Why are we afraid?

Introduction

Today we are continuing our series on questions.

As we keep going, I keep thinking that each question is more and more important not just to the disciples who were doing the asking, but to our current cultural moment, and today is absolutely no exception.

But I want to start today with a different kind of question that has captured my attention over the years:

What’s in your bag?

Back in the days before the pandemic, my senior pastor and I would sneak out toward the end of a sermon writing week to get some work done outside the office.

I haven’t been at LPC long enough to find mine yet, but we had very specific names for these sermon writing places.

We called them branch offices.

His was the Panera on 19, mine was the Dunkin Donuts by my house.

There were requirements for a branch campus for both of us.

Ready access to coffee.

Good wifi

Lots and lots of coffee.

A low likelihood that someone would bump in to you and interrupt your sermon.

As much coffee as humanly possible.

But even as I lived in to the branch campus idea, there were requirements of me.

I had to make sure that my bag had absolutely everything I might possibly need for a day’s sermon writing work.

Laptop and charger to be sure.

Pair of headphones: absolutely vital.

A Bible. (only slightly less vital than the headphones, because you can always look it up online!)

Pens and pencils to make notes on napkins.

The adapters, plugs, chargers, and nicknacks you might need in case a stranger wanted to download something off your computer.

A full size wireless keyboard, because who could possibly sit hunched over a laptop for that long?

A cup for coffee (save the environment!)

And at several points in my time, a big pink rubber ball (bring one from home if you remember!)

I wanted to be prepared!

I didn’t want there to be a single thing that could possibly come up and take me by surprise.

Studying Mark

Just as he was

As we read in our text today, Jesus wouldn’t have passed my preparedness test.

Jesus has spent all of Mark chapter 4 teaching.

There were some big big crowds, so he decided to get in to a boat and push out a bit from the shore so that folks could see and hear him.

He does some of his greatest hits:

The parable of the sower.

A lamp on a stand (This little light of mine)

The parable of a growing seed

The parable of the mustard seed

It’s at this point that Jesus has gotten pretty tired, so he says to the guys “Let’s go somewhere else and relax a little bit.

(Incidentally, Jesus is pretty frequently doing this. HIs ministry follows a regular cycle of Individual Ministry and Healing, followed by Big Crowds and Teaching, followed by rest and recharging. We could learn from this work schedule)

And the text tells us that the disciples take Jesus “just as he was.”

He didn’t pack an emergency bag.

He didn’t have a tool belt with him.

He wasn’t in any way prepared for what comes next.

None of them were.

Storms

Almost right away it feels like in this text a storm shows up, so much so that the waves are crashing over the side of the boat.

This was actually pretty common in this region, as the lake sits in the just right meteorological situation to get hammered.

But even still, this one must have been a doozy.

Remember that the disciples in question here are professional fishermen.

Some of them have been working this lake all their lives.

I am sure they have seen storms on this lake before.

I am sure that they were hard men.

I am sure that it takes more than a couple of raindrops and some big waves to get under their skin.

This one has them worried.

It should also be noted that these were not big boats.

John Pinnett is a comedian who once said that anything that doesn’t have a buffet and a casino isn’t sea-worthy

I’m with him, and these boats wouldn’t have counted.

A cruise liner this is not.

Sleepy Jesus

For his part, in the middle of the deadliest catch, Jesus is asleep on a cushion.

I love this!

Jesus is human!

For all the attention and effort we put in to Jesus as Son of God (more on that in a moment), we see a Jesus who just a whole Sunday’s worth of preaching, and the brother needs a nap.

I’ve never related more to my savior than in this moment!

Still, if you’re the disciples, this is probably both baffling and disturbing.

From where do you summon the confidence to sleep during a once in a lifetime storm?

(Mark is a genius writer)

The Disciple’s Question

And at this point, the disciples have had enough.

They have a question for Jesus: Don’t you care that we’re drowning?

Oh…let’s get real for a moment.

Who among us hasn’t had a season of crises where this question hasn’t come to mind?

Who among us hasn’t been standing at the death bed of someone far too young and said “Jesus, don’t you care about this person?”

Who among us hasn’t watched a friend or a family member gripped by addiction and asked “Jesus, don’t you care about the damage this is causing?”

Who among us hasn’t looked around at the incredible death toll cause by this virus, or the small businesses that are suffering, or the incendiary discussions in our national discourse, or the way each and every one of those things impact our shared life here in the church, and said “Jesus don’t you care about our country!?!”

And I want to be really clear here, in this series we’ve been exploring how sometimes people are asking the wrong question.

