A Message for Easter
… and it’s not about being fearful. It’s about hope and the power of faith.
Do you know of the one passage in the Bible, the one that tells us to be fearful of everything and to hide under our blankets, full of anxiety?
No?
Strange.
Neither do I.
But — do you at least know that one Bible passage that tells us to shake like a leaf, to gnash our teeth and, stiff with fear, not to move?
Also not?
Me neither — I don’t know of any passage in the Bible that tells us to act like that in the face of danger.
Well, why then are we so fearful?
Things to fear are all around us
Bad news pour down on us every day. The media are full of fearful news, catastrophes and scandals. The social media on the Internet are teeming with bickering, hatred and aggression — even more so now, in the time of the Corona pandemic.
The Greta Generation, that is our students and schoolchildren, lament the loss of their adolescence and of their future because of their climate fears.
Every second German worries about his or her financial security in old age. The threat of terrorism, a world policy that could get out of joint because of the American President, a German state that is unable to deal with the refugee issue, are further top fears that are published in regular surveys such as the “Sorgenbarometer” — worry barometer or the “Angstbarometer” — fear barometer. These are polled again and again in Germany and Switzerland, and have been for the last ten years.
Also, how are we supposed to earn “our daily bread”, our family income, in a world of digitization, robots and artificial intelligence that take all our work away from us?
And how are we, as a family and a society, going to survive the Covid-19 pandemic? What will the world look like after the virus has run its course and laid waste to it?
Do we still want to live in such times full of threats? Do we still want to experience this future that will be dominated by worries and fears? Is it still ethically responsible to have children today and to expose them to this future?
The most basic emotion of all: fear
In the face of such boogeymen and threats, fear is a completely natural reaction.
If a tiger should suddenly sneak in here, an escape full of fear would be the reaction that shows that I am a normal person. But a debilitating fear would be devastating in such a situation.
Oh, how lovely the good old days of the Bible were. Back then everything was very different. Everything was easy, nothing but flowers and butterflies, bellies were filled, milk and honey was flowing, couples were loving and faithful, children were good and there was nothing but sunshine.
Oh, that is not in your Bible?
Why then do we always believe that everything was better in the past, why do we grieve with nostalgia for a past that never existed, and why do we complain so much about the bad times we are supposedly now experiencing?
My Bible tells me of times when horrors and needs were not phantoms that frightened us, no, they were very real and specific. Yes, you heard it right, the Bible is a terrible book that bluntly and relentlessly tells us about terrible times in the past. And these, actually, are not stories suitable for children.
For example, around 400 Bible passages recount stories of wars, just under 400 tell stories of death, over 100 passages report of illnesses and around 100 of hunger.
Countless other stories tell us about murderers, robbers, adulterers, rapists, fraudsters, evil kings and merciless enemies.
But the Bible is also a book of inspiring stories about major changes, about homelessness and flight. Noah had to build an ark. Abraham had to leave his home. Jakob had to flee to Egypt because of a great famine — from today’s perspective, he was an economic migrant. The people of Israel were deported to Babylon and the young male elite were probably castrated there and humiliated as eunuchs. Josef, Maria and Jesus were already on the run shortly after Christmas, after the original Christmas was probably neither emotional nor romantic, but simply poor and miserable.
So now, what is the Bible’s answer? Is it fear, grief and worry?
Oh no — although these emotions are brutally present and real. In my Bible, I find the word “fear” over 70 times. People experience fear, that is quite normal. The people in the Bible, including Christians, and even Jesus and his disciples, also experienced fear.
But, the biblical answer to this sensation of fear is “Fear not”.
Incidentally, in my Bible, I find this call to remain steadfast more then 100 times.
Worries and Fears
In the autumn 2009, I realized, as the newly elected President of the “Swiss Association for Future Research”, how influential the “Sorgenbarometer” (worry barometer) and the “Angstbarometer” (fear barometer), yearly statistics done by major Swiss banks, are in politics and in the media, how much they shaped the public perception.
The professional world and the media have been obsessed with the “German Angst” phenomenon. It was then that I first asked myself: how should I, as a Christian, deal with this phenomenon of anxiety?
So I delved into those more then 100 Bible passages that encourage us to remain steadfast. And I remembered the three Christian virtues of Faith, Love and Hope.
In doing so, I realized that Hope in the Bible is not defined as an emotion and also not as a value.
Hope is a virtue.
Unfortunately, “virtue” is a terribly old-fashioned word that we can hardly understand today.
After ten years of my research of hope, I prefer to use the word “competence of hope”. Because of our studies, we recognize that hope has a lot to do with deliberate decisions, with realistic behavior and inner attitude.
Finally, while discussing in the research team, I realized that we Christians are defining as a community of beliefs and that we invest a lot of time and commitment in our churches and at our Bible schools and universities to find the right beliefs, to argue about the right beliefs, and to make it clear that we have the right set of beliefs but the others have the wrong one.
The apostle Paul, however, in his first Letter to the Corinthians, in Chapter 13 Verse 13, teaches us not only faith, but the triad of Faith, Love and Hope.
And so I went looking for for like-minded friends to start the “Barometer of Hope”-project. For the past 10 years now, we have been carrying out large internet surveys every autumn to researche peoples’ hopes for the future.
We started in Switzerland, but by now, we have also conducted our survey in France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, Norway, even in Israel, South Africa and India. Three scientific books have been written so far. With this survey, and together with other universities and scientists, we are researching, year after year, what hope really is and how hope works.
Is Hope a Feeling?
Hope is not a feeling that is simply there or not. Hope is not an arbitrary emotion that just comes and goes suddenly. Hope is also not an abstract value that we can discuss theoretically and without obligation.
Hope is a virtue, or rather a competence. Therefore I can deliberately choose hope, learn how to hope and learn how to live hope.
So: should we just sit back and pray together hoping that God will straighten things out while we pray? Should we just wait, and watch, and hope that our young ones will find their future again?
Oh — this passage is not in your Bible either?
Exactly, the Bible tells us nothing about hope and prayer as passive virtues! Christian hope and Christian prayers are active. My will, my own commitment and skills, my prayers and my trust in God go hand in hand.
My trust in God, i.e. my belief in a good and loving God, encourages me every day to stand up, take fears seriously and face problems — but also to comfort, to encourage, to help others and together to overcome challenges.
My hopes, in one way, depend very much and are part of the evident reality — but, in another way and at the same time, I kneel very close to my God.
We are human beings — and that is why fears and problems can be very real and concrete in our lives: whether it is fear of death from accidents or serious illnesses, or the unjust way of rationalizing the job, or the shame of not being able to pay an invoice. Whether it is the breakup of your own marriage or the despair of burnout or depression.
Hope gives us the courage to get up every morning. Hope gives us the will to live and the belief that this life makes sense and that it is a gift from a good and loving God.
Despite our fears. And despite all the problems that are constantly being propagated in politics and in the media, at get-togethers and in the neighborhood.
Come with me. Let us together get up and go. Let us seek this hope, let us live this hope. Our faith is part of our identity. Let us work together to ensure that this hope also becomes part of our Christian identity.
Oh yes, that is indeed in our Bible. Start searching for those passages yourselves. And then — get going so that we can shape this future together. And also, so that the Greta Generation can reconnect to their lost adolescence and look forward to their future!
