Grace and peace to you
from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I am very happy to be with
you here again! For any of you who don't know, or don't remember, I was the
seminarian-in-residence here at Ascension from September 2002 to May 2004.
Since then I did my internship at St. John's in south Austin and finished my
last year at seminary. I graduated last month-yea I I'm finished school.
I've been assigned by the bishops of the ELCA to the Northern Texas Northern
Louisiana synod. Now, I'm in this in-between status entitled "awaiting
call." It's a difficult time of mostly waiting, waiting. I've had a phone
interview with one call committee and should hear something from them next
week. While I'm waiting, I'm continuing to work as an R.N. at St. David's
Medical Center, mostly in the Rehabilitation.
I planned a little
vacation for after graduation which I took last week. I went to California.
My son Robert and my niece went with me, and we went to Napa Valley and saw
the sights in San Francisco. The main reason for the trip, though, was to
see my son Paul receive his master's degree from Stanford University in
mathematics. I had to be there to say, "I got mine first!" With a 29-year
head start, I beat him by a month.
Paul is in the Ph.D.
program in math, he aims to continue doing math research. He's tried to
explain to me before what it is he researches, and this time I took notes to
remember. For those of you who understand, he is in the Institute for
Computational and Mathematical Engineering-he studies how random components
affect the expected values of equations that don't have an answer-it's
called Polynomial Chaos Expansion. But to me the more interesting way he put
it was this: he studies uncertainty quantification. Trying to put a limit on
uncertainty.
Now
that
brings us to our gospel
for today. The text from Mark's gospel introduces two questions, "Why are
you afraid?" from Jesus, and "Who then is this?" from the disciples. For the
disciples, the uncertainty that they felt in that little fishing boat on the
stormy sea, was limited only by their sure feeling that they were going to
die then and there. They awaken Jesus, sleeping on a cushion in the back,
not expecting any other outcome, but since he is their teacher, the master
of their discipleship, they want to know if he cares. The word used there,
we translate as care, is the Greek "melei," which carries the idea of "being
anxious about." They want him to share their anxiety.
To paraphrase their
question, the disciples ask, "Why aren't you as anxious about dying as we
are?" Now mind you, it's early on in Mark's story. The disciples have seen
so far some healing miracles, seen Jesus stand up to the big-business ways
that the temple was using to oppress the poor among the people; they've seen
him declare his mission about the kingdom of God as more important than even
his family relations, and heard teaching in the form of parables. The
disciples even had some extra tutoring about the meaning of the parables.
But apparently they're not seeing Jesus as particularly more than other
traveling preachers and teachers who were around at the time. He's been
impressive enough for them to leave what they'd planned and take up with
him, trying to follow the new way he proclaimed. Now they agree to get into
the boat with him, to travel over to the other side. The other side is a
significant symbol in Mark. It was the land of the Gentiles, the land of the
unclean, of the "others." It was probably territory unknown or unfamiliar to
them. They leave in the evening, other boats were with them, and it's
interesting to me, Mark points out they took Jesus, "just as he was." My
study Bible says the phrase is just as obscure in Greek as it is in English.
I think it means they took him at his word, stepped out to go into the boat
with Jesus into unknown territory, without any further instructions or
preparation. Many point to this story as an example of the disciple's lack
of faith, but I think they acted quite normally for human beings, and
initially showed quite a trust of their new master.
We know about the fear
that human beings suffer. Even the children, as we could see, know about
that. It seems that in our country, in its culture, there has grown in the
last five to ten years, a huge market that depends on fear of one person or
group about another. Terrorists want their victims to fear, while they
appear fear-less. But many would have us use our resources, our money, our
time, and our efforts to manipulate our situations to avoid fear. Even our
government and politicians want us to take many actions based on some fear
or other. The idea seems for us to become more feared by others.
Tom Brokaw was one of the
speakers at the Stanford commencement ceremonies last weekend. He declared
that we live in a world of perpetual contradictions-we could have heard that
from any good Lutheran church in his home in the Midwest last Sunday. I
guess it's a good time to be a Lutheran; we've known about living in the
midst of paradox for 500 years. We are saints, we are sinners. God is just,
God is merciful. Our theology is based on the death of Christ on the
cross-God with us in the worst of our circumstances, loving us in the midst
of our sins. Brokaw talked about the problems of the world facing the
graduates and said that if the issues are not addressed in a broader
fashion, the world would exist in a perpetual state of terror and rage. He
encouraged them to step into the unknown and make it more comfortable for
the rest of us to venture forth. He told them to arise each morning
determined to hate. They were powerful words, but they didn't do anything to
limit the uncertainty of today's world. On TV this week I saw a commercial
for "if' insurance. Insurance against the 'If' in life. If we can't limit
the variables, can we at least insure against them?