Asking Jesus if he cares about us may not be the best question, but it’s never wrong to ask it.

I think it’s a question most often borne of legitimate crisis in our lives, and I think it’s in those moments that Jesus most wants to hear us asking honest questions.

Why are you so afraid?

So Jesus gets up, and simply says to the wind and the waves “Be still.”

A word about miracles:

There are some who have a hard time with the miracle stories in the Bible.

Some just want to be pragmatic, and say that this is simply not how the world works.

Were I to go to the beach and command the waves to stop, I think I’d end up with sand in my shorts at best.

But there are also some who want to discount miracles because they have been in the moments of crisis, have prayed for a miracle just like this one for their friends or family or loved ones, and the miracle never came.

And I don’t have much of an answer there. I don’t know why miracles show up sometimes, and sometimes they seem so illusive.

Mark sort of takes care of us on the practical side, he makes sure we know that this wasn’t just Jesus and the Disciples, that there were other people along the ride with them in other boats.

But on a bigger picture, I believe that miracles have more to say about who Jesus is than they do to who we are, or what we need.

Up until this point in Scripture, the only one who was able to control wind and waves and nature was God.

Jesus performs miracles because for as much as he is completely the kind of human that would fall asleep after a long day in the pulpit, he is also completely the God who can control nature.

Miracles, both those attested to in scripture and the ones that you and have have seen in our present times, point us to the person and revelation of Jesus Christ.

If they don’t do that, they’re no better than playing a cosmic slot machine.

After this miracle, Jesus turns to the disciples and has a question for them, one that we absolutely must take seriously today:

“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Fear

What are you afraid of?

In America, the number one fear among adults is public speaking, and the number two fear is death.

That means at any given funeral in this great country, there are more people who would like to be in the casket than actually give the eulogy.

Some people have a paralyzing fear of flying.

Some are afraid that they haven’t saved enough and won’t have enough money in retirement.

Some are afraid of snakes.

Some of us have an incredible fear of anything having to do with a needle.

Fear is a funny thing!

I am deathly afraid of needles, which my wife mostly rolls her eyes at as she is poked and prodded all the time and has no big deal with.

Meanwhile, I stand up and speak in front of crowds for a living, and have never once feared the task.

Fearing how people will respond to the message I would argue is a different thing all together.

We all have different fears.

How do you respond to fear?

Avoidance.

One way to get over fear is to make sure that we never encounter it.

When I was a kid, I didn’t want to take swimming lessons.

So when my grandfather drove me to the lessons one day, I just hid in the locker room and hoped that no one noticed I was missing.

Pap came along and gave me a speech that still rings true to this day:

No one ever got anywhere by hiding.

I know at least for me, I still do that.

I know that I avoid conflicts because I’m afraid of offending people.

I know that I punt on some serious conversations because I’m afraid of what people will think of me.

I know that it’s going to take a team of oxen to get me out to get my flu shot this year...

But we know all too well that this is not a viable strategy.

We can hide all we want, but the thing we’re afraid of will still be there.

We cannot ignore the wind and the waves away.

It will have to be dealt with eventually.

Minimizing.

Some people get over their fears by trying to minimize the thing they’re afraid of.

Actually, truth be told, I see this more as a way to get other people to be less afraid, no so much ourselves.

Imagine Peter turning to Thomas and saying “Oh buck up ya big baby! These aren’t such big waves!”

Or imagine someone saying to another person wearing a mask that they shouldn’t be afraid of a virus that’s killed hundreds of thousands.

Sometimes there are things that are smaller problems than we give them credit for, but a lot of times the fears we carry are extremely real.

That was a real crisis the disciples were facing in the boat.

Those were real waves.

Minimize it all you want, the threat was very much still real, and so was the fear.

And it certainly almost never helps when we’re minimizing someone else’s fear, as if we knew how they were experiencing fear.

Me telling somebody that is afraid of public speaking that it’s never killed me before probably won’t help that situation.

Over Confidence.

I have also known people who project a tremendous amount of confidence in something they’re terrified about.

I knew a youth pastor many years ago who used to tell us every time we’d get together how great he was at speaking.

He was the best speaker on the planet. They gave him awards. He taught seminars.

These assertions would come without prompting too.

“Did you see the Penguin game last night?”

“Yeah, I caught the third period because I was really busy before that absolutely nailing my youth group lesson...”

But then a very predictable end came about...

He was invited to speak at an event we were all coming to, and between the pacing and the stuttering and the flop sweat, you could see that every ounce of confidence he was pouring out in front of us was a cover.

He was terrified.

