FIRST READING Job 38:1-11
1Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5Who determined its measurements — surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, 9when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, 11and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?”
PSALM Psalm 124
1If the Lord had not been on our side, let Israel now say; 2If the Lord had not been on our side, when enemies rose up against us; 3Then would they have swallowed us up alive in their fierce anger toward us; 4Then would the waters have overwhelmed us and the torrent gone over us; 5Then would the raging waters have gone right over us. 6Blessed be the Lord! he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth. 7We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. 8Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
SECOND READING 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
1Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. 11We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.
GOSPEL Mark 4:35-41
35On that day, when evening had come, {Jesus} said to {the apostles}, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF
In Psalm 27:1, a young David, while fleeing from an angry king Saul, wrote, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” In this verse, David asks a very interesting question; who should I fear—who shall I to be afraid of? And to be honest, we can expand this to a second question; what…shall I be afraid of? For me, these are universal questions that we, as human beings, deal with all the time. Fear… it’s a word that is ever present in our world today and one that anytime we hear it, it seems to elicit a reaction.
Fear comes in various forms and degrees and I’m sure that each of us can think of many occasions when fear has exhilarated us…or held us prisoner. Anxiety and fear are emotions that range from the temporary thrill associated with riding the Carolina Cyclone roller coaster at Carowinds, to deeper concerns over…the economy, politics, changes in employment, or simply the stresses that come with functioning in our world today.
Fear grips us at the thought of deteriorating relationships, failing as a parent, of weakening health or coming to terms with a loved one’s, or our own mortality. Fear can hold us in its grasp at the thought of sharing our faith with others, standing up for our beliefs or speaking out against the sins of society. Fear is an emotion that can exhilarate us, drive us to leave a potentially harmful situation or can consume us with doubt and anxiety. Fear in its extreme can paralyze us; robbing us of any sort of peace. Fear is such a strong emotion that we try to conquer it, and yet try as we might, it’s a reaction that always seems to exert control over us.
There was a craze, not too long ago, for some to put one of those white outlined type decals on their back window. The sticker portrays a menacing looking boy reliving himself on any number of things and the caption below it that says “fear this”. I’m sure you’ve seen them. The idea is that you can replace your fears by become something to be feared. Additionally, the athletic and beverage industries even got involved, capitalizing on this amazingly strong emotion, by telling us, that if we use or consume their products, we’ll have nothing to fear: As if somehow wearing a particular line of clothing or wearing a certain type of athletic shoe or even consuming a certain beverage, will suddenly make us invincible. Fear is such an overpowering emotion, we seem driven to somehow defeat it.
Karen Fair tells the story about her three-year-old daughter, Abby, who was having trouble sleeping through the night from fear. Each time Karen tucked her back into bed, she would remind Abby that Jesus was with her and that He would keep her safe. The sleepless nights continued with Abby seeking comfort in her parents’ bedroom. Finally, one night Karen asked her daughter if she had prayed for Jesus to take away her fear and help her fall asleep. “Oh yes,” Abby assured her. “He told me to come and get you!”
In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus has been teaching by the lake. When evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they got in their boat and headed to the other side. Mark also adds that other boats were with them. Suddenly a windstorm came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the back of the boat asleep. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?” Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He then turned to His disciples and asked, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Mark then goes on to record their reaction; “they were filled with great fear.” The New Living Version says they were much afraid, but according to the Greek text, they were megas phobos, or as some today might say, they were mega terrified. “Who is this that even the wind and sea obey him!”
This is a statement that has always fascinated me. The disciples, including the sturdy fishermen that Jesus had called, were concerned about the severity of the storm, but when Jesus calmed the storm, they suddenly were gripped by fear. They were terrified of His power over the wind and the waves. For me this adds so much credibility to the Gospel narrative. It shows the disciples in all their humanness.
They didn’t know how to take Jesus. “Who is this?” they asked. “Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Now before we deal with the question the disciples asked, it might be good if we first look at the question Jesus asked them; “Why are you so afraid?” It’s a question I could ask of you and a question I have asked of myself: Why are we so afraid? Or as David asked, whom shall I fear, of what shall I be afraid?
The reality is, fear is at the heart of most of the problems that we as human beings have. Let me ask you this question, what is the opposite of faith? Many will answer, doubt. But this isn’t the case. The opposite of faith is fear. Think about this for a moment: try to tell me any problem in the human heart that’s not based in fear.
