“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the
master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave
like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how
much more will they malign those of his household!
“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that
will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I
say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered,
proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in
hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them
will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head
are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many
sparrows.
“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I
also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before
others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man
against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own
household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and
whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever
does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find
it.
***
I have got to tell you, Baker City
is an interesting place. A neighbor was adamantly knocking on my door the other
day and offered to spread Round Up all over the front lawn. “It’ll be good,” he
said, “because it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and it will kill all your
dandelions.” Now, as much as I dislike that dandelions begin to take over, the
idea of all the killing dandelions, with their happy little yellow asters and
delicate wishing seeds, seems as drastic and diabolical as setting a swing-set
on fire because its located in a business park, my lawn is not that serious,
nor am I afraid of an acyopolyse of dandelions. For my book club I had been
reading, Silent Spring, published in 1962 and it “documented the detrimental
effects on the environment of large scale indiscriminate use of pesticides,”
Wikipedia. Would covering the lawn in Round Up, make the earthworms in my lawn
dry and shrivel up like snake skin? I wasn’t sure and it seemed a big decision
to make so quickly. So I said the church and I were going to call the lawn care
guy, who just does the patches which need treatment, rather than spraying the
whole lawn, like the book suggests. It seemed like rational moderation, of
which I am a fan.
I asked the neighbor, how his health was, which he had
mentioned, and then he told me about that, and listed his travels around the
world in the military, and said I should read the book he just finished, and
then he made one of those comments, where I wonder if old men tell other old
people or do they just say it to younger people when they want to pretend to be
old and wise but end up sounding narrow minded and pejorative. It usually
starts out with some comment about how the country, or the church, or the whole
world, or young people these days, or teenagers, or kids, or immigrants, or
this town, or our schools, or the Forest Service, or ranchers, or the
government, or good ol' boys, or whatever - is ruined, and its about then that
I discount whatever else they are going to say, because they have discounted an
entire country, or planet, or age, or race, or place, or gender, or
institution. He said he wrote his book because people don’t know the real
history of the United States and I nodded because I agree, we have not written
and taught the history of the oppressed, for instance, like how we have this
big grand Oregon Trail Interpretive Center that looks down on the Chinese Cemetery
which is over grown and only stumbled upon. But this wasn’t what my neighbor
was talking about, he then mentioned the New World Order which is a conspiracy
theory that suggests that politicians and the elite are secretly conspiring for
a totalitarian world government. It comes out of an Alt. Right militaristic and
Fundamentalist Christian world view that is concerned with the end-times and
evil overcoming the world. I sadly wondered how many hours this man spent
searching the bowels of the internet and listening to people pontificate on the
radio, both without understanding about primary sources and fact checking. He
went on for awhile and I saw the anger and it’s underlying fear rise in him,
and when he took a breath for moment, I said to my neighbor, “That’s got to be
a hard world to live in, ever fearful when it’s so beautiful outside.” It was
like to him the whole world was my dandelion patch and he couldn’t see the
happiness in little yellow flowers but instead proclaimed them weeds all
deserving eradication. This isn’t a Christian world view. Nothing fear based
is.
The scripture says,
“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that
will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I
say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered,
proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
I suppose my neighbor believes he was uncovering what he hears
in the dark and telling it in the light. Likewise, I believe the author of
Silent Spring is doing the same. Both may be true, but I question anything that
uses fear as an agenda because fear is not the God I believe in. Fear is that
which can destroy both body and soul in hell when outside there are blue skies,
fear is that which robs us of sleep, and of peace, and of progress. It
circumvents courage, and feeds on shadows. I much prefer to believe that the
ruler of the world is not a bunch of powerful bazillioneraires gathering around
a table in some secret meeting room, but instead is a God who shows up in the
light of day and over and over tells the common people, “Do not be
afraid.”
God has told me not to be afraid. In seminary, I had a
horrible thing happen to me, the likes of which I have, for the most part,
healed from, so much so that saying it in the light is easy now and I worry
more about you hearing than I saying it. You see, there was a time that fear
held me fast. When I was in Seminary, I was sexually assaulted (taken
advantage of) by a fellow classmate and when I came forward I was
victim-blamed by much of the school administration. I hid in my room, I dropped
two classes, I shook every time I saw a black SUV, and I didn't know the few
who I could trust and quickly learned whom I couldn’t. So because I was so
alone, that is when I decided to garden. I planted Cosmos by scattering seeds
willy-nilly all over the dirt. I’d never planted anything before, and doubted
they would grow much like I doubted I would heal. Yet, in that Spring I began
to see tiny green sprouts emerging from the ground, which then opened up into
little feathery leaved stalks, and finally became a cacophony of pink and white
and fuchsia whimsical flowers, they were some of the happiest things I’d seen
and I realized that I was like them, that exposed to the light I too was now
healing. This is the God I believe in. I believe in this God of light. Years
later classmates and teachers have apologized for being afraid to help me bring
what happened in the darkness to light. Yet, they have said because of my
sharing they have been better pastors and teachers to people in the same
position. My only regret is not shouting it from the rooftops. Because what I
learned is that we have a God of light, a God who says do not be afraid. Do not
be afraid, because all these dark fears are diminished when brought into the
light of God. Even the worst of them become like whisky cosmos in the garden or
like little yellow dandelions on the lawn.
So whatever it is that keeps you up at night, shout it out,
whatever it is that hides the dark parts of your worry, bring it to light. Have
no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and
nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell
in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not
fear. We have a God of light.
