Why Are You Afraid?

Mary Rodgers, March 12, 2006
Scripture: Mark 4: 35-41

Text: On that day, when evening had come, he said to them: "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be Still!" Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm. He said to them: "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Someone once said that Fear F.E.A.R. stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. It's true; most of us have experienced fear when there was no evidence of impending danger. It happens a lot to children.

I'm reminded of Johnny. He was in the kitchen as his mother made dinner. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn't want to go in alone. "It's dark in there and I'm scared." She asked again, and he persisted. Finally she said, "Johnny its ok - Jesus will be in there with you." So Johnny walked to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when all at once an idea came, and he said: "Jesus, if you're in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?" (Charles Allen, Victory in the Valleys.) Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. At its worst, fear turns into phobias, the most well known being claustrophobia-fear of enclosed spaces. There's also dentophobia-fear of the dentist. Or pentheraphobia-fear of you mother-in-law. Blennophobia is fear of slime. And let's not forget Luposlipophobia - the fear of being chased by wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a freshly waxed floor. Luposliophobia. I did not make that up! Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real.

There are other kinds of fear too. These are fears that come with real evidence. They are rational fears. In our passage today the disciples experience that kind of fear. If you know anything about that area, then you know that it wasn't unusual for violent windstorms to come up suddenly. Most of the time the boats would rush back to shore in order to be safe. But this time the boat didn't make it. Earlier, they had gotten into the boat with Jesus because all day long they had been bombarded by crowds and they were exhausted. How refreshing it must have been to settle into the boat and let the calm water gently rock them as their cares slipped away. Little did they know how quickly things would change. Sometime later their calm is shattered by a sudden storm. Not just a spring rain, a huge storm complete with ferocious winds. The waves kicked up and the disciples had to hold on just to remain from the clenches of the sea. The boat was being swamped, each wave a wave of death. One disciple desperately reached for a disappearing oar, two bailed water, others flung their bodies across the boat to save themselves. As the waves got bigger and bigger and the boat took on more and more water, they looked to Jesus for help. And Jesus was sleeping. They are loosing their lives and he is asleep. Filled with panic they wake Jesus and over the roar of the storm they scream: DON'T YOU CARE THAT WE ARE DYING?

Second to the death of my father the worst storm I've ever been in happened on the first of day of my internship in Seminary. I should have been happily preaching and giving a children's sermon but instead, I was on a plane to Charlotte. And what was so hard about this storm was that like the storm in the Bible, it was sudden and unexpected. One of the youth from my former youth group had been killed in a car accident 5 days after graduating valedictorian from High School, 5 days before his 18th birthday. His name was Brian. With no warning, all of us who knew and loved Brian were thrust into the midst of a violent storm, the likes of which most of us had never experienced. Each time I comforted a youth, as the shock of Brian's death hit the entire congregation, as we went to his house, saw his things sitting there and the pain in his parent's and sister's eyes—another huge wave. And all any of us wanted to do was to cry out: DON'T YOU CARE THAT OUR HEARTS ARE BREAKING? DON'T YOU CARE THAT WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THIS NEWS? DON'T YOU CARE THAT WE ARE DYING?

While death is one of the most powerful storms, it's not the only kind of storm we encounter in our lives. Sometimes storms come in the form of being or having a family member battling an addiction. Sometimes, like a cancer, a storm starts silently within the depths of our bodies and only later becomes an open and raging wound as we become aware of its presence. Storms can come in the form of decisions. Am I choosing the right college? Which treatment should I take to fight this illness? Can I tell my parents that I am gay? What is the best way to take care of my aging parent? Sometimes storms are just a part of growing up and growing older. It's being a teen-ager and wondering if you'll ever be pretty enough, smart enough, athletic enough. It's being in a career for years and asking: does my life have any meaning? It's retiring after thirty years and wondering: will anyone need me now? It's becoming older and having to deal with a body that doesn't work quite as well as it used to. Sometimes we can anticipate the coming of a storm but at other times like the day when Brian died, they are unexpected and in a matter of seconds our lives are changed forever. These storms have a way of magnifying our human frailty; they raise issues of faith and doubt. They can evoke the awareness of the presence of God or they can make us doubt that God is even there and like the disciples we can become fearful. Prompting us to cry out: DON'T YOU CARE THAT WE ARE DYING?

When the disciples woke Jesus, he told the wind to pipe down and told the sea to be quiet, to settle down. And the wind ran out of breathe and the sea became smooth as glass. When I read this passage a few days after Brian's death I was very angry. I wanted my storm to end like the disciples'. I wanted Jesus to settle the winds of grief and to still the waves of sadness. Isn't that how we all want it? We want to cry out to God and we want the cancer to be cured, the decision to be made, we want our loved ones to be safe, and we want the storm to be stilled? We know that most of the time that is not how life works! Which is why we can relate to the disciples when they interpret Jesus' sleeping as indifference. They took Jesus' sleep to mean that he didn't care, that he wasn't present. that he was indifferent to their situation. It made them loose confidence in him, it made them angry. Our concept of sleep is the same. If a person is asleep he is disengaged with the world, absent for a brief time. But the biblical concept of sleep is much different.

Sleep is not being absent or disengaged, biblically, sleep is a mark of perfect trust in God. So from Jesus' perspective his response to the disciples makes perfect sense. Why are you afraid? I'm right here with you. I've been here the whole time! Where is your faith? There is, however, a difference between the disciples and us. As much as we relate to the disciples in this passage there is one big difference between us and them. They do not know who Jesus is. They call him "teacher." They do not yet know that Jesus is God, that he is the Messiah they've been looking for. They do not know but we do. We know what has been promised: that nothing in life can separate us from the love of God. NOTHING. We know that this presence doesn't mean that the storm will end immediately nor does it mean that there will be no more pain. We know that Jesus is in the boat, we are not alone. So Jesus' questions make perfect sense. "Why are you afraid?" "Have you still no faith?" He isn't condemning us or the disciples but he is inviting us to grow deeper in our faith. The questions are invitations to explore who Jesus is. Invitations to trust in God and to rely on God. They invite us to participate in the calm that exists even in the midst of a raging storms.

At Brian's funeral, I sat five rows behind his family and there were times when Tom [our pastor] spoke directly to Brian's family and the other 700 of us there were privileged enough to over hear.

He said to Bian's parents and sister, "Brian is with God and I believe with all my heart that one day all of us will be with Brian again." That has been promised to us. And as he said these words, I looked at Brian's dad and he was sitting there nodding his head. And it occurred to me that at that very moment, he was participating in the calm within the storm. In the midst of the worst storm of his life, in the midst of incredible shock, overwhelming sadness, intense pain and maybe even anger, he was participating in the calm within the storm that comes only from trust and faith in God.

As Christians, we live our Christian lives with hope. It's not a hope that takes away the pain, the heartache, or the struggle of the storms. But a hope grounded in the fact that through Jesus we may have calm in the midst of all our storms. A hope that affirms for us that no matter what the outcome, no storm can overcome the loving power of God. Maybe a better way to understand is by listening to an African American saying. It goes like this:

There is not a night so dark, that God can't make a light to shine in it and bring it to the brightness of full day.

There is not a rock so hard, that God can't make a plant grow upon it.

There is not a place, nor wound, nor situation in which the love of God cannot restore the fullness of life.

And there is no storm that is so strong, that God can't calm it.

Amen

© Copyright, 2006, Rev. Mary Rodgers
All Rights Reserved.
Providence Presbyterian Church
Fairfax, Virginia