What To Do About Fear?

For three weeks now we have been reading from the Book of Genesis about family life among the Abrahamsons, that is stories about Abraham and Sarah. We read how Abraham was called by God to take his family and leave all to travel to a new place in order to begin a people dedicated to God. We read how God arranged for the aged Sarah to bear a child from whom their descendants, the people of Israel, would be created. And today we read that these changes caused just little disruption in the family with the big shown down between Sarah and Abraham right in the middle of a family party - good timing Sarah!

Sharon pointed out last week that Sarah does not come off very well in these patriarchal stories. She is portrayed as doubting and, today, even cruel it is not difficult for us to sympathize with her. She is more like us than is Abraham.

First of all, we can imagine that she is a little miffed by the private conversation between God and Abraham which resulted in her life being turned upside down. Old Abraham decides to take off in pursuit of some dream that he tells her came from God. Is the old bird losing his mind or what? Sarah must leave her home and her people and start anew as if she were 20 years old. Then she discovers that, in her nineties, she is to bear a child. No wonder she laughs - surely God is jesting by suggesting she have a teenager in the house when she will be a 105?

Yes, Abraham is portrayed as the hero, the one open to God, obedient, and Sarah as the tag-along wify alarmed by all these events disturbing her life at a time when all she wants to do is spend her time in a rocking chair on her cool veranda. Sarah is not consulted but simply expected to fall in line. I am speculating here as to what motivates Sarah since the biblical text doesn`t give much detail.

For Sarah the problem of being barren has been long-since dealt with. According to the custom of the times, she has offered her servant, Haggai, to Abraham as a mistress in the hopes that Haggar would produce the child and heir which she cannot. And Haggar bore a son to Abraham, his name was Ishmael. She did what she had do but I can`t imagine that it pleased her much. And now all this mess, once settled, is stirred up again with the birth of Isaac. Isaac and Ishmael grow up as brothers.

Well, it seems that all of Sarah`s resentments and fears burst onto the scene in our story this morning. Abraham has organized a grand party to mark Isaac's weaning and Sarah picks that moment of family celebration to explode. And she is vicious. She wants Haggai and that son of hers out of the house now. She says to Abraham, "Caste out the slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac".

No doubt Sarah's tirade cast a bit of a pall on the festivities. Everybody is upset, Abraham, again I speculate, knows that Sarah has insight into the probable unhappy outcome which will arise when the two half-brothers get to feuding over the inheritance. But his emotional attachment to Ishmael, his first-born, has immobilized him. Sarah forces his hand and Abraham sends Haggai and Ishmael away. Those of us hearing the story through our 21st century filters find Sarah cruel and our hearts go out to pour Haggai and child Ishmael left in the desert to perish.

Fear drives all of us. Occasionally it drives us to pick up our lives and make changes. A battered woman picks up and leaves her abusive partner for fear of her life or that of her children. When attacked fear gives us the charge of adrenaline we need to get out of the way or defend ourselves. Fear of failure drives us to study harder, work harder, change certain life habits which we know to be dangerous. Without fear our species would long since have ceased to exist on planet earth. Sometimes our fear is based on raw emotion and sometimes it is grounded in considered positions.

This week we will see fear in our streets as we prepare for those demonstrating the meeting of the G8 and those deployed to keep public order Fear will walk by this door this coming week, as last November: parents with children in strollers, grandmothers, students, people of all walks of life concerned, indeed fearful, about the will and ability of the G8 to make decisions for the common good. This small powerful group will determine the quality of life of hundreds of millions of people: everything from environmental issues to the distribution of wealth, to the provision of aid to desperately impoverished nations. All people fearful of the future. One of the problems with the issue of globalization which many will be protesting is that there is no clear definition of it. For some it is largely the issue of who controls the world's economy, some see it, especially poor nations as yet another form of imperialism, for some it includes culture, environment, and democratic rights. For some it is a kind of grab bag of all the ills of the world which are attributed to the policies of the most powerful nations. For most protesters, whichever angle they take on globalization, they are convinced that this economic world-force will increase the gap between the rich and the poor and further alienate people from political institutions whether democratic or not.

