own.  We don’t hoard or hide the things we truly love. We share them. Maybe that is how God feels about His law. In fact, maybe that is the heart of His law: the golden rule, so to speak.  Be generous. Is that what it means to be wise? That beautiful generosity of self-giving? Kind of like a mother's love?  In my foolishness, that’s another one of those things that I wonder about.