In the Midst of Change: Facing Anxiety

Written by Ed Kauffman

In the Midst of Change: Facing Anxiety

January 16, 2011

Ed Kauffman

 Scripture: Psalm 121, Romans 8:35-39

 This past week we have been talking about change and how we live in the midst of changing times.  Last Sunday we noted the importance of telling our stories.  On Sunday evening we recognized the need to continue to praise God, even in the midst of change.  Tuesday evening we noted the need for discernment and that as an alternate community within society we are sometimes placed in a position where we need to choose to follow God rather than the ways of the society around us. On Thursday we noted that sometimes changes are forced upon us and we were reminded by the story of Jeremiah that sometimes we need to accept those changes and the realities of life, while still holding onto the hope we have in God’s planned future.

 As we noted last Sunday, change is a constant in our lives, and discontinuous change is what we currently live with.  I suppose it is true that none of us particularly likes change, maybe some do, but most people don’t.  And so, change often brings about anxiety, and anxiety tends us toward fear.  We tend to be anxious about the unknown.  And if what we said last week about change is true, then it is probably no wonder that we live in a world that seems to be dominated by anxiety and fear. 

I haven’t lived through a national election here in Canada yet, and so I don’t know what the rhetoric is like, but in the US I know that almost all the political rhetoric is based on anxiety and fear.  We were essentially told in the last election that the US as we know it would end if anyone was elected who was running.  Well, maybe not quite that bad, but almost.

 If you want more money for something, just say it will keep the terrorists at bay.  Security measures are at the top of the heap.  Immigration is an issue in many places because it means change, or at least it is posed as meaning change.  Even in some churches I know, people are not sure about evangelism or being missional because it might mean other people would come to church, and they might be different than us, and that might mean change! 

 It’s a big, bad, scary world out there, and we see evidence of that every day.  Strange people invade homes, shoot politicians and by-standers, rob businesses, and more.  How are we as Christians to respond?  Do we have any answers?   Well, there are certainly some responses out there, and some of them even claim to be Christian. 

One response is to become a fatalist.  If you believe in predestination you simply respond to everything that happens by saying, “It’s God’s will, it was all planned to happen this way.”  You may have heard of the person who believed in predestination who fell down the stairs and said, “Well, I’m glad that’s over.”  Now there are some attractive points in this view. If I don’t have any choice in what happens, it takes away my need to be responsible.  If it’s not my time, nothing bad will happen to me.  Everything is in God’s hands.  But there are also many problems with this view, and I personally don’t hold it, because I do believe in free will.  That is, that we as humans are given the ability to make choices, and those choices have consequences.  A fatalist view that attributes everything to God in reality does away with evil, or somehow makes it part of God’s plan as well.  Such a view is ultimately unsatisfying and leaves far too many question unanswered.

A second point of view is somewhat similar in that it attributes  what happens to God, but it tends to see God’s actions as conditioned by our decisions.  God then becomes the rewarder or punisher for the decisions we make.  This tends to be the view of  what is often called the “health and wealth” Gospel.  If we do well, it is because God has blessed us.  If something bad happens, well, then God must be trying to tell us something.  If you only have enough faith, God will protect you.  This can sometimes be taken to rather absurd places.  A recent post from Greg Boyd noted such an absurdity put forth by someone who claimed that a recent mass death of birds in Arkansas was the result of God’s judgment on the US for dropping the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gays in the US military.  One of the justifications for this argument was that the policy had been put into place by President Clinton, who was after all, from Arkansas!  As Greg points out so well, sometimes you just have to laugh so that you don’t get mad!  He goes on to point out the absurdity of the claim. There are many other examples one could point to of this kind of thinking.

And sometimes it’s much more subtle and we do it without thinking.  How often have you heard someone say after a natural disaster, “God was certainly with me, since my house was spared.”  Does that mean God was not with the next door neighbor whose house was not spared?  Does God really hand out rewards and punishment based on our faith or behavior? Clearly Jesus didn’t think so when he was asked about the Galileans who had been killed by Pilate, or the people killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them, referenced in Luke 13.  Jesus said, “do you think they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?” “ No”, he clearly says.

So how do we respond?  Certainly we believe that God is capable of keeping us from harm, as Psalm 121 says.  And certainly we have instances in Scripture where the prophets point to events as signs of God’s action.  How do we remain faithful to Scripture without giving simplistic answers.   How do we speak helpfully about God’s love and care for us, without leaving false impressions of hope, or not putting others down. 

Well, I think we can do that, as well as live without the fear and anxiety so prevalent around us.  Part of the answer is to recognize that we live in the world of already, but not yet.  That is, while we believe God has already won the victory over evil through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, evil has not disappeared from the world we live in.  We are still human and live in a fallen world where bad things happen.  We as humans have free will and make choices, and those choices lead to consequences, not all of which are good.  There is a big debate in the US currently over the causes of the shootings in Tucson.  Was it one mentally unstable person who decided to go on a rampage, or were there broader forces that pushed him in that direction, like the political rhetoric.  Was the oil spill in the gulf the result of one companies negligence, or some persons failure, or is there a broader societal cause from our consumptive society and the need for more and more oil or bigger profits?  And the answer to those questions is probably, yes!   And sometimes we have to simply say that we don’t have answers. 