Fear will also be in the hearts of the police forces armoured, ominous, and looking invincible in their black riot gear. These men and women are just like you and me: orders to fulfil, citizens and property to protect, children waiting for them at home.

As the chairman of Faith Partners, a small local interfaith advocacy group, I sent letters last fall to the various police forces involved assigned to crowd control during the meetings of the G20 in Ottawa last November. Faith Partners received numerous accounts of peaceful citizens from churches in this city who witnessed or were victim to unprovoked verbal and physical assault by the police. Indeed, so great was the outcry that a citizens panel was set up to document these protests. Our bishop, Peter Coffin, was one of 5 panelist to hear these complaints and the written report was issued this week. It is worth reading and makes some excellent recommendations to the police with regard to the policing of such events. In fact, in the very same mailing was a copy of the report of the Police Service Commission outlining the steps taken by them to avoid the problems of last November. We are fortunate to live in a city where the security forces are willing to work with concerned citizens.

Yes, there were people among the demonstrators who were out to make trouble, and yes there were police officers who were out to make trouble. These people cost us all a fortune. For these few we must spend millions of dollars in crowd control measures. These few turn fear expressed peacefully into violence and then the fear takes on a whole new dimension. And worst of all the very legitimate concerns of thousands of people are co-opted and dismissed. For we must remember that those who actually get out in the street are but a small fraction of those within society who are concerned about the issues being discussed by the G8 in splendid isolation.

Fear so often is a destructive force in our lives and the lives of others. Fear causes us to shut down relationships we need with others, to demonize others, to think of them as less than human. One of the big complaints of demonstrators last November, as documented in the Citizens Panel on Policing and the Community, was the fact that police officers were unidentified nor was it possible to identify officers in charge. When demonstrators tried to speak with officers, usually hidden behind masks and wielding sticks, they were told to shut up and step back Some were struck or subjected to dog attacks. One of the most fundamental elements of human communication was compromised by the intentional strategy of the police forces to remain remote and impersonal. There is a commitment that this will not be repeated this week.

As seekers after God we all need to remember that God sees and loves us for what we are- no need for pretending we are otherwise. Every single one of us carries a burden of fear and the more able we are to recognize the fear we carry the more able we are to deal with it properly. In the case of Sarah, I have no way of knowing whether her fears were well founded or whether she was simply being jealous and cruel. In the biblical text God supports her decision. The point of the story is not Sarah`s action but rather the faithfulness of God. God promises Abraham that Haggar and Ishmael will be saved. In fact God promises much more. He promises that Ishmael as well as Isaac will be the father of a great nation. Ishmael is considered to be the father of all Arabs. Thus Abraham is the founder of two peoples: the Jews and the Arabs. A sobering thought in the context of todays open hostilities between these two groups. Nothing more vicious than a family feud, as they say!

In the Genesis story God turns the destructive effects of Sarah`s fears in a blessing. And as people of faith we can expect God to do the same thing for us if we are willing to bring those burdens to God and invite God to transform them. Our gospel text this morning dwells upon God`s limitless concern for us. God cares for the sparrow, and Jesus also says that "even the hairs of your head are all counted" And that`s why those of you who are bald will receive a special blessing because you save God a lot of counting time!

As seekers of God what is the burden of fear which you carry in your heart? As seekers of God we must not allow our burden of fear to create more fear. And that happens so easily when we carry the burden alone. We prayed in the collect at the beginning of the service, "O God, our defender, storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid. Rescue your people from despair, deliver your sons and daughter from fear." Dear friends, that is precisely what a faith relationship with God will do Remember the words of Jesus who said "Come to me all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matt 11:28) And Jesus also said .. "God so loved the world that he gave his only son that we might have life and have it abundantly."!