Domes - Our Monthly Newsletter
Dunbar United Church of Christ
February 3, 2008
Matthew 17:1-9
Fearful Possibilities
- Why were people so afraid of Jesus? When he was an infant, the most powerful man in Israel was so terrified of him -- he sent his whole army out to find that baby and kill him! When Jesus was grown and preached at his hometown, the people he grew up with tried to push him off a cliff. Then he went to the Geresene region and the villagers met him before he entered their town and begged him to go away. Even the disciples were afraid. When Jesus calmed the sea after the storm, they were more terrified of Jesus than the storm. When Jesus was transfigured, they “fell to the ground, overcome with fear.”
- This isn’t the Jesus we grew up with in Sunday school. But hopefully as we’ve gotten older, our faith has also matured. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews said: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Why? What’s so scary about this Middle-Eastern Jewish peasant we worship?
- Last week, I did a service at Davenport-Dunbar for a group of about 7 elderly women who gather for worship every Tuesday morning. I asked them that question: “What’s so scarry about Jesus? Why did he frighten people?” One woman said, “We’re afraid of him because he asks too much of us.”
- What an answer. I said, “What did you say?” She said, “Jesus is scary because he asks too much of us.” That’s it. We think we’re good Christians if we give to the food bank, if we help on a habitat-for-humanity build, if we are kind to one another. And we are. But Jesus says that’s not enough. We need to be kind to the radical Muslims who hate us. We have to love and care about them too. And that’s frightening. If the FBI found out that we love the radical Muslims, they might tap our phones or arrest us! Maybe we wish Jesus hadn’t said such things! He expects too much of us!
- After we went to war with Iraq, a university professor wrote about a conversation he had with a secretary in the admissions office. The secretary asked people in the office if they had any odd jobs they wanted done -- yard work, housecleaning -- anything. She and her husband had befriended an Iraqi student in graduate school. When the war started, his funds were cut off so this couple took him into their home and were trying to find him work so he could get a little money. The professor asked: “What does he think about the war?” She said, “He thinks we’re terrible and Saddam is just wonderful.” The professor said, “So how could you take this person into your home and care for him?” She slammed her fist on her desk and said, “Because I’m a Christian, damn it! Do you think it’s easy?”
- The woman at Davenport-Dunbar said it best: “Jesus is frightening because he expects too much from us.”