Ditch Fear. Seed hope.
Fear, anxiety, and stress are constricting stomachs and breaths, instigating fights between Christian friends, and twisting our dreams, if they let us sleep at all.
In 2016, many of us felt that a national election couldn’t have been designed to create more tension.
In 2020 we learned we had been wrong. Tension during that election was even higher.
And now, it’s 2024, just over a week from the election as I write this, and the anxiety feels higher still.
My apprehension is so high, I have to be careful about the amount of election news I let myself be exposed to. Otherwise, my stomach gets twisted in so many knots I literally can’t eat.
I know I’m not alone.
Everywhere I turn, I hear from clergy how anxious they and their congregations are.
Our stress and anxiety are signs of fear.
We fear enemies who seem intent of robbing us of our freedom, health, safety, livelihoods, and climate.
But while we are living in fear, is God?
Fear is faith in our enemy
Whatever God is doing with all eternity at God’s disposal, living in fear doesn’t seem to be on God’s personal checklist.
Even when God is afraid for us and the decisions we make that will turn us away from God and each other, God is not living constrained by fear.
Fear keeps us stuck in the present reality, constricted and paralyzed by the very thing God is setting about to redeem. Fear distracts us from watching and waiting for the inbreaking of God’s promises into the world. Fear turns our eyes away from the coming bridegroom, mesmerized by the horrors of a realm that does not know God.
Fear then, may be seen as faith in your enemy.
—Beatice Bruteau, "Prayer: Insight and Manifestation" (Contemplative Review, Fall, 1983)
Fear diverts our attention and focuses our eyes on the nails in Jesus’s hands, the Roman soldiers who pounded them through flesh, and Pontius Pilate who gave the order.
It’s human nature to focus on the death and chaos. That attunement is simply part of our survival mechanism, constantly scanning for danger.
But it’s one thing to take a glance.
And another to stare.
The longer we gaze, the more power we give our fear, and the more faith we place in the forces intent on destruction.
Due to the sheer repetition of circling our gaze between nails, soldiers, and oppressor, our fear mushrooms until we believe that death is stronger than God.
In the meantime, our faith shrinks. We forget that God is never shrunken but expansive, never vindictive but forgiving, and never shaming but gracious.
Jesus himself is always there to remind us, of course, but there is another figure we can look to as a guide in restoring our faith in God alone: Mary Magdalene.
“I Have seen the lord”
In John’s version of the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene stands alone in front of the empty tomb.
Jesus has vanished. No one else has heard her conversation with him. She alone, in all the world, holds the universe’s most important news.
In the same moment, the men hole up in the Upper Room, terrified and grieving, hiding from the Romans to avoid being the next hanged, certain that Jesus has lost and death has won.
The men’s full faith is placed in the enemy who has proven beyond doubt that its might has succeeded God’s.
What happens if Mary Magdalene, a woman without voice, power, or safety—even knowing the Good News—places her faith in the enemy of fear, too?
She can give into a fear that her one voice is singular and too small to matter—and say nothing.
She can give into a fear that her joy will be reframed as hysterical—and stand still.
She can give into a fear that she won’t be believed—and push the truth deep inside her body to be ignored and forgotten.
But she doesn’t.
She places her faith in God alone.
She carries the message of hope to her fellow disciples.
Death doesn’t win after all: “I have seen the Lord.”
Seeding Hope
Asking ourselves and our congregations where we place our faith is essential.
Do we place our faith in enemies of love, mercy, and grace, as if they can beat God?
Do we place our faith in enemies of healing, forgiveness, and inclusion, as if they can beat Jesus?
Do we place our faith in enemies of community, justice, and dignity, as if they can beat the Spirit?
Helping the congregation to remember who they are and to re-place their faith in Jesus is the most powerful message of hope we can preach.
In The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything, Bob Johansen writes, "Hope will be the key variable. Hope has always been important, but it is likely to be much more difficult to achieve over the next decade....Leaders in the future will be in the seeding hope business” (pp. 137-138).
Like Mary Magdalene, preachers are in the business of seeding hope.
Even when we’re afraid our voices are too singular and small.
Even when we’re afraid we’ll be called hysterical.
Even when we’re afraid we won’t be believed.
Seed hope that life has already—and will continue to—overcome every form of death.
Seed faith in God alone.
Even when you’re afraid.
Wondering what and How you’ll preach the Sunday after the Election?
Join us Live for:
Crafting Your Post-Election Sermon:
How to Preach Good News that Transcends Heightened Emotions
This 3-hour workshop will lead you through a process to more deeply understand and empathize with all your listeners about the emotional impact of the election so you feel prepared to preach on Sunday, November 10th.
By the end, you’ll be equipped to identify the Good News that transcends fear, acknowledges anger, and pierces triumphalism (yours and your listeners’) so we are willing to die to ourselves in order to be raised as the body of Christ—even at great personal cost to safety, identity, or deeply held belief.
Two times available to fit your schedule:
Wednesday, 11/6 (5-8 pm Central)
Thursday, 11/7 (2-5 pm Central)
Includes OPTIONAL “Preach & Appraise” Session: Attend Saturday to receive feedback and encouragement on your sermon draft from peers. Directions will be given so feedback is offered kindly and usefully.
Saturday, 11/9 (10-12 pm Central)