The other day I read a list of the most common fears in the US.  It was on the Internet, so we know it’s true.  Everything you read on the Internet is true, isn’t it?  So what do you think they are?  Any guesses?

1.         The fear of flying

2.         The fear of public speaking

3.         The fear of heights

4.         The fear of the dark

5.         The fear of intimacy

6.         The fear of death

7.         The fear of failure

8.         The fear of rejection

9.         The fear of spiders

10.       The fear of commitment

Now let me point out a couple of things that we can deduce from that list: Many people would rather die than preach a sermon … and if you have all ten of these then if you feel something crawling on your leg as you take a red-eye flight to your wedding in Colorado, at which you will give a speech, then you‘re going to struggle. Because you’ll have all ten phobias at the same time – you’ll imagine you’re going to be bitten by a deadly spider while flying in the dark to a high place to speak publicly, at a service of lifelong commitment and intimacy that risks rejection and failure. 

I’ve been reading a few books on the subject of fear recently for my doctorate, and I’ve discovered some fascinating things, for example did you know that humans are not born with fear?  Unlike some mammals we don’t have that innate warning alarm inside our heads that tells us something is dangerous.  That means we have to learn from experience.  So, babies have no fear of fire, they have to learn it hurts by touching something hot or by being told so.  They have no fear of the cat, so they pull its tail and soon learn to be scared of the cat.  And that explains why commitment, intimacy, rejection and failure are on that list.  We’ve experienced the pain of relationships that have turned out badly, and we naturally fear going there again. 

In today’s gospel lesson we read Jesus saying, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  And he says it in the middle of some other teaching about material possessions.  If you were here last week you’ll remember that Jesus told a parable about a rich man who placed his hopes and trust in his wealth but died without giving much thought to God or other people.  Jesus went on to give some teaching about worry, and then some more advice on building treasure in heaven rather than on earth.  And tucked away in there is this phrase about not being afraid.  Now I find that helpful, because it’s as if Jesus was aware that one day we’d be reading this in our struggling economy, with so much uncertainty about our jobs, and our savings, and our house values, and it’s as if he’s saying to us today.  “I know what it’s like.  Don’t be afraid.  Don’t put your hope in these things.  Instead put your hope in the Father’s love, invest yourself in your heavenly treasure and you will find your security.”

It’s as if Jesus knew that we’d one day be living in our society.  I suspect that fear is one of the most powerful and common hallmarks of 21^st Century life.  Now let’s get something straight.  Fear is a natural and often helpful thing.  I believe it is a gift from God.  Fear does us good sometimes.  It warns us to stay away from the rattlesnake, it tells us not to get too close to the edge of the cliff on a windy day, it leads us to use a glove when we take a casserole dish out of the oven.  Without fear we’d probably all be dead.  Fear has saved our lives.  It’s been Shark Week on the Discovery channel, and let me tell you I’m never going swimming again.  Not even in Lake Michigan.

But those good fears are not what Jesus is talking about.  He’s thinking about the fears that arise because we have placed our security in things that might let us down.  And there are plenty of people out there who want to instill fear in us.  Fear sells.  Advertisers exploit our fears to sell their products.  They tell us to be afraid of break-ins and they show us a burglar prizing open a window with scary music in the background.  They tell us to be afraid of sickness, fires, floods, breakages.  If I listened to TV advertisers I’d be scared of being rejected by my wife because I don’t use the right shaving product, or scared of losing my job because my hair is too grey (or not grey enough), or petrified that our house is going to be taken over by germs, or my feet taken over by scary looking athlete’s foot.  The ads tell us to fear being alone by not having a romantic relationship.  Perhaps my favourite unethical, fear-mongering commercial is one for a tax accountant.  A very aggressive looking man comes on the screen with a deep frown and a threatening tone, there’s sinister music playing quietly and he bellows, “Are you being audited by the IRS?”  The whole 30-second message is designed to make us fear the tax service.  They’re out to get you, they want your money and they will cheat you and treat you badly; so let us deal with them for you.  So fear sells.

