Saugatuck Congregational Church
Sunday July 19, 2015
©Rev. Willie Salmond
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12 vs. 32)
365 times we come across this phrase in Holy Scripture. One time for each day of the year. The phrase? “Fear not. Don’t be afraid. Don’t worry.”
It seems that the writers of Holy Scripture know us better than we know ourselves. They know that deep down- really deep down- we are a fearful people. And so every day of the year we need to hear this word. “Don’t be afraid.”
Let me say that fear is real. Very real. We were flying in Mission Aviation Fellowship Cesna 103 5 seater plane from West Nile back to Entebbe airport in Uganda. Flying at about 10,000 feet so you could see the ground easily below you. As we crossed over Lake Albert between Congo and Uganda a tremendous storm came from nowhere. We were buffeted this way and that, rain started seeping through the windows. Ahead of me I saw the Swiss pilot’s altimeter go clockwise as he tried to rise above it all. When that didn’t work I watched as his altimeter went anti clockwise as he tried to go below it all. Nothing seemed to work and we were just swept along in the storm. We ended up far south of Entebbe and then slowly made our way north again just before sunset and dark.
Afraid? Absolutely terrified!
So fear is very real.
We are often afraid of something that hasn’t yet happened. ‘What if?’ we say expecting the worst. There’s no answer to this because the speculation is vague. Who knows how it will turn out. The Scottish poet Robert Burns talks of this type of fear in his poem to a Mouse. He has overturned the field mouse’s nest while plowing with his horse and plow in November and is sorry that all the winter preparation of the mouse is in vain. He tells the field mouse about himself.
“Yet thou art blessed compared to me
The present only toucheth thee
But och I backward cast my eye on prospects drear
And forward though I canna see
I guess and fear.”
I guess and fear. This ‘what if?’ fear is another type. Yes indeed a fearful people.
Jesus is seeped in the poetry and history of the Old Testament.
King David writes “The Lord is my Shepherd”
Jesus says “I am that Shepherd, the good Shepherd.”
King David writes “He leads me in the right paths”
Jesus says “I am that path, the Way for you.”
Jesus would have been very familiar with the lovely story of David and Mephibosheth in Second Samuel. A story about the earthly kingdom of David.
Mephibosheth is called into the King’s presence. A young grandson of the previous king Saul he could be seen as a risk to the new king. It was common for new rulers to put to death young relatives of the previous ruler. So in fear and trembling he prostrates himself before King David. At this point in his life nothing is going well for him. Nothing. He is lame. The writer tells us this twice in the passage we read. After Saul’s death he has lost all his land titles, his flocks and cattle. And he even wonders now if his very life is at stake. One disaster seems to follow the next.
This is true in our lives also from time to time.
A mother buries her mother then her father within a year and then suddenly her husband dies of a heart attack leaving her and the young children.
A Ugandan friend of mine was out of work for several years and then caught a break and got a job in Dubai. He flew there his heart singing. But. Why is there always a but in life? But he needed to pass a medical to get his work permit. He failed and was told he had AIDS and was sent home.
As Shakespeare’s Hamlet says “When troubles come they come not singlefold but in battalions.”
In March this year I was back in Kampala and took my friend to the superb Infectious Diseases Institute supported by Johns Hopkins University and USAID. He has begun treatment and is now slowly rebuilding his life.
So Mephibosheth is in this situation. His face in the dust he waits for the new king to speak.
David says “Don’t be afraid.” Here we go again. This same phrase. “Don’t be afraid.” Then he goes on to assure him that all his property is to be returned. And Saul’s servant Ziba is to be his servant now. And there’s more. “You are going to share in my kingdom. You are going to eat at the king’s table.”
He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
Well Mephibosheth isn’t sure this man is speaking to him.
“Me?” he asks. “Me? A dead dog?”
Even today in many parts of the world no one will touch a dead dog and it’s very hard to get someone to bury it. In the streets of Cairo, New Delhi, Khartoum, Kampala dogs are left where they die, untouched. You have to find a very low cast person and pay cash to have a dog buried. Mephibosheth is saying he is very low in life’s pecking order. David assures him that what he has said is true and welcomes him into his household.
This is a moment of pure grace, amazing grace.
This is kingship at its best.
And this is David at his best. Like you and me David isn’t always at his finest but in this story he certainly is. “Share the kingdom”, he says.
I wonder if Jesus has this sharing of the earthly kingdom of David in mind when he assures the crowds and you and me “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”
Jesus speaks more on this topic than on any other. His ministry begins with the Kingdom of God and ends with the Kingdom of God as we shall see. Throughout his short three years all the healing of broken lives, and bodies and relationships are signs of this Kingdom breaking into the lives of ordinary people. God is so close you can almost reach out and touch him. Many of his parables speak of the Kingdom. It is so precious that it’s like a man who wants a priceless pearl and sells everything he has to get it. Bankruptcy means nothing compared to this priceless gift.
He begins his ministry with the words “The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, change your ways, and receive the good news.”
And at the end on the cross one of the thieves asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his Kingdom. The thief has a moment of incredible insight.
Jesus assures him “This very day this Friday you will be with me in Paradise.”
This morning Jesus offers each of you this priceless gift. The very rule of God in your heart. Receive it. He even explains how to do this. Take it on trust as a child does. Unless you become as children you will not enter the Kingdom. When things seem their bleakest hand over to God. Your prayer may be ‘over to you God’.
In that moment I don’t think all worries and fears will disappear. Somehow they are always just there over our right shoulder niggling, niggling. It’s true. But I’ll tell you this. They will be put in perspective as we accept God’s love into our hearts and minds and lives. Like the AIDS Virus when antiretroviral drugs are taken it is put in a cage and allows the wonderful immune system to rebuild our lives. So as we receive the Kingdom, God accepts our worries and concerns and puts them in the perspective of his love, his grace, his care for each of us.
“Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way
Wounded and weary help me I pray
Power all power surely is thine
Touch me and heal me Savior Divine.”
Don’t be afraid, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you and you and you the Kingdom.
Amen.