Why Are You Afraid?

Note: I'm going to start posting my past Sunday sermons either on Sunday afternoons or Mondays. Here's the first.

Mark 4:35-41

On Wednesday night, just after a small group held bible study and prayers in an historic church in the city of Charleston, a lone gunman opened fire and killed 9 people, including that church’s pastor. One would think that a church, especially one as settled into the community as Mother Emanuel, would be the safest place a group could meet. One would think that within the hallowed walls of a much-loved place of sanctuary fear would cease to exist.

Of course, one would think that about our schools, workplaces and even our homes. After all, it’s in these places we find ourselves away from the crowds, away from the things which crowd our lives with stress, anxieties and trauma. But as recent history has taught us, fear can strike us anywhere and at any time, and those places we once considered safe havens are just as likely to become the place where we feel most crowded in.

In our lives we seek desperately for a place where we can escape the crowds, to get away from those places where we feel as though no matter what we try, no matter what we do, the crowdedness seem to be closing in tighter and tighter. So much so, that there really isn’t a place we can go to just find peace. And, when we think we’ve found that place…

News stories like the killing of 20 innocents in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, the murder of a family in their home in Washington, D.C. and the shootings of 9 faithful Christians and pillars of their community in Charleston, South Carolina invade our televisions and our lives.

Where, then, is Jesus in all of this? How do we overcome the crowds and live without fear that our quiet places will remain?

When I first looked into today’s passage I had a definite direction of where God was leading me and what the message for today would be. In the week and a half I’ve lived with this story from Mark’s Gospel my path has been changed 3 times.

I kept thinking about the circumstances which surrounded Mark’s community. I kept thinking about how at any time their lives would be disrupted because of how Christians were being persecuted by the Roman Empire. I kept thinking of Mark’s feeling of having to immediately bring the teachings of Jesus to his community. I kept wondering what it was like to be a part of Mark’s community; the answer came to me a few days ago.

Their lives were being trapped by the crowdedness, and the places where they found solace were quickly becoming the places that brought fear. To use a metaphor we’ll touch more on later, they were in their safe place when the storms of life blew by.

While looking at today’s passage I noticed something I must have overlooked before either because I’m more familiar with this story from one of the other Gospels, or I simply just overlooked it. We are told, “And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.” Jesus and his disciples travel in more than one boat.

This makes sense. They were fishermen and not rich, therefore the boats they used were made for 3 men, maybe 4. I find this to be an interesting facet in the telling of Mark’s story because of the precise place they found themselves in history: their lives were being disrupted and in order to survive they had to focus on the teachings of the Great Rabbi, Jesus Christ. Just as their people did so many times in their history, they were being oppressed and chased out of their homes to live in the wilderness.

Jesus had to be the focus to this new community of Christ followers just as the Jewish people had to focus on God in the times they were displaced from their lands. And just as the Pharisees and high priests enforced the laws of Moses, the author of Mark needed to center his community into the laws of Christ: to love and honor God, to love all people and to love one’s self.

So, then, Mark begins this story by explaining to us that Jesus needed to escape the crowds, inviting those closest to him to come along. However, they would not travel in the same boat; rather some would go in this boat and others in that boat. Together, though, they would be traveling the same journey, even if by their own paths.

My guess is the disciples felt pretty good about this journey. The sea was calm, they were together, and Jesus was with them. What could go wrong?

The Sea of Galilee sits 680 feet below sea level. It’s a very shallow body of water, with its deepest point between 150 and 200 feet. The hills which surround the lake get up to a height of 2000 feet and are a source of cool, dry air; while the air temperature surrounding the water is warm and semi-tropical.

The result of this geography is that strong winds pick up speed as they go down the cliffs to the sea. Since the Sea of Galilee is small, these winds descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can arise quickly and without warning; as can some of the storms in our lives.

Today we have the science which explains how the storm which Jesus and his companions found themselves, but when the Gospel was written the only explanation was that forces beyond human understanding were the cause for such storms. Add to this that people of that time and place believed the depth of the seas to be an entrance into the underworld, and one can understand why the disciples were truly afraid of their circumstance. Yet, Jesus asks them, “Why are you afraid?”

I often wondered why Jesus questioned their fear. By the 4^th chapter of Mark the disciples have seen a lot, at least enough to know that Jesus was capable of keeping them alive. They traveled with friends and surely if something happened, their friends would be there to help them out. Maybe they didn’t have enough trust in their abilities as boatmen, but seeing how their trade was fishing I’m sure they’ve experienced this type of storm before.

