The Sky Isn't Falling but You Might Need an Umbrella

Psalm 46:1-7a
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At Grace, we are in a series of sermons looking at some of the most common fears that we all live with. Throughout the Bible, one of the most consistent things that God says to us is do not be afraid and this tells us two things – first, God does not want us to live with fear, anxiety and worry is not God’s plan or dream for our lives. But the second thing that the repetition of do not be afraid this tells is that we are afraid, a lot, so often that we need this reminder again and again and again.

This morning we are going to be talking about one of the nagging fears that we can struggle with and that’s the fear of the future, our fear that the sky is falling.

One rainy morning, Chicken Little was having breakfast and he read something on the internet that terrified him, a storm is coming and the sky is falling. Chicken Little was in shock, they couldn’t believe that the mainstream media was ignoring this! How could the sky be falling and CNN (the Chicken News Network of course) or even Flock News not be covering this story?

Chicken Little knew what he needed to do, so he posted that the sky is falling on facebook and sent an email to all his friends warning them that the sky is falling.

Chicken Little believed what he saw on the internet was true, because of course it was true, and it was raining outside too. The sky was falling, it was obvious but so many of Chicken Little’s facebook friends tried to say to Chicken Little the sky isn’t falling, it’s only rain, but Chicken little knew that those people weren’t his friends, they were part of the deep farm.

Franticly, Chicken Little went up and down the road telling anyone that would listen that the sky is falling. Gwen the Hen was running errands when Chicken Little told her the sky is falling. Gwen the Hen asked Chicken Little how he knew the sky was falling and when Chicken Little told Gwen the Hen that he saw it on the internet, she knew that it must be true, after all, a raindrop splashed on her beak. Gwen the Hen could feel the sky falling all around her.

So Gwen the Hen started to warn others with Chicken Little. They went down the road to the pond where they met Bruce the Goose. Bruce the Goose asked why his friends Chicken Little and Gwen the Hen were so afraid, “The sky is falling!” Chicken Little and Gwen the Hen said together. “I thought it was just rain”, Bruce the Goose said. “That’s what Farmer Fauci wants you to believe” Chicken Little shouted. Gwen the Hen chirped, “Have you seen Sally the Sheep since she was sheered? She’s just not herself anymore! If Farmer Fauci thinks sheering was so great, why doesn’t he let us do it to him?”

Bruce the Goose was convinced, the sky was falling and it was all Farmer Fauci’s fault. The deep farm was trying to do to all the animals what they had just done to Sally the Sheep. Chicken Little, Gwen the Hen, and Bruce the Goose, kept warning everyone that the sky was falling. They warned Penelope the Pigeon and Darcy the Duck, they told everyone they met that the sky was falling, and then they saw Frankie the Fox with their laptop.

“Why are you all so panicked?” asked Frankie the Fox. “You’re on the internet, haven’t you seen that the sky is falling!?” yelled Chicken Little.

“If you saw it on the internet, it must be true, George Washington said so,” quipped Frankie the Fox, “But don’t worry, if the sky is falling, we have to find a place to protect ourselves, we have to get underground, and I know the perfect spot. Follow me.”

Chicken Little, Gwen the Hen, Bruce the Goose, Penelope the Pigeon and Darcy Duck followed Frankie the Fox away from the farm, They walked over the river and through the woods until Frankie the Fox lead everyone into a big, dark cave.

The next morning, Chicken Little and all of his friends had disappeared and the cave was empty. I don’t know where Chicken Little, Gwen the Hen, Bruce the Goose, Penelope the Pigeon or Darcy Duck ended up, but I do know that Frankie the Fox was happily sitting under a tree, typing on their laptop, writing that the sky had stopped falling, but a Sasquatch was on the loose, what else could explain the sudden disappearance of Chicken Little? (Modified from Chicken Little at https://www.thefablecottage.com/english/chicken-little)

The good news is that the sky isn’t falling, but it doesn’t hurt to have an umbrella.

