“Walking Through Lent with Jesus, Part 2: Resisting Fear” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, March 16, 2025, Year C / Lent 2 - Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 · Psalm 27 · Philippians 3:17-4:1 · Luke 13:31-35

THEME:  Trust in God and his love for us in order to complete our mission to share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
 

Have you ever known someone who was absolutely determined to do something difficult? Someone who, despite significant obstacles, was convinced that not only could they do it, but they would do it? I suspect we all have. When I think of someone like this, the first name that comes to my mind is Sir Edmund Hillary. Do you know who that is?

On May 29^th, 1953, four days before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Edmund Hillary and a Nepalese Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay became the first human beings to set foot on the summit of Mt. Everest, the world’s highest peak. It was an awe-inspiring feat. To climb Mt. Everest, you have to overcome extreme altitude, lack of oxygen, brutal storms, and fast-changing weather. Then, there are the technical challenges:  climbing steep ice walls, traversing deep crevasses, not to mention hiking up an average slope of 45 degrees carrying heavy equipment. It is the very definition of an uphill slog. It takes a huge amount of determination. And Edmund Hillary had plenty of that.

As a boy growing up in New Zealand, a school trip to one of his country’s highest mountains inspired his passion for mountaineering. After a brief attempt at college, he found himself back home working in his father’s apiary business. He quickly found that being stung by bees dozens of times every day was a lot less fun than climbing mountains. So, he set out to see the world. With a group of friends, he went mountain climbing in the French Alps. After serving in the New Zealand Air Force in WWII, Edmund continued to climb mountains. In 1951 he was recruited by fellow climbers to join the British expedition to climb Mt. Everest. He and Norgay were selected as one of three pairs to attempt the dangerous, grueling assault on the summit. After another pair of climbers failed to reach it, it was their turn to try. And they made it.

Later, when asked how he was able to accomplish this incredibly difficult mission, Hillary said, “I believe I epitomize the average New Zealander.  I have modest abilities.  I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed.” When he says determination, he is really talking about motivation. There are all sorts of traits and habits that people point to when they are analyzing someone who has achieved a difficult mission. Focus, hard work, resourcefulness, resilience – and the list goes on. But they tend to forget the single most important factor of all: having a goal that is truly worthwhile in the first place. Only a mission of the highest importance will motivate us to make the sacrifice required to achieve it.

That was surely the case for Jesus. 

A group of pharisees approach and warn him about the danger he faces from Herod, Rome’s puppet ruler of Galilee. “Herod is out for your head,” the pharisees tell him, “And you know he is serious, because he did the same thing to your cousin, John the Baptist.” This group of pharisees are friendly to Jesus, unlike others. They are not simply trying to be rid of him. They are genuinely concerned. In their minds, Jesus should be afraid, very afraid. Most people would heed this warning and get out of Dodge quick. Herod had all the backing of Rome behind him, and that is saying a lot. His reputation for using violence to keep the people in line was well-established. But Jesus is clearly not afraid. In fact, his response is almost flippant. “You tell that fox that I’ve got work to do, important work. I have demons to exorcise, and people to heal.” Only then will his mission be fulfilled. As he has already hinted several times, it will be fulfilled in his death.

Besides, he has yet to reach Jerusalem, his destination. Jerusalem had the reputation as the place where Israel’s prophets met the strongest resistance, including violent persecution. When Jesus longingly thinks of Jerusalem, he is lamenting the long history of rulers who refused to heed God’s voice spoken through the prophets. The voice calling them to repent and return to God’s ways.

Do you hear the determination in Jesus’ voice? It is as if the completion of his mission in Jerusalem is inevitable, a foregone conclusion?  He is absolutely determined, and no one is going to stop him. The question for us is what motivates Jesus to be so determined?  The answer is the nature of his mission, and the one who gave it to him. The same is true of you and me. Our mission is much the same as the one God gave Jesus. We, too, are called to sacrifice in order to share with others the good news. In Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God’s love, the Kingdom of God has come near. Now is the time for repentance. In this season of Lent, you and I are keenly aware that repentance begins with ourselves.

We are not called to die on the cross. Jesus has already done that for us. Instead, we are called to offer our lives as a living sacrifice. That means prioritizing God's will and the needs of others over our own desires. It means demonstrating love and compassion, especially for those whom Jesus prioritized, the least and the lost. Anyone who has ever made a sincere effort to live this way will tell you, this mission of ours is not easy. Our determination to see it through is directly proportional to the strength of our motivation. As Edmund Hillary said, “You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do (big) things . . . You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.”

So, then what is it that motivates us as Christians to carry out Christ’s mission of loving others? One thing is clear: it is not fear. Fear is not a motivator for us, any more than it was for Jesus. In fact, unless your life is in imminent danger, fear is a lousy motivator. There are far better ones. When it comes to undertaking the challenging mission of loving others, the best, most powerful motivation of all is knowing that we are loved. We are made for love. The best-selling author and social researcher Brene Brown says, “We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong.”

That is the key. Love creates connection.  We were created in love, by the God who is love. Love connects us with our Creator. Knowing that we are loved – trusting and actually feeling that we are loved - is the source of our motivation to love others.  The connections that love creates are unlimited and unpredictable. They extend and expand in the most surprising ways and in the most surprising directions.  That is what Edmund Hillary found out.

By the time he and Norgay came back down to base camp, word of their accomplishment had already spread. Almost overnight, the two became worldwide celebrities. Less than two weeks later, Queen Elizabeth knighted Hillary and awarded Norgay the George Medal, for civilian actions of conspicuous bravery. Despite all the media attention and popular adulation, what mattered most to Hillary was the connection he had formed with Norgay. It was a reciprocal connection of deep filial love.  It blossomed to include all the sherpas who were essential to their success. Eventually, it motivated Sir Edmund Hillary to extend the connection of brotherly love to the Sherpa people.

In 1960, Hillary established the Himalayan Trust, a non-profit organization focused on improving the lives of the Nepalese people.  Under his leadership, the Trust built schools, hospitals, and health clinics in Nepal. Over the years, the Himalayan Trust expanded its work to touch the lives of yet more people. It sponsored the building of airfields and bridges, and the restoration of monasteries. It was a mission of love that touched the lives of people Hillary had never known by improving education, healthcare, and infrastructure in the Himalayas. Later in life, Hillary said, “I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest . . . But there is no doubt, either, that my most worthwhile accomplishments have been the building of schools and medical clinics.  That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.”

Friends, the same is true for you and me. We are on a lifelong mission of love. When our time on this earth is over, the most enduring footprints we leave are not the marks of our own accomplishments, but the connections we make by sharing Christ’s love with others. What gives us the motivation we need to do that is our trust in God and his love for us.  That is what gave Jesus the determination to complete his mission. 

If we are going to complete ours, that needs to be our motivation, too.

May it be so.