Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!
Isaiah 36:1-3, 13-20; 37:107
Pentecost 23a
Consecration Sunday
November 16, 2014
Pentecost 23a
Consecration Sunday
November 16, 2014
Rev. John M. Caldwell, PhD
First United Methodist Church
Decorah, IA
First United Methodist Church
Decorah, IA
We are the richest
and most powerful people on the planet, perhaps even in history. Our economy has dominated the world for
nearly sixty years and our military is stronger than any conceivable
combination of enemies. And we are
afraid.
We are afraid of
terrorists. We willingly submit to
indignities when we travel by air because we are afraid and because we think
that having a security agent paw through our belongings and gaze at the outline
of our bodies under clothes via low-level x-rays will make us safer. We allow the government to track our phone
calls and our emails on the off chance that this intrusion into our privacy will
reveal some undetected network of terrorists.
We are afraid of
strange diseases like Ebola. We quiver
at descriptions of this disease of poverty, so much so that some of us demand
quarantines for health workers, travel embargos from the whole continent of
Africa, and a “sealed” border with Mexico.
We’ll feel safe if we hide behind our ten-foot walls and peer out at the
rest of the world through the razor wire.
We are afraid of
children fleeing from horrible conditions of violence and poverty who hope
against hope that we mean the words on the plaque at the foot of the Statue of
Liberty. We round them up, herd them
into detention centers, deny them their rights under our own laws, and ship
them back as quickly as we can. We’ll
feel safer if we can postpone the coming day when most Americans will not be
non-Hispanic whites.
We are often afraid
of the wrong things. We react with near
hysteria when a heroic doctor who has been fighting tooth and nail to stem the
tide of Ebola in West Africa arrives in the United States with the
disease. When others arrive symptom-free
from the same work some call for their quarantine. But Ebola is not easy to catch and, given
modern treatment facilities, the survival rate is very high. The death toll from Ebola in the United
States so far has been: one. And there
are currently no active cases.
If you want
something fear, try influenza. It’s hard
to know exactly how many die from this disease each year. According to the CDC nearly 54,000 died from
influenza and/or pneumonia in 2011.[1]
It would be reasonable to be afraid of the flu, even to the point of
getting vaccinated every year and learning to wash our hands more often.
Or how about being
afraid of suicide, if not for ourselves, at least for the people around
us? Over 39,000 died intentionally at
their own hands in 2011.[2]
I’ll wager that the vast majority of those died from depression, a
disease that is treatable.
We’re afraid of
terrorists, so we’ve sent our armed forces around the globe to engage them
directly and we fire missiles at them from drones. We mourn the cost in American lives and we
count that as a measure of dangerous our enemies are. But since September 11, 2001, more women have
died at the hands of husbands, boyfriends or “ex’s” than service members at the
hands of enemies.[3], [4]
We are afraid, often
of the wrong things. We’re easy to
scare. When we’re scared the primitive
part of our brain takes over, the part of our brain that we have in common with
lizards and birds. We move into “fight,
flight, or freeze” mode. We’re no longer
able to see the big picture or think in a complex way. When we’re scared, we get bird-brained.
It’s easy to sell
things to bird-brained people. “Your
home is at risk for a burglary; buy a home security system.” “The brand new appliance we just sold you
could break down at any moment; buy an extended warranty.” “The world is full of people who have guns
and want to hurt you; buy a gun.” “If
Republicans win, it will mean the end of life as we know it; vote Democrat.” “If Democrats win, it will mean the end of life
as we know it; vote Republican.”
But there are also
real dangers. There are times when fear
is reasonable and in our reading for today, Judah was going through one of
those times.
A thing about life
in the little countries at the eastern end of the Mediterranean—like Judah—was
that they lived between the ancient superpowers. To their south and west was Egypt along the
Nile River. To Judah’s north and east
were the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where a series of empires rose and fell: the
Sumerians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. In Isaiah’s day the Assyrian Empire was
moving, conquering Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, one after the other.
Then Assyria came to
Judah, swallowing its towns and villages until there was only Jerusalem
left. The mightiest army in the western
world showed up at the gates. Here is
how the story reads in Isaiah:
36:1 Assyria’s King
Sennacherib marched against all of Judah’s fortified cities and captured them
in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. 2 Assyria’s
king sent his field commander from Lachish, together with a large army, to King
Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the water channel of the Upper Pool, which
is on the road to the field where clothes are washed. 3 Hilkiah’s
son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and
Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them.
13 Then the
field commander stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice: “Listen
to the message of the great king, Assyria’s king. 14 The
king says this: Don’t let Hezekiah lie to you. He won’t be able to rescue you.
15 Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust
the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will
certainly rescue us. This city won’t be handed over to Assyria’s king.’