Our reading today is from Psalm 46 and while we don’t know exactly when this Psalm was written, we get the sense that it was written during a time when it felt like the sky was falling.

The Psalmist writes, “God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of great trouble. That’s why we won’t be afraid the the world falls apart, when the mountains crumble into the center of the sea, when the waters roar and rage, when the mountains shake because of its surging waves.”

In Hebrew poetry, ‘waters’ often represents chaos. In the creation poetry of Genesis 1 it’s written, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth – the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters…” The Hebrew phase for without shape or form is וָבֹ֔הוּ תֹ֙הוּ֙ tohu vabohu which is just fun to say. The poetic imagery in Genesis has God’s spirit, God’s wind and breath, hovering over a chaotic and empty sea brining order into the emptiness.

Psalm 46 was written in a time that was tohu vabohu, an era that was formless and void, without shape or form. Whatever was going on when Psalm 46 was written, people felt like creation was being undone, the mountains were falling into the sea, the waters roared and raged, yet the psalmist proclaims that God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of great trouble.

The Bible begins with God creating order out of chaos, in the midst of uncertainty and the raging depths of the waters, through the tohu vabohu God creates, God spirit is at working brining beauty and goodness into being all while calling this creation good.

It is not in the tohu vabohu of our lives that God is absent, it is in these waters that God is at work. And yet, even when we believe this, if it feels like the sky is falling, we can act like Chicken Little.

Just before the presidential election last year, the New York Times took a survey on fears that voters expressed. In this survey, more people were worried about the future of the country than themselves. Regardless of political affiliation, 57% of voters said they were very worried that the next generation would be worse off with another 26% responding that they were somewhat worried about the next generation being worse off.  The same survey showed that 54% of voters were very worried and 22% of voters were somewhat worried about losing our democracy.

What I found fascinating about this survey was that only 26% of voters surveyed said they were very worried about their community changing for the worse and only 31% of those surveyed were somewhat worried about their community changing.

83% of voters surveyed by the New York Times thought the future of our nation was in peril and the next generation is going to be worse off, and yet those same voters, for the most part, weren’t concerned about their own community. These voters expressed a national fear that wasn’t accompanied by a local concern. It’s as if those surveyed thought the sky was falling, but only over there where tohu vabohu is lurking.

We see this same national fear but local trust when it comes to polling the performance of Congress. On average, regardless of party, most members of congress have approval rates between 40 and 50% in their state. At the same time, when it comes to the national approval rating for congress, earlier this spring the national approval rating for congress rose above 35% for the first time since 2009 (https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx). Generally, the national approval rating for Congress hovers around 20% even though individually, members of Congress have an approval rating that is at least double that.

When it comes to the fear of the future, and the anxieties that we carry about how life will be, it’s not just that we can feel like the sky is falling, we can also imagine that those people are Frankie the Fox, either forcing the sky to fall or working us up with so much fear that everything might as well be falling apart. But let’s be honest, after a pandemic, an election that some still don’t believe was settled, with civil unrest and civil rights violations in our midst, it’s easy to not just be a pessimist, but to blame our pessimism on them. Whoever they are to you, it’s easy to think to ourselves that they are the problem, that those people are the source of our fears and sometimes, that’s true.

For example, Iowa is among numerous states that still allow what is known as the gay or trans panic defense in murder trials. The gay panic defense is an attempted legal defense where a defendant claims they acted in a state of violent temporary insanity because of unwanted same-sex sexual advances or flirtations. The gay panic defense assumes that defendants are so frightened by same-sex attraction that the very suggestion of it brings on a psychotic state characterized by violence. The Trans panic defense is also allowed in trials in Iowa where a person can claim that the gender expression and identity of another is so unsettling that violence, to the point of murder, can be excused by a court of law.

Infamously, the gay panic defense was used was used by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson after they brutalized, tortured, and murdered Matthew Shepherd.