Jesus asks, "Why are you
afraid?" What is it that makes you feel that cramp in your stomach, that
rush of blood surging to the body parts vital to survival, away from others.
The emotion of fear is designed to protect us, to help us react quickly and
decisively against a threat. But in many of us, the reaction is an
over-reaction and becomes a chronic feeling of stress. Experts tell us that
98% of our worry time is spent on things that never happen, can't be
changed, turn out better than expected, or are useless, petty. I understand
that. I only have one fear I consider to be an irrational phobia-it's
cockroaches. Those big ones. When I see them, I start squealing and stomping
my feet before my brain can even get started with facts like my size
compared to the roach, or the roach's lack of ability to do much to me.
After a little fit, I usually settle down, do something drastic like kill
it, and then spend time wondering why I always over-react at the sight of
those little pests, and trying to get my blood pressure back to normal.
Maybe some of you have some similar fears that are more powerful than they
ought to be.
Jesus puts a lid, an
absolute limit, on the disciples' fear. He limits the fearproducer, telling
the sea to "be still!" The sea in ancient stories symbolized chaos. Jesus
brings peace amidst the chaos. There ensues a dead calm. Now, the disciples
will be forced to row the boat the rest of the way across the lake. It will
be hard work to get to the other side. Everybody's in a thoughtful mood.
Jesus is pondering what it will take to grow faith in these folks. The word
that first described the disciples' panic portrays a fear that's based on
external causes. The word that Jesus used to describe their fear is a
different Greek word-it's fear based on an inner deficit, a lack of faith.
In spite of the disciples’
lack of faith, the miracle still happens for them. In fact, the disciples
are never described in Mark as having faith. The disciples are portrayed as
guys who have a hard time getting it. This makes them more real for folks
like you and me. It helps us see that it's not that we have faith that a
certain outcome can be expected. It shows that we have a faith in who's in
charge. Look at the disciples' question pondered on the long row to the new
place. They ask, "Who then is this?" The answer is certainly described in
the passages from Job and Psalms we have for today. It is God who created
the seas and can save us from them-and from our fears-when we face chaos,
the storms, the "if" in the middle of life.
We too need to look within
to see whether our fear stems from something external, or is it our own
timidity, our own cowardice, our inability to trust God.
It's easy to say, "Let go
and let God." And I think it's a good thing to live by. But it's not easy to
do. We have been taught ever since the Age of Reason that if we can learn
about something, analyze it, we will not be afraid it. I tried that with the
cockroach thing. I suppose it helps some-but it didn't keep me from smashing
one with my glass coffee pot one morning, and of course smashing the glass
pot to pieces at the same time. Because, you see, like the first disciples,
there are things that are going to provoke us to fear, individually and as a
community. We are going to be afraid at times. But we have something greater
than fear; we have something greater than knowledge. We have the ever-sure
presence of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have the model
Jesus gave us for what to do in the midst of a chaotic situation Even if it
seems we are facing certain death, or the death of someone we love, Jesus
says again and again, "Fear not, only believe." Hold on to that belief, no
matter how small it seems in relation to the fear you feel. For Christ has
conquered death, he lives that we might live. He lives that we might have
life abundantly.
Now that's the good news,
the best news, in absolute contrast to the fear that is screamed to us every
day by the world around us. When we gather for worship every week, we are
standing together in a public act of protest to the ways of the world
designed to make us afraid. It is an act of repentance-we declare that we
will be otherwise-we will be unafraid of fear. We will recognize our fear as
a part of our human emotions, and then claim the promise of God in our
baptism. That God is always with us, telling the storm to be still as we
daily die to sin and rise from the waters of chaos to new life in Christ.
God tells us, "Peace be with you. Be still and know that I am God."
Let us go out and proclaim
that peace to the world. Let's show others how the non-anxious presence of
Jesus in our lives brings us peace, allows us to show others, even the ones
on the other side, that we know who can limit the variables for us. And
because of that, we can and do care for them in faith without fear. Amen
-
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a web format for
sharing "21st
Century Worship" on
PDA
channels for your handheld/PDA device, MP3 player or
smartphone