The pilgrims to Jerusalem  faced an uncertain journey as they prepared to head for home.  The path from Jerusalem led through the hills, where thieves and bandits lurked.  Traveling by day laid open the possibility of sunstroke, and the prevailing wisdom was that the moon was a source of sickness and evil.  So how did you face such an uncertain future?  Many scholars see Psalm 121 as the answer to that question.  It was a litany as the pilgrims prepared to head out.

The pilgrim began with a question, “I lift up my eyes to the hills (those hills full of danger) – from where will my help come?”  And then the affirmation, “My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

At this the priest offers a blessing and assurance for the road ahead, “he will not let your foot be moved….” Whether by day or night, God is always awake, shielding you from the sun, and protecting you from the bad effects of the moon.  “God will keep your going out and your coming in.”  It was a benediction and an assurance of God’s abiding presence and care.  Did it mean robbers never attacked?  Of course not, they were still out there, but it affirmed God’s love and presence on the journey.

In a similar way, Paul in Romans 8 provides a benediction and affirmation for the church in Rome.  The Roman church was not facing thieves and robbers.  They were facing massive change, and possible persecution by the Roman government.  The change had to do with the make-up of the church.  The church in Rome, as elsewhere, began with Jews who came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.   But the Jews had been banished from Rome for a time, and during that time, Gentiles had been converted and had taken over leadership of the church.  But now the Jews had been allowed back, and this created some tension. Things had changed!  The previous leaders now found themselves on the back benches, and they didn’t particularly like that.  Not only that, but the tension in the church over the place of Jews and Gentiles was spilling out beyond the church, and both the Jews who were not Christian and the Romans were beginning to notice this new sect. 

It is in that context that Paul writes his letter to the Romans, both to help them understand that God’s Spirit is for all people, both Jew and Gentile, and to encourage them in the face of rising opposition from outside the church.  And so he summarizes the first section of the letter in these verses we read from Romans 8.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  If the God was willing to give us his only Son, Jesus, why would he not be ready to give us anything else?”  And then the passage we know and hear often, “Who can separate us from the love of God?”  And the answer is, “Nothing.”  Neither life, nor death, nor rulers, nor cancer, nor mental illness, nor Alzheimer’s, nor things present nor things to come. 

Does that mean those things won’t affect us, or have disappeared from our lives.  By no means!  We still live in this human, fallen creation.  Bad things still happen.  But we have the assurance that God is with us in the midst of this fallen world, and the assurance that this fallen world is not all there is.  As Paul says in Corinthians, “If for this world only we have hope, we are of all the most to be pitied.”  But through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have the assurance that what happens in this world is not the end and that God’s presence and love will continue into the world to come.  And with that assurance, we need not fear.

Many people have wondered how the martyrs through the centuries have been able to face death so calmly.  And the answer, given in many of their testimonies, i s that they had lost their fear of death precisely because they believed that death was not the end of their relationship with God.  If you remove the fear of death, you suddenly become amazingly powerful.  Take, for example, the suicide bombers we so fear.  The reality is, you can only be a suicide bomber if you believe that there is reward beyond death, for then death loses its power over you.  

Obviously I’m not advocating becoming a suicide bomber, but what if we had that same conviction and would act as if we truly believed Romans 8. Think about what a difference we could make in the world if Christians would no longer be anxious or fear death.   I have numerous friends who have been part of Christian Peacemaker Teams in various parts of the world.  Some of them have put themselves in harm’s way, and yes, CPT members have been injured and even killed.  They have been willing to do this because they believe that as Christians we should be at least as willing to put our lives on the line in the cause of peace as others are willing to put their lives on the line in the cause of war.  And I admire them for it, they challenge me in my faith.

In the midst of change, whether good or bad, we can affirm two things.  One, we live in a fallen world. It is a world where bad things happen, and  where the choices we and everyone else make sometimes contribute to those consequences.  Change and the world we live in are givens, and we are called to make the most of what we have been given.  God sends rain on the just and the unjust, and calamities and misfortune happen to us all.  Thus it will be until the end of time as we know it.

And, in the midst of that fallen world, we can also affirm that God is with us.  Like the pilgrims of ancient Israel facing the unknown of their journey, or the early church facing persecution, we affirm God’s presence and love as being more than whatever we may face.  We have that assurance because of the stories of the past, and because of the death and resurrection of God’s own son, Jesus Christ.  Armed with that assurance we no longer need fear change, or even death.  Taking away that fear allows us to live more freely and more fully, confident that God’s love endures throughout all generations.

Thanks be to God!