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The Second Sunday before Lent
7th February 2010

The Fear of Fear

Franklin D. Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1933 to his death in 1945. When he was nominated, America was in the grip of depression and Roosevelt, accepting the presidential nomination in 1932, said "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people". In his inaugural address he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". In that situation, with so much going wrong, it was easy to believe that nothing would ever come right and that any statement like New Deal was doomed to fail. Roosevelt had to believe in it himself against all the odds and he had to make it possible for those around him, from his senators to the jobless man in the queue for the soup run, to the family camping out in the dust bowl we have seen in those dreadful, familiar pictures; he had to make it possible for them to believe as well.

The narrative of the stilling of the storm is also about the defeat of fear. But are we meant to take it that the disciples were being very foolish in giving way to fear and that Jesus is rebuking them for that? It might well have been that their panic prevented them from using their skills to keep the boat afloat. But on the other hand, was not their fear very real? If you have stood in the queue of the flume at Alton Towers or somewhere like that and watched the little boats inch their way up the slope and heard the occupants scream as they go over the top you know that although the boat seems to drop vertically, it never capsizes; it always lands safely albeit with a great splash and everyone gets out laughing - laughing at their fear. The experience on Galilee was not like that. It was not a theme park thrill, it was real; there was real danger and, even if the disciples had kept calm, it still could have been disastrous.

Fear therefore is not wrong, it is natural. If we feel fear, we feel it inspite of ourselves and it cannot be laughed off until the danger has passed. For most of us our fears concern those whom we love most. Some people in some communities face real danger. Should we dismiss their fears, should we say, "Have faith". No. Nor was Jesus dismissing the proper and natural fear of those fishermen who were at that moment facing the real possibility of drowning.

I think the words, "Where is your faith"? are not a rebuke. I think they are words spoken at exactly the right time in the right context, when fear is only just ebbing away and the effects of it are still present. Just as Jesus spoke to ignorance, self-righteousness, lack of compassion, to sickness and moral confusion, so here he speaks to fear and in the face of fear he offers faith; to the power of fear he offers the challenge of faith. When everything else is gone or when the things around us cannot address our fear he gives us faith. Now as I say that I am reminded of the remarkable man in another Gospel reading who brought his epileptic son, demon possessed in the understanding of the day, before Jesus and asked him to heal him. Jesus says have faith and he replies, "I have faith, help me where faith falls short". Faith takes many forms; it isn't only that rush of confidence and warmth and strength in God, it can be just a real hanging in, a single thread that holds us from falling into the abyss. Faith conquers fear simply by standing up beside it and in the midst of it.

Present Roosevelt was also giving his people a word of faith. He gave them hope by enabling them to understand the power of fear to paralyse any hope that things might ever get better; with understanding came hope, and so the great machinery of that country whirred back into life and moved on. He was just a man, but they believed in him and what he said.

One of the secrets of overcoming fear is to identify fear: so many fears are hidden and from their hiding place they exert power and control. We need to address those fears in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, in our communities. And we have something with which to address them, the power of faith in a God of love, and the knowledge that Christ will help us where faith falls short.

Amen

© PCC St Martin's and St Paul's Canterbury 2008 - 2010