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.”

The Sound of God's Voice

The Sound of God’s Voice
1 Samuel 3:1-10
What does the voice of God sound like?
In the 1950s and 60s the best-known voice of God was that of a man named Alexander Scourby. He was a native of Brooklyn, New York and had a British accent. His voice could be heard on documentaries and commercials at the time. And his voice was also used for the first recording of the entire Bible in the 1940s.
Who is the voice of God today? It may be a draw between James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman. Jones is the voice of CNN and Darth Vader in Star Wars. He also made a recording of the King James Bible that has sold over 400,000 copies. Someone has said that Jones is the Old Testament God, fierce and forbidding. On the other hand, there is Morgan Freeman. He has been call the New Testament God, all wise, all knowing, and understanding. Freeman’s voice can be heard on commercials for Listerine and the VISA card. And he also plays the role of God in the movie, Bruce Almighty. So what does the voice of God sound like? We might say Alexander Scourby, James Earl Jones, or Morgan Freeman.
The story about the call of Samuel can also give us an idea about how God’s voice sounds. Samuel would tell us that God’s voice often sounds like the voice of the person in the next room. For he heard a voice calling him in the middle of the night and he thought it was Eli the priest calling him. Samuel heard the voice calling him three times and twice he went to Eli and said, “Here I am.” But the second time Eli realized that it was probably God who was calling Samuel. So Eli told Samuel that the next time he heard the voice, he should say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
This story about Samuel is about listening for God and saying “yes” to God. We can learn some things from this story that will guide us as we listen for God’s voice and as we respond to God’s directions for us.
One of the things that this story tells us is the God is at work in all the events of life. In the Old Testament times we read that God was at work in the nation of Israel, and in the lives of Eli and Samuel. Throughout the Bible, events unfold, often gradually and naturally. The faith of God’s people ebbs and flows. At times God’s people have great faith and act in extraordinary ways. At other times they have little faith and they wander away from God and God’s great plan for them. In the middle of all the ordinary events of life, God is acting. God is always calling people to have faith, calling leaders to lead, and calling people to serve.
In the Samuel story we see the beginning of a transition in the nation of Israel. The old leadership under Eli is being replaced by a new leader. The new leader is Samuel and the change is God’s doing.
Something else that this story tells us is that God uses people to get the work of God done. When one leader is not getting the job done, God calls another leader to respond. In this story, God calls Samuel to lead the nation of Israel and to provide the faithful leadership that His people need. We should remind ourselves that if we are faithful, that God will call us to make a difference. Even though we are imperfect people, and may feel unqualified and unprepared, God still calls us and can still use us.
If may also be helpful to note that God does not work as quickly as we would like, nor does God always work in ways that we understand. As the Scriptures say, “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and God’s ways are not our ways.” God seems to have a lot more patience than we do. God is always able to see the big picture and seems to know that if you rush things, it is not usually as effective as letting them unfold gradually.
One example of this is when God sent His son, Jesus into the world. Jesus came as a baby and was born into a blue-collar family. It was years before Jesus began to preach and heal. And if he had been born into a wealthy family, he would have had more financial resources and access to a better education. Samuel was just a boy when God first called him. Years passed before he assumed his leadership role. Unlike us, God is patient. We want instant results and don’t like to wait. But God’s ways are not our ways. God may have begun something years ago, that is just begin realized now. And God may begin something today that may take years to develop and unfold.
The bottom line is that when we hear God’s call, we can respond and go with God’s plan, or we can go our own way. Samuel hear a voice calling in the middle of the night and thought that it was Eli calling. But Eli told him that it was the Lord calling, and that he should respond by listening to hear what God would say.
God calls us in several areas:
1) There is a general call to respond to God in faith. God calls us to believe and be saved. We are called to gratefully accept God’s gift of life and grace.
2) There is a general call to respond to God’s grace with service. Each of us is called to identify our gifts, and to use them to serve God and one another.
3) There is a specific call to a task, job, or profession. We may be led in a certain direction, or called to make a change, or called to stay right where we are.
But how do we know what God is calling us to do? The best test I know is the end result. Do we accomplish something good? Do we do more good than harm? Do other people benefit from what we do?
It takes faith to respond to God’s call. Faith doesn’t eliminate our uncertainties, doubts, or reservations. It can help us to overcome our fears of acting. And faith can give us a healthy fear of doing the wrong thing, or doing the right thing at the wrong time. Faith allows us to balance assertiveness and caution, action and waiting.
The good news is that God is at work in our lives, calling each one of us to faith and to service. God has great plans and wants to do great things, and God wants to use us to do them. God wants to breathe new life into us, our families, our communities, and our world. If we will only listen, we can hear God calling us and leading us to listen. Like Samuel, our best response is, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

The God Who Acts

1 Kings 17:17-24

Many of us are interested in learning about people. We like to know what other people do, what they own and wear, where they go, and how they live. Like the ad for a tabloid used to say, ”Inquiring minds want to know.”

