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- Scared to Death: A Sermon for the Waldensian Festival Weekend in Valdese, North Carolina
The 51st Waldensian Festival was held this last weekend in Valdese, North Carolina. Matt Matthews, the co-pastor of the Waldensian Presbyterian Church preached this sermon yesterday to mark this special weekend.
What makes you really afraid? And how do you move through your fear?
Peter Steinke tells a story about visiting a friend’s new house. On their tour of the back yard, they round the corner of the garage, and his friend’s German Shepherd barges up, tongue and tail wagging, wanting to be petted.
Peter froze in terror.
When he was a kid, Peter was terribly attacked by a dog—specifically, a German Shepherd—and ever since then, he’s been petrified of dogs, even those with friendly faces and wagging tails.
Some people feel that way about snakes, or hospitals, or the dark, or heights, or thunder.
Some are terrified of the water.
Peter was a fisherman, so he probably wasn’t afraid of the sea. But those who work on the water are the first to tell you that they have a healthy respect for the sea. One must be safe on the water lest it swallow you up.
So, when Jesus asks Peter to step over the side of that boat into the stormy sea, even Peter, the fisherman, must have been afraid.
We learn some things about facing our fear in this story of walking on waves.
First, what makes us afraid does not make God afraid. What makes us afraid does not weaken or diminish God. Jesus could walk on those waves. God is sovereign even over the waves of trouble.
Second, God comes to us in our time of trouble. Some believe this is the biggest miracle of all: Not that Jesus could walk on water, but that Jesus chose to walk on water and to come to us when we feel we are sinking.
Third, when we focus on Jesus, our fears ease. Peter walked on water when he looked at Jesus. When Peter looked at the waves, he began to sink.
So, when God calls us into the storms of life, we can go with courage because God’s power transcends the storm, and God goes with us.
* * *
I’ve been thinking of our Waldensian brothers and sisters.
Valdo/Waldo was a wealthy Christian who had a basic and even radical belief in Jesus the Christ. He was deeply inspired by Jesus in the New Testament.
Jesus told the rich man in Matthew’s gospel, sell what you have and follow me.
Valdo did follow.
To underscore his faith and his faith in God alone, he renounced his worldly goods and chose to live as a beggar.
He and the society that formed around him, the Poor of Lyon, built their lives around Jesus alone, and this put them at odds with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Poor of Lyon believed that scripture was more important than church hierarchy. They believed that scripture should be translated into the language of the common people, not just the educated elite. They believe scripture could and should be preached by laypeople. They believed that priests should live a life that looked a lot more like Jesus’ life. They believed in traditions of scripture, not in the traditions and theologies that, to them, felt made up, traditions like purgatory.
The story of the Waldenses can be compared to a small boat on a troubled sea. In every storm, the Waldenses called upon the name of Jesus. They set their sights on the face of Jesus. They made their song the psalms: I life up my eyes to the hills; from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121).
The religious and civil powers of these Middle Ages saw the The Poor of Lyon as a threat to the powers that be. The Poor of Lyon known also as Waldenses were excommunicated by Popes, persecuted by inquisitions, herded and hunted and executed by those who wanted to keep the church pure and free of dissenters.
And through it all, Waldensian Christians focused on faithfulness to Jesus Christ, not on what they called religious “institutions, hierarchy, and ornaments” (p13, Waldensian Museum, Historical Section, Torre Pellice, Centro Culturale Valdese).
They trained Barbas (their name for “uncles”) who went out two-by-two sharing the Good News of this Jesus who comes to us in the storms of life and has the power to walk even on the waves.
While they weren’t against the church of the day, the Waldenses did stand against religious corruption and what they saw as infidelity to Jesus. In turn, the Roman Catholic Church called the Waldeses infidels because Waldenses refused to follow many of the ways and customs of the church.
Other religious movements had begun to be woven into (and out of) the Waldensian movement: The Cathars, Hussites, Taborites, and those groups that sprung from the Reformation, followers of Luther, Frederick the Elector, Calvin, Zwingli, Butzer, and others.
With the invention of the printing press less than 100-years-old, the ideas of reformation spread like forest fire pushed by winds of change.
Many of you have stood at the stone monument at Chanforan in the Angrogna Valley marking the spot where the Barba gathered as a synod in 1532 and joined forces with the Reformers on the other side of the Alps.
By this time, many Waldenses had settled in the Piedmont of northwestern Italy, which many of us have visited. In his history of these valleys around Turino, Rev. Jean Léger describes a land “created like a theatre for many wonders and which (God) had prepared . . . to protect . . . the church of Christ . . . against all torrents of persecution” (p. 31, Waldensian Museum, ibid).
The steep mountains and twisting terrain, did not, however, protect the Waldensian Church.
On the Piedmontese Easter of 1655, French forces sacked and devastated the Pellice Valley, massacring over 13-percent of the population (p. 46). After thirty years of limited Waldensian rights and in 1687, the Duke of Savoy gave Waldenses the choice between converting to Catholicism, settling in Vercelli, or emigrating to Switzerland. This purging is known as the Exile.
And this weekend, here in Valdese, North Carolina, we are celebrating the “Glorious Return” of 1689 with our Waldensian Festival. In late August of that year, over 900-exiled Waldenses fought their way ‘back home’ through nearly 200-miles of mountains and French troops from Geneva to their valleys in the Cottian Alps.
* * *
A caveat at his point in the sermon needs to be made: Waldenses weren’t perfectly good, and Roman Catholics weren’t perfectly evil. But they were at odds and their history is, to say the least, fraught.
Much can be said—for many, many hours of preaching—about Waldensian history. I apologize I’m such a bad historian and boring preacher. But you get the point I’m making.
And this is my point: Our Waldensian brothers and sisters simply wanted to worship God in ways that they thought best honored God. They wanted to serve their neighbors in the manner of Jesus. At the center of their theology was the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They wanted to follow Jesus faithfully and as closely and biblically as possible.
As they faced trial after trial, storm after storm, I can’t help but to wonder how this passage from Matthew’s gospel might have comforted them: We disciples often find ourselves in a small boat on a big, storming sea. We find ourselves in places where we are sore afraid. We find ourselves in positions that feel untenable, inhospitable, unsurvivable. We find ourselves weak and weary and wanting to give up and run away. We find ourselves nearly swallowed by the storm. We find ourselves in places of fight-and-flight-and-freeze where fear and fright shake us to our core. We find ourselves in places where we are scared to death.
Our Waldensian brothers and sisters have been in that boat with the disciples on that stormy sea.
We’ve been there, too.
And we know this is true: God is not weakened by the storms that shake us. We are not alone in the storm. God chooses, in fact, to be with us; even the waves cannot keep Jesus from joining us and faithfully standing with us. Because of these truths, we can have courage to face the storms and follow God’s call into any fire and over any mountain.
To these truths we can cling.
And for these truths we can sing.
AMEN.
The following description of the Waldensian Festival comes from the Town of Valdese’s website: The Waldensian Festival, held annually in August, is presented by the Town of Valdese, North Carolina, each year to commemorate the heroic Waldensian people who founded Valdese in 1893. The Waldensian Festival honors the Town’s unique heritage with a variety of events that fill the quaint downtown with over 15,000 visitors and residents during the 2-day festival celebration. The Friday night kickoff features live music, a classic car show, amusement rides, and a special presentation of the outdoor drama From This Day Forward. The weekend continues on Saturday when Main Street is lined with over 170 food, art, and craft vendors, amusement rides, a bocce tournament, an open art competition, attraction tours, street dances, and live music throughout the day.