Psalm 56:3

If I only had the nerve, sang the cowardly lion in the movie. If he only had the nerve, he could show his prowess, be a lion, not mouse, oh, he’d roar the way he never roared before, and then he’d ruffff and roar some more. So goes the song, If he only had the nerve. If I only had the nerve, I would be more open to change, quieter when unsure instead of more talky, more patient, less controlling, braver–if I only had the nerve. And you, how about you? If we only had the nerve, maybe the new worship theme “Be not afraid” could be a piece of cake.  Fear not! is the central message of these so very familiar Christmas tales of impossible dreams and shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night and the trip to Bethlehem and the giving birth in a barn and the magi journeys, and all the sweet Scriptures of this away in the manger most wonderful time of the year. In the Scriptures that phrase be not afraid is repeated something like 103 times– maybe because there are so many reasons why we might be. . .

Afraid of something, sometimes.  What are some of our fears?  Heights, death, losing a job or our mind or afraid of what next year will bring, or the diagnosis, the truth, someone else’s choices, success…afraid of trusting, being right, letting go, really listening.  Sometimes it makes sense to be afraid and we know why we are and sometimes it’s irrational– muscle memory and we wish we could just wish the fear away.  In the book The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow says to the cowardly Lion “It just isn’t right. The King of Beasts shouldn’t be a coward.” “I know it,” returned the Lion, wiping a tear from his eye with the tip of his tail. “It is my great sorrow. But whenever there is danger, my heart begins to beat fast.” “Perhaps you have heart disease,” said the Tin Woodsman, “But even if you have, you ought to be glad, for it proves you have a heart.”

A fast beating heart and fear may help preserve our lives–rightly-mediated fear shows we have a modicum of judgment. Something that makes me very afraid is to see a careless handsome youth careening around campus on a scooter with no helmet and sporting a ragged T-shirt with “NO FEAR” emblazoned across his precious vulnerable heart.  And I suspect that that is what the Lion expects to receive from Oz, not courage. What he wants is no fear because he’s not yet aware that fear and courage exist within and we learn them both together. Perhaps the fear engulfing me today will be the source of my courage tomorrow. Experience teaches us that courage is a process. Sometimes it is a medal-of-honor, carrying someone to safety while under fire kind of powerful. And sometimes courage is wiping your eyes with the tip of your tail, and going back out there to face personal failures or the brokenness of our beloved one, or continued violence we are called to confront, or that diagnosis that resists a cure. Courage comes in many sizes, shapes, and colors.

I believe courage is both a gift and a practice. It is both an individual search and a community mandate. Consider your own struggles when you are afraid. C.S. Lewis said after his wife Joy died, “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. So many roads once; now so many culs de sac.”  When I was growing up in the Sunday School, Psalm 56:3 was an important memory verse:  “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”  It is a good mantra. When I am afraid, I will trust. But what I wanted it to mean when I was young and sometimes still yet is, that God will magically swoop in from somewhere out there and protect me from whatever I’m afraid of, but what I think it really means is that when I am afraid, I can learn to practice trust –the trust that somehow, somewhere, in the crucible of unknowns and challenges, I will gradually learn a courage that is born in the presence of the fear. That I choose to trust the Christian teaching that love casts out fear and that ultimately, the strength of unrelenting love cannot be destroyed, even by death.

Buddhism teaches that one of the blessings of mindfulness is courage, for mindfulness faces full into reality and invites true presence: This is what’s happening in my life in this moment. It is not other than this. That is the essence of the abhaya, the “free from fear” mudra, the famous gesture of the Buddha where he holds up his hand, palm out. It is the blessing that says, “Be mindful. Be not afraid.”

And what helps my individual practices of learning trust and mindfulness in order to let of fear is sharing in community courage. For it is when we are reminded of what we have forgotten and are accompanied by each other on the road, that we are given extra strength to find the courage within us and all around us. In the remarkable reading in Isaiah 41:6, the prophet envisions the idea that even the natural elements pull together, evolve together, as challenges come. It says, “The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come. Each one helps the other, saying, “Take courage!” Do not fear, I am with you.” Through the stories of Scripture, it is in the seedbed of companionship that courage grows. God sends out the followers together to do brave impossible things with overwhelming odds.  Don’t be afraid to face down the huge army and the Pharaoh. Say: “Let my people go!” Don’t be afraid to share your food with the hungry poor, don’t be afraid to speak truth to power, don’t be afraid to speak your truth, to walk the second mile, to love your enemy, to liberate the prisoner, to welcome the stranger, to learn war no more.   (Pause)      Sit alone sometimes when the reality of what is must be accepted and find your courage, for there are times when we must face what is. And then there are other times when we are called to go forward together to work for courageous change.

I’m pretty sure that courage is not the same as no fear. Courage is sometimes the adrenaline rush that results in heroic rescue. But sometimes great courage is the slow seesaw balancing act of dragging oneself onward or encouraging another who keeps tripping over the same obstacle and falling in the same muddy puddle. Courage sometimes is facing the scaredy-cat truth about my own ego. Courage is sometimes admitting what cowardly lions we are, and roaring on anyway, as we lean into who we are becoming and how we will live mindfully, now that this has happened. We take hold of our lives, our souls, decide who we will be.

At the end of the book, the Lion enters the room and faces the Wizard. “I have come for my courage,” he announced. “Very well,” answered the little man. “I will get it for you.” He went to a cupboard and reaching up to a high shelf took down a square green bottle, the contents of which he poured into a green-gold dish, beautifully carved. Placing this before the Cowardly Lion, who sniffed at it as if he did not like it, the Wizard said, “Drink!” “What is it?” asked the Lion. “Well,” answered Oz, “If it were inside of you, it would be courage. You know, of course, that courage is always inside one; so that this really cannot be called courage until you have swallowed it. Therefore I advise you to drink it as soon as possible.” So the Lion hesitated no longer, but drank till the dish was empty.”  Be not afraid. For even when we do not recognize it as such, I believe that you and I have what we need—the courage is there…inside us, and we can find it, if we only have the nerve. Amen.

Prayer

May we be present to our fears and observe them as they instruct us. May we find ourselves be strengthened by the courage of Earth as she struggles toward life. May we offer one another hope and love. Amen