Pastor Jon Walton tells about a commercial that was being shown a few years back. “There’s a car that’s been in an accident and it’s on its side and the woman who was driving can’t move. She’s frightened and going into shock. Three older teenage boys of varying ethnicity run to the scene and your first reaction is, I know what they’re going do. Cultural conditioning tells us they’re gonna reach in that car and grab her purse and run as fast as they can and leave her bleeding inside that wrecked vehicle. But that isn’t what happens. One of the boys sends the others for help and starts giving instructions to the driver. ‘Don’t move,’ he says, ‘everything’s gonna be all right. We’ve gone to get help.’ He knows what to do to prevent further injury. To our surprise it’s a Shell gasoline commercial promoting their safety instruction manual on how to help in the event of an accident.
I thought,” said Walton,” it was another one of those portrayals of urban crime. You know, somebody’s always out there to get you. What does that tell you about me? What does it say about you? Sometimes the greatest danger we face isn’t what’s in the world, but what’s in our hearts.” At the heart of bigotry and every other negative emotion is fear, fear of people who are not the same as we are, fear about our own inadequacy and self-worth, fear about our ability to cope with life, fear concerning the future and the areas of life over which we have no control. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be careful. There are times when we can read the actions of others and tell that we need to remain vigilant. However, we also need to remember that at the heart of worry, resentment, hatred, guilt and almost every negative emotion that eats at our well-being and peace of mind, is fear. And so often our fears are out of proportion to reality.
Someone recently made a trip to the beach. Upon their return they said, “I discovered I scream the same way whether I’m about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.” I’m sure the same could be said for many of us. We have a tendency to turn molehills into mountains, primarily because deep down we’re afraid of what we don’t know or don’t understand. Most of the problems we have are rooted in fear.
It may be the fear that someone’s going to take advantage of us, it may be fear of failure, it may be the fear of looking foolish, fear that we won’t fit in, fear that we’ll be abandoned or fear of how someone will react to something we’re hiding. It’s the rare person that isn’t driven by some fear or another. Jesus says to us, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The way to conquer fear is through faith. Faith is the only true antidote I know of for fear.
Writer Gwendolyn Diaz tells about a trip she took with her family one summer. They loaded up their van and headed north to visit friends and relatives. On the way home, they stopped in Boone and spent a few days sightseeing. Gwendolyn says she’ll never forget the afternoon they spent at Grandfather Mountain. They were told that if they dared to cross the long suspension bridge called Mile High Swinging Bridge, which was until 1999 constructed of wood, they could stand on a rocky ledge that offered a tremendous view of the valley thousands of feet below.
It was late afternoon when they arrived at the bridge, and a storm was blowing in. The wind was beginning to gust significantly. Gwendolyn took one look down the eighty foot deep ravine spanned by the bridge, clutched her baby Jonathan, and refused to set foot on it. Her older sons Zach and Matt took off run¬ning onto the bridge. They were about halfway across the swaying boards when the wind became so strong it made them stagger. But they loved the challenge and the thrill and fought their way to the other side. Three-year-old Ben started running after them. However, he stopped suddenly and clung to the nearest post. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to continue the seemingly dangerous trek.
Dad, seeing the fun Zach and Matt were having as they fought against the wind, reached for Ben’s hand and said, “Let’s go. I’ll take care of you.” “It was obvious that all kinds of what ifs started tumbling around inside Ben’s mind as he stood glued to the post contemplating Dad’s offer,” says Gwendolyn. “But suddenly he reached up, grabbed Dad’s big hand, and started skipping across the bridge into the gusting wind. Ben had obviously transferred all of his what ifs to Dad and decided to let his Dad worry about them. The swaying bridge, the extreme height, the blustery wind, the impending storm, these weren’t his problems anymore. Whether or not he could handle the situation didn’t matter. It was completely Dad’s responsibility.”
Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “Unless you change and become like a little child, you shall never enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 18:3.) To have that kind of trust, to turn it all over to our heavenly Father; if we could live like that, most of the things that keep us awake at night would simply disappear. Fear is the biggest problem in our lives. And the best way to conquer fear, is with faith. But not just faith in anybody or anything. The only kind of faith that really matters is faith in Jesus Christ.
“Who is this?” asked the disciples about Jesus. “Even the wind and the sea obey him!” Suddenly they realized there was something about Jesus that was different. He could calm storms. It was his faith in God that prompted David to write “You stilled the storm to a whisper and silenced the waves of the sea” (Psalm 107:29.)
In one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books there’s a touching story about a young man, a veteran, ready to marry and settle down. But this young man had a problem, a problem directly caused by fear. He was a responsible young man but he couldn’t keep a job and he was discouraged. He felt dejected, because he stuttered quite badly. The more fear gripped him, the more pronounced his problem became.
