Worship - Sermons - 6/25/06

Faith or Fear?

Mark 4:35-41

William F. Schnell

6-25-06

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 ship 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.

And so it is for us.  The storms of life may blow about us, but it is not these exterior storms that pose the gravest danger but rather the raging fear within us that can paralyze our faith, rob our joy and wreck our lives.  As Franklin Delano Roosevelt put it in his first inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  Fear and panic can exacerbate an already stormy situation and cause us to make rash and foolish decisions that can undo us.  What is the secret of mastering our fear?

That is what we hope to learn in a story about Jesus and his disciples one stormy day on the Sea of Galilee.  The disciples think the danger lies outside the boat.  However they soon learn the real danger lies within the boat, indeed, within their own hearts where faith and fear can never coexist.  The title of our message is “Faith or Fear?”  When the storms of life rage about us, as they occasionally will do—as indeed some literal storms have done this past weekend—what will prevail in our hearts: “Faith or Fear?”  Let us see what can we learn from this boat ride in the storm.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”  Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.  There were also other boats with him (Verses 35-36).  The beginning of Jesus’ ministry was very much a nautical affair.  After calling his disciples, several of whom were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus initially confined himself to the area around that body of water.  Perhaps through the connections of his fishermen-disciples he was able to procure a few sailing/rowing boats for his personal use.

The Sea of Galilee is not really a sea in the proper sense of the word.  It is an irregularly-shaped freshwater lake which, at its greatest length runs about 12 1/2 miles, and at its greatest width runs about 7 1/2 miles.  Most everything in Israel is small despite the big descriptive designations assigned to them.  The whole country is roughly the size of Vermont, the Jordan River is what we would call a creek and the Sea of Galilee is an inland lake not quite as long as Mosquito Lake (although somewhat wider on average).

Still, with no fewer than 7 towns situated around its roughly 25-mile circumference—towns such as Tiberius and Capernaum—and not to mention other nearby towns that were not quite on the waterfront, there were plenty of places to go and people to encounter.  Jesus quickly drew out the multitudes as he began to cast out demons, heal the sick, preach and teach.  The crowds, while heartening, presented some logistical problems that called for boats to provide some solutions.

Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him.  For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him (3:9-10).  Sometimes Jesus would use the boat to get away from the crowds so he could rest.  While mountains are where Jesus retreated to pray, the Sea of Galilee is where he retreated to rest.  But even after crossing the Sea of Galilee some would make the long journey around the lake to search him out, so desperate were the people to reach him.

Other times Jesus would simply use the boat as a safe platform just off shore from which to preach and teach to the crowd on the beach, as is the opening setting for our text today.  We read: Again Jesus began to teach by the lake.  The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.  He taught them many things by parables… (4:1-3). 

Our text begins at the end of that day when evening came.  Jesus tells his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side”—let us get away from the crowds and the demands and the work so that we can rest.  Leaving the crown behind they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.  Jesus had been preaching and teaching from a boat all day long.  When the day was done the disciples in his boat, and in a few surrounding boats, just raised the sails (or extended the oars if there was not any wind) and off they went in their little flotilla to the other side of the lake. 

But something happened while they were on their way.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped (Verse 37).  The Sea of Galilee is an interesting geological feature.  It is 682 feet below sea level.  The Bible speaks of the hills surrounding the Sea of Galilee, but actually they are bluffs that lead up to around Sea Level.  When you are on the Sea of Galilee you are actually in a huge bowl carved out of the earth.

Sometimes cool breezes from the Mediterranean Sea (27 miles to the west) flow overland and reach this bowl, whereupon they sink rapidly, condensing the warm moist lake air and stirring up what our text calls a furious squall.  You may have heard how raging storms can spring up quickly on Lake Erie.  If anything it is worse on the Sea of Galilee for above you are blue skies over the giant bowl one moment, and the next are roiling black clouds.  Soon the gales are blowing and the waves are breaking and it is not a pretty place to be in a boat.

In our story the waves are breaking over the sides of the boat so that it is filling with water and about to be swamped.  Meanwhile, Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion (Verse 39).  That may seem improbable during a storm like this, except for two considerations.  First, Jesus is in the stern of the boat.  Those of us who love boats and yet are prone to motion sickness know that the stern is where the boat rocks least.  As the bow is rising and lowering going into the waves, the stern (or fulcrum if you will) is relatively stable. 

Second, we must remember that Jesus is at the end of a whole day of preaching and teaching from this boat.  I know that after preaching a couple of services on Sunday morning I am absolutely drained.  As soon as my work is done, I head home and crash.  That is what I hope to do today so that I will be in good shape for our staff Christmas party tonight (which we typically hold in June.  I can imagine how tired Jesus must have been after preaching and teaching all day, and I can easily imagine how deep in sleep he must have been as that storm arose.

The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Verse 38).  I suppose it would kind of bug you to be on the verge of drowning while a fellow shipmate dozed on a cushion.  There would not be much that he could do about it, but it would be nice to know that he cared enough to rouse himself from his slumber and maybe grab an oar.  So the disciples roused him themselves.  “How can you lay there sleeping when we are about to lose our lives?” 

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet!  Be still!”  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm (Verse 39).  This reminds me of an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie is camping out under the stars and the crickets are chirping and tree frogs calling.  But what may be pleasant night sounds to some of us are a sleep-robbing racket to the Fonze as evidenced by his open eyes.  So he leans up, snaps his fingers, says “Hey,” and all the night sounds cut to silence.  Fonzie leans back, closes his eyes and falls asleep.

Jesus says, “Quiet!  Be still!” and the raging storm cuts to calm.  As Jesus returns to his cushion he says to his flabbergasted disciples, “Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?” (Verse 40).  Fear and faith are incompatible states of being.  The one dispels the other depending upon which one is greater.  As the quote at the top of our bulletin puts it, “Fear knocked at the door.  Faith answered.  No one was there.”  When fear comes knocking, faith sends it packing. 

Isn’t it interesting how quickly the storms brew in our lives?  One minute it is all blue skies above, and the next minute we get the pink slip or the diagnosis or the shaft or the bad news and we find ourselves in a crisis of faith.  Sometimes it is faith itself that leads us into troubled waters.  We think that going with Jesus will be smooth sailing.  We think that, with Jesus in the boat, there will be no storm, no waves and no fear.  But we think wrong.  Almost every page of Mark's gospel proclaims that Jesus is the center of a storm.  When Jesus is near the wind picks up, the boat starts rocking and there is trouble.

After all, it was Jesus who called his disciples to set sail into the coming storm.  You can just imagine the disciples saying to Jesus what Hardy often said to Laurel, “Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”  However, it may be that he was not really asleep at all, but keeping one eye cracked to see how well his disciples would fare in this testing of their faith.  Jesus expects more than a fair-weather faith from his followers, and he is occasionally going to test our faith to see what it is made of—he is occasionally going to call us to venture forth into stormy situations that will test whether “Faith or Fear” has the upper hand in our lives.

What are the things you are fearing right now?  What circumstances are causing you to have anxious thoughts?  How may Jesus be testing your faith?  The measure of fear in our lives is also the measure of faith in our lives.  The more of one, the less of the other.  The way to cast out one is to have more of the other.  The way to cast our fear is to have more faith in Jesus.

Jesus may call us into some stormy waters, but he will never abandon us in a sinking ship.  He is always with us and he has the power to still the storm and calm the soul.  His arms are that strong, and we have nothing to dread—nothing to fear—leaning on those everlasting arms.