Sermon from June 24, 2012

4^th Sunday After Pentecost – Job 38:1-11 and Mark 4:35-41 

Rev. Michael Fry preaching

at East Bethany PC

June 24, 2012

The most frequent command in the Bible is “Do not be afraid.” 

Time and time again angels and people who speak for God begin their speech or conversation with some variation of these words.  When the angel spoke to Mary to tell her that she would carry God’s child he said, “Fear Not.” 

After all it is scary to come into contact with the one who laid the foundations of the earth and set the boundaries of the sea.  God is greater than our understanding and we fear what we do not understand, we fear what we do understand – in fact we are very good at being afraid and some times fear paralyzes us. 

Yet we have this understanding of God as a Father who loves his children very much.  And the familiarity of this image engenders a misleading sense of ease with God despite God’s powerful nature and because God is all powerful it is right for us to fear the Lord, because as any parent there are times that I think God must be extremely frustrated and angry with us. 

When God answers Job essentially asking, “Just who are you to question me.”  God does so out of a whirlwind speaking out of a powerful windstorm that is not gentle or comforting – God is angry. 

Likewise, I don’t imagine Jesus gently asking his disciples, “Why are you frightened?  Do you still have no faith?”  And their response is fear at the power this man Jesus has that extends beyond healing to include being able to command both wind and waves. 

They thought that they knew this Jesus that they were following, after all he shared with them the hidden meaning of the parables that he taught.  They were part of the inner circle and had the familiarity with him that made them feel comfortable waking him up and accusing him of not caring that they are about to die in this storm. 

Remember that many of these men were fishermen; they were accustomed to boats, water, and presumably storms on the lake –that they were afraid of this particular storm tells us something significant about the conditions of the water that night.  And Jesus is sleeping through it – it appears that he does not care. 

And often times in the storms of our life it seems as if God is absent or at best asleep in the boat as we struggle to keep it afloat.  In our battles do we not also cry out, ‘God where are you?  Why is this happening?  and Don’t you care?!’ 

·      Don’t you care that people are treated without justice?

o   Don’t you care that people cheat and mistreat one another? 

·      Don’t you care that church participation is declining? 

·      Don’t you care that I am sick with cancer? 

·      And why don’t you come down and do something about it? 

Indeed, where is God in this?  Because it really does seem like God is absent. 

In this passage of scripture we learn that God is right there in the boat with us.  The disciples don’t know yet that Jesus is God.  We do because we are reading the story but they do not know it yet.  And they just woke God up – the biggest sleeping giant that there ever was and ever will be.  I’d be scared too! 

The truth is that storms are going to happen to us individually and as a community.  Storms are going to occur whether we are Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, or Mormon.  Accidents and sickness are part of life.  But the difference is as Christians we believe and we have faith that God is with us in the boat ready and willing to calm the storm, even if our faith wavers we are promised that God is with us always. 

Rev. David Lose, a professor at Luther Seminary, sees a connection between faith and trust – if we have faith in a person or an organization then we have trust in them.  Think about it this way, when Alex is old enough to go to summer camp I’m going to check it out pretty thoroughly because I want to make sure he is safe while he is away.  I am trusting, that summer camp with my son that they have experienced and responsible councilors and staff that are going to take care of him. 

We trust hospitals to care for us and heal us and when they don’t or they make a mistake we loose the faith and trust we placed in them.  Non-profit organizations loose their credibility if they misuse funds that we donate to them. 

And unfortunately the church is not immune to this either because we place an immense amount of trust and faith in them because they are in many ways our connection to God. Trust is broken when a child is molested by a priest or a Sunday school teacher and not just with that person but also, with the church because that individual’s action reflects on the church that put them in the position to care for the children. 

If a pastor behaves inappropriately trust is broken because that person is supposed to relate God’s steadfast love, compassion, and challenge to the congregation.  A side effect of this can be that the congregation’s faith in God is broken as well.

Leaders are unable to lead if trust is not established or if trust is broken because people are not willing to take risks if they do not trust the person who challenges them.  And once trust is broken it is so hard to repair, so hard to heal. 

The disciples’ cry, “Don’t you care that we are about to die?” is fear induced response against Jesus, against God essentially saying that they don’t trust him.  Which is very different from saying, “teacher we need your help here, grab an oar.” 

And even though Jesus is peeved at the disciples apparent lack of faith and trust, angry that they accuse him of not caring he does not abandon them.   Jesus calms the storm and sticks with them helping their faith grow. 

They do not understand quite yet who he is or what he is about; before they had witnessed the healing of the sick and now have personally experienced his saving power in the storm.  They know that Jesus woke up in the storm when they called and gave them peace.  They know that nature follow his command and perhaps they are thinking that they better put more and more of their trust in him after all he is someone who had saved their lives, he is someone to be listened to, and he is someone they want to follow – and he is someone we want to follow. 

I wonder what you are afraid of and how together we might, ask for God’s help when the wind picks up and tosses our boat around on the water making us certain that we are about to perish?

Will we respond seeking guidance from the Lord that we trust?  Or will we blame and accuse God of not caring? 

The interesting aspect of this story of Jesus on the lake with the disciples is that Jesus does not punish their lack of faith, but gives them more reason to believe.  He invites them deeper in faith and trust in their relationship with God through him and this enables them to one day share the Good News that they were entrusted with. 

Believe the Good News that we too are embraced, despite our faults, and our lack of faith, that we too are invited into deeper faith and trust in God who has adopted us as sons and daughters. 

Remember, you are God’s beloved child; do not be afraid. 

I’d like you to turn to your neighbors and say, You are God’s beloved child; do not be afraid.

Believe the Good News, you are God’s beloved child; do not be afraid.  Amen.