One day he heard that a candy company in Plant City, Florida, was looking for a route driver. He also heard that the owner of the company, a man named Miller, was a former stutterer who had somehow learned to control his limitation. A fellow sufferer, this young man decided, would certainly understand and hire him. So he set his heart on getting that job.
In his interview, Mr. Miller asked him, why he wanted the job. The young man, doing his best to control his stutter said, “B b because I need the m m money.” For a long time, Mr. Miller didn’t say anything. Then finally he looked him straight in the eye. Young man,” he said softly, “I’m not going to give you a job.” The young man stared at him, dumbfounded. “Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Mr. Miller said. “I think you’d do well. It’s just that I don’t have an opening right now.” Then he reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a piece of paper, worn and tattered. “I’d like you to take this home and read it,” he said. “Read it every night for a month.”
Hardly hearing Mr. Miller’s words, the young man reached out numbly, took the paper and stuck it in his pocket. Tears of disappointment burned his eyes. He turned his head away, told Mr. Miller goodbye and slumped out of the Miller Candy Company.
That night he felt totally dejected. Who wants a stutterer around? he asked himself in defeat. Nobody. And as long as he stuttered he would be a nobody. He had lived with this pain all his life.
After the interview with Mr. Miller, he was prepared never to utter another sound. He took the piece of paper Miller had given him out of his pocket, ready to tear it to shreds. But something made him look at it. It was a prayer, a very well known prayer, but one he didn’t know at the time. It read like this: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” He read the words again and then again. The words were like a light at the end of a tunnel.
He pondered the first phrase: “Accept the things I cannot change.” He knew he could work at easing his stuttering, but he probably could never really change the way he talked. He would need to accept that. Then he read the second phrase: “Courage to change the things I can.” What he could change were his fears; fear of stepping out of his shell, fear of trying to be somebody, fear of thinking bigger than he had been doing. Then he came to the third phrase, “God, grant me the serenity . . .”
Here, he knew, was the key to the whole prayer. When, he wondered, was the last time he actually had reached out to God? Years earlier, when he was a kid, the young man had prayed that he would wake up one morning and talk differently. When it didn’t happen, he forgot about God. But suddenly, now, he had the feeling that God hadn’t forgotten about him. Soon he was asleep and enjoyed a deep and restful sleep.
But though serenity came that night, it didn’t hang around all the time. And change didn’t come overnight either. He kept reciting that prayer, reminding himself of its words and their meaning, till he finally could place himself in God’s hands in trust, without fear of what might happen to him.
One thing he had learned as a young boy in church was that when he sang, he didn’t stutter. It seems that when a stutterer speaks, air gets trapped in their throat. But when they sing, for some reason the breathing apparatus works normally and there’s no stutter. This young man loved to sing the songs he learned at church, and he discovered he had a gift for writing songs. And so one day he decided to exercise the courage that he had been praying about, the courage to change the things he could.
Armed with some of his songs, he went to Nashville in hopes of getting somebody to listen to his work. One door led to another, and one day he got an appointment to audition for Minnie Pearl, one of the biggest names in country music. Naturally, he was scared. As he went to the studio, he kept praying: “Your serenity, Lord. Your serenity.” The audition that day went well and Minnie Pearl hired him as a backup musician and as a songwriter. He was grateful for this break, but he longed to be a solo performer.
Then, in 1970, singer Glen Campbell invited him to accompany him on his new television show. As they rehearsed for the show, they would swap jokes. Campbell discovered that this young man had a terrific sense of humor and his stutter only added to the humorous impact that he had. Campbell wanted him to start talking and singing on his show. Again the young man was terrified. He called his wife and told her he wanted to back out. She assured him that they were all behind him. “Don’t be afraid,” she said.
“Afraid,” he thought to himself. That’s what he was. When he hung up the phone, his mind went back to that scrap of paper. Its words by now were as clear in his memory as they must have been on that paper when Mr. Miller first wrote them. “God, grant me the serenity . . . .”
Some of you know that this is the true life story of country music superstar Mel Tillis. He’ll tell you that without his faith in God, he would have been defeated long ago, defeated not by forces on the outside, defeated not even by his stuttering, but defeated by his fear. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
“Why are you so afraid?” Jesus asked His disciples. He asks that same question of us. Are we letting our fears keep us from being all God created us to be? Fear is the biggest problem in our lives. The best way to conquer fear is with faith. But not just faith in anybody or anything, but faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ. “Who is this?” asked the disciples about Jesus. “Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Yes, they do; He created them! Anytime we place our trust in God, we can take David’s questions and turn them into statements of faith. “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom [or what] shall I be afraid? The answer is nothing.
Amen
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