Sin of Fear!

Passages: Is. 24:1-12; Eph. 5:15-33; Lk. 8:49-56
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Եսայ. ԻԴ 1-12; Եփե. Ե 15-33; Ղկ. Ը 49-56

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Something that we all share and experience is fear! From early childhood, we experience fear. Fear of the unknown, fear due to uncertainty, fear of results, fear of lack of results. There’s something that we are all afraid of yet, in scripture we read over and over again “do not be afraid”. In fact, Scriptures tell us that fear is not part of what God created for us. In today’s Gospel, when we read about Jairus’ daughter we read, a man comes and tells him that your daughter is dead don’t bother the teacher anymore. What does this mean? It means lose your hope, it’s hopeless and there’s no point in bothering God. Yet, Christ responds with “do not fear, only believe,” have faith and all will be made well. But the reality is life doesn’t always fit that reality. Yes, we trust God and yet, we’re all afraid of something. So how do we have fear and have faith at the same time?

My dears, the greatest fear and the greatest sin is hopelessness. What do we read about the story of Cain and Abel? We all know the story of how Cain killed Abel. Yet, when Cain and Abel gave their gifts to God and Abels was accepted, we read in Genesis chapter 4 presented their when Abels was more acceptable God comes to Cain and says sin is at your doorstep, why are you angry with your brother? Why are you afraid, why do you think that you’re going to be unacceptable when you didn’t chose the best for God? It is only after, Cain filled with hopelessness, and anger, does he kill his brother. This means that the greatest sin that any of us could do isn’t theft, bigotry, lying, gambling, alcoholism, murder, etc. you name it. The greatest sin is hopelessness, the greatest sin is discouragement, the greatest sin is when we come face to face with death, we say what’s the point don’t bother God. Don’t bother the teacher yet, Christ tells us do not lose heart to remain faithful.

St. Paul emphasizes this by saying take heart and be renewed by God daily. In order for us not to lose heart, we need to draw near to God. Right now, my son being four years old, is at the age where around 2:00 in the morning he likes to come and climb into bed with us. Childhood psychology says that children do this not because they are trying to annoy us but because children do not have the developed skills to overcome fear and at night when the child is afraid they go to their mother and father to feel their heartbeat, to feel the warmth and find their comfort knowing that all will be well. My dears, when we are discouraged when we face anxiety and fear, when we in fact look into the tomb, we need to draw closer to God, we need to go and feel his heartbeat by coming to Church.

Now you’re gonna say Der Hayr keeps saying come to church because he wants the pews filled. And absolutely of course I want the pews filled. We should want our pews filled. Because it is here in Church, with our Heavenly mother that we her children come to our Heavenly Father. What parent doesn’t want their child with them; how could God not want his children to be with Him? God our heavenly father wants and calls us to Him daily and if we are afraid, when we fall into sin over and over again, God tells us do not be afraid, it will be well when I am with you. St. John Chrysostom for this reason says, that it doesn’t matter how much you fall, life was raised from the tomb. Therefore, no matter how much you fall, life can be raised!

Do not lose hope, and be not afraid. But just like my son climbs into bed to be with mom and dad, likewise, we must do we must take steps towards God our heavenly Father, He will not force upon us His will. Yesterday, the Armenian Church celebrated the Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel. In the Gospel reading of yesterday, it says that when one sheep goes astray the shepherd goes out looking for him, but doesn’t force the sheep to come to Him. He goes out looking and is ready accept, when the sheep recognizes its shepherd. There’s a story of an Abbott, a monk, who’s praying in the monastery and after the faithful leave, he’s cleaning the monastery up. While cleaning the sanctuary and he hears a child crying. Looking around seeing no one, he thinks nothing of it until he hears a baby crying again. This time he goes around the convent and again doesn’t see anything. But hearing a baby crying he looks to the hill next to the monastery and he sees a baby goat. Approaching the baby goat, he sees that the baby goat crying was because its foot was caught in thorns. So the monk pulls the leg out of the thorns and the goat runs away and does what? Falls right back into the thorns. Again the monk helps, again the goat falls into the thorns. 3-4 times and finally, the monk thinks to himself, I have to pick this goat up and put him to the side and find a way to keep the goat safe. When the monk approach the goat, it now runs away not back into the thorns but just keeps running away and the closer the monk goes to the goat it keeps running away until finally it comes to a cliff and the Abbott says that if I try and catch this goat it might fall to its death and so it backs off.

My dears, God comes after us but if we’re going to keep running away, if we’re going to keep succumbing to fear and not searching Him out, if we’re going to keep pushing Him away, we may come to a cliff in our life and our Heavenly Father desires us to live, not to fall over that cliff and so he’ll stand back and wait for us to come back to Him. And we might say, why isn’t God there in my times of fear and doubt, when we are the one who distanced ourselves.

Yet, God still waits. Because the way we overcome fear, the way we strengthen our faith and know that all will be well, is by being with our Heavenly Mother the Church and our Heavely Father, God. Just as a child seeking Him out when all hope is lost, when the world tells us don’t bother, we should bother more, desire and seek more. Because the greatest sin that we could ever have in our life is hopelessness and discouragement. Our hope is Jesus Christ, Crucified and Resurrected. Our life in God is our strength and the Holy Spirit by which we are renewed daily, guides us to come to our Heavenly Father. Let us live a life recognizing and seeking Him our in our times of fear and discouragement. That even in times of despair, even in times of uncertainty, we know and believe. And all will be made well for which we give glory to our Heavenly Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, now and always, Amen!