After looking into some reasons why they might be afraid, I came across one that actually makes sense: they boarded those boats with the intention of crossing over to the other side. Not just any other side, though; they were going across the sea to enter into the land of the Gentiles – a place they really didn’t want to go. Jesus was asking his followers to leave the comfort of familiarity and go into the land of the unknown.

The other day we watched as Dylan Roof, the Charleston shooter, stood before a judge to hear at what his bond would be set. During the bond hearing, families of the victims were asked if they had anything to say to Roof. Not everyone had something to say, but those who did touched my heart deeply.

My guess is that they were entering into places unknown. I’m sure none of them have ever before faced the person who took away the lives of their loved ones. This was a storm in their lives which had come up quickly, suddenly tossing their lives around. Yet, as each stood and spoke on behalf of their family members, they didn’t call for more guns as a resolution to the violence, they didn’t call for the death of the troubled young man, they didn’t call for an eye to replace the eye which was taken from them.

No, they asked that God show favor on this man and told him he was forgiven. They got in their boats, were taken suddenly by a storm which could have easily thrown them overboard into the depths of darkness, stood tall with Jesus at their side and let hate be defeated with love.

There is a painting by Rembrandt which perfectly portrays today’s story. When you get home I ask you look it up; The Storm on The Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt. When you look at the painting you’ll see there are three boats which are being tossed about by violent waters. Within the boats are Jesus and his disciples, all in various stages of action.

What you’ll find most interesting about the painting, I think, is that Jesus is painted in the shadow of darkness. Most paintings which portray Jesus show him as the light source. He is painted with a ray of light emanating from and surrounding his head, face and body. However, Rembrandt chooses to show Jesus in the shadow of darkness for this painting.

The source of light in The Storm on The Sea of Galilee comes through a break in the storm clouds, and this light does not shine on Jesus. When you look at the painting you’ll see that Jesus is sitting in the back of one of the boats, looking as though he was just awakened from a nap. To his right is a disciple, trying his best to steer a second boat, he is in the darkest place on this painting. The look of fear on his face is also the most expressive of all the disciples.

Jesus is surrounded in his boat by 3 other disciples. Each of these disciples are facing Jesus, pleading with him to do something. These disciples, along with the one behind Jesus who is trying to steer that boat and who shows a look of indifference, are all painted within the same shadow as Jesus.

As the disciples in the painting move further away from Jesus the light which surrounds them brightens. Another thing you’ll notice is as the disciples move further away from Jesus, their attention from his presence lessens. We keep moving away from Jesus and we see that the disciples’ only concern is to keep the boat afloat. Here in the brightest light of the painting we see disciples who have their entire selves being whipped by the dangerous waves of the sea.

In the brightest light of the painting stand the disciples who have jumped into action, the disciples who have decided to become active participants in saving their own lives and the lives of those around them. These are the disciples who understand that the presence of Jesus is always there and that the light of God is what guides them.

As I watched the families of the victims in the Mother Emanuel shooting stand and proclaim God’s love for Dylan Roof, I am absolutely certain they stood firmly in the waves of their storm, with Jesus in their presence, doing what it is God calls all Christians to do: love without exception – even if it means forgiving those who bring pain and suffering through an act of evil.

Frederick Buechner said in a sermon on today’s text, "Go….Go for God's sake, and for your own sake, too, and for the world's sake. Climb into your little tub of a boat and keep going." Buechner then reassures us in that same sermon of Jesus’ unrelenting presence by saying: "Christ sleeps in the deepest selves of all of us, and…in whatever way we can call on him as the fishermen did in their boat to come awake within us and to give us courage, to give us hope, to show us, each one, our way. May he be with us especially when the winds go mad and the waves run wild, as they will for all of us before we're done, so that even in their midst we may find peace, find him"

Sometimes we need to escape the crowdedness of our lives. And when we do the place we escape to may not always be a place of serenity. In a moment’s notice the storms of our lives can overcome those places of peace and quiet. It’s in those times we are reassured that Jesus sits with us, and when we awaken him from the shadows we will have the courage and strength to stand in the light of God as we face those storms head on and feet first. Always remembering we don’t travel those storms alone.

God is always with us.  Amen.