Fear also gets viewers.  That seems to be the main goal of news programs today.  Not to inform, or educate, or stimulate public discourse, or raise our minds and our spirits to envision a better world, but simply to get viewers.  And one of the ways they do it is to create fear.  A typical local news bulletin on a network channel will contain stories that have no real newsworthiness, but are included because they will make us scared and so we’ll watch in order to know how to protect ourselves.  Just before a commercial break a newscaster will drop a bit of anxiety into our hearts and then tell us that we need to keep watching if we want to stay safe.  “Coming up, a deadly new threat to the elderly in West Michigan … find out how you can be safe after the break.”  Or, “Later, more closures in Grand Rapids, find out if your job is at risk.”  News broadcasters focus on the dangers, the bad news, the crimes, the disasters, the tragedies.   Research has shown that people who watch a lot of TV are more likely to believe that their neighborhoods are unsafe, to assume that crime rates are rising (even when they aren’t), and to overestimate their own odds of becoming a victim.  They are also more likely to own a gun for their protection.  People who watch a lot of TV may not become more violent, but they do become more fearful.  And if it’s true of the network news programs how much more is it true of the cable news channels.  They have to fill 24 hours a day, and the way they do it is to be as sensational as possible.  They focus on the trivial.  They forsake depth and impartial analysis.  And the reason is that two superficial and biased spokespeople having a stand-up fight about an issue makes for better TV.  Small things are made to seem like major crises.  Minor complications are presented as causes for acute alarm.  The volume is high, and the language is demeaning.  24/7 news channels are angry and fearful places.  They try to make us get mad, because if we are we’ll keep watching.  A silly off-the-cuff remark make by a politician is the subject of hours of histrionic commentary so that by the end of it we think it’s a scandal of Watergate proportions.  If it was Ash Wednesday I would possibly at this point challenge you to think about giving up cable news channels for Lent.  The reason is that you would have less anger in your life, more peace, less anxiety, and less fear, and you would still have a good knowledge of the really important things that are happening in the world.

So fear sells, fear gets viewers, and fear also gets votes.  That’s clear.  Entire election strategies are based on the premise that if we frighten the voters with a terrifying description of what life would be like if our opponents were in power then they will vote for us.  And so the political ads come on with their sinister music, their blood-curdling predictions and their horrific quotes dishonestly taken out of context and blown out of all proportion.  And both parties do it.  Let me give you an entertaining example of this.  I Googled ‘George W Bush and Hitler’, and I got 11.4 million results.  Eleven and half million sites drawing parallels between the Third Reich and the administration of the 43^rd President.  I then Googled “Barak Obama communist” and got 12.3 million results.  Twelve million sites likening the election of the 44^th President to the Bolshevik Revolution.  If we didn’t laugh we’d cry.

So we live in a culture of fear.  There are many people out there who want to make us afraid because they stand to gain something if we are.  And when we invite fear into our hearts it brings its friends with it – suspicion of other people, defensiveness in our relationships, the temptation to accumulate more and more material things for some false sense of security, and the urge to attack others before they attack you.  And those things are not gifts from God.  In fact they deprive us of God’s gifts. 

Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Notice he says ‘flock’.  If they are sheep then they’d have every reason to be afraid.  They’d be defenseless –sheep have no real way to avoiding predators.  They have no sharp teeth or claws, no sting, or camouflage; they can’t run very fast, they can’t fly, swim, dig holes or climb trees.  They don’t even herd together for mutual protection.  They are possibly the most defenseless mammal there is.  I can’t think of another one as defenseless as a sheep, unless it’s a big ram with impressive horns.  (But even then the horns aren’t sharp.)  So it’s as if Jesus is choosing his words to emphasise the powerlessness of his followers in a world in which they are easy prey and they have plenty to fear. 

Well, if that’s the bad news (‘friends, you’re as defenseless as lambs’) there is good news.  Notice that he gives a reason why his flock should not be afraid.  ‘For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’  That’s an odd-sounding phrase.  If we were to guess what reason Jesus might give for advising his followers not to be afraid we might say something like, ‘because he’s with us’ … you know … “Don’t be afraid little flock, for I am with you.”  That would be a good guess, and it would be in step with other wonderful reassurances that Jesus gives his followers.  But on this occasion he doesn‘t say that.  He says we need not be afraid because our Father has been pleased to give us the kingdom.  God, our loving Father, has given us the kingdom.  What is the kingdom?  Well, it’s the sum total of every good gift that God wants us to enjoy.  It includes peace, joy, contentment, hope, love, assurance, faith.  How about that list for starters?  Those are the things God has given us.  And what’s more, Jesus says, the Father has given his flock those things not grudgingly; he isn’t like your dad when he used to give you your pocket money: “OK here you are, but don’t go wasting it, and when that’s all gone there’s none left.”  It is the Father’s pleasure to give us the kingdom.  God wants to bless you and me. 

It’s all about this:  where is our security?  Where is our home?  If our home is heaven, and if your security is the love of God then we have an assurance that even if the worst does happen, we’re safe.  Nothing can take away God’s love, and nothing can deprive us of our heavenly home.  This is the source of our confidence as Christians: not our stuff, and not our love for God.  No, our confidence is based on his love for us.  Let us renew our hope and enjoy his freedom from fear.