Fear not.
The New Testament's most consistent invitation is "Fear Not." Sometimes it's translated "Do not be afraid."
If the TV coverage of the health care debate isn't enough to convince you that we live in fear, maybe the massive e-mails suggesting that our entire western civilization is tanking because Muslims are having more babies than white Europeans might. We are always being encouraged to be afraid... of reactionaries or communists, of fundamentalists or atheists, of identity theft or depressive personal isolation, of countless other things
In his book Lifesigns Father Henri Nouwen wrote:
We are a fearful people...It often seems that fear has invaded every part of our being to such a degree that we no longer know what a life without our fear would feel like...There always seems to be something to fear: something within us or around us, something close or far away, something visible or invisible, something in ourselves, in others, or in God. There never seems to be a totally fear-free moment.
Echoing Nouwen, Lewis Thomas:
We are,perhaps uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
I wonder if the Jungians and Paul Tillich weren't right about fear. Tillich said that all fear came down to fear of non-being. The Jungians say that every fear is a fear of death. Both argue that no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape that kind of "existential anxiety."
Which brings us to what I think (not everybody thinks this, but I do) is the most important paragraph in all of Paul's letters. Though Paul would never say "existential anxiety" (the word "existential" wasn't even made up until the 20th century), he seems to know that "fear and trembling" that we just can't seem to shake. He tries to address these most often non-rational anxieties with a rational argument that might not always convince, but can, to use Tillich's metaphor, "here and there, now and then" can comfort and maybe inspire to move beyond them without ever being completely free of them...
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us...Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril of sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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I have come up with this wacky idea that original sin, sin being a separation from God, was the moment that humans became self aware. With that awareness came an awareness of mortality, and thus fear of the future; death, taxes, large bears, Brett Favre, etc.
Following this train of thought, I have a couple of questions.
First, is this an innate, inherent human thing - something in our jeans? Or is this learned behaviour? I don't think that teenagers fear death, so much. I know I didn't at that age. When I was younger, the monsters under my bed made me nervous, but not my own demise.
Second, since Paul's message is not something new, why is that in 2000 years, it is no easier to accept this concept than it was then? The few that we might say could live with the faith of Jesus are a very small exception - most of whom we know as martyrs.
My inclination is to look to those in power who benefit by keeping the masses in fear. But beyond that, what would it take to enable the masses to inculcate this belief system?
This would require changes in all human culture(s) beyond anything I can imagine.
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