You're Giving Me Fear

Sometimes there is one scene in a movie that sort of makes the whole thing worth it.  For The Rum Diary, it was this scene where the two protagonists take a hallucinogenic drug and well, have a not so wonderful time.  Please excuse the blasphemous language:



There are three distinctly brilliant quotes in this one minute long scene (as well as one visual image that will probably haunt you): "it's an accusatory giblet," "your tongue belongs to Satan," and finally, "You're giving me fear, stop it!"
I want to shout that last one a bunch of times a day, at the TV, at my computer and nowadays at my phone. Look don't get me wrong, there are legitimate things to fear, which are in no way hallucinations.  Case in point: hurricane Joaquin, which despite it's sort of trendy sounding name, is actually not a joke.  Hurricanes are serious dangers, but if you watch the weather channel you will witness a level of panic that should honestly be reserved for a thermonuclear detonation.  A fact of life: all you can really do about a hurricane is store some drinking water and make sure your flashlight has batteries.  Watching computer simulations of what might happen on TV is quite frankly, futile and stupid.
In my line of work, I run across people who take a weather channel sort of approach to the end of the world.  Every time there's some sort of unusual heavenly event, like, oh I don't know a Blood Moon or just an ordinary little eclipse, they come out.  Whenever something ominous happens in the Middle East (which is like all the freaking time), they come out.  Whenever there's some odd weather, or a particularly galvanizing public figure (cough, Trump), they come out.
On most days, I find them kind of annoying, on some days, and increasingly so lately, I think they're dangerous.  Here's why:

When he (Jesus) had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.  They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven." -Acts 1: 9-11 NRSV

As I'm often fond of doing, I would like to point out that the message of this text is not primarily that Jesus is coming back, although that is a promise.  The message of the white robe guys (angels) is: "Alright guys, show's over, get to work."
How do I know this you ask?  Because that's not what they said. I know this because the disciples didn't just keep standing there staring up, they went and did things.  Pentecost happened (which you might say was a sort of return of Jesus), Paul happened, Peter finally got his butt in gear, the church happened.  Jesus comes back all the time, and in more cases than not over-realized eschatology (that means focusing too much on the end of the world) causes people to miss the wonder of that because they're afraid.  They're afraid of the rapture, and yes I know, some people can sort of shrug that one off and say, "well if it happens that way then fine, I'm good," but I think that it brings ridicule at best and actually scares people at worst.  People read Revelation through the eyes of fear, of the tribulation, of the Beast, the Antichrist, the Great Whore of Babylon, ultimately they spend so much time afraid that they end up afraid of God, and all they really want is some magical way out of it all. And no, I'm not talking "fear of the LORD," as in reverence or awe of the holy presence of the divine, I'm talking about fear of God the same way you fear monsters, serial killers and big hairy spiders, childish, unproductive fear. In my opinion that is a tragic, terrible place to be, and not at all where followers of Jesus should be living.
This is getting tragically real as we watch the crisis with the Syrian refugees play out around the globe.  Yes, many of them are Muslims (and a bunch are Christian too BTW), yes some of them might be terrorists, but you know what else they are?  Homeless, vulnerable and hungry, many of them are children, and we are letting our "well founded" fears get in the way of helping them.  You can certainly give to organizations that are helping them, but the reality is that if you allow yourself to shut them out of your heart, fear has already won, compassion has already failed, and we have not come any closer to the kingdom.
I think our hearts need to be changed.  We need to say boldly and consistently: "You're giving me fear. Stop it!"  The message of God and his angels has pretty consistently been: "do not be afraid," even and especially when people had good cause to be, why do we think that would change?