Where to draw the line?
1 John 4: 7-21**
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
April 29, 2018
I’ve heard some folks say of late, “Boy, we sure could use an exorcism about now. Do you do those?” People are tired of, literally worn out from, feeling angry and overwhelmed, but mostly we’ve had it with feeling afraid of what could happen next. If we can’t banish the source of our fear, wouldn’t it be a relief to banish the fear itself?
The following was written by Rev. Julia Seymour at the Lutheran Church of Hope in Anchorage, AK. Hear these strong words, this renouncement of fear.
Phantasm of fear, I renounce you!
I refuse to call you “spirit” for you are not of God.
You work to oppose the creative forces of the Lord in life and resurrection.
Your efforts will not last.
And you know this.
Delusion of fear, I renounce you!
You may talk loudly, boastfully.
You may bring your buddies, death and destruction, as backup to your threats.
You know your days are numbered.
There is no fear in the life to come.
Specter of fear, I renounce you!
Your work of dividing, fomenting, pain-causing…
We will overcome. With God on our side,
You cannot stand.
Perfect Love, the kind that comes from Christ, casts out fear.
Revenant of fear, I renounce you!
Shrivel and die, you impotent thing!
You may plant, but you will not reap.
You may build, but you will not inhabit.
You may fish, but you will not catch.
There is no home for you, no toe hold, no place of belonging.
You are banished to wither and die… fertilizing the soil of hope and joy.
So be it.
In the name of Christ, so say we all.
Powerful words—to draw the line and say to fear, here, this far, no further, you shall come not closer. But where do we draw the line between us and our fear?
It reminded me of a scene from a Star Trek movie—when are you going to see that all truth can be found in Star Trek—when Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise battle against a ruthless cyborg race called the Borg. The Borg take no prisoners; they assimilate all lifeforms into their collective, wiping out whole civilizations. Every time a line is drawn, it is obliterated.
Too many compromises. Too many retreats. In his quest for vengeance against his enemy, Captain Picard seeks to control his fear of the destruction his ship. But Lily reminds him of how anger and fear can waste a human life; that saving the human lives aboard his ship is where the line needs to be drawn. A starship, even one as beloved as the Enterprise, can be replaced.
Sometimes it seems like we think know what love is until we are face to face with our fear. Right up until last week I have been afraid of what could happen between the United States and nuclear-armed North Korea, along with China and Russia, and I am not alone. A line has been drawn across the middle of the Korean peninsula for 65 years and no one has crossed it. Until this past week when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in crossed the Military Demarcation Line in Panmunjom. I know most observers are skeptical as to whether Kim Jong Un is sincere in his declaration for a nuclear-free, unified Korea. I know we’ve been here many times before, when the disablement of nuclear activities has been brokered, only to have inspectors ousted and nuclear tests continued. Let us also not forget the tens of thousands of prisoners enslaved in gulags in Pyongyang.
And yet as I watched the two men shake each other’s hands and embrace, even hold hands as they crossed from north to south, south to north and back again, I have to confess that hope, the most irrational form of love, began to rise within me. We like to think that our fear keeps us shrewd and smart and our optimism in check but it can also shrink our vision and our prayers and what we are willing to give.
We draw the line between our fear and what we love as far as we can. But when we do that, we’ve drawn the line with fear and we’ve escaped nothing. So we must draw the line with love, with love that casts out fear. Lines drawn with love mean healthy boundaries and safe places for everyone. And that love begins with us. We love because God first loved us. We can only love others as much as we love ourselves. We can only be bold and fierce in our love as we are bold and fierce to love and accept and forgive ourselves.
Neither our unknown neighbor nor our enemy needs our fear. They already have it. What they do not have is our love. We cannot love if we have no love to give. Someone reminded me just yesterday, we don’t need love. We are the love. Casting out our fear doesn’t have to be strongly worded any more than that. We don’t need love. We are the love. The love that was in Jesus is in us. And the Greek word for perfect means complete, as in whole. As in wholehearted. We won’t love perfectly. Love is pretty messy. Jesus knew that. But we can still love with our whole hearts.
"When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I'm meant to be, this is me
Look out 'cause here I come
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum
I'm not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me
"And I know that I deserve your love
There is nothing that I’m not worthy of
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me"
Imagine a church, a community of fearless, fiercely loving people. Wholehearted. That’s force to be reckoned with. Amen.
**We strive use inclusive language at the New Ark. The following is 1 John 4: 7-21 from The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation. References to gender have been changed, from "sisters and brothers" to "friends and neighbors".
Beloved,
let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten of God
and has knowledge of God.
Those who do not love know nothing of God, for God is love.
