Luke 12:6-9, 24-31

 Did anyone here get afraid in the last year and then it turned out to be much smaller than you feared? I am a major reactor. I come from a family of over reactors. My father was sure all his life that he would be laid off. Because he’s such a good guy, he worked harder to avoid the day which was all in his head to begin with. How would you like to work next to someone who is trying to work three times more than normal?

 There are many times in life when the big opportunity is also the big threat. I want to think today about the Wright brothers as they were getting ready for their first plane flight. I guess that I would have two fears. The plane might crash horribly and many of the early flights did. A lot of the earlier aviators simply used a leather vest to protect them if they were thrown from the plane.

 But the bigger fear is what if this thing really flies and gets out of hand. Instead of a small straight flight that lands quickly – what if it takes off and just keeps climbing. Show me any hero and I’ll tell you a story about fear of the unknown. This morning, The Times reports that 31 out of the first 40 pilots who delivered US airmail died in crashes.

 We all have these fears. The tragedy is for many people that their fear of the unknown grips and paralyzes them. There are good reasons to fear the unknown. The jobless recovery means that it is hard to find jobs. There are more companies cutting back on health benefits and sending jobs overseas altogether. God knows our fears better than even we know them and has compassion upon us.  We are going to look at words of Jesus to people who were paralyzed with fear of the unknown.

 These planes did not fly because they were this color or made mostly of cloth over wood. They flew because they knew how to respond to the design of the universe. Their wings and stabilizer used a design God made and now planes using that same design are even able to fly through the worst of storms. We’re going to look at Jesus’ words to get our lives responding to God’s design and we can start moving in life once again.

 How do you live with the constant reality that things are beyond your control and there’s really nothing you can do about it? Do you try and do everything within your power to control them, to control others, to control relationships, to try and keep some sense of sanity and control in your life? You can do that.

Or be in a bar or on vacation constantly. I am amazed at the number of people who are so stressed that they are counting the minutes to their next beer.

I want to look at Jesus’ understanding of fear of the unknown. Jesus lived with a sense of confidence and assurance . He also promised anyone who followed him could experience it. In the midst of all the chaos of life there can be total peace--not just a spiritual denial, but total peace.

You can see it in the way He lived. You can hear it in the words he said. You don’t have to be afraid over and over again. Jesus is saying, “You don’t have to be afraid.” You have to understand the context in which those words came. He was speaking to a people who had been under Roman occupation for years. They were under a political oppression, and he was saying, “You don’t have to be afraid.”

Riots were regularly breaking out right where Jesus lived. In his day, there was political uprising, riots, overthrows, people being executed, and Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid.” There was famine, starvation. There were intense amounts of poor, poverty, crippled and lame. Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid.” In the very real world that he lived in, he said again and again and again, “You don’t have to be afraid.”

The passage in Luke is simply the best word of assurance you can hear. “Look at the ravens: They don’t either plant or harvest or put food in barns, because God feeds them. And you are far more valuable than any bird.” Jesus said, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” Of course not. It doesn’t take Dr. Phil to figure this one out. Let’s read that again. “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” What’s the answer? Of course not. Then if worrying can’t do little things like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?

Jesus said, “But I don’t think you’re really fully getting it. Let me say it again: Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.” Now get this: “If God cares so much for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he most surely care for you? You have so little faith in this big God.” Jesus goes on to say, “Don’t worry about food, what to eat and drink.

There is a book called “Why Animals Don’t Have Heart Attacks.” I never even thought of that before. When was the last time on “Crocodile Hunter” there’s like a heart attack happening? Why is it that animals don’t have heart attacks and yet humans do? Why is it that flowers aren’t having mental breakdowns? Why is it that most birds aren’t in therapy? Do you know why? Because they have no issue with letting the Father be the Father. They have no issue of letting God be their provider and take of them every day, every week, every one of them. That’s what he loves to do.

My grandmother loved flowers and we had two acres of land when I grew up. On the side of the driveway was a line of peony bushes of white and pink mixed with white. Peonies start and by late spring, they begin to bloom. They doesn’t just burst into a flower. It’s very different. There’s this hard kind of shell around them.

