Third Sunday in Lent, 2009

Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“The Fear of God”

“I was compelled to leave the room. A deep, undeniable summons disturbed my sleep; something holy called me. The only sound was the rhythmic ticking of the clock on my desk. It seemed vague and unreal, as if it were in a chamber, submerged under fathoms of water. I had reached the beginning edge of slumber where the line between consciousness and unconsciousness is blurred… Asleep, but not yet asleep. Awake, but not alert. Still vulnerable to the inner summons that said, ‘Get up. Get out of this room.’

“The summons became stronger, more urgent, impossible to ignore. A burst of wakefulness made me jerk upright and swing my legs over the side of the bed and onto the floor. Sleep vanished in an instant, and my body sprang into resolute action. Within seconds I was dressed and on my way out of my college dormitory. A quick glance at the clock registered the time in my mind. Ten minutes before midnight.

“The night air was cold, turning the snow of the morning to a hard-crusted blanket. I felt the crunch under my feet as I walked toward the center of campus. The moon cast a ghostly pall on the college buildings, whose gutters were adorned with giant icicles….

“The chapel was in the shadow of Old Main Tower. The door was made of heavy oak with a Gothic arch. I swung it open and entered the narthex. The door fell shut behind me with a clanging sound that reverberated from the stone walls of the nave.

“The echo startled me. It was a strange contrast to the sounds of daily chapel services where the opening and closing of the doors were muffled by the sounds of students shuffling to their assigned places. Now the sound of the door was amplified into the void of mid-night.

“I waited for a moment in the narthex, allowing my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness. The faint glow of the moon seeped through the muted stained glass windows. I could make out the pews and the center aisle that led to the chancel steps. I felt a majestic sense of space, accented by the vaulted arches of the ceiling. They seemed to draw my soul upward, a sense of height that evoked a feeling of a giant hand reaching down to pick me up.

“I moved slowly and deliberately toward the chancel steps… Each step resounded [from the stone floor] as I reached the carpet-covered chancel.

“There I sank to my knees. I had reached my destination. I was ready to meet the source of the summons that had disturbed my rest.

“I was in a posture of prayer, but I had nothing to say. I knelt there quietly, allowing the sense of the presence of a holy God to fill me… An icy chill started at the base of my spine and crept up my neck. Fear swept over me. I fought the impulse to run from the foreboding presence that gripped me.

“The terror passed, but soon it was followed by another wave. This wave was different. It was a flooding on my soul of unspeakable peace, a peace that brought instant rest and repose to my troubled spirit. At once I was comfortable. I wanted to linger there. To say nothing. To do nothing. Simply to bask in the presence of God.

“….I was alone with God. A holy God. An awesome God. A God who could fill me with terror in one second and with peace in the next.”

What R.C. Sproul was experiencing is what people in the old days used to refer to as “the fear of God.” In the climate of the Church today that sounds like a very archaic way of speaking indeed – like a relic from the past. But Sproul tells of this life-transforming experience he had with God as a college student, and which completely changed the direction of his studies to the point that he eventually entered seminary and into the ministry of the church – he tells this story as the opener for his amazing book titled, The Holiness of God. If you haven’t read it, you need to. A couple of Lent’s ago some of us went through the video series based on the book, and we can still remember Dr. Sproul’s vivid description of that incredible scene in the beginning of the book of Isaiah where Isaiah is suddenly confronted with a vision of God in all his transcendent majesty. And the seraphim with their six wings- those most holy of all the angels - worship God crying out antiphonally over and over, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.” And smoke filled the temple, and the doors shook… and Isaiah fell on his face as a dead man and cried, “Woe is me, for I am undone!.. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of host.”

You see if, as Dr. Sproul points out in his book, holiness is the chief description in the Bible of who God is in all of his attributes, then fear is the chief attitude of response we find in the Bible to an experience of His holiness. As a matter of fact, “the fear of the Lord” – that phrase that we hear so much throughout the Bible – is the way the Bible describes the whole set of emotions and attitudes men and women have, or should have, in relation to God, which includes things like awe, and reverence, and wonder, and respect, and love, and obedience. Fear is sort of the overarching attitude of response in human beings as they come into contact with the holy God.

We heard it today in our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy chapter 6, where Moses says to the people of Israel, “These are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of the life, and that your days may be prolonged.” And then we hear what Jesus called the greatest commandment of all: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” But this, the greatest of all commandments - to love God - comes within the wider context of calling the people of God to fear the Lord that they may keep all His commandments.

As so many of you have been working on reading the Bible in ninety days, you’ve seen how this theme of the fear of the Lord is repeated over and over throughout the Old Testament. I love the passage in Exodus 20 where God’s presence is revealed on Mt. Sinai is the cloud and the smoke and the lightning and earthquake, and the people are terrified and want to run away as far as possible. And Moses says something that sounds at first almost contradictory. He says, “Do no fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” In other words, don’t let that sense of dread at the fearful signs of God’s presence overwhelm you. But be in awe; have that sense of reverential fear that will motivate you to obey his commandments and will keep you from sinning.

