Fear and Trembling

Sermon delivered by Rev. Tamara Lebak, Assistant Minister, Oct. 28, 2007.

There is an intensive rehabilitation program that takes troubled teens away from their current environments and their families and throws them into the wilderness with other troubled teens and a group of counseling/survival staff, sometimes for months. Through learning survival skills, the teens learn about their own struggles and gain self-confidence. Before being released, each camper must be taken blindfolded into the woods and left alone to camp overnight. Each fends for his/her own food and fire, and must face their own fears, both internal and external. Alone with no distractions, they journal and think, sing and pray, and write letters to those whom they have harmed and to those who have harmed them.

Jesus also often went into the wilderness to pray. At one significant juncture, he was led into the wilderness alone and was tempted by Satan.  What could be more frightening than to have to prove who you are, when someone is doing his/her very best to prove otherwise? What could be more frightening then to doubt even our own intentions?

What you do with fear when it strikes you at your depths? How are you renewed and re-grounded? What can we learn from this program and the temptation of Jesus when we are facing our own fears? How do you nourish yourself so that you can stand tall in the face of fear to have the strength to (figuratively) say: Get thee away, Satan!