The only way for peonies to bloom is if ants come and eat off this coating that is good for the ant. It gives them nourishment. Once they eat all that off, then the flower blooms, and it’s the most beautiful and like the most vibrant smelling flowers in our entire garden. Look at that. God cares enough about the ants to provide for their needs by coming and eating off the shell of the peonies.

I want you to take the paper that you were given when you came in and write love in one lower corner and justice on the other lower corner. Then turn the paper over and do the same thing again. These are the wings of your plane. Just like a plane, your life has a lot of freedom, diversity, and individuality, but in order to have your life go into the unknown safely, you have to have these two wings.

I want you to fold the paper in two as you see on the screen. And then make fold down the top two corners to the middle and the fold the two triangles right over. As you can see, your plane is now underway. Some of you are quite good at this and some of you really will need flying school, but this plane is guaranteed to fly and it already has the reasons written on it, love and justice.

Love and justice make up the character of God. Both wings are needed. All heresies and false religions lose either one wing or the other. And sadly, there is a growing group of Christians who have not heard about either. Living the Christian life is all about life with God. If your life is striving for the qualities that God has, then your future is secure. You may not be able to see through the fog or the night, but your two wings of love and justice will keep you true.

You can’t fly without wings. So many Christians do not have a passion for love or justice. You can’t seek the protection of God if you don’t want to live like God. Moses writes in Deuteronomy 10:18 “Execute justice for the orphan and widow and love the stranger”. Psalm 72:7 prays that ‘righteousness flourish and peace abound” Friends, I want to call our church to a new passion for love and justice. We are a good church. We treat people who come well. If you are visiting this morning, we’ll greet you. But our giving as a church needs more passion and our going out to invite others needs more passion. We need to be sold out to God for love and justice.

If you can say that you spend five minutes each day thinking about how to be a person of love and justice, then I can promise you that you are under that care the God offers the sparrows and lilies and much more than that. We have got to take the five hours a day that we spend worrying about the unknown and use that to build our wings of love and justice.

Now I want you to fold the corners over again to the middle so that they leave a little triangle of paper. And then fold that triangle up. And now leave almost an inch at the front and then a nice fold to make the final wing. And some of you didn’t fold perfectly, so you’ll love the last steps. Fold one more little triangle at the front, and now tuck it into the body.

You need more than the wings, You need a stabilizer which keeps the direction true and that is the Kingdom of God . God is passionately correcting what went wrong with creation. In the 20^th century humanity killed 160 million people in war and Christians start or fought in most of those. Somehow we have tolerated a faith that does not understand God’s passion to stop war, to end injustice, and to abolish hate.

Jesus came to preach the kingdom of God in Mark 1:15. That is where we are going to a new heaven and a new earth. Our destination is the Kingdom and our wings are love and justice. If you have those three things, then you can get through the unknown. I really hope that you hear this because there are people here who are living less of life than your potential. The fear of what could happen is paralyzing you. It’s keeping us from knowing who you truly are and even worse, its bringing depression to your life.

Set today as the day that you will place your mind and energy on directing your life where God is so clearly going, remember that God cares for the lilies and delights to care for us and relax and enjoy the ride.

Oh, I forgot, there is one more little thing that is required. There has to be a moment where you tell God, ok, Im going to trust you and this better work and then you actually start doing something.

 I want everyone to take their plane and say together ‘to the kingdom’ and throw these things. You won’t get anywhere with life unless you start.

Now I hope that everyone had something to throw. And now I want us to pray so that we will lose paralysis and face our fear of the unknown and get God’s help. The first step into the upside down kingdom of God starts by us bringing who we are and releasing our control to God. I know that’s how it starts is to come as we are and say, “God here’s the stuff I’m holding on to. Here’s my fears, here’s the things that I’m trying to control because they seem like they’re outside of my control.  “God, I want to come to you and release them, because I trust in you, Father. I trust that you’ll do it. Some of these have plagued me my whole life, but if I’m going to live in your kingdom and if I’m going to know you as Father, I have to release them to you. Give me the courage to keep going and new comfort that you will provide.”