Twice, the Iowa House of Representatives have voted to abolish the gay panic defense in Iowa, but the State Senate has refused to take up the legislation which means, legally, in Iowa, you can attempt to justify murder by saying that someone’s existence as an LGBTQ person made you kill them.

There are reasons to believe that the sky is falling because sometimes it is. Sometimes we just don’t feel tohu vabohu, we done’t just find ourselves in chaos, we know what and who is causing it. In these moments of chaos and disorder, we’re afraid because the world is falling apart, the mountains are crumbling into the sea and the waters rage, yet the Psalmist writes, “God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of great trouble. That’s why we won’t be afraid…”

What waters are raging around you? Is there a mountain that you’re trying to climb even as it crumbles? Are you afraid of what’s going to happen next?

If that’s you, I want to say don’t be afraid, don’t let fear define your future, but I also need to say your fear is known by God and as much as God says to us don’t be afraid, God can handle us saying we’re still afraid.

Half of the psalms are laments, meaning that half of the prayers and songs that make up this section of the Bible are prayers where people say to God you told me not to be afraid but I still am. On the cross, Jesus even quotes one of these psalms of lament saying, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Those are the opening words of Psalm 22. It continues saying, “Why are you so far from saving me – so far from my anguished groans? My God, I cry out during the day, but you do not answer, even at nighttime I do not stop.”

Expressing our fear and our frustration is just as biblical and just as faithful as reminding ourselves that God says to us don’t be afraid. If you’ve been with us at Grace over the past few weeks, as much as I’ve said to you don’t be afraid, I need to say to you today that fear will continue to be a feature of your life. Anxieties and worries will still arise within us all, and even when we say to God where are you, why have you forsaken us, why am I crying out by day and by night without comfort or consolation, God doesn’t hold it against us, better than that, God holds us close.

The hope of Psalm 46 is that even in the chaos of our lives, even when feels like the sky is falling and we’re surrounded by tohu vabohu God is still at work in creation and it’s not the end but a new beginning that God invites us to find goodness and potential in.

The good news about God’s creation is that we are not passive participants in this life. Psalm 46 draws on the poetry and the imagery of Genesis 1 where we are told by God to be co-creators, to be fruitful and multiply.

In Genesis 1, being fruitful and multiplying is about participating and extending the goodness and potential of this life, it’s about joining God in the goodness of creation that brings order to our tohu vabohu, not crumbling with the mountains, not roaring and raging with the sea, because we trust that God is with us and this holy help is always near.

If we trust that this grace is with us, can we extend it to one another? When we know that God will not hold our fears against us, why do we hold  our fears as frustrations against one another?

In Ephesians 6:12 it’s written, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Or as Abraham Lincoln put it in his inaugural address at the eve of the Civil War, “We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Our struggle is not against one another as much as it is against the evils that can infect us all. We know that there are reasons to fear the sky that seems to be falling around us, because it’s what we’ve spent weeks talking about together, but we also know that God is with us and fear doesn’t get the final say.

One morning Chicken Little was drinking their coffee and decided to check the news online. They saw a headline that said the sky is falling but then he checked the weather and grabbed an umbrella before running some errands. While out and about Chicken Little came across Gwen the Hen and she said, “Chicken Little, the sky is falling!” and Chicken Little said back, “Thank God, we need the rain.” Chicken Little noticed that Gwen the Hen didn’t have an umbrella, she was drenched. Gwen the Hen felt like the sky was falling, and for her, it was. Chicken Little knew that Gwen was afraid and the rain was only going to make her day worse, so Chicken Little gave her his umbrella.

