Indiana Jones would never again have seen daylight and would not have gotten out of the quicksand without overcoming his fear of snakes. Peter Parker would never have scaled the pinnacles of skyscrapers as Spider Man without overcoming his fear of heights. Chief Brody would never have gotten in the boat to pursue the giant white shark without overcoming his fear of water. Heroes become truly free to be heroes only when they overcome their fears.

Parker Palmer, in his book, Courage To Teach, attempts to help us understand how fear really does control how we act and, in fact, how it serves to disconnect us from each other. He is writing from the viewpoint of an educator when he says that our educational system too often discourages us from living connected lives. He writes how on the surface it seems obvious that grading systems and honor systems separate teachers from students. He writes how Departments fragment fields of knowledge; and at various levels how competition makes students, faculty and administrators suspicious of each other.

He goes on to say that it is easy to blame intuitions and regulations for our disconnectedness, but such a view only perpetuates the myth that the outer world is more powerful than the inner world.

I think what he is saying is that so much of our "disconnectedness" in life and so much of our estrangement from others is rooted in fear. Palmer admits that he is at his worst as a teacher when he gives into fear-fear of evaluation, fear of being manipulated by students, fear of being compared to or critiqued by colleagues. He also realizes his own fears are matched by the fears of his students-fear of failing, fear of not understanding, fear of being drawn into issues they would rather avoid.

Finally, what he gets to by the end of the book is his belief that fear prevents us from becoming the persons we are called to be.

And although I would add that fear can sometimes be healthy-some fears can help us survive and learn and grow-to know the difference between healthy and unhealthy fear becomes a critical intersection in one's life.

So, in today's Gospel, Jesus tells us three times-not once, not twice-three times, Jesus tells us, "Have no fear;" "Do not fear;" "Do not be afraid."

There's something pretty important going on here, and Jesus isn't talking about being afraid of snakes, or heights, or water. He's talking about how fear softens, sanitizes, and stagnates discipleship, the inference being that genuine discipleship is not a cake-walk to pretty music.

In this 10th Chapter of Matthew's Gospel, the writer shapes a number of sayings of Jesus into a set of instructions for the apostles before they are sent out on a mission. This is not an easy Gospel text on which to preach without stirring up the very fear that Jesus seems so intent on preventing.

It really does sound as if Jesus is sending his apostles out on a dangerous mission. With references to words told in secret, bodies killed, things being uncovered, swords being unsheathed, oaths of loyalty-this all sounds like it belongs in an espionage film. I can almost see the tiny cassette tape going up in smoke as the tape player disintegrates, and the Mission Impossible music begins as the disciples prepare for an impossible mission. However....we need be careful not to dismiss too lightly or too quickly, what is being said here. The fact is, what we hear is exactly how persecuted and oppressed communities like Mathew's, living under the thumb of the Roman Empire, would talk when in the midst of rejection, criticism, and violence, as they are thrown out of the Temple, as they have begun to be martyred, as they anticipate and count on the day of vindication, the day of salvation.

In the meantime, following Jesus is a costly thing to do, and to not be controlled and not be hindered by fear is most clearly on the lips of Jesus and on the minds of the community out of which Matthew's Gospel is written.

And I would suggest that this message is just as relevant today. Fear paralyzes a person. Fear wears us down. Fear cripples us more than any disease ever could. fear takes sound judgment and turns it into a sponge. It takes sincerity and turns it into sweet talk. fear tempts us to sell our souls in exchange for false security.

fear of criticism, fear of ridicule, fear of being different, fear of authority-all these have the potential to steer us toward self preservation and personal comfort, away from lived discipleship as bearers of the Good News.

The fears that maintain, promote and sometimes even preserve separation among persons and between groups of people is just as powerful today as it was in the time of Jesus. The need for a radical discipleship that moves us beyond whatever fears there are which control us, beckons us this morning!

But our text does not stop there!

There is an elegant claim this text makes on each one of us! "Not one sparrow will fall to the ground apart from the Father...even the hairs on your head are counted...." Such a claim reminds us of the one, most important identity that continues to shape and form each one of us: we are children of God. We have been claimed by God in Baptism. We have been signed and sealed by the Cross of Jesus Christ. Such is our true identity and all other relationships grow out of our one, true, marvelous identity as Child of God.

Because we are God's children, God calls us from the future into our future, and therefore, we need not fear the future. We are called to faithful witness and persistent discipleship, only rightly understood if we see our trials against the backdrop of God's abundance and generosity. fear need never control our lives because we claim our identity as a child of God, gifted with God's all-encompassing, never-ending and unconditional love.

If we forget God's generosity, then we do have reason to fear. If we forget God's unwavering steadfast love, then we do have reason to be afraid. If we forget that, "...just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life," then we do have reason to fear.

If we ever forget the very thing that, even when we fail to live as faithful disciples makes discipleship possible-that God first loved us-if we ever forget God's love for us, and please God that we never do-then we would have reason to be afraid.

Please hear the Good News: fear need never take control of our lives! My friends, even in your most difficult, disconnected, dark and demanding times; even in your struggles and times of labor, I pray and I hope you will never disbelieve, never distrust, and never doubt God's generous, abundant, unending and unwavering love for you. Be not afraid! You are a child of God! Know this! Believe this! Go, be my disciple! Amen.