Living in Fear, Living in Hope

Living in Fear, Living in Hope

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2021

First Christian Church

Mahtomedi, MN

In college, I was introduced to the great American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner.  I took a class in African American history at Michigan State and I was introduced to this artist that I think should be better well-known. Tanner’s works tended towards impressionism and his paintings reflected some of the major impressionists of his day: Renoir, Manet, Monet, Degas and others.

In 1897, he went on a tour of the Middle East.  That trip combined with being the son of an African Methodist Episcopal preacher led him to start painting religious themes.  One notable one is the Annunciation where he uses yellows, reds and orange to create an environment filled with light. Mary sits there looking at this yellow shaft of light which represents the angel telling her that she would bear the Christ child.  Another notable painting is Angels Appearing Before the Shepherds.  Whereas the Annunciation was bright, Angels was somewhat dark.  He uses a lot of blues to communicate it was evening.  The only place you see color is with the shepherds. The angels are drawn in a muted white mixed in with the blue.  You can barely make them out, but when you do they give off this sense of fear. This makes sense; if you are sitting in darkness save for a campfire and then see these ghost-like beings, you’d be scared too.

The shepherds were afraid.  Have you ever noticed that?  I don’t know about you, but I feel like we kind of breeze past that important fact: the shepherds were afraid. It’s easy to focus on the message of the angels and their singing, and forget that at first, the shepherds were scared.  Why? Because things weren’t making sense.  They were afraid because they didn’t know what was going on.  A being is standing in front of them that was indescribable and frightening.  There is a host of angels above them making music and giving praise to God, but they might not have understood this at first.

It’s easy for us to read this passage and not stop to think how frightened those shepherds had to be.  They expected a nice usual evening and they are subject to a light show that is literally out of this world.  

Like I said, I’ve never really picked up that the shepherds were scared. Maybe it’s because of 2021 that I’m paying more attention to this fact. Fear has been a constant presence lately. Remember this time last year, we hoped that this year would be better than the pandemic-fueled year of 2020?  We knew vaccines were just on the horizon and that this time of fear might finally give way to normality. We didn’t realize that 2021 had things that would make us fearful. The attack on the US Capitol was something to fear.  Right now we are fearful as we keep hearing about the Omicron variant of COVID and we hear how our friends and neighbors who were vaccinated are getting infected.  Granted most of the infections are mild, but there is still this fear of virus that has claimed 800,000 American lives and 5 million worldwide.

We saw the fear in places like Mayfield, KY as people hunkered down in buildings as an EF4 tornado ripped through the town damaging or destroying most buildings in town.  Those who had to deal with the fear of living through a tornado are now dealing with the fear of the unknown as they try to put their lives back together.  There is fear in Ukraine as more and more Russian troops are massing on their border.  Will there be war between the two nations?  Will there be a war between China and Taiwan? Will the US have to get involved?  Then there is this ultimate image of fear: we saw people in Afghanistan trying to hang to a plane as it tried to take off.  There was a young man that hung on to a C-17  for dear life as the plane climbed high and higher. He held on until he couldn’t and fell to his death.  His fear of the Taliban led him to risk his own life in order to flee. 

2021 has been a year of fear.  I guess we could say every year has its moments of fear, but this year seemed to be more fearful than others.  Some of the fears are immediate, but others are in the future. 

In the midst of this fear, the angel tells the shepherd to not fear, which seems sort of silly.  When things seem out of control, of course, we are going to feel afraid.  I’m starting to think that when the angel tells the shepherd to not fear, you have to understand it as not giving in to fear.  We are going to be afraid; that’s just human. But what we do with that fear matters. In this very fearful time, there are people who have given into fear to the point that everything else including God is shut out.  Rulers like Herod were always fearful of losing their power.  When he finds out about the Christ child being born in Bethlehem, he sends his soldiers to kill the males under age two.  The angel tells them of good news, a messiah, a savior is being born right this moment.  They may have not understood all of this at first, but they realized this baby was a sign of hope.  It’s also a sign of hope for us.  As we deal with our fears, we can also know that God sent his Son to bring salvation to all.  It a sign that God came to earth to be with us and if I that doesn’t fill you with hope, I don’t know what to tell you. There are still things that will fill us with fear, but we don’t have to face the void alone- instead, we can know that we are saved by God and can face the fears knowing that God stands with us.

It’s like the hymn Awake, Awake and Greet the New Morn says,

To us, to all in sorrow and fear,

Emmanuel comes a-singing,

whose humble song is quiet and near,

yet fills the earth with its ringing.

Music to heal the broken soul

and hymns of loving-kindness,

the thunder of the anthems roll

to shatter all hate and injustice.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing tells us of a Savior that will shatter the chains of death:

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by,

born that we no more may die,

born to raise us from the earth,

born to give us second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

“Glory to the newborn King”

What will 2022 bring?  I’m not even going to try to answer that question.  But what I can say is that we can face the future knowing that God stands with us because God chose to stand with us long ago through a child.  In the midst of fear, there is hope, a hope that is so grand we must tell others. God will continue to be with us until that day when Jesus returns.  Christmas reminds us that fear has already been defeated by Christ.  Thanks be to God. Merry Christmas. Amen.