Bruce the Goose saw the kindness that Chicken Little shared with Gwen the Hen and it made Bruce the Goose feel like the sky wasn’t falling. That moment of goodness and grace was fruitful and multiplied because Bruce the Goose saw that Penelope the Pigeon was lonely. Penelope the Pigeon felt like the sky was falling not just because it was raining but because she was alone, because she was alone she was anxious and afraid, she was even anxious and afraid about telling others she was anxious and afraid which only made Penelope the Pigeon more lonely. Bruce the Goose knew that he could solve all of Penelope the Pigeon’s problems, but if Chicken Little could try to help Gwen the Hen, then Bruce the Goose could make sure Penelope the Pigeon wasn’t alone.

Frankie the Fox kept writing on their computer about how the mountains were crumbling, how the sky was falling and everything crumbled into the sea, but Chicken Little, Gwen the Hen, Bruce the Goose and Penelope the Pigeon started to be honest about their fears. They told one another when they were afraid and they even told one another about their hope in the God that holds all things together. Chicken Little, Gwen the Hen, Bruce the Goose and Penelope the Pigeon started to notice that Frankie the Fox was making up stories. Frankie the Fox was lying to people online, so Chicken Little, Gwen the Hen, Bruce the Goose and Penelope the Pigeon said to Frankie the Fox, relax. They also said to Frankie the Fox, if you’re going to bring about chaos and tohu vabohu, then we’re going to create with God and try to bring goodness even out of this. Chicken Little said to Frankie the Fox, “When you lie, I’m going to keep you accountable, not because I hate you, but because I want to love you enough to be honest with you”.

If God is our refuge and our strength, a help near in times of trouble, so close that we don’t have to be afraid and even closer when we are afraid, we’ll be OK, even better than that, we’ll be fruitful and multiple as we extend and offer this grace to ourselves and one another.​

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Posted by GraceDesMoines on Sunday, July 11, 2021

Guide to Prayer & Study: July 12 – 17, 2021

Click on the day to expand the guide.

Monday

Read – Psalm 46:1-3, Psalm 113:1-8

Notice – It has been said that “the only constant is change.” But many times this idea of change brings with it uncertainty and fear. In the psalms, we find mention of the world falling apart, mountains crumbling and the sea (an ancient symbol of chaos and disorder) roaring and raging. But we also find the confidence that God is high over all the changes that cause us fear. God is always our refuge and strength. What experiences have you already had that made it feel as though your world was falling apart? Did you allow your faith in God to provide you with a stable place to stand as everything else seemed to be crumbling? What makes it valuable to build your trust in God before the next time when everything seems to fall apart?

Pray – God, I want to praise your name from sunrise to sunset because I genuinely trust that you are “high over all the nations.” Let my praise to you override my fear about any other realities. Amen.

Tuesday

Read Psalm 23:1-3, Psalm 96:10-13

Notice – The familiar King James Version of Psalm 23:3 tells us that God “restoreth my soul.” Along with “still waters,”, this translation of the Psalm may sound like a day at a peaceful spa. The Common English Version translates this same verse as God, “keeps me alive”, reflecting the fact that for sheep, water, and grass were not luxuries, but necessities for survival. King David, who had been a shepherd (cf. 1 Samuel 17:34-36), likely composed Psalm 23. He described God as guiding him (and all God’s children) “in proper paths.” Living as we do in a culture that places great store on our freedom to choose our own path in life, how easy or difficult do you find it to trust God to point to the proper paths for your life? How can confidence that you are on the proper path reduce your fear of change?

Pray God, You rule the universe, including our world—yet you will rule my heart and life only if I ask you to. So please guide my life, and direct me in the proper paths. Amen

Wednesday

Read Matthew 6:9-10, Mark 12:13-17

Notice Jesus’ enemies tried hard to ask him “no win” questions, where either answer would get him in trouble. Jesus’ answer tells us that the answer wasn’t as simple as “yes” or “no”. There was indeed a valid realm for “Caesar” (human authority), and a citizen’s duty to pay taxes fit into that. Yet God’s kingdom was a larger realm, and in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus clearly indicated that God’s kingdom commanded his (and our) ultimate loyalty. Rev. Matthew Simpson, in the funeral sermon for Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois said, “To a minister who said he hoped the Lord was on our side, he replied that it gave him no concern whether the Lord was on our side or not. ‘For,’ he added, ‘I know the Lord is always on the side of right;’ and with deep feeling added, ‘But God is my witness that it is my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.’” * Do you think Lincoln was correct to resist assuming that God would automatically favor whatever he decided to do? How can you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in discerning whether you are “on the Lord’s side” of decisions in your life?

