Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
© 2021, Dr. Tamilio
According to verse ten of the Psalm we read for today, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The fear of the Lord. Being a God-fearing man (or woman). We hear such phrases a lot, and I can see why they are such a turn off to the nonbeliever. “You want me to be afraid of God?” some think. This is not fodder for an evangelism campaign. Hey, come to the Congregational Church of Canton — and fear the very thing we have to offer. That is like being invited to dinner at Jack Nicholson’s house! (I love Jack Nicholson, don’t get me wrong, but the man terrifies me.)
I have mentioned before what this word (“fear”) means in the original biblical languages. It has more to do with reverence than it does fright. Mike Bennett writes that fearing God means “having a deep love and respect for God and His words.”[1] Bennett also points out that “The main Hebrew and Greek words translated fear in the Bible can have several shades of meaning, but in the context of the fear of the Lord, they convey a positive reverence.”[2] The Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew and the New in Koiné Greek. Both languages say that fearing is really revering.
But this sermon is not about looking at all the biblical words that have a different meaning. It is about that one word: fear…I mean reverence.
On one hand, the word reverence conjures a sense of piety. Imagines of people dressed in white while angelic choruses sing may come to mind. Or maybe one thinks of those who lead a simpler life than most, like the Amish, for example. While all of this works, that is not what I think about when I think of reverence.
Here’s how it works for me. Imagine that you’ve died. (I am not trying to be morbid here.) Imagine that you’ve died. You enter the proverbial pearly gates and you come face to face with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, however, you imagine God to appear in the person. Imagine how you would feel in that moment? I don’t think there are any words to encapsulate the sheer joy, the utter rapture that would overcome anyone of us. To fear God is to try to capture, experience, and live this inexplicable feeling all the time.
I know this is not possible. We’ve talked about this before. You cannot remain on the mountaintop forever. But this is not about living in a false reality. It is about spiritual formation.
According to Richard J. Foster, “Spiritual Formation is a process, but it is also a journey through which we open our hearts to a deeper connection with God. We are not bystanders in our spiritual lives, we are active participants with God, who is ever inviting us into relationship with him.”[3] I love this quote. We are not bystanders when it comes to our spiritual lives. It isn’t as if we just sit here waiting for God to move. “Christianity is not a spectator sport,” as Billy Graham once said. Of course, he was talking about putting our faith into action; he was talking about service and mission and outreach. All of these are vital, but I am talking about something else here. This is about us playing an active role in our spiritual maturation.
There are many ways that we do this. We have discussed this at length in the past: read the Bible, go to church, pray, serve. Again, all of these acts are crucial. But maybe there is something else that serves as a foundation for all of this. It is about the fear of God. (Again, we are talking about reverence, not being afraid.)
The Rev. Dr. Jack Lynes used to be a Conference Minister for the United Church of Christ in New Hampshire. He has long since retired. Jack looked a lot like Jim Belushi (Jim, not John), but his hair was like Benjamin Franklin’s. He was one of the warmest souls I ever met. Each fall, the church I was serving at the time held a retreat. It was more like a vacation. The New Hampshire Conference of the UCC owned what looked like a small campground with a few large cabins that must have been recently renovated. It was the perfect place to getaway.
One year we hired Jack to be our retreat leader. I heard Jack preach a few times before and was amazed at how brilliant and moving his words were. He had a real gift. Anyway, during the retreat, he gathered us into small groups (a women’s group and a men’s group) and asked us, “In what ways do you see Jesus as a friend?” I can’t speak for the women, but the men, who were mostly hard-working, blue-collar guys, looked at Jack and one another as if this was too touchy-feely. I could almost hear what they were thinking, “What is this guy talking about?” I must admit, I wasn’t too moved either. I have heard Jack at his best — and this wasn’t it. How is Jesus my friend? That’s it? This wasn’t a Sunday school class. It was an adult retreat!
It wasn’t until years later, upon reflection, that I understood where Jack was going at the time. Think of your best friend. How does that person make you feel? Safe. Loved unconditionally. Is your best friend the person you can confide in? Can you tell him or her your deepest fears — and maybe even confess your darkest sins — without the fear of others finding out? My Dad used to say that if you have just one friend in your life that you can count on no matter what, then you are lucky. He was right. But Jack Lynes was trying to tell us that aside from whatever earthly friends we have, we have Jesus as the ultimate friend. We have an intimate relationship with him that can never be lost. It is categorical.
Spiritual formation is a conscious effort through which this relationship grows. Suzanne Johnson writes, “spirituality is our self-transcendent capacity as human beings to recognize and participate in God’s creative and redemptive activity in all creation.”[4] This means in our personal lives as well. It isn’t just acknowledging that Jesus is our friend; it is fostering and nurturing that friendship so that it grows. This is for our sake, not Jesus’. He doesn’t need to be reminded of his love for us. We are the ones that need to be reminded. We are the ones who should not take this relationship for granted.
The reverence we feel for God is the relationship we need to keep in the fore of our mind, the relationship we need to tend to with all of our being and all of our doing. This has nothing to do with angst, anxiety, dismay, horror, panic, terror, or even having a bad case of the jitters. It is about loving and cherishing the One who became human so that we might become divine: Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[1] Mike Bennett, “What Does the Fear of the Lord Mean?” from lifehopeandtruth.com.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Taken from the website Renovaré.
[4] Susanne Johnson, Christian Spiritual Formation in the Church and Classroom (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992/1989), 22.