“Faith or Fear”
- Rev. Dr. Genie Martin
- Jan 23, 2011
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Wilson Alwyn Bentley was flaky….. but not in a bad way.
He lived in
Bentley, who lived from 1865-1931, examined snowflakes under a microscope and discovered that they were all miracles of beauty. “Every crystal was a masterpiece of design, and no one design was ever repeated” he found. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. “Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”
Looking at Bentley’s “Snow Crystal Collection,” a writer named Morgan Meis found that he was especially fond of snowflake number 892. Roughly stellar in category, it’s a bit irregular; the top left arm doesn’t have a cap like the five do -irregular but beautiful.
We’re all flaky, really. Bentley isn’t the only person who should be given the nickname ‘snowflake’, we all should.
Each of us is a miracle of beauty, a masterpiece of design and no one design is ever repeated. Are we irregular? Of course we are. All kinds of irregularities –physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, you name it. We are irregular human beings but still miracles of beauty, shaped in utter uniqueness by a loving and creative Creator.
Our Lord is the God of the snowflakes. Psalm 27 begins with the words,
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (v.1)
If we are, in fact, God’s snowflakes – precious, unique and transient-then we need a Lord to preserve us and act as a stronghold for us. Otherwise we are going to melt, disappear and be lost forever.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Bible scholar J. Clinton McCann points out that this opening line captures and summarizes the entire psalm, challenging us to make a choice between faith and fear. Either we make the ‘faith” choice, seeing God as ‘my light and my salvation OR we make the ‘fear choice’ looking for the answer to the question “whom shall I fear?”
As snowflakes, we don’t have to go far to find something to fear. We know we are vulnerable to physical illnesses, emotional distresses, relational breakdowns, economic stresses and spiritual crises. Sometimes we feel as delicate and transient as snowflakes – quick to melt down and disappear forever. But if we make the faith choice, our future looks very different. We aren’t so vulnerable if we put our trust in God because we discover that the Lord is our light, our salvation and the stronghold of our life.
The key is to put our trust in Almighty God, not in ourselves. When we live in God’s light, we’re living in the Lord’s presence. God’s face often appears as light, or shines upon people, such as in the classic Old Testament blessing,
“The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25)
So when the Lord is our light, we are living close to God and in a place of peace.
Psalm 27 says “Your face, Lord, do I seek- do not hide your face from me”. So we ask today, what does God actually do for those who choose faith over fear? Psalm 27 says that God “will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock” (v.5) This means God will offer protection and deliverance to all who trust in him, keeping them safe from anything that will destroy them.
Challenges still arise, and crises will come. But God’s promise of protection and deliverance means we’ll never be completely destroyed by adversity – will never melt and disappear, like a snowflake in the sun.
Jeanette Winterson said this,
They say that every snowflake is different.
If that were true, how could the world go on?
How could we ever get up off our knees?
How could we ever recover from the wonder of it???????
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There’s a book entitled, Streams in the Desert, where the author, F.B. Meyer writes “God often guides us through our circumstances. One moment, our way may seem totally blocked, but then suddenly some seemingly trivial incident occurs, appearing as nothing to others but speaking volumes to the keen eye of faith. And sometimes these events are repeated in various ways in response to our prayers. They certainly are not haphazard results of chance but are God opening up the way we should walk, by directing our circumstances. And they begin to multiply as we advance toward our goal, just as the lights of a city seem to increase as we speed toward it while traveling at night.
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When you climb a mountain you’re told- DON”T LOOK DOWN! That’s what they say when you have a long way to fall. It’s because, of course, looking down leads to thoughts of the really bad things that could happen. When we stop to ponder how steep the climb, how far we have to fall and the sharpness of the rocks at the bottom, fear takes hold. What if my foot slips or I lose my grip? What if I make a mistake and lose my way or run out of strength before I make it to the top?
There’s never a shortage of things to fear. In fact, if we set our minds to it, we can probably all come up with a substantial list of reasons why we cannot overcome the challenges God has set before us. Sometimes it’s us. We’re not strong enough, not smart enough, not up to the challenge, often in more than one way. These things cannot be disputed. Rocks are hard. Problems can be enormous. Human beings are, well, human.
Fear then seems a reasonable response – fear and despair.
BUT THEN THERE’S GOD……
And that’s the key.
The key to successfully climbing mountains doesn’t actually have to do with the difficulty of the mountain or the skill of the climber. God is bigger than our biggest problem and his is not limited by our weaknesses. When we believe that, it doesn’t matter how high the mountain or how weak the climber. If we focus on God instead of our troubles and shortcomings:
we
can
do
whatever it is
God has called us to do.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
AMEN
Children’s Moments
Put a lamp in front of the children.
Turn it on and turn it off.
Ask them to imagine a world without electric lights.
Have them think of how dark it would be in their bedrooms at night and how scary it would be not to be able to turn on a light.
Explain that the children of the Bible didn’t have any lights in their rooms, but they had something even better….
Psalm 27 says, ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
Ask the children why the Lord would be described as ‘my light’.
Then suggest that God helps us see clearly, walk safely and be safe from things in the dark that can scare us or hurt us.
Have the children close their eyes and imagine that they’re children in the Bible, with no lights in their bedrooms.
Ask them how they feel when they hear the words, “The Lord is my light and my salvation”?
Ask the children to open their eyes and then turn on the light again.
Ask what it means to them to have God as a light and what sorts of things God helps them see.
Assure the children that the light of God can never be turned off.
It will continue to burn brightly in their lives, helping them see and be safe every day.
Prayer of Dedication
You have given us so much- and we often fail to remember that you are the source of all we have.
Accept these gifts and use them to further your work in the world.
We present not only our monetary offerings, O God, but ourselves.
When you made us, you bestowed on each of us talents and gifts.
With your help, we seek to channel our passions and use those gifts in your service and to your glory. Amen
