By Donald M. Tuttle

First Christian Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

It is late in the evening when a teenager decides to go for a swim. Dropping her clothes on the beach, she makes her way into the water just at the edge of an eastern resort town. As she happily swims about, she doesn’t know that slowly, methodically, a great white shark circles beneath her…

[Music from “Jaws]

Life has not been kind to Marion Crane. She has to meet her lover over lunch breaks, knowing that they will never marry because he spends most of his money on alimony. Then one day her boss asks her to run to the bank, to deposit $40,000 for him. Instead, Marion takes the money and runs, heading toward her lovers’ store. But as she makes her way, she grows tired and gets caught in a storm. So she pulls off the highway and into a small motel, run by a young man named Norman. Twelve cabins. Twelve vacancies. Twelve showers…

[Music from “Psycho.]

Deep in Northern Iraqi desert, workers with pick-axes dig through a mound of dirt at an archeological site. A young boy with a red headdress runs through the maze of trenches to summon a supervisor. “They found something,” he says. “Small pieces. At the base of the mound.” Father Lankester Merrin, an elderly, scholarly Jesuit, inspects the items--lamps, arrowheads, coins. Digging a little further, Father Merrin finds a small, greenish gargoyle-like statuette. As it is unearthed, evil is unleashed, evil that will soon be personalized in a 12-year-old girl…

[Music from “The Exorcist.]

Much is said about Hollywood these days. But we have to give the people there credit. They understand what it means to be human. They are students of human nature. They know all the emotions that shape our lives--emotions like lust, revenge, love and hate. But one of their favorite emotions is fear. That is why we immediately recognize if not the scenes at least the music of “Jaws,” “Psycho,” and “The Exorcist.” They are movies in which Hollywood evoked fear.

Of course, that is not too hard, is it? After all, fear is a basic emotion. It is part and parcel of who we are. All of us experience it. And that is good, because fear is necessary. If you are walking through the woods and hear the telltale rattle of a snake, the fact that you are afraid is good. It may save your life. Or if you stop by a Circle K for a cup of coffee and some guy enters wearing a ski mask and carrying a shotgun, fear is not only appropriate it is positive. It may well keep you alive. Fear is in fact a wonderful gift from God.

But sometimes even the best gifts can be a problem. And that is true of fear. Sometimes fear can keep us from doing what we need to do--even keep us from doing what God asks us to do.

Phyllis was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. She was regular in worship, attended Sunday school, and volunteered at VBS. But when she was approached about teaching a group of youngsters, fear seized. She was afraid she was inadequate for such a task, and you could hear it in her excuses: “I don’t know enough about the Bible. I don’t know anything about kids that age. I’m not good at leading small groups.” On the one had, Phyllis felt called to lead that group. She felt that God wanted her to do it. But on the other, she was afraid. And fear got the best of her.

That is just a minor example. There are many others. I think I have shared with you before about the pastor who, when called upon to visit a man dying of AIDS, stood outside the man’s hospital room and prayed for him rather than going inside. Why? Because he was afraid.

How often have any of us had the opportunity to share what Jesus Christ has done in our lives, how important he has been to us, how much the friendship we share with other Christians has meant, but were afraid someone would think we were “too religious” or would be offended that we speak of God?

How often have we, out of fear, turned away from the needy, failed to speak up for a just cause, or ignored the clear teachings of Christ?

As important and good as fear can be, fear can also get the best of us and keep us from doing what God asks us to do.

But what is important to remember is that fear does not have the last word. God does. And the word God gives us is love. In the first letter of John, it says that perfect love cast out fear. And it is true. Because God loves us perfectly, completely, we have nothing to fear. And when we have nothing to fear, we can obey God.

That is what Jesus did. He obeyed God.

It was only days before Passover. Jesus and his disciples had made their way to Jerusalem to share in the feast. But Jesus knew they were also heading straight into the lion’s den. The chief priests and Pharisees had already met and decided that he must die. Satan had entered Judas Iscariot, and soon he would betray the Lord. The crowds that sang hosannas as he entered town would, by the end of the week, call for his crucifixion. Even his disciples, his most loyal followers and friends, would before long abandon him. Jesus knew that what awaited him in Jerusalem was pain and suffering, that there he would be arrested, scourged, mocked and crucified.

And he was afraid. “My heart is troubled,” he said. His words sound mild, but they convey so much more. In them we see Jesus’ humanity. In the face of death, human weakness emerged. He felt--as any of us would feel--fear, fear of rejection, pain, suffering and death. He feared the cost of taking upon himself not his sin but every sin of every human being. Fear left his mind spinning, his heart pounding and his palms sweating. He even wondered out loud if he should ask God the Father to save him.

But he didn’t. “No, he said, “It is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Confident that his Father loved him, confident that the love of God was perfect, confident that God would not ask him to do anything beyond what God himself would make possible, Jesus affirmed his desire to obey God, to do what God had asked him to do, to fulfill the very reason for his coming.

What we see here is not unlike what the other Gospels tell us happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. After his final meal with the disciples but before he was arrested, Jesus went to the garden to pray. There fear gripped him. He anguished over what was about to happen. So intense was the moment that his sweat fell as blood. And yet what did he pray? “Father, remove this cup from me; but not what I want, but what you want.” Jesus was afraid. He didn’t want to suffer and die. But because he knew God loved him completely, because he knew God’s love was perfect, he could overcome his fear and go to the cross. He could obey God.

And so can we. Hollywood will always be able to scare us. As long as we are human, fear will always be with us. But fear no longer needs to dictate our response to God. It doesn’t need to keep us from doing what God is calling us to do. It doesn’t need to keep us from giving of ourselves for others, from speaking boldly of our faith, from opening our hearts to those who are different than we are, from living as followers of Jesus are called to live. Because God loves us, because God loves us so completely that he would give his Son for us and his Spirit to us, we can live above our fears. We can live obedient lives, lives that glorify God. That is what we can do. Amen.