Sunday Sermon with Dr. King #12
Antidotes for Fear
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”
1 John 4:18
“In these days of catastrophic change and calamitous uncertainty, is there any man who does experience the depression and bewilderment of crippling fear, which like a nagging hound of hell, pursues out every footstep??” (p. 119). This is the opening of this week’s sermon, but can also be applied today – 60 years later**. In this blog series, focusing on the sermons of Dr. King (and I’m getting sad that it’s almost over) has been so eye-opening as a business woman in the field of racial equity and social justice. It has been cathartic as a Christian woman. It has been revealing as a lover of history because the Dr. King portrayed in the mainstream is a very different man once you’re deep in his original writings, instead of random quotes. [Disclaimer #224,567,645 - Please read his original work and don’t just rely on these blogs]. Strength to Love* contains 15 sermons that have been giving me so much personal and professional insight that I’m truly grateful. Today is no exception. Today is about fear - its causes and its antidotes.
Dr. King begins with the quote above and separates out normal fear vs. abnormal fear. He discusses phobias such as fear of “water, high place, closed rooms, darkness, loneliness…” (p. 120). He also, once again, discusses fear of nuclear war, which seeps into many of his sermons because I guess this was a top concern at the time. Dr. King also stresses that fear is a necessity for protection, creativity, and can be normal. However, abnormal fear paralyzes us, or “constantly poisons and sitorts our inner lives” (p. 121).
Dr. King shares four ways to master fear: 1. by facing them, 2. through courage, 3. through love, and 4. through faith. First, facing our fears means to question the root of why, which most times lies in childhood memories. Secondly, “courage, the determination not to be overwhelmed by any object, however frightful, enables us to stand up to any fear” (p. 123). Thirdly, love, from which the title verse comes, casts out all fear, including “fear of war, economic displacement, and racial injustice” (p. 124). One fear that Dr. King describes that I must magnify and write again about it more in depth in the future is this: “A guilt-ridden white minority dears that if the Negro attains power, he will without restraint or pity act to revenge the accumulated injustices and brutality of the years” (p. 126). This is a present day reality as the former minority groups will soon, as a collective, become the majority. However, Dr. King explains that reassuring this fear with love and nonviolence is a solution to this particular fear. Lastly, faith is the biggest antidote to fear, according to Dr. King (and I agree). I will end with the excerpt below to exemplify why he feels this way (p. 130-131).
p. 130
p. 131
*King, M. L. (1963). Strength to love. New York: Harper & Row.
**https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/draft-chapter-xiv-mastery-fear-or-antidotes-fear