Breaking the Cycle of Fear - Second Midweek Worship in Lent
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 19, 2025
Historically
there are cultures that have trapped monkeys in the wild. They would take a jar
and put a hole in it large enough for the monkey to put its hand inside. Inside
the jar is something the monkey really wants, often rice or another food they
just simply can’t ignore. The monkey puts its hand
into the jar and grasps the rice only to realize that it can’t get its hand out
again. Mind you, the hole did not change size. The opening is the same size it
was when the monkey put its hand in. The only difference is, now the monkey’s
hand is closed around the rice. The hole is just large enough for the open hand
to enter but too small for the closed fist to pull out. The monkey gets trapped
because it sees something it wants and won’t let go, thereby jeopardizing itself.
The writer
Kurt Vonnegut observed there is no greater enemy to happiness than the sense of
not enough, the feeling we need to have more or be more in order to live with a
sense of fullness. Perhaps we like the man in the gospel cannot imagine our
lives without the wish to improve them, or without the progress myths that
inform so much of what we do or we want. (We don’t tend think of ourselves as
wanting what we are already). There is in most of us a gap in some way between
the real and ideal, between the life we have and the life we desire. We too can
be in bondage to consumption and afraid to let go. And that fear spreads to how
we see each other.
Jesus looked
at the man and said with such compassion and love that if he wanted to truly
live, he should sell everything he had. And he had a lot. That is a letting go,
but then Jesus tells him to give that money to the poor. The same people he
could have been helping all along since he had so much. He’s spent his whole
life trying to secure his life. Giving it away would be giving away his whole
life’s work and how people saw him. Imagine how much fear and insecurity that
would create if he didn’t control at least something to lean on.
He was
clutching his status and identity as much as anything else. And maybe clutching
his ideas that God blesses those who work hard, like he did. God blesses those
who follow the rules like he did. So imagine instead of one hand in the jar, he
has two hands striving to hold all he holds close. Those hands have no room for
anyone else, not even God.
Wait a
minute, Pastor. The man said he kept all the commandments every day of his
life. He went to worship; he checked off all the boxes on the religious to-do
list. Yes, it is true. And I suspect even more than asking what he had to do
thinking there was something, maybe the man wanted Jesus to affirm that he
already was “good” as in “you’re good.” Gold star. But I suspect too that while
this man was so busy being “good” it had become an independent project. And
that truth be told, he hadn’t much paid attention to why God called him to do
what he did.
And over time
what may have started out as a spirit of devotion may have become something
else. Something that really didn’t need others. Something about him. This is
where he lacked.
He probably
thought as we might, if he truly gave away what he had, what would happen to
him? But Jesus looked upon him and loved him and saw that in some way what he
held closest was taking away life. His and others. Even more than all the
things and all the ideas about how life worked, the single largest thing he
most needed to get rid of was fear. The focus of our podcast this week, the
very thing that can seem like it’s killing us from the inside out as we clamor
to hide or protect or save our very self at all costs.
If we allow
our identity to be changed, won’t something inside us die? If we let go of what
we have worked hard for, won’t we struggle? If we relinquish our insistence on
how things have to be, won’t it be chaos and uncertainty? If we release our
grip on it all, won’t we become powerless and overlooked?
Like the
poor?
What if Jesus
is looking at us and saying, “the things to which you cling, the ones that if
you let go will feel like death- Let go and follow me. You think you will lose
too much, or it will hurt too much, or you won’t have the strength to bear it.
Let go.” The thing you lack is the
insight to perceive that the God who brings life from death and hope in the
wilderness, the God whose promises you speak in worship, really does mean those
things. In this life and into eternity- its why this symbol of the cross is
here. Whatever it is, Jesus can lead us through it.
Worry divides
the mind. In Greek, “worry” is actually a compound of two words which mean- to
divide the mind. Anxiety splits our heart and energy between today and
tomorrow. Which means that today we end up only half living. Not whole-hearted.
Here we are
like the monkey and the jar. Jesus is looking at each of us and sees the things
we fear most and what those fears are capable of doing. Maybe it is a thing we
are clinging to so tightly, or maybe it is an idea that we cannot imagine
letting go of. There are people who so identify with their job that they cannot
imagine who they are without it. Maybe it is a belief that we cannot imagine is
actually no longer serving us. Maybe it is a well-established mistrust that
clouds our vision. So, what is that for you?
And do you
possess what you are holding, or does it possess you?
Of course,
the truest transformations mean that we cannot see what lies on the other side
fully or some days even in part. And this is why God gives us each other. On
any given day, one of us may be seeing really clearly the path of following and
trusting and someone else may really be struggling. It takes all of us
continually encouraging each other to remember that whatever seems to have a
hold over us that is not grounded in the love of Christ can be let go. To
affirm what God has done and is doing in us so we can believe that we are
beloved already. To help each other break the cycle of fear that a divided mind
perpetuates.
We have ample
examples in our lives and our world of what happens when we cannot let go of
our divided minds. But remember that Jesus knows all too well the feeling of
temptation and desolation and comes to us to remind us that God is our refuge
and strength and a very present help in trouble. Jesus assures us he is here
with us to make the burden lighter and the path easier.
None of that means
we escape life’s challenges, but every word of God reminds us none of us are
ever left alone by God or unloved. This is powerful hope for us, and our
calling to embody as a faithful witness in our daily walk by God’s grace.
We really can
break that cycle of fear and walk in love.
Amen.
Copyright
Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2025 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced
in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon
Text: Mark 10:17-30
17 As he was setting out on
a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what
must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said
to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You
know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud.
Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 He said to him,
“Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus,
looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own,
and give the money[a] to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When
he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many
possessions.
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