16 “Don’t
listen to Hezekiah, because this is what Assyria’s king says: Surrender to me
and come out. Then each of you will eat from your own vine and fig tree and
drink water from your own well 17 until
I come to take you to a land just like your land. It will be a land of grain
and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Don’t
let Hezekiah fool you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue
us.’ Did any of the other gods of the nations save their lands from the power
of Assyria’s king? 19 Where are the
gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue
Samaria from my power? 20 Which one of
the gods from those countries has rescued their land from my power? Will the Lord save Jerusalem from my power?”
The Judeans set out
to observe the diplomatic niceties. Judah
sent the palace administrator, the royal secretary and a scribe. Sennacherib’s field commander spoke for the
Assyrians. This meeting was supposed to
be a formal one, but Sennacherib’s man broke the rules right away by talking
past Judah’s representatives to the anxious and fearful residents of Jerusalem
itself. Not only that, but he did it in
Hebrew, so that there would be no chance to soften his words in
translation.
The Assyrian laid
out two choices. The first was the old
dream of the good life: They would be resettled in a new place where each would
eat from their own vine and fig tree and drink from their own well. The second choice was to resist. In that case they would be killed. All of them.
They should consider carefully and not be deceived by the king or his
priests. The gods of Assyria were
stronger than all other gods and they gave victory to their armies. No gods had been able to defend a city
against Assyria and Yahweh would not be able to defend Jerusalem.
Everyone in
Jerusalem was scared. Fear crept through
the streets and into every home, from the smallest hovel to the royal palace
itself, like a deadly fog. It infected
the king, Hezekiah.
Now Hezekiah wasn’t
a bad king. His security apparatus had
done its homework. They knew Sennacherib
was coming. They knew there was no way
to negotiate. Hezekiah had stoked the defense
department. They had good weapons; they
were well-trained; they were ready for almost anything. But they weren’t ready for this. There were enemy soldiers as far as the eye
could see. The Assyrians had only to wait
for hunger to do its work. Then it would
be a simple matter to overrun the defenses and Jerusalem would be theirs.
37:1 When
King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning
clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 He sent Eliakim the
palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the
prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. They were all wearing mourning clothes. 3 They
said to him, “Hezekiah says this: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and
humiliation. It’s as if children are ready to be born, but there’s no strength
to see it through. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God heard all the
words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria’s king. He
insulted the living God! Perhaps he will punish him for the words that the Lord
your God has heard. Offer up a prayer for those few people who still survive.”
5 When
King Hezekiah’s servants got to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them,
“Say this to your master: The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid at the words you
heard, which the officers of Assyria’s king have used to insult me. 7 I’m
about to mislead him, so when he hears a rumor, he’ll go back to his own
country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”
King Hezekiah ripped
his clothes, the sign of mourning. His
leading servants, Eliakim, Shebna, and the senior priests put on mourning
clothes. It was as if the siege were already
over, the city overrun, the people slaughtered, and the Temple left as a pile
of smoking rubble. I’ll give this to
Hezekiah: even in his fear he held the possibility that Yahweh would act, if
only to defend his reputation. Perhaps
Isaiah could tell him if Yahweh would yet come to their aid or whether Hezekiah
had to accept utter defeat.
The people of
Jerusalem were afraid; the king was afraid, the priests and royal servants were
afraid; the army of Judah was afraid. To
all of them, but especially to Hezekiah, Isaiah’s message from Yahweh was this:
“Don’t be afraid!” Appearances were
deceiving. The armies of Assyria would
be recalled. Judah would be spared. Sennacherib himself would be
assassinated.
And so it
happened. A few days later those in
Jerusalem awoke to discover that the army of Assyria had vanished in the night. Sennacherib went home where he was killed by
two of his sons.
To a fearful world,
God says simply, “Don’t be afraid.” All
of our fears, even the real ones, but especially the false fears that our world
is so good at cultivating, all of our fears are unnecessary. Wherever God is fear evaporates. Do not be afraid.
What does this have
to do with Consecration Sunday?
Much.
When we are afraid, we
hold back. We imagine all sorts of
things that can happen. We gather our
resources around us, like Hezekiah stockpiling water and food in expectation of
a siege. We hoard our energy, our time,
and our money. Generosity and fear are
seldom found together.
Now is the time for
us to set aside our fears so that we may be the people God dreams for us to be and
enter whole-heartedly into this life that God has called us to live. Our strength, our thoughts, our affections, and,
yes, even our wallets are summoned. Be
unafraid. Be very unafraid.
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[1] National Center for Health
Statistics, “Final Mortality Data Release, 2011,” (2012). Cited 15 November
2014. Online:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_03.pdf, “Table 10, Number of deaths
from 113 selected causes, Enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile,
drug-induced causes, alcohol-induced causes, and injury by firearms, by age:
United States, 2011”.
[2] National Center for Health
Statistics,
“Final Mortality Data Release, 2011”, Table 10.
