"We are Not Alone in the Boat"
Mark 4:35-41
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus and the disciples are hit with a storm.
No doubt, when they got into the boat, after a long day of Jesus preaching to the crowds, the surface of the water was glassy and the sky was not dark.
Jesus, exhausted, went to the rear of the boat and fell asleep on a pillow.
Then, "gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat," and water started to spill into the boat.
It looked as if they were going to sink for sure.
Understandably, the disciples panicked and rushed to Jesus, and they were shocked and perhaps a bit angry that He was sleeping through all this.
"Teacher," they cried, "don't you care that we're drowning?"
We too are dealing with all kinds of storms.
On Wednesday evening, Dylan Roof, 21 of Lexington, South Carolina walked into Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
There was a peaceful prayer meeting taking place.
After an hour of sitting in on the meeting, witnesses say that the young man stood up and said: "I am here to shoot black people."
He killed nine human beings with a .45 caliber gun his dad had bought him for his 21st birthday.
Upon hearing about this, many of us might have wondered, "O, dear God; how could You allow this to happen?
Why didn't You stop it?
Don't You care?"
Due to the brutality of ISIS sources say that "There are more refugees in the world today than any time since World War 2."
Just when we thought the waters were calming between Russia and the United States, talk of war and the arms race appear to have begun again.
We might ask, "Dear God, don't you care that we are drowning?"
In our personal lives we may find that those people and things we have always relied on for security are being swept away:
...a parent loses his or her mental faculties...
...a loved one goes to the doctor and is told that they have cancer...
...someone in our family loses their job...
...a close friend is killed in a car accident...
...a spouse dies of a heart attack...
...a family member goes to prison.
When these things are happening, it can feel as if everything is falling apart beneath us.
We might wonder, "Is God asleep?"
"Doesn't He care that we're drowning?"
Each of us knows from one experience or another, what it's like to be caught in a storm, to feel alone, and, like the disciples, to be afraid.
We fear rejection, disapproval, failure, meaninglessness, illness, and of course--death--our own death, the death of those we love, and the death of people we don't know in foreign wars.
My brother-in-law recently lost his last living parent, his father.
That day I asked my sister how he was feeling...
...her answer: "Alone."
In this story, Jesus challenges the disciples and Jesus challenges us to turn to Him--the Lord of winds and waves--and trust that He is not only more powerful than the storms that rage around us, but also that we are not in the boat alone.
Jesus goes through the storms with us.
You know, as we look at this Gospel lesson this morning, it's important to note that Jesus never says that there is nothing to be afraid of.
The winds and the waves were a real and dangerous threat.
Rather, Jesus asks, "Why are you frightened?
Don't you have faith yet?"
Imagine this:
A child wakes up in the middle of the night, terrified by some dream, scared of some monster that lives under the bed.
A mother rushes to the child's room and whispers gently, "Shhh...there's nothing to be afraid of."
But as comforting as these words are, is there really nothing to be afraid of?
Certainly there is no monster lurking under the child's bed, but there are plenty of other things in the world that are lurking...
Saying: "There is nothing to be afraid of," is very different from saying, "Don't be afraid."
Because the hard truth of the matter is that scary things are very real: isolation, pain, illness, rejection, meaninglessness, losing one's job, failure, bigotry, hatred, murder, you name it...
But as we grow in faith, we come to understand that even though such horribly fearsome things are very real, they don't have the final word!!!
They don't have ultimate power over us, because God is mightier than they are.
Time and time again, we read these words in the Bible: "Do not be afraid."
They are, you might say, the first and last words in the Gospels.
They are the first words that the angels say to the terrified shepherds when Jesus is born.
They are the first words spoken to the women at Jesus' tomb when they find it is empty.
And they are the first words spoken by the Risen Christ to the disciples hiding in the Upper Room.
"Do not be afraid--not because there are no dangerous and terrible things in the world...
...Do not be afraid because God is with us!!!"
Instead of saying, "There's nothing to be afraid of," the whole truth for the mother comforting the scared child is to say, "Don't be afraid, because you are not alone."
Sadly, too many of us think that we are, indeed, alone.
And so we fear; we freak out.
And fear is what ruins our lives.
What is at the heart of bigotry and not moving forward in love?--fear.
What robs us of the ability to enjoy life?--fear.
What causes us to turn in on ourselves, become defensive--violent even?--fear.
Why do the rich hoard their wealth?--fear.
Fear causes people to do crazy things.
As you know, back when the Titanic sank, many of the lifeboats that were lowered into the icy water were only half-full.
Survivors told of a swimmer who was able to make his way to one of the half-empty boats.
He clutched at the side and tried to climb in, but no one tried to help him get in.
As a matter of fact, one woman took an oar and pounded his hands until he couldn't hold on any longer, and he slipped back into the sea.
She did it, not because there wasn't any room in the boat, but because she was brutalized by fear.
Fear can cause us to do things we would never dream of doing if we felt secure.
Fear is the impetus behind bullying, name calling, fights and wars.
In 1 John we are told, "God is love...there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear...
...the person who is afraid had not been made perfect in love."
The disciples cried out in the boat: "Teacher, don't you care that we're drowning?'
Jesus got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, 'Silence! Be still!'
The wind settled down and there was a great calm.
Jesus asked them, 'Why were you frightened?
Don't you have faith yet?'"
Now faith doesn't mean that we will have no problems; that there will no longer be threats, dangers, perils and so forth.
A woman tells about flying in a plane that started to have engine trouble.
When the pilot made the announcement that they were going to try and make an emergency landing, the woman took her husband's hand and they offered up a simple prayer of faith.
They prayed, "The light of God surrounds us.
The love of God enfolds us.
The power of God protects us.
And the presence of God watches over us: Wherever we are, God is."
The woman says that they knew that this prayer would not stop the plane from crashing, if that was what was going to happen.
But instead, it was a declaration of their confidence that, living or dying God was with them; they were in God's care.
That is peace.
That is comfort.
That is strength.
That is faith.
When we cry out in distress, we will often find that we aren't delivered from the situation, but instead, we are given the grace to endure, and be victorious no matter what may happen.
Just think of Jesus, in prayer, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He asked to be spared from the agony of the Cross.
But He wasn't spared.
Instead, He was strengthened to go through it.
When the storm hit the boat in Mark Chapter 4 Jesus was reminding the disciples that whether their lives were spared or not, they would not fall out of the palm of God's hand.
Where is God when the storms of life rage around you?
Do you believe that God is right there in the boat with you, just as Jesus was with the disciples?
Even though there are fearsome and horrible things in this life, they need not paralyze us...
...they need not cause us to stop loving God and neighbor...
...they need not have dominion over us...
...they need not own us...
...because through faith in the God Who raised Jesus from the dead, we can know that we are never alone in the boat...
...Jesus is always with us...
...and that is all that really matters.