Our own attempts at over confidence may convince others that we’re not afraid for a little while, but they will do little to help us when the bill comes due and we have to face our fears.

These aren’t the questions Jesus is asking: Why are you afraid?

Once again, Jesus points out that we’re asking the wrong question.

Of course Jesus cares about us!

Any religion or institution which doesn’t make plainly obvious the love and care Jesus Christ has for each of us, for our neighbors, and for our creation hasn’t been doing its job.

Jesus absolutely cares for us in the moments of big crisis, and even in the little crises the come our way.

And of course Jesus is strong enough!

What could we possibly come across in life that Jesus can’t handle?

Stressful jobs?

Potty training children?

Caring for aging parents?

Economic downturns?

Pandemics?

If even the wind and the waves obey the Son of God, then so will our calendars, our schedules, our work lives, and our very futures.

And if all that is true, the question becomes why are we afraid?

We’re afraid because we live in a culture of fear.

One of the worst things that I think has happened to our culture is the advent of the 24 hour news channel.

I say this because it’s true of MSNBC every bit as much as its true of CNN every bit as much as its true of Fox.

The reality of their business is that they need to bring eyeballs to advertisers, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to stoke fear.

It’s one of the reasons that it is so impossibly hard to find good news stories on any network now, because it just doesn’t sell.

So I have been trying a little experiment these last few weeks, being a news junkie. I went on a news fast.

No shows, no podcasts, no panels.

I read the news as a means to stay informed, but I’ve been doing my level best not to participate in the news channels.

It has been (I hope) so very liberating!

Not for nothing in this election year, but our politicians on both sides of the isle have discovered that they can win a lot of elections by stoking our fears.

We owe it to ourselves when we are staring down our fears to ask who has a vested interest in keeping us afraid.

Who is it that benefits from my inaction due to fear?

Who profits from my fear?

Is this something to be afraid of, or is this over-sold hype?

We’re afraid because we don’t keep our eyes on Jesus.

It isn’t enough to cut out the things that are keeping us afraid.

We’ve all heard the story of Peter walking on the water.

It’s miracle enough that Jesus can do it.

It’s profound that Jesus gives Peter the power to walk on the water.

While I 100% believe it to be a real, historical event, it also serves as a tremendous metaphor.

Peter doesn’t start sinking until he stops looking at Jesus.

Imagine what we could do if instead of putting our eyes on our favorite news channel we put our eyes on Jesus?

Imagine what we could do if instead of putting our eyes on our Amazon shopping carts we put our eyes on Jesus?

Imagine what we could do if instead of minimizing the things we are afraid of, we put our eyes on Jesus and powered through them anyway.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus is a daily practice.

One of my favorite questions, you’ll hear me ask again and again and again, is “What is Jesus up to in your life?”

We need to work each and every day to name an answer to that, particularly when things are going very well, so that we’re prepared and practiced at keeping our eyes on Jesus when the seas get a bit more rocky.

We’re afraid because we don’t trust Jesus enough.

In fact at the end of this story, Jesus has a two part question, and the second part is the answer.

Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

Faith is central to Christian living, yet is something we don’t often talk about.

Faith is so much more than knowledge.

Faith is so much bigger than belief.

Faith is beyond religion.

Faith, in fact, is trust.

Faith is putting our money where our mouths are.

Faith is putting boots on the ground of our belief.

Faith is action, involvement, and progress.

To have faith in Jesus is to trust him above all things.

To have faith in Jesus is to trust him, rather than our bank accounts, with our future.

To have faith in Jesus is to trust him, not our politicians, to ease our fears about the nation.

To have faith in Jesus is to trust him, not our own abilities, to save us and provide our healing.

Moving from fear to respect.

In Jesus question, he asks the disciples if they are afraid, he uses the word Deilos.

It means cowardly.

Picture John Wayne calling someone “yellow belly.”

But as the disciples stand back, they are terrified.

The Greek word here is phobeo, which has a different connotation.

If you’ve ever walked in to a giant cathedral, with a roof that immediately pulled your gaze upward, and it took your breath away? That’s phobeo.

It’s a fear, but it’s a respectful fear.

It’s a nod to actual power, something that’s a little different from cowardly deilos.

Our trust in Jesus moves us from cowardly fear to respecting the power that Jesus has.

We don’t avoid the wind and the waves, because that’s not how we grow.

We don’t pretend the wind and the waves aren’t so bad, because sometimes they really, really are.

We don’t lean on our own confidence in an attempt to project our own sufficiency.

We don’t eliminate our fears. We work through them by respecting the power a very active, risen, and reigning Jesus has over them.