Faith Is Greater than Fear

Faith is Greater than Fear Mark 4:35-41 When you are on the water, you never know what may happen…. My friend Danny is an avid fisherman. He has fished in a number of bass tournaments. I asked him a few days ago if there had ever been a time when he was on the water and in a storm and was afraid. His answer was, “Which time do you want to hear about?” I told him that I wanted to hear about the time that he was most afraid. He said it was the time that he and a few other men had gone out to sea on a friend’s fishing trawler. They had gone about 25 miles offshore and had a good day, catching lots of fish. When they headed back to shore they ran into a storm about 10 miles from shore. He said they could see 2 water spouts, one on the left and one on the right. They went inside the cabin for protection, and Danny said that the captain came down from the bridge because it was too dangerous to stay up there. When he entered the cabin, Danny said that he looked them all straight in the eye and said, “We’re going to die!” Danny said that you know you are in trouble when the captain says that. Fortunately, the captain was wrong. The water spouts moved away from the boat, and they made it safely through the storm, and reached the shore. When you are on the water, you never know what may happen… In the Gospel story, Jesus and the disciples are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Most of the disciples are experienced fishermen, and they know the water. But in this story, a storm comes, and the disciples are afraid. They panic. I have read that the storms on the Sea of Galilee can be pretty powerful. If you get cold winds from the north, and warm winds from the east, you get a storm, and the word is that the waves can be up to 30 feet high on the Sea of Galilee. So the disciples had good reason to be afraid. The boat was being swamped. They panicked and they went to Jesus, who was in the bow of the boat, asleep, and said “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” Or, in the words of the captain “We’re going to die!” Things don’t always go the way we think they should, or the way we want them to go. Sometimes it can seem like we are all alone when problems arise. God may seem far away. Or, like in the story, when a problem arises, a crisis, God doesn’t seem to care. This can be true even, and sometimes, especially when we are doing God’s work, when we are doing the right thing. And we learn that just because we are doing the right thing, it doesn’t mean that we won’t have problems. There are plenty of stories about this in the Bible. The people of Israel are delivered from slavery in Egypt and head for the Promised Land. But it is not a short trip, nor an easy trip. They have problems along the way and it takes 40 years to get there. Jesus calls the disciples to follow him. They do, but it isn’t easy being a disciple. Just because they are following Jesus, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have any problems. Everyone who answered God’s call and followed God’s lead in the Bible stories was afraid at one time or another. We probably also need to admit that it is no sin to be afraid. Fear is a natural response to a threat, or danger. Sometimes fear can motivate us to do things that will help us or others. In the story, the disciples were afraid that the boat would sink and that they would die. They need help. They looked to Jesus for some kind of reassurance. And at first, it seemed that Jesus didn’t care. He was asleep. But Jesus challenges the disciples to have faith in the midst of their fear. He asks them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still not have faith?” Of course he asks these questions after he orders the wind and rain to stop, and they do. The storm passes. The Sea of Galilee is calm. There is peace. And the disciples are no longer afraid. They knew Jesus could help, but seem surprised that he was able to do so much. “Who is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?” Wouldn’t it be great if every time we were afraid, or every time we had a problem, that Jesus would just speak the word, and our fears and problems would be gone? But our experience tells us that things don’t always happen that quickly. In fact, most of the time, it takes a long time, longer than we would like. And we know that some of our problems never go away, that we sometimes have to accept the way things are, and pray for God’s peace in the midst of our circumstances. It would be great if faith in God would eliminate all of our fears and solve all of our problems. But it doesn’t. But faith can enable us to face our fears and to endure our pain and problems. Faith can enable us to have peace even when things are not going our way. Since the early days of the church, the boat has been a symbol of the church. Maybe it was because the first disciples were fishermen. Maybe it was because the church had its beginning near the Sea of Galilee. But the boat can remind us that sometimes there are storms and that with Jesus in the boat, we won’t be swept away. We are all in the same boat. We all have our ups and downs. At times our problems and cares may seem like they are too much to bear. But there is one who can do something about the storms. It may not happen as quickly or as simply as it did in the story, but we are called to have faith. We are called to trust in the One who calms the storms. In the mid-1800’s Horatio Spofford was a very successful lawyer in Chicago. He planned a European vacation for his family, and sent his wife and 4 daughters ahead of him on an ocean liner. His plan was to meet them in Europe in a few days. The liner that carried his family was struck by another ship as it traveled across the ocean. His wife was the only one who survived the collision. As Spofford was traveling across the ocean to join his wife, he wrote these words: “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.” Sometimes things go great. Problems are solved quickly and easily. We have peace like a river. Sometimes things don’t go so great. We may feel afraid and overwhelmed. But during the ups and downs of life, we are challenged to have faith. Because faith is greater than our fears, and greater than our problems. It is faith that allows us to say, no matter what the circumstances, “It is well with my soul.”