Coming to faith without fear

Fear—it’s a basic emotion. The author H.P. Lovecraft writes “the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.” Mental Health professionals classify specific fears as phobias. I found more than 500 phobias referenced in medical journals and other professional sources at the aptly named phobialist.com.

I found on the list the better-known fears like claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces) and the lesser known fears like pteronophobio (fear of being tickled with feathers). There’s even a diagnosis of arachibutyrophobio, which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.

At every extreme, one may find a phobia from photophobia (the fear of light) to scotophobia (the fear of darkness) or from anuptaphobia (the fear of remaining single) to gamophobia (the fear of marriage). If you are ready to throw this newspaper across the room, you might have either hellenologophobia (the fear of Greek words) or sesquipedalophobia (fear of long words).

A phobia is an irrational fear that really isn’t funny. To have a phobia means much more than dislike. A real phobia interferes with your daily life. Someone with acrophobia (fear of heights) might be incapable of crossing a bridge, which he or she must cross to get to work. The person with acrophobia would be incapable of visiting a friend who lived at the top of a high rise, even if he or she would not have to look out a window during the visit. A real phobia makes it difficult, if not impossible, to do the things you wish to do if those things involve exposure to your fear.

What does one do about phobias? Most folks just avoid the things that trigger your fear. To make a generalization, psychologists use behavioral therapy to counter phobias. One technique is to expose a person to a safe version of their fear. For example, if you have an irrational fear of darkness (scotophobia) you could be slowly introduced to darkness in a safe, controlled environment, where no harm is possible. You may in this way eventually lose the phobic response. Of course, some fears are so strong that you have to introduce a person to the exposure through imagining fearful circumstances rather than experiencing them in a controlled way.

There are, of course, some fears one cannot encounter in safe controlled environments.  What do you do for someone with thanatophobia (fear of death) or hadephobia (the fear of Hell) or even enosiophobia (fear of having committed an unpardonable sin)?

The truth is that those last few phobias can be a church’s stock in trade and not all churches want someone to encounter these ideas in a safe setting. It is not uncommon for a preacher to use fear in a sermon with fear of Hell at the top of the list. An evangelist might not be above using a person’s fear of frying to fill an altar call.

Yet I am convinced that God is not a big meanie hell-bent on smiting you upside the head for all eternity. That is not exactly the God I meet in the Bible. There is no hiding the fact, and I would not even want to try to hide it, that Jesus routinely taught about a coming judgment at the end of time.

Please do not read this and say, “That pastor doesn’t even believe in Hell.” It would be more correct to say it’s not where I place the emphasis. That’s not because I want to create a kinder, gentler God, but because I must preach about the God I meet in the Bible.

When pressed to compress all of his teaching to the Cliff Notes version, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus did not emphasize punishment saying that the gist of his teaching is, “Stay on our good side or my Dad will get you later.” Neither did Jesus emphasize Hell, describing in detail the everlasting torment awaiting unrepentant sinners. Jesus warned of judgment, but he emphasized love.

Love. The apostle John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves God is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (I John 4:7-8)

For John, the main thing is that God loves us and did everything that must be done for us to have a right relationship with him. The emphasis is love and relationship. That’s the emphasis I find throughout the Bible and that is what I emphasize in my own preaching and teaching.

God loves you. God wants a relationship with you. You simply have to turn your life over to God and begin to live into that relationship.

John wrote that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” John makes it clear that love is the antidote to fear. Not exactly behavior therapy, but what would a first century Christian know about such things?

John is a pastor writing to a group that has just experienced a church split. The group that left in anger now claims to be the only ones with the true Gospel. It’s an idea one still encounters today where one denomination, or even one church or pastor thinks they have a corner on the God market. Some have taught that everyone else is wrong about God but them and to be sure you don’t have millions of millions of years of agony awaiting you after the judgment, then you better jump in their lifeboat.

John directly takes on the congregation’s fear saying that perfect love casts out that fear of punishment. In effect, he is teaching that you don’t have to anguish over who is right and who is wrong. Instead of splitting doctrinal hairs, draw closer to God through a relationship. Through that loving relationship, you will find God’s perfect love more than able cast out your fear.

Are you afraid of death, punishment, or Hell? Let that fear go by focusing on the God who loves you and is present with you at this very moment. Turn your life over to God the son, Jesus, who came to give you life and love in place of every fear.

            (The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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