The world can be a dark place, and the hearts of men filled with darkness. We have seen much of that lately. In San Bernardino, Paris, Sinai, Chattanooga. In Colorado Springs, Roseburg, Charleston, Waco.
There is much to fear in this world. There always has been. If the birth of a child many years ago is something you celebrate tonight, let me draw your attention to four words repeated often in the telling:
Do not be afraid.
That phrase appears 70 times in the New International Version of the Bible. “Fear not” or “be not afraid” can be found 97 times in the King James Version. It has mistakenly been said scripture offers enough of these passages discouraging our fears to fill each day of the year. But just a reminder or two a week would do many of us a world of good.
In the Christmas story alone, most of the central figures had fears to be calmed:
"But the angel said to him: 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.'"
"But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.'"
"But … an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'"
"But the angel said to (the shepherds), 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.'"
Like most passages with this phrase, these verses do not counsel unfounded courage. They do not say, “Do not be afraid; you’ll figure something out.” We are told not to fear because God is at work, or just because He is with us. Sure enough, the child born to Mary was also called Emmanuel, or “God with us.”
Not everyone in America subscribes to the Christmas story. But I am struck that many of the people who seem most fearful these days are people who do. If that’s true, I can only ask: Why?
Stop being so afraid.
I am not urging inaction, complacency or naivete. There are matters on this earth left to our care. But the point of “do not be afraid” is not to shirk one’s responsibilities. Rather, it’s to trust that we have divine help in meeting them; “for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Yes, there is much darkness in the world, much brokenness and hatred and fear. The child whose birth is celebrated tonight entered that world not to make all that go away — not yet — but to show the lengths to which a heavenly father would go to deliver his children from the darkness, the brokenness, the hatred and the fear. The freedom of “do not be afraid” is not freedom from fearsome things, but from being swallowed by them.
For the light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness still has not overcome it. That is the gift on offer this, and every, Christmas season.
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