Ash Wednesday was all about hearing the phrase “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” and being reminded of our mortality.  Hearing the phrase and having the cross traced on your forehead in ashes has a lot of gravity to it.  If you don’t think so, try being the one that says it and traces the cross and says it to small children and babies.  Remembering that we are mortal is not a bad thing, but I think that throughout the history of humanity we have seen death as an arch rival.  One of the most impressive considerations of the topic of death was presented in the seven book, Harry Potter series. We find that the chief antagonist’s ultimate drive is the fear of death.  His name seemed suspicious to me early on in the series so I looked for linguistic meaning in it.  I found that it roughly translated to “flight from death”.  It turns out that all the atrocities that he committed were part of a plan to escape death, his greatest fear.  At one point later in the fifth book there is an exchange between Dumbledore, Harry Potter’s mentor and Voldemort.  “There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!”  “Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness–“  Later on Dumbledore gives an indication of the thing far worse than death.  Voldemort lived in a sphere of fear.  He lived in fear of death and ruled through inflicting fear.  People were even afraid to say his name.  The thing that is worse than death is living without love.  I think if I said “give me the opposite of love” everyone would reply “hate”.  But I kind of wonder if the opposite is more “fear.”  Our fears drive us inward, a lot like Voldemort, making us capable of resorting to the extremest of measures to get a sense of safety.  Fear can drive a sense of singular survival while love is about bonding and togetherness.  There are those in the Book of Daniel that are jealous of Daniel and are trying to entrap him.  It says, “So the administrators and satraps conspired and came to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever!  All the administrators of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an interdict, that whoever prays to any god or human, for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into the den of lions.   Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open toward Jerusalem, and to get down on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise him, just as he had done previously.”  In the face of fear, Daniel lifted up his voice.  Jesus was in the midst of a bad time.  This week he hear that immediately after an awesome baptismal moment he was driven out into the wilderness and tempted by the devil.  Upon his return, the next thing that happens is that his cousin, the one who had baptized him, is arrested.  Faced with this news, faced with fear, Jesus’ reaction is to immediately lift up his voice and immediately begin to proclaim the gospel.  How did he and Daniel manage this?  I think it has to do with God’s promises.  We hear about the bow in the clouds in the Noah story this morning and how it reminds us of God’s faithfulness to God’s promises and covenants with us.  We see the source of Jesus’ strength and courage which offers us the same assurance and propulsion to lift up our voice in the face of fear in some of the promises that Jesus made to us.  “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”, and I am with you always, and “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you”and I will send the Holy Spirit to you.

And lastly, “Now this is the will of the one who sent me—that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up at the last day.  We see Jesus’ actions, ministry and pathway to the cross fully reliant on God’s covenant of grace. The love that God in Christ has for the world cat aside the fear of death.  In the word it says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  And Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” and “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” and “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”  It has been said that the most dangerous person in the world is the person who has nothing to lose.  Faith in these promises overcomes our fear of the grave.  In our baptism we are already victorious.  This empowers us to lift up our voice to pray, to proclaim the gospel, to sing, to speak out against oppression.  For example, Music was fundamentally important during the civil rights movement.  Musicians and songwriters set life experiences, calls for justice, and equality to melodies and rhythms of perseverance and hope. These songs served as a means by which individuals were bound together for extended marches, sit-ins, and protests. Song would prove psychologically empowering when their “good trouble” actions were met with hostility and brutality. 

Consider the experience of professional gospel singer Jamila Jones of Montgomery Alabama who as a teenager went to the Highlander Folk School in New Market Tennessee for nonviolent activist training. As Jones recalls in her interview, Highlander was raided by the police, who had the city shut off all the lights in the building. She talked about not knowing where anyone was.  You were just where you were when the lights went out.  She could only make out billy clubs and the glint of weapons.  She wondered where her sister was.  Then she  found the strength to sing out into the darkness, singing a new verse to a hymn they had just learned, “We are not afraid,” to the song, “We Shall Overcome.” Others started to join in.  She said she could then tell where her sister was because she always sang a little out of tune. “And we got louder and louder with singing that verse, until one of the policemen came and he said to me, “If you have to sing,” and he was actually shaking, “do you have to sing so loud?” And I could not believe it. Here these people had all the guns, the billy clubs, the power, we thought. And he was asking me, with a shake, if I would not sing so loud. And it was that time that I really understood the power of our music.”  I believe the power actually resides in the reliance on God’s promises.  The promises we hear in the gospel, in the word, in gospel music and the ones receive in the sacraments.   As Martin Luther pointed out in A Mighty Fortress, God, himself, fights by our side.  We are not alone in the darkness of life.  In speaking of lifting our voice to the darkness, I am reminded of another line in that great hymn in speaking of the devil.  “One little word subdues or fells him”.  OK, I had to overcome some fear myself on this one.  I have always been sort of afraid to admit that I didn’t know the word, or to say it out loud and let everyone know.  It’s Martin Luther’s song.  I’m a Lutheran pastor and I was afraid it was a stupid question.  As it turns out, in cracking open the door a bit, I have found that plenty others don’t know either.  We all have I think intelligent guesses, but I think most have turned out to be wrong, at least as far as Luther’s intent.  The children’s sermon answer that every pastor expects to every question and, truthfully pops to mind the quickest is “Jesus”.  But I think that turns Jesus’ name into some sort of magic word, and besides the demons in the Gospels had no problem speaking Jesus name.  Spiritual warfare is not a Hollywood movie.  I let go of the fear of not knowing, a ridiculous fear in the first place to do a little research.  As it turns out in one of Luther’s writings titled Against Hanswurst Luther tells us the one little word.  The word is “Liar”.  The devil uses fear to assault us.  We hear him, You are unloved. Liar.  You are unworthy.  Liar.  You are unforgivable.  Liar.  You are weak and fearful and have already lost.  Liar.  Satan is the father of lies and they are the weapon of choice and each lie is intended to inflict fear of our unworthiness, of scarcity, of want, of each other.  Liar.  Not buying into the lies strips evil of its weapons.  We must sing out into the darkness, “Our God is a God of abundance, of truth, of light, of life of love.  We are not afraid, deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome darkness– with the light of Christ– every day.