Faith or Fear? Mark 4:35-41 Sunday, June 24, 2018 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching

Transcription

1 Scripture. Prayer. Faith or Fear? Mark 4:35-41 Sunday, June 24, 2018 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Opening. I think it was Bertrand Russell who said, Those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. I can relate! How bout you? Someone else said, Anyone who isn't afraid today is either stupid or dead. Right?! There s a lot to be afraid of in our world today. And maybe in the world of Jesus day, too. Which is why this story of Jesus calming the storm is told over and over; depicted in paintings and tapestries time and again. We are afraid, and we have good reason to be! And we are not the only ones. There are other shivering passengers here in the boat with us. While we are huddled here together, let s open up a Bible. I. Questions. The Bible includes a significant number of life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose and value in life. Consider a few of the questions posed by Scripture: What will it profit us if we gain the whole world but forfeit our life? (Matthew 16:26) Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15) What are you looking for? (John 1:38) Who is my neighbor? (Like 10:29) What must I do to inherit eternal life? (Mark 10:17) Who can separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:35) Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? (Mark 10:38) 1

2 Which commandment is the first of all? (Mark 12:28) Where can I go from your Spirit? (Psalm 139:7). What is this new teaching, with authority? (Mark 1:27) Who is this about whom I hear such things? (Luke 9:9) What is truth? (John 18:38) (Joel D. Kline) In his book Listening to Your Life, Frederick Buechner writes about Gertrude Stein asking on her deathbed, What is the answer? Then, after a long silence, she asks, instead, another question. This time she asks, What is the question? Buechner concludes: Don t start looking in the Bible for the answers it gives. Start by listening for the questions it asks. We are much involved, all of us, with questions that matter a good deal today but will be forgotten by this time tomorrow the immediate where s and when s and how s that face us daily at home and at work but at the same time we tend to lose track of the questions about the things that matter always, life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose, and value. In today s gospel reading, Jesus asks, Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? II. About fear. I hope you will indulge me while I name a few of the current storms in my life. Maybe you can grab a pen or pencil and make your own list while I m rattling off mine. Because we all have our storms to weather, don t we? For me, there s my husband, Roy, and accompanying him on what the oncologist calls the adventure of chemo for stage 3 cancer. Our new grandbaby is a joyful distraction and, at the same time, an added stressor. We want to spend more time with little Titus, but how can we? So many doctor s appointments. 2

3 My father, living alone across from a cow pasture outside a city excuse me, a small town, population 3, in northern Michigan needs to be gently encouraged to move out of the home he has lived in for 40-plus years that is now a danger to himself and a drain on the circle of friends who daily try to watch out for him. And winter is coming. And they are planning to take away his drivers license. My son, Josh proud father of beautiful baby Titus has suffered from severe learning disabilities his entire life and continues to need intensive support in his adult life. I have a vocation. A calling. You may not know it, but our little church family is very complex. We are crazy-diverse, at all levels: age, culture, race, ethnicity, gender, income levels, educational levels, political perspectives, religious and spiritual backgrounds, Christian maturity. Just on the surface, we have four main groupings, operating for the most part in their own orbits: the English congregation, the Chinese congregation, the Contemporary Worship congregation, and the Japanese preschool. Chaos, tension, and messiness happens. It comes with the territory. Of course, I remind myself and Roy reminds me when I forget that the current storms in my life are mild compared to what some other folks are going through. The various school shootings, becoming all too common. Folks dealing with more severe cancer and other lifethreatening or life-diminishing illnesses. Folks who are grieving. Folks in military service around the world. Children who are hungry. Folks who are homeless. People who live in wartorn regions of the world. The endless list goes on. Yes, the storms of my life are small by comparison. And yet I do find myself, at times, staring blankly into space. I know you know the feeling. The storms of life can overwhelm us. Like the disciples, we fear that God has left us and we cry out a heartfelt question to God: How could Jesus be 3

