The Diocese of East Tennessee
Sermons

Sermon: "Faith or Fear"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

Hyde Park in London presents some wonderful ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. All kinds of people from the city gather to do outdoor things, at least when the weather is reasonably good.

One of the main attractions in Hyde Park is the Speakers' Corner. People with lessons to share and sermons to preach and complaints to impart gather at that spot. Interested or willing listeners also congregate there. The speakers stand on their soap boxes, and the listeners pay attention - for a while, anyway. And a visitor can gain insight into what issues or concerns exist, at least on that Sunday, for those people, at the Speakers' Corner.

Often the themes of choice are religious in nature, and usually they have to do with the end of time or the end of the world. In fact, in my several visits to that place, among the placards visible, one was always present - "The End is at Hand!" The message from the soapbox conformed to that one implied on the poster. "Shape up, or else!" "Get right with God!" "Do what you're supposed to do, while you can!" Or, "Stop doing what you're not supposed to do, while you can!" And the motivation for such action centers on something very basic for living things: fear.

Now, I must admit that biblical authors do not hold themselves above the use of fear as a motivational tool. They join the long line of parents, teachers, politicians, and most authority figures through the ages who have identified fear as quite an effective inducement to cause others to act - or, not to act. Therefore, I do not deny that biblical examples of the use of fear are quite numerous. Further, the subject of eschatology - the study of the end of time - calls up fearful images within us. We are afraid of that which we do not understand. And the end of time certainly falls into that category!

The book of Daniel presents us with many images involving eschatology. The reading today includes views of the end of time. We read these directions to the author: "You, Daniel, keep the words secret and the book sealed, until the time of the end."

That, my friends, is a pretty fearful image. According to the reading, there exists a plan about the end of the world, and that plan is written in a book. However, the book has been sealed up so that nobody else can know about it. Having access to that book puts somebody in an especially powerful stance, to say the least. Further, such a situation presents everyone else with a circumstance of fear. It is precisely that kind of scenario, which drives the popularity of religious cults and their charismatic, messiah figures.

Then, the Gospel reading offers us that strange symbol that is to precede the end: the desolating sacrilege or, in another translation, "the abomination of desolation." Books have been written about that symbol - what it is, what it represents - and no conclusion has received general acceptance. The symbol draws power from its mystery and from its subsequent capability to cause fear.

From that mysterious symbol all through the Gospel reading, the sense and feeling involve fear. The clues for fear come at us quickly. "Flee to the mountains … don't enter the house … woe to those who are pregnant … there will be suffering … no one would be saved."

The realm of eschatology calls forth the response of fear. And how many preachers - at Speakers' Corner and elsewhere - have used the biblical passages about the end of time to evoke fear in their listeners? Indeed, fear is a basic and effective motivation for human beings.

Fear feeds on the mystery surrounding the question, "What will happen to us, eventually - in the long run - after death?" Ideas like the existence of a locked-away book explaining all this mystery add to the appetite of fear. And then, signs of the end - which some people seem to know about and others do not - these signs release fear's feeding frenzy.

Good church people can get caught up in a Speakers' Corner mentality. They look for - and find - signs of the end in every newspaper and in daily events. But to engage in such behavior is to miss the point of Jesus. Preoccupation with the end of time leads to a life lived in response to fear. Such is not Christ's call to us.

Rather, another motive for Christians dominates the biblical witness. And that motivation is faith. I suggest to you today that our own crises of faith take place precisely at the points of our greatest fears. It has been said before that the opposite of faith is not unbelief, but fear. And I believe our experiences bear out the truth of that observation.

When Jesus calmed the fierce storm at sea, he said to his disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"(Mk 4:40). Jesus tells us that above all else, fear opposes faith … and faith, in turn, opposes fear.

What will happen to us eventually - after death - does present us with a potential subject for great fear. Thus, it is precisely at this point that we must call on faith to confront our fear.

Because we are called to exercise faith and not fear, I want to question our fearful perceptions about eschatology. I want to challenge those preachers who use fear as a vehicle to transmit the Gospel. Indeed, I believe that the vehicle of fear transports us in exactly the wrong direction.

As Christian people, we pray with confidence, "Thy kingdom come." We proclaim with the early Christians, "Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!" And we sing, "Finish, then, thy new creation." We pray, proclaim, and sing in anticipation of the end of time. And we do so in faith, for we believe in the One who will be in charge then. We call that One "Savior."

Thus, as we consider the end of time, our primary expectation centers on the One in whom we trust, not on the signs that cause confusion and fear. Fear attacks faith and attempts to undermine it. Fear focuses on apparent signs of unknown mysteries. Fear follows false Christs and false prophets who try to lead astray the faithful. However, the One in whom we trust calls us to faith - both now and forever. Our faith points us toward Jesus, who holds in his faithful hands our eternity.