Pray Jesus, guide me to a clear sense of what my loyalty to you and your kingdom asks of me. Help me to respect earthly authorities, but never more highly than I respect your authority. Amen.

  • From http://lincoln.digitalscholarship.emory.edu/simpson.001/, page 16.
Thursday

Read Psalm 115:1-2, 9-11, Acts 5:17-29

Notice – Hebrew poets often used repetition to stress the most vital parts of their message and the repetition of “trust in the Lord” in Psalm 115 is an example of that. Jesus warned his followers that, although they would face hostility from authorities, they should not fear those people (cf. Matthew 10:16-26). When the highest religious authority in Jerusalem ordered them not to preach or teach about Jesus, the apostles trusted in the Lord and said, “We must obey God rather than humans!” At the end of the gospel of Luke (of which Acts was “volume 2”), Jesus commissioned his disciples: “A change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in [Christ’s] name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:47- 48). When the council and the high priest ordered them NOT to preach, they saw the obedience question as crystal clear. Have you ever had to decide whether to obey God or some human authority? If so, what did you decide to do?

Pray Jesus, to your name, always, be the glory. Empower me to live a life that, in easy decisions and hard ones, glorifies you through my loyalty and obedience. Amen.

 

Friday

Read – Psalm 23:4-6, Psalm 46:4-7

Notice – The expression of trust in Psalm 23 did not promise that God’s people would never face painful, “dark valley” experiences. In fact, in common with other Biblical passages (e.g. Isaiah 43:3), it assumed that such times would come into all lives. The value the psalmists saw in trusting God lay not in being able to avoid pain and sadness, but in having God with us even in the darkest of times. We can think that something “pursuing us” is bad. Psalm 23 reversed that, saying, “goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life.” Were there times when you, like so many of us, tried to ignore or avoid God’s presence? In what ways have God’s goodness and faithful love pursued you even if you were trying to get away from them?

Pray – God, sometimes I forget you. Sometimes I try to ignore you. But I do not want to face this scary world alone. And I thank you for never giving up on me, but pursuing me with your goodness and faithful love. Amen.

Saturday

Read Revelation 17:9-14

Notice – At the end of the Bible, in visions packed with symbolic meaning, Revelation proclaimed Jesus’ final triumph over evil. In the first century, for Christians, the persecuting Roman Empire (Rome—the city on seven mountains, or hills) was evil incarnate. The vision gave Jesus a double title— “Lord of lords and King of kings.” It echoed a title Caesar often claimed. Jesus was king, Jesus is over all other kings, even Caesar. “The basis for the Lamb’s victory in 17:14 is that ‘he is Lord of lords and King of kings’…. Just as the Babylonian king [in Daniel 4] was addressed by this title, so the king of latter-day Babylon (Rome) in John’s day was similarly addressed…. The Lamb exposes as false the divine claims of the emperor and others like him.” * Rome was hardly unique. Human rulers have often claimed divine approval or status (e.g. Nazi soldiers wore belt buckles that said, in German, “God is with us”). Many rulers today, formal or informal, claim exalted status for themselves. Do you trust that Jesus is “king of kings” over all of them? In what ways is that trust the foundation for the peace and hope in which we can live at all times?

Pray Jesus, you are the King of kings, you are the Lord of lords. I cannot fully grasp all the reach of that, but I can and do ask you to be Lord of my life, to make me the person you want me to be. Amen.

  • G. K Beale and D. K. Carson, ed. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007, p. 1139.
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