God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way:
for sending the Only Begotten into the world,
that we might have faith through the Anointed One.
Love, then, consists in this:
not that we have loved God,
but that God has loved us
and has sent the Only Begotten
to be an offering for our sins.
Beloved,
if God has loved us so,
we must have the same love for one another.
No one has ever seen God;
yet if we love one another,
God dwells in us,
and God's love is brought to perfection in us.
The way we know that we remain in God and God in us
is that we have been given the Spirit.
We have seen for ourselves and can testify
that God has sent the Only Begotten as Savior of the world.
When any acknowledge that Jesus is the Only Begotten
God dwells in them
and they in God.
We have come to know and to believe
in the love God has for us.
God is love,
and those who abide in love
abide in God,
and God in them.
Love will come to perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear–because our relation to this world is just like Christ's. There is no fear in love, for perfect love drives out fear. To fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.
We love because God first loved us. If you say you love God but hate your friend or neighbor, you are a liar. For you cannot love God, whom you have not seen, if you hate your neighbor, whom you have seen. If we love God, we should love our friends and neighbors as well; we have this commandment from God.
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
April 29, 2018
The following was written by Rev. Julia Seymour at the Lutheran Church of Hope in Anchorage, AK. Hear these strong words, this renouncement of fear.
Phantasm of fear, I renounce you!
I refuse to call you “spirit” for you are not of God.
You work to oppose the creative forces of the Lord in life and resurrection.
Your efforts will not last.
And you know this.
Delusion of fear, I renounce you!
You may talk loudly, boastfully.
You may bring your buddies, death and destruction, as backup to your threats.
You know your days are numbered.
There is no fear in the life to come.
Specter of fear, I renounce you!
Your work of dividing, fomenting, pain-causing…
We will overcome. With God on our side,
You cannot stand.
Perfect Love, the kind that comes from Christ, casts out fear.
Revenant of fear, I renounce you!
Shrivel and die, you impotent thing!
You may plant, but you will not reap.
You may build, but you will not inhabit.
You may fish, but you will not catch.
There is no home for you, no toe hold, no place of belonging.
You are banished to wither and die… fertilizing the soil of hope and joy.
So be it.
In the name of Christ, so say we all.
Powerful words—to draw the line and say to fear, here, this far, no further, you shall come not closer. But where do we draw the line between us and our fear?
It reminded me of a scene from a Star Trek movie—when are you going to see that all truth can be found in Star Trek—when Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise battle against a ruthless cyborg race called the Borg. The Borg take no prisoners; they assimilate all lifeforms into their collective, wiping out whole civilizations. Every time a line is drawn, it is obliterated.
Too many compromises. Too many retreats. In his quest for vengeance against his enemy, Captain Picard seeks to control his fear of the destruction his ship. But Lily reminds him of how anger and fear can waste a human life; that saving the human lives aboard his ship is where the line needs to be drawn. A starship, even one as beloved as the Enterprise, can be replaced.
And yet as I watched the two men shake each other’s hands and embrace, even hold hands as they crossed from north to south, south to north and back again, I have to confess that hope, the most irrational form of love, began to rise within me. We like to think that our fear keeps us shrewd and smart and our optimism in check but it can also shrink our vision and our prayers and what we are willing to give.
"When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I'm meant to be, this is me
Look out 'cause here I come
And I'm marching on to the beat I drum
I'm not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me
"And I know that I deserve your love
There is nothing that I’m not worthy of
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me"
Beloved,
let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten of God
and has knowledge of God.
Those who do not love know nothing of God, for God is love.
God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way:
for sending the Only Begotten into the world,
that we might have faith through the Anointed One.
Love, then, consists in this:
not that we have loved God,
but that God has loved us
and has sent the Only Begotten
to be an offering for our sins.
Beloved,
if God has loved us so,
we must have the same love for one another.
No one has ever seen God;
yet if we love one another,
God dwells in us,
and God's love is brought to perfection in us.
The way we know that we remain in God and God in us
is that we have been given the Spirit.
We have seen for ourselves and can testify
that God has sent the Only Begotten as Savior of the world.
When any acknowledge that Jesus is the Only Begotten
God dwells in them
and they in God.
We have come to know and to believe
in the love God has for us.
God is love,
and those who abide in love
abide in God,
and God in them.
Love will come to perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear–because our relation to this world is just like Christ's. There is no fear in love, for perfect love drives out fear. To fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.
We love because God first loved us. If you say you love God but hate your friend or neighbor, you are a liar. For you cannot love God, whom you have not seen, if you hate your neighbor, whom you have seen. If we love God, we should love our friends and neighbors as well; we have this commandment from God.
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