There is no fear in
love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and
whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18 ESV
Fear is a natural element of the human condition.
It is easy to utter the words “fear not” -- much more challenging to
live out of an ethos that actually does it.
In Exodus the Israelites construct a Golden Calf to worship rather than
this God of Liberation.
Like the Wilderness Wandering Israelites, we are quick to turn fear
into our own Golden Calf, a Golden Calf that
its flawed priests point towards and encourage us to “worship and honor the God
of Fear, because that God feeds a natural element of your humanness.”
It is after all, a natural element of the human condition, and as a
natural element, wants to be fed.
The Star Wars fictional character Yoda sees fear as leading to darkness
in our souls: “Fear is the path to the dark
side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” Jedi Master Yoda doesn’t say “a path” he says “the path.” That is absolute: “the path.”
Jedi Master Dietrich Bonhoeffer is equally absolute calling fear “the
archenemy itself … crouch[ing] in people’s hearts.” Again, the article is definite: the.
I grew up in a Christian denomination that, I felt, operated from fear. Too often the theology was fire and brimstone,
turn or burn. The overarching approach
was often to use fear to rally us
away from the ‘dark side.’ I remember far
fewer sermons on the idea of love being a superior or at least an equal,
countervailing, force against fear.
Instead of trying to remind us of the force of perfect love, and
bringing us to that, fear of hell or damnation was very often the key lens by
which we were led to see the force of Jesus.
Much of what drew me to Wesley and the People Called Methodists is the
idea of love made visible in Jesus.
In the First Letter of John, we see this idea of love being made
visible in Jesus in striving towards perfection in love. This leads to our fears, our natural human
condition, being cast out.
Cast out is the same phrase used to describe overcoming demonic
possessions. Think about that for a
second.
If fear is ‘The path to the
dark side” and “The archenemy”, perfection
in love is “The” force that leads us away
from fear and towards wholeness.
“Peace is what I leave
with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world
does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” John 14:27
Selah, Dennis
