On Defiance of Fear
March 16, 2025
Traceymay Kalvaitis
Psalm 27 1-4
The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.
Luke 13:30-35
Jesus said, “Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me,‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
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Today’s sermon is titled On Defiance of Fear.
In 2013, 400 square miles were burned in what was then the largest wildfire in California’s history. The fire spread through large areas of Yosemite National Park; I am sure you remember. In the following year, I was visiting a Friend, and while I was looking at her recent family photos on her refrigerator, I just happened to read a newspaper article that was among the photos. I’ve never forgotten the story and I suspect I never will. It was written by a firefighter who was working in Yosemite after the fires were contained. He was on a mop-up crew. I knew, from my own fire training with the Forest Service, that the tedious work of the mop-up crew was to go meticulously through areas that had been burned and bust apart anything that could still be smoldering. This includes tree stumps and roots. Basically, anything that sticks up above the surface has to be leveled, first with a swift kick and if that doesn’t break it apart, a fire tool called a mccloud is used, which is a pick on one end and an extended hoe on the other. The firefighter was moving through the charred landscape, kicking and digging and scraping. He kicked over a mound of burnt material that was the size and shape of a loaf of bread, standing on end, and out from under it scurried 6 little chicks, perfectly feathered and very much alive. They were very young grouse.
It is not the way of wild things to perish in order to save their young. Wild things know that if they survive, they can reproduce again, so their instinct is to flee to safety. It is painful to imagine how a grouse could muster the will to remain still, against every instinct of survival, as the fire raged around her with her 6 young chicks under her wings. What an act of defiance it was to stand her ground, to protect the life under her wings.
Reading our scriptures for today brought that incredible story back to my mind. In the words of the psalmist, “Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident…in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent.”
Do you hear the unwavering sense of security in this passage? Even against very real threats, the psalmist finds security in the invisible presence of God, experienced as a safe shelter. Such trust is, in itself, an act of defiance.
Defiance is defined as “proud and determined resistance to an opposing force.” In recognition of March being Women’s History month, I lift up today, along with Jesus, a woman named Dorthy Day. She is a woman who, like Jesus, paid a price for her defiance; she paid a price for daring to assert that women should have the right to vote. Had this been in the 1700’s when the democratic experiment was taking shape, one might understand how it would have been an uphill battle, but it was more than 100 years later, in the last years of the 1800’s when American women began to organize around the right to vote. In 1913, three days before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, women suffragettes organized a parade past the White House in Washington, D.C. “Police stood by when spectators attacked the demonstrators as they made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue, and army cavalry troops eventually had to be dispatched to restore order. Some 100 women were hospitalized with injuries.”* Americans were attacking Americans because some were daring to demand equal rights. The price of defiance can be high. Listen again to the words we heard from Psalm 27: “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.”
Three years later, because of the womens’ tenacity, 9 states had guaranteed the right to vote, but Woodrow Wilson was opposing any federal legislation. The suffragettes, Dorothy Day among them, stepped up their efforts. They committed to peaceful protest outside the White House every day, no matter the weather. They called themselves the Silent Sentinels. They did not disrupt, they simply stood with placards saying things like “How long must women wait for liberty?” After 10 months of daily protests, on a bitterly cold day in November, Dorothy Day was among 32 other women who were arrested for disturbing the peace while standing silently with their placards.
Here is the account of what happened to Dorothy Day inside a jail in Virginia: “two men brought in Dorothy Day; her captors were twisting her arms above her head. Suddenly they lifted her, brought her body down twice over the back of an iron bench.” ** The price of defiance is high. And the words of the psalmist are like a healing balm: “In the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.” Day was beaten but she was not broken. She returned to her activism, gained the right to vote, and spent the rest of her life organizing for social change, especially around workers’ rights. You may know the famous picture of her, in her 80’s, seated in a chair at a protest while all those around her stood. The picture is taken from behind two police officers so that the guns in their holsters are right at the level of her face. And the look on her face as she looks up at the officers? Absolutely defiant, daring, and dissentious! Given her history, I say she earned the right to carry such a countenance.
We don’t have any photographs of Jesus, but I imagine if someone could have photographed him during the interchange we read about today, I imagine his countenance would convey defiance and dissent. He has just been warned that the King, King Herod, wants to kill him. What has he done? Jesus has been teaching and preaching and healing, exercising power that was not derived from the political arena. Even then and there, in Jesus’s time, the influence of Greek philosophy and the concept of free speech, or parrhesia, was exercised.*** Jesus knew he was not breaking any laws, but his message was threatening the power structure of his day, both in the government and in the temple. Jesus had just been teaching the people that, and I quote, “Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Jesus was using his voice to call out the inequity he witnessed while those in positions of power grew more and more wealthy while the rest of the people were overtaxed and their basic needs overlooked. In this moment, Jesus laments that he can not protect his people and his culture from the Roman Empire; he laments that he cannot gather them under his wings and protect them from the heat of oppression; they are seeking security in the military might of the Empire, under protection of a King, a King who wants Jesus silenced. Jesus sent a clear message back to the King, “ Go tell that fox for me” that I am doing God’s work today and tomorrow; I will be in Jerusalem soon enough. “It is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.” Jesus knows what is coming.
The price of defiance was death but he was not deterred. The heat of the fire was lethal but she was unmoved. The blows to her back from the iron bench were excruciating but she did not break. “The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?”
Dorothy Day and Jesus of Nazareth were both arrested and mistreated as dissidents. They were both calling for change that threatened those that currently held the power. History has shown, and will show, I believe, that their efforts were not in vain. The Roman Empire fell after all, just as Jesus predicted, forty years after his crucifixion. Jesus’s life and teachings continue to provide for us many guideposts for righteous living, especially in times when the powers of Empire threaten. Dorothy Day and so many others who demanded the right of women to vote, were ultimately successful in the year 1920. It took another 55 years before the Voting Rights Act secured access to the ballot for all black Americans. Perhaps in our lifetimes, after 102 years and 119 sessions of Congress, the Equal Rights Amendment will finally be passed by Congress.
In closing, I lift up our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, and note that his teachings have been used to inspire great change on many continents of our world. He raised his voice for change, in absolute defiance of fear, and we, as his students, have his teachings to support our own call for liberty, for justice, and for equality for all people. So be it. Amen.
*https://www.history.com/news/night-terror-brutality-suffragists-19th-amendment
**https://suffragistmemorial.org/dorothy-day-1897-1980/
***https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/freedom-of-speech
Pastoral Prayer
Source of Love we call God, we can not exactly know Your ways, but we can feel Your grace in the sensations that most capture our attention. In both delight and despair, we become focused in ways that bring us closer to whatever You really are. Save us, most Holy One, from the unfeeling; save us from autonomy; save us from ourselves. Help us to be in this world without loosing our hope and faith in humanity and inspire us to find our role in being solutions to the problems we find most troubling. Remind us, Beloved, to send unceasing prayers for peace and to let thankfulness for our many blessings be ever-present in our hearts. One of the gifts we have received is this prayer that Jesus gave his disciples so long ago… Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever. Amen.
Benediction Beannacht Blessing by John O’Donohue
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you,
An invisible cloak to mind your life.