Be Not Afraid -- Message for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Be Not Afraid

I uploaded this Sunday message to YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/3giLOyeQ1Ck   The message is about 25 minutes. Or you can read the edited print version below. I am praying for us all during this troubling time.

Be Not Afraid: Fourth Sunday of Lent Message on this 4th Sunday of Lent in the midst of the coronavirus. youtu.be

---------------

Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Who could have known only a month ago, on Ash Wednesday as we began this 40 day journey toward Resurrection Sunday – who could have known we would as a nation – indeed, as a global community, be where we are today, on Sunday, March 22?

Fear of an invisible enemy has enveloped entire nations – an enemy that threatens our health, even our lives and the lives of those we love. Fear of that enemy has altered our lifestyles and our finance to a degree that no one would not have thought possible only a month ago.

As I prepared for this message, I sensed a nudge from the Holy Spirit to look at the standard liturgical readings for today. Those who have listened to or read my Sunday messages in the past know I don’t typically use any liturgical reading for my sermon texts. But this time is different.

Liturgical churches establish their Sunday and weekday readings years in advance. My church, the Catholic Church – set these following readings for this fourth Sunday of Lent. The relevance of these texts – chosen years ago – the relevance of these texts to the current pandemic caught my attention.

The Old Testament reading is from First Samuel 16. The context tells us God instructed Samuel the prophet to go to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse, to anoint one of his sons as king. When Samuel entered Jesse’s house and saw Eliab, Jesse’s handsome oldest son, Samuel thought to himself, ‘Surely this is the one God has chosen to lead Israel.”

But God corrected the prophet with these words: “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Samuel, like so many of us, made a knee-jerk decision based on what he saw with his natural senses. We can't easily escape what our natural senses tell us. Turn on the radio or television news for thirty seconds and you’ll get enough information about the current global health crisis to scare you into hiding under your beds.

But God wants to remind us in this passage from 1 Samuel – what WE see is not all there is to know. There are things moving through the spiritual realm that are not perceivable with our five senses.

Let me remind you of the story in Second Kings 6 of Elisha and his servant. They were in the city of Dothan in Israel when the Syrian king sent his army to capture the prophet. In the morning light, Elisha’s servant looked out the window and panicked. The hills surrounding Dothan glistened with the armament of thousands of soldiers and chariots awaiting orders to capture the prophet.

“Master! What shall we do?”

Do you remember Elisha’s response? “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha asked the Lord to open the eyes of his servant, and we beheld the angelic hosts and God’s chariots of fire all around them.

You and I who belong to God through Jesus Christ should not see this coronavirus pandemic as non-believers see it. That’s what God said to his prophet Samuel. Don’t look at things according to appearances. In other words, don’t focus your attention on the television and radio and internet about the virus surrounding the globe. If you’re a Christian, be CERTAIN of this: Greater is He who is WITH you and IN you, than that which is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

Remember Peter and the boat. The apostle stepped out onto the waves with his eyes fixed on the Jesus. But at the last moment he must have taken his eyes off the Lord and stared at the waves. And he sank like a rock. Peter ALMOST made it all the way to Jesus before he took his eyes off the prize.

Please listen, my brothers and sisters: As the winds howl and waves of fear come near to swamping your boat, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the source of our faith and the one who perfects our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Keep pressing forward toward the Master and stop looking at the waves. Satan wants us to fear – because fear turns our eyes from Jesus, and when that happens, we sink.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound judgement (2 Tim 1:7). God is absolutely and unalterably sovereign over life and death, sickness and health, storms and waves – and nothing, nothing can come into your life or mine without God – the God who loves each of His children as much as He loves His son, Jesus [John 17:23] – nothing comes into our lives without His expressed permission. That’s why God gives us a spirit of sound judgement. When people panic, they usually make poor decisions.

Some say the Bible tells us 365 times to “Fear not” or “Be not afraid.” After some research I learned the Scripture uses those phrases only about 100 times. However, that number of 100 does not take into account the times Scripture encourages us to ‘trust God,’ and to put our ‘hope and confidence in God.’ Those phrases, along with ‘Do not fear’ surely brings those words of God’s encouragement to us hundreds and hundreds of times.