The story in 1 Kings 17 is about a widow, her son, and the prophet Elijah. It is an interesting story. Part of the story is found in the reading for today. The basic plot of this part of the story is that the widow’s son is ill and Elijah heals him. In the earlier part of the story, God use Elijah to provide an unending source of meal and oil for this widow and her son. Those are the two things that happen in the story, but there are several questions about this widow that are left unanswered.

We might like to know more about this woman. For example, how old was she and her son? Was she a teenager, twenty-something, or maybe thirty-something? The story says that Elijah took the son from her and took him upstairs, so the son was young enough, or at least small enough, to be held and carried by both his mother and Elijah. We don’t know how old either the mother or the son was, but chances are, they were relatively young.

Another unanswered question is why didn’t someone help this poor woman? Where was her family? Where was her deceased husband’s family? We can only speculate on an answer. Perhaps they lived too far away. Maybe they were also poor. Or, there may have been a rift in one or both families. We don’t know. We do know that they lived in a male-oriented society and women who were alone were usually on their own.

Another question is why couldn’t this woman support herself? Did she have a garden? Did she try to get a job? Was she in poor health, unskilled, or lazy? We don’t know. We do know that there was no welfare, daycare, or social security in those days. And women did not have the opportunities to work that women do today.

The bottom line is that we don’t know why this woman was in the shape she was in. But then, that is not a question that Elijah asks, or that he tries to answer. These are the facts that we do know from this story: 1) the woman and her son were in need, and 2) God, through Elijah, met the needs of both her and her son.

The first and most obvious need of this woman was that she needed food for herself and her son. “I have only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse; and now I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” These are the words of a desperate woman who has lost hope. And then Elijah makes an unusual request. He says that if she will make a cake for him, that the meal would never run out and that the oil would never be used up. The story doesn’t tell us why, but the widow responds to Elijah’s request. She makes a cake for him, and what Elijah had promised happens. The meal and the oil never run out. They always have food.

The second need of this woman is that she needs help for her son. He was so ill that he was barely breathing. We don’t know exactly what is wrong with the boy. But it appears that he became ill suddenly and that his mother seemed to think that Elijah may somehow be responsible for her son’s problem. We do know that he was ill and needed help. And the story tells us that Elijah took the boy in his arms, prayed for him, and the boy was healed.

There are two lottery stories that I heard about a few years ago at the same time I was reading this story about the widow and her son. During the same week there were two families that won state lotteries. One was in New York. A Vietnamese family had relocated to the United States and was being sponsored by a United Methodist Church. They were barely getting by when they won millions in the New York state lottery. The other family was in Roanoke County, Virginia. The family was active in the Church of God of Prophecy. Apparently the church needed a new organ, and the lady of the house bought two lottery tickets and said that if she won she would give the winnings to the church. One of her tickets was a winner, and she gave the $20,000 that she had won to the Organ Fund of the church. Sometimes the best we can say is that God works in mysterious ways. In these two lottery stories, the needs of a family and a church were met in very unusual ways.

The main message of this story of the widow and her son is that God knows what we need and is able and willing to provide exactly what we need. We are also reminded that often God uses other people, like Elijah, to help us. We are never alone, but God is always watching over us. And God may also use us, as He used Elijah, to help other people.

Sometimes we can get caught up in questions and attempts to find answers that don’t really matter. Our questions may be a way that we try to gain control of a situation. We want to be able to explain everything and, often, the more we know, the more secure we feel. But life isn’t always that way. There are many things that we will never fully know or understand, and many things that are beyond our control. The best we can do is to have faith in God, who is at work in all of the events of life, both good and bad.

In his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul writes these words, “God causes everything to work together for good for those that love God.” I have to remind myself that Paul didn’t write that everything that happens to us is good, but that God uses everything for good. We can obviously see the good that happens when Elijah visits the widow and her son. But at other times, the good is not so obvious. Again the best we can do is to have faith that God is working everything for good.