Fearless Faith: God Makes All Things New.

A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on September 25, 2016.
The seventh in a sermon series on Facing our Fears through a Life of Faith.

Romans 8:26-28, 35-39
and Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Before Stephen Colbert took over the Late Show from David Letterman,
he had a wildly popular parody show
over on Comedy Central called The Colbert Report.

He based it on the talking heads, personality driven programs on CNN and FOX News
bombastic ideologues who talked a big game
who stood tall on behalf of their ideals
against a wave of “misguided opposition.”

The show’s opening splashed all sorts of superlative words on the screen
words meant to be about him, Stephen Colbert
astonishing
brilliant
 self-evident
 all-beef (that confused me,
it must have been a play for cattle country)
 strong
 honorable
all these words splashing on the screen
 while Colbert stood there with a big American Flag
 as a red-white-and-blue bald eagle flew by
 screeching on cue.

Colbert Report HD Show Opener from Canal Creatures on Vimeo.

 

It was a satirical take on both the state of our news and our pundits
and on us, those of us who read and watch such things.

Colbert was meant to be brazenly bold and always right, always sure
there was no weakness, no Achilles heal
no blemish in his armor
no matter the facts or evidence to contradict him.

He was kind of the archetype of the fearless, self-made, powerful man
all the way down to his pressed power suits
someone who believed it and who knew it and who strutted around to show it.

Now, there’s a lot to analyze there, and maybe more on another Sunday
but the surprising thing about Stephen Colbert’s character
was this: for all his posturing, for all this gravitas
for someone who was, seemingly, so self assured
so right,
so perfect in his point of view
there was ONE THING
that he could be human about
there was ONE thing that he admitted scared him, and it was this:

BEARS.

Bears scared him.
He had this recurring thing, maybe once a week,
where he talked about seeing bears,
how they were a nemesis that had to be taken out
or something to hide from.

And why not, Bears are scary.
This summer, when our family travelled to Jackson, Wyoming
we were introduced to the dangers of Bears
and all the things designed to keep them away
Bear Bells, attached to your backpack
Bear Spray, don’t hike without some
but also don’t let it go off accidently. [Read more…]