The more I’ve spoken with people about fear the more I’ve come to believe they’re talking about anxiety. Fear is specific – a response to a clear and present danger. Anxiety is general, floating but persistent, for a probably unnamable reason. Anxiety calls us only to worry.

Fear calls us to do something – which may be, HIDE! Even that is an act of hope. But, I think that Advent and the Gospel call us to more – not just to stay alive, but to LIVE. Which is to say, to enact compassion, justice, and kindness where we are, which is how God comes to the world right now.

Fear is about not belonging to a group, or even to life. Laws are made to tell us who’s in/worthy/safe. They didn’t begin as rules of morality. They were markers of identity: not so much “this is the right way,” as “this is our way.” That’s what’s going on with Moses and later additions to the law.

But if the core identity of a group is threatened, laws become means to identify and punish the out/unworthy/dangerous. It’s worst when that group is one holding power. Empires, religions, politicians, nations, races have all fallen prey to such threats – their response is oppression and exclusion.

The Advent message, though it’s wrapped in words that challenge, is that the threat of oppression and exclusion is not the last word any more than it was the first word. We and this world we are part of were VERY GOOD in the first place and worthy of God’s presence even now.

I’ve never understood the fear of God other than as the upward projection of the fear of violent and controlling patriarchs and priests, kings and emperors. The message of Advent (and the Gospel) is, after all, a rejection of such power, such violence, and all the things that make for fear.

I hear or read the word “fear” and, as a Lutheran pastor, I immediately hear the echo of a refrain in Luther’s Small Catechism, “we should fear and love God.” But I also hear the angelic (Jesus' too) refrain – “do not be afraid.” And I think I have to let the angels (and Jesus) have this one.

The Church is supposed to have something to say about that. Both the heat and the cold are fundamentally spiritual issues – it matters how we treat each other and all the beings around us, and this Earth. That being said, it seems to me that fear is a sketchy place to start the conversation.

Fear seems to be the theme at more than a few churches this Advent. I suppose that makes sense given the political and social climate-change we are experiencing. The heat is going up while at the same time many hearts are extraordinarily cold.

I had no idea that when Trump was talking about “s**t hole” countries it was aspirational

Abstract: blue with palm leaves (4/13/25)

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