The Gospel According to Luke (Cage)

The Gospel According to Luke (Cage)--July 5, 2017

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother of sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." [1 John 4:18-20]

We all have this untapped superpower, resting within us, and waiting to be unleashed.  It's true.  Sometimes it just takes a while for us to think it through and to trust that it is real.  But when we do... look out--the world gets turned upside down.

I have been re-watching the Marvel TV series "Luke Cage"--I say re-watching because although I jumped in with both feet when the show was first released on Netflix a year or two ago, my wife is sorely behind in her comic-book-inspired superhero TV watching and now in the days of summer she can catch up on this very important work.  I should confess that until our kids started watching Spider-Man cartoons a few years ago, I had never even heard of Luke Cage (also known from time to time as Power Man in the comics), even though he has been around as a comic book character since the early 70s.  At least in the Netflix series, Luke Cage is given both superhuman strength and indestructible skin.  And in the arc of the show's first season, Luke comes to realize that since he can't be stopped by bullets, he doesn't have to be afraid of facing the bad guys head on.  

So there's a great montage in one episode where Luke Cage goes around to all these local bad guys who have stolen things from his neighbors in Harlem, and without any anxiety or rage, he just walks right through their gunfire and takes back the things that have been stolen, so he can return them to their rightful owners.  He will take bad guys' guns (or even the guns of misguided friends who think they need weapons to win) and crush them in his hands, but he will not shoot back or kill them.  He will take whatever shots they aim at him, but the bullets bounce right off of him.  Luke Cage is a hero in a bullet-hole-riddled hoodie who doesn't run away from doing good because he is no longer afraid of what anybody can do to him.  And because of that, he is completely free.

And the more I think about it, the more I let that image of the bulletproof hero in the hoodie roll around in my mind, the more I think this version of Luke Cage makes for a powerful picture of the people caught up in Jesus' movement of mercy.  I don't mean to suggest that following Jesus makes one bulletproof, or immune to the sorrows, troubles, or difficulties of life.  No, not at all--and despite what the televangelists and radio preachers peddling their latest books may say, believing in Jesus is not a ticket to health and wealth.  But what I find so captivating, and so illuminating about the image of Luke Cage walking through the rain of gunfire with his head held high is the way his freedom from fear leads him to do good to others around him.  Being free from fear of what anybody can do to him leads enables him to help... to defend... to protect... in a word, to love.

This is the connection that today's verses from First John are making as well.  For the people of God, there is no longer any need to be ruled by fear--and once that sinks in, we find ourselves courageously entering into the troubles, heartbreaks, injustices, and broken places of others to accompany people there.  John starts with the idea that genuine love--God's "perfect" love--casts out fear, like a demon being exorcised.  And then John makes a crucial point: "for fear has to do with punishment."  So often, we let ourselves be ruled by fear because deep down, we are afraid of some kind of punishment or pain.  Sometimes it is a fear of the pain of being laughed at, rejected, excluded, troubled, or getting picked on if we dare to live the love of Jesus.  Sometimes the fear is that God is out to zap us.  Sometimes it's all of the above.  As much as we may say we believe the Gospel's promise that we are "saved by grace through faith apart from works," there is still some nagging voice inside us whispering doubts to us.  "No, that's too good to be true!  You can't really count on God's totally free forgiveness--you can't really believe that grace is real!  There must be a catch!  Something you have to DO to earn it!"  We struggle with this nagging guilt that we aren't really acceptable after all, or that God's love really turns out to be as conditional as a contract, rather than a free promise and a total gift. 

But John keeps point us back to the scandalous notion of love that really is unconditional.  And if we dare believe that--if we dare believe that God isn't looking to punish us or zap us, well then, Sweet Christmas! we are freed.  If we dare believe like Paul could say to the Romans, "I am convinced that nothing--neither height nor depth nor things present nor things to come nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus," well, then, all of a sudden, we don't have to be afraid of what anybody else can do to us, either.  And when I am no longer petrified over some fear that God is looking for reasons to shoot me with a lightning bolt, and no longer afraid of what someone else will do or think because I dare to live by the love of Jesus, well, then, I am free to head back into the world to do good... to love others, to offer welcome to people who have been told they don't belong, to speak truth where it needs to be spoken, to listen to those waiting to be heard, to bind up the brokenhearted, to share the sufferings of someone else. 

And in a very important sense, even though we aren't bulletproof, the followers of Jesus are part of an invincible (ultimately) movement to gather all things, all people and all creation up into the love of God.  We are meant to be people who are no longer afraid of "what people will think" or "what looks reasonable" or "whether we look like winners or losers to others."  We no longer have to be afraid of God watching over our shoulders to threaten us or punish us--we have been promised that we are permanently and unchangeably accepted in Christ.  And when we really take that seriously, when we no longer fear what anybody else can do to us and when we really do trust that God is unconditionally "for us" as a gift of grace, we don't just stay put behind closed doors.  We go out, into a dangerous world and a rain of violence sometimes, but we go... because we are no longer afraid.  God's love has cast out fear... and as people no longer ruled by fear, we are free to love.

When you and I catch ourselves withdrawing again, turning our faces away from others, ignoring the suffering of others, or pretending we don't have to deal with them, what if we would stop and ask ourselves, "What am I really afraid of here?  And why do have I have to be afraid of it any longer?"  After all, if it is true that nothing can separate us from the love of God--nothing at all, not even our own worst mess-ups or lingering guilt or fears of being unacceptable--if it true that we are unconditionally loved, we simply don't have to be afraid anymore.  And we are able, with our heads held high, to step into the face of danger to bring the presence of love.  The love of God leads us beyond the country of fear.

That is the superhuman ability placed in your hands today.  That power--the power to love fearlessly is waiting to be unleashed on the day ahead.

Lord God, let your mercy make us free from fear, so that we can love as boldly as you do.