4 sleeping at a time like this?! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!! Victor Hugo, who is famous for his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, also wrote a story called Ninety-Three. It tells of a ship caught in a dangerous storm on the high seas. At the height of the storm, the frightened sailors heard a terrible crashing noise below the deck. They knew at once that this new noise came from a cannon, part of the ship's cargo that had broken loose. It was moving back and forth with the swaying of the ship, crashing into the side of the vessel with terrible impact. Knowing that it could cause the ship to sink, two brave sailors volunteered to make the dangerous attempt to retie the loose cannon. They knew the danger of a shipwreck from the cannon was greater than the fury of the storm. (Brett Blair). Truth be told, the storm is not without. The storm is within. The fears and dangers we face are not from what life throws at us. The fears and dangers are within our own hearts. Jesus names it: Why are you afraid? he asks. Have you still no faith? III. About faith. As we contemplate Jesus questions to us, let s go back a few steps in the story to where Jesus calms the storm. It s crucially important for us to remember that Jesus speaks to the waves. He does not say to the disciples, Peace! Be still! He cries out to the raging waters of chaos, in a strong, commanding voice of authority: Hush! Be silent! Shut up! Cease and desist! This is a better translation of the powerful tone of Jesus intervention on the seas. Silence! I am the Lord of the seas and the storms and the waters. I have complete and utter authority over the demons of fear and chaos and despair. Be gone! It says in Mark that the disciples were filled with great awe after Jesus display of power, and they asked one another, Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? You would think that by now, over 2000 years later, we would have it figured out. After 4

5 all, we have more information than the disciples did. We have more centuries of faith tradition and experience. You would think that we would trust in God by now. You would think that, when the storms of life assail us, we would have faith in Christ. But it s not about the storms of life, really. It s about the storms within our hearts. Have you still no faith? Jesus asks. This is the storm we struggle with daily. We are in good company. The disciples struggled in the same way. We must remember that regardless of what happens, God is with us. The Psalmist wrote: When I am afraid I put my trust in you (Ps. 56:3). Well, I ask you. Where else are you going to go? God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker says that so many of the fears we grapple with -- fear of rejection, abandonment, failure, separation, loss most of our fears are just manifestations of the one ultimate fear -- the fear of death. Maybe he s right. How do we overcome this ultimate fear? Faith. It is the only antidote that will exorcise the demons of fear that can haunt us. (Brett Blair s staff). Closing. A pastor had a conversation one day with a female medical assistant in a doctor's office, as he was waiting to see the doctor. The woman recognized him because she had occasionally attended his church, although she was a member of another church. I want to tell you about my experience," she said. I got saved in the Assemblies of God Church... I gave my life to God... and guess what?... Life tumbled in! I developed a heart problem. My husband lost his executive job... and he recently died of cancer. The pastor tried to mumble a few theological sounding words about God s mysterious ways, thinking that was what the woman wanted. But she went right on with her story, indicating that she had repeatedly asked God, Why me? And what do 5

6 you think God told me? she continued. Why not you? That's what God said. Why should you be spared all the crises of life that everyone else must go through? Then she wound up her story by saying, One day I said to God, Lord, you've forgiven me. Now I forgive you. (David G. Rogne) We all have fears, trials, and storms in this life. Why not me? We are all in this boat together. That is my first comfort knowing that I have you all, my church family, in here with me and we are all praying and supporting and loving one another through all the fears and all the storms that come at us. Jesus is here in the boat with us. That is my second comfort. We are not alone. The Lord of the wind and the seas is riding the chaos with us and commanding the storms, Peace! Be still! Lutheran Bishop Lyle G. Miller once said of the church that it is not a luxury liner, granting passage and comfort to all who qualify and clamber aboard but rather like a rescuing lifeboat, sometimes listing, or even leaking, but always guided by the captain, Jesus, at the helm. (Bishop Lyle G. Miller in opening worship at the Sierra Pacific Synod assembly, 1991, quoted in The Lutheran, June 19, 1991, page 38). Jesus calms the storm so that he and the disciples can get to the other side of the lake and share the healing, saving grace of the gospel with people in need. May He calm the storm in us and for us, that we might continue to grow as his disciples of healing, saving grace in this place. Amen. 6