Are we feeding our fear with a steady diet of newscasts? Or are we feeding our FAITH with a steady diet of God’s word and faith-strengthening books and Bible-based podcasts and other internet sources? Do we think it was for no purpose the Holy Spirit gave us these words through Paul’s pen:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if anything is excellent, and if anything is praiseworthy, think about these things. The things that you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: Keep doing these things. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

May God help us to stop looking at things as non-believes look at them. May He help us to look at things as HE sees them.

Which brings us to the next liturgical reading for today: Psalm 23. What an appropriate reading God designed YEARS ago for this fourth Sunday of Lent in 2020. In the midst of a global pandemic:

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me . . . . Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

No one has the right or the authority to promise Christians will not get sick, or even die from this plague. You and I are human, and we are each subject to the same sicknesses and diseases, the same heart attacks and cancers, and everything else that has afflicted humanity since Adam and Ever brought sin into God’s perfect creation.

But I CAN promise you this, because God promises it: If you’re a child of God through faith in Christ’s atonement for your sins, and you walk in obedience to Him – though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not need to fear, for God is with us. Emmanuel is with us. Always.

He is with us in our health and in our sickness, in our joys and in our despairs. And absolutely it is always true, goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, and we WILL dwell in the house of the lord forever.

Does this mean we can act imprudently, or recklessly? Should we live as if there is no danger of contracting the coronavirus? Of course not. Remember when the devil told to Jesus to throw Himself off the Temple roof because “God will protect you,” Jesus answered, “It is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

In the 16th century, when Martin Luther was dealing with The Black Death plague, he wrote to his friend, John Hess, words that can help inform us today as we deal with the virus among us:

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.

“If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me – and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. “If my neighbor needs me, however. I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God."

We now come to the New Testament liturgical reading for today. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:8, “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.”

The Gospel text is from John chapter nine in which Jesus healed the man born blind. But there is another text that can be read prior to the ninth chapter of John. It’s John 8:12, which reads: “Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

I want to combine the text in Ephesians wherein Paul admonishes us to walk as children of light and what Jesus said in John chapter eight: I am the Light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Those of us who follow Christ have the incredible privilege to be lights of hope and exhortation and yes, even warning to a world stumbling in spiritual darkness. The nations who’ve turned from God – including America – see lots of darkness. Fear has blinded their eyes. And what is it they cannot see?

Let me suggest this answer: They cannot see the Lord calling all of us to repentance – personal repentance for our rebellions against God’s commandments, and national repentance for our brazenly soul-numbing sins of abortion, fornication, adultery and all sorts of sexual perversions.

We are guilty of murders and slanders and lies and cheating and drunkenness and idolatries of all sorts. And the root of it all might be traced to a common and near-global blasphemy against God Himself and those who love Him and who tell others of His glory and grace and offer for forgiveness to those who obey Him.

No one can read the Bible with any sense of humility and not recognize God’s patience is not without limit. He has used war and famine and pestilence and earthquakes time and time again to judge and to discipline nations and even – perhaps especially – those that used to follow God.

Yes, you and I run the serious risk of vicious mockery from others when we suggest this current pandemic might be of God’s doing. Well, so be it. God’s spokespeople rarely find warm acceptance from non-believers. But that does not nullify our responsibility to tell others the truth.

Finally, let me add this: Christians like to quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 as if by naming it and claiming it God is obligated to heal our land. But let’s look at that verse in context with the one before it:

"If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

I hope you caught every word of those two verses. If God sends pestilence, and if His people humble themselves, and turn from their wicked ways . . . THEN He will hear . . . and He will heal.

God will do His part, but He expects us to do ours. And ours is to confess and turn from our evil ways.

So, let’s wrap this up with a quick review of today’s message:

1. Don’t look at the current health crisis with the eyes of flesh. Look at it with the eyes of faith – faith in the Almighty and Sovereign God who will use this plague for His glory and the salvation of those who need this wake-up call to repentance and conversion.

2. We must never test God by acting imprudently in the face of this health crisis. And if we become infected, God has promised to walk with us, even through the valley of the shadow of death.

3. Christian, you are a child of Light. Walk as a child of Light. With your faith in Christ alone, ask the Holy Spirit to point others to the Light of the world who alone takes away our sins and cause us to walk without stumbling.

I conclude now with this quote from St. Padre Pio: “Remember . . . the words of the Divine Master to His apostles, which He [also] directs to us today: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Yes . . . . do not let your heart be in turmoil in the hour of trial, because Jesus has promised His assistance to whoever follows Him.”