The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost - The Rev Colette Hammesfahr

 Mark 4:35-41 

What are you afraid of? What is bringing you fear in your life today?  In the research highlighted in their book, “What Are We Afraid Of?: The Most Common Fears in America,” Christopher Bader, Carson Mencken, and Joseph Bader, discovered that Americans are most afraid of government corruption, cyber-terrorism, identity theft, terrorist attacks, biological warfare, economic collapse, degradation of the environment, and civil unrest.1 Put that along with our everyday phobias like the fear of spiders, snakes, flying, germs, heights, and thunder, we are a people of many fears.  

Fear is a natural human emotion that can be overwhelming and paralyzing for some people. Fear is unpleasant. We feel fearful when we believe something we are doing is dangerous. We feel fearful when we think something is a threat to us or if something is going to cause us pain. Fear is the response when we feel unsafe or unsure.  

At times The Sea of Galilee can be a fearful place. Actually a freshwater lake, it sits in a deep bowl below sea level and is surrounded by mountains and high hills. Usually calm and quiet, the weather can change quickly when cold winds from the top of Mt. Hermon come down the mountain and blow across the warm, moist air of Galilee. The meeting of the warm air and the cold air creates storms of wind and rain with waves that would rock any small fishing boat.   

Jesus has been preaching and teaching to multitudes of people. The crowds were so big he had to preach from a boat that was just offshore. He was exhausted. He and the disciples are now going to set sail across the Sea of Galilee. It would seem logical that he would go to rest, to take a nap. He’s not a fisherman. Several of his disciples are fishermen. Logically, they are the best choice to sail the boat across the river. So, why wouldn’t Jesus go take a nap? When Kurt and I travel, my motto is, “If I’m not driving, I’m sleeping.”  

So this terrible windstorm comes up and the waves are beating hard against the boat. Water is coming into the boat. And Jesus? Well, Jesus is sleeping through it all. The disciples wake him and say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” “Do you not care?”  

Jesus wakes, and says, “Peace! Be still!” After the storm is gone and the wind has stopped blowing and the waves have stopped crashing, he says to them, “What are you afraid of? Have you still no faith?”  

What were the disciples afraid of? One reasonable way to look at this story is for us to say that the disciples were afraid that they were going to die. That is a valid fear. Their boat is thrashing with every wave that hits it. The sails are whipping in the wind. They can’t steer the boat because of the forces working against them. It’s filling with water, and they can’t bail faster than the water is coming in. Is their fear that they are going to die? This is a normal occurrence for seasoned, trained, and professional fishermen. These sudden changes in the weather over the Sea of Galilee were not a rarity. I suppose that under those circumstances, even the best-trained fishermen could be afraid to die. With the Messiah sleeping at the back of the boat, and after watching him perform miracles days before, it’s reasonable to expect him to wake up and stop the storm…to save his hand-chosen disciples. Is that what Jesus is suggesting they were afraid of when he said, “What are you afraid of? Have you still no faith?” Yes, one could say that they were afraid of dying. A natural fear that each one of us has.  

When they woke Jesus, their question was, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” “Do you not care?” Were the disciples afraid of dying or were the disciples afraid that Jesus, asleep at the back of the boat while they were experiencing a near-death experience, didn’t care about them? “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” “Jesus, where are you when I am going through this terrible thing in my life?” “Jesus, where are you when my life is in turmoil?” “Jesus, where are you when tragedy has struck my life?” “Jesus, how can you allow this to happen?”  

Fear and faith go hand in hand. Fear is a natural and normal human reaction to danger. Faith is the answer to fear. Jesus is not absent in the chaos of our lives.  

When we get caught up in the chaos it can pull us away from the hope and the promises from God. God will not let go of us. God is not absent in the chaos. In the midst of our storms in life, we cry out to God and ask, “Don’t you care?” Jesus was present, in the boat, in the midst of that storm. God is present with us, even when we don’t think it.  

 Frederick C. Grant writes, “We have so little faith because we rate the seen above the unseen, the temporary above the permanent, the partial above the whole.”2  

When the storms come in our lives it does not mean that God does not love us or that God is asleep at the back of the boat. When the disciples woke Jesus, they didn’t say, “Jesus, please save us.” They didn’t ask him to use his power to calm the storm. All they asked was, “Jesus, do you care?” The answer is, “Yes.”  

We walk through our lives by faith. Faith is a gift of God. There was a pastor I heard, who explains faith like this… “Faith contains two aspects: intellectual assent and trust. Intellectual assent is believing something to be true. Trust is actually relying on the fact that the something is true. Intellectual assent is recognizing that a chair is a chair and agreeing that it is designed to support a person who sits on it. Trust is actually sitting in the chair.” “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).  

Storms will come and go in our lives. During those storms we may feel like God has abandoned us, but God has promised us, that will never happen. Jesus didn’t keep the disciples from having to bear the brunt of the storm. He was there with them as they went through the wind and rain. Eventually, he calmed the seas and he calmed the storm. That boat ride was not what the disciples expected it to be. Eventually, things got better.    

Last week I was texting with a friend who is battling an illness right now. A bit overwhelmed with all that’s going on in his life, he texted this to me, “God's will for us is to be whole in body, mind, and spirit [and] to live in harmony with Him. He will give us what is needed to move through this.” The text didn’t say, “God is going to cure the illness.” The text was about faith in God, despite his fear. In the story of David and Goliath, David had faith that God would save him. God had saved him before. He had trust and faith and it brought him peace and calmness.  

Yes, we pray to God that our illness or whatever is frightening us will go away. Sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it takes more time than we’d like. What you can rely on is that no matter the storm, Jesus is sitting in the boat with you.  

What are you afraid of? What is bringing you fear in your life today? Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” This week, as you encounter fear and anxiety, instead of rushing to God in a panic, I challenge you to find peace, be still, and allow God to bring you calm. Amen.