That’s the kind of fear the Bible calls us to as we grow in our relationship to God. It’s what the great Presbyterian scholar John Murray describes as “the fear which consists in awe, reverence, honor and worship, and all of these on the highest level of exercise. It is the reflex in our consciousness of the transcendent majesty and holiness of God.”

In the book of 1 Kings chapter 17 we’re given this very succinct summary of the covenant God made with Israel, what it was really all about: “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice.”

All through the Psalms this theme is brought forth even to a whole new level. In Psalm 5 David says, “I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward your holy temple” (v.7). “Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him” (Psalm 33:8, 9). “Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth” (Psalm 96:9).

The Psalms also describe the blessings that comes to those who fear the Lord. “Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him,” it says in Psalm 85:9. “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord…[for] He will bless those who fear the Lord” (Psalm 115:11,13).

Of course, one of the most familiar sayings of the whole Bible comes from the Book of Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). It also says in Proverbs that “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.” (Proverbs 14:27)

And in the last verse of the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon says, here is “the conclusion of the whole matter;” here’s the bottom line of everything I’ve been trying to say in past twelve chapters: “Fear God and keep His commandments for this is man’s all.” 12:13 This is man’s all, says Solomon: to fear God and to keep His commandments.

You see, it is fear that the Old Testament describes as the chief and overarching attitude of response in human beings as they come into contact with the holy God.

And yet, still we chaff a little - don’t we? - at the thought that our number one response to God should be an attitude of fear. Even Christian leaders today struggle with whether it is still appropriate for us as Christians to fear God.

Jerry Bridges wrote a book called The Joy of Fearing God, and in it he describes the response he received from a pastor to that expression: “The joy of fearing God? That’s an interesting combination of words.” What he probably meant was, “How can anyone enjoy fear? More to the point, how can anyone enjoy fearing God? Christianity means a relationship with God, but how can you have a relationship with someone you fear?”

Such questions, says Bridges, betrays something of the current state of Christianity. “There was a time,” he says “when committed Christians were known as ‘God-fearing people.’ This was a badge of honor. But somewhere along the way we lost it.”

You see, we wonder whether with the coming of Christ in the New Testament, and the new relationship we have with God through Him, that we haven’t moved beyond fear as the chief attitude of response to God, to love as that chief attitude of response. “Perfect love casts out fear.” Isn’t that what it says in 1 John? And doesn’t that imply that Christians are no longer to fear God; that Christians have in a sense been delivered from the fear of God that we might simply love Him?

Well, that all sounds very logical and reasonable, but it might be better if we listened to what Jesus himself had to say on the matter. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says to his disciples before the go out into the world to preach the gospel, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus doesn’t soft-peddle the issue; if anything, He ramps it up another notch.

And this isn’t just pre-Pentecost; all through the New Testament Christians are called to practice this kind of godly fear. Acts 9:31 - “The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” St. Paul in 1 Corinthians says that it’s precisely because we have been brought into a new relationship with God through Christ, and have received better promises through the New Covenant than they had under the Old, that we should fear the Lord. “Therefore,” he says in chapter 7, “having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

There’s also his very familiar dictum in Philippians: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But I think most profound of the sayings about the fear of God in the New Testament is the one we read in the book of Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (12:28).

Our God is a consuming fire! In other words, don’t you know who we’re dealing with? Don’t you know who we’re coming before as we approach Him in worship? Don’t you know who’s watching you every moment of your life, and who will be your Judge at the end of your life? Our God is not one to be trifled with. Our God is not one we can approach in casual or cavalier way as if He’s just our big buddy in sky, or some kind grandfatherly figure. NO! Our God is holy. Our God is awesome! Our God is a consuming fire. And therefore we must approach him awe, and reverence, and honor, and fear.

And yet, perfect love casts out fear. How is what I’m saying not a contradiction of what John says there? We’ll it’s just this: that all fear is not the same fear. Let me see if I can illustrate it this way: I have a healthy fear of a Mack truck barreling down the road. I know what awesome power it has, especially in relationship to someone as puny as me. I know the law of inertia, that it’s not something that can just stop on a dime. And that kind of power and energy inspires in me a kind of awe– a respect that makes me very careful of the way I act around something so powerful. But as long as I stay at the side of the road a moving Mack truck doesn’t make me feel dread or terror. But if I get in its way, then it’s a whole other ball game. Then I would rightfully experience dread, because in a coupe of seconds I’m going to be road kill, and they’re going to have to scrape me off the pavement.

But you see it’s like that we God as well. Christ has brought us into a new relationship with God. He has propitiated the wrath of God towards us for our sins, which literally means He’s has diverted it away from us by taking the whole brunt of it Himself. It’s like you were spun out in the middle of a narrow bridge and a Mack truck was barreling down ready to plow into you, but at the last second somebody else swerved into its way and took the full force of the impact and diverted it away from you. That’s what propitiation means. And that’s what Christ did for us. And that’s why we don’t have to be in terror or dread of God, so long as we remain in Christ. Perfect love has cast out all fear in that sense. But we still should be awe, and respect, reverential fear of God’s awesome power and transcendent holiness.

Do you see? That is what the Bible calls us to. We are called to be “God-fearing people.” And it’s that kind of fear that will inspire in us those right responses of honor and worship and obedience and love for our holy and awesome God. +