MARK 4: 35-41

Marginally Mark…Pentecost+5…Revised 2018 

Has our story grown from a simple experience of a storm on the Lake becoming something bigger over time, as some think?  Lots of anxieties & fears become bigger over time, don’t they? Two themes worth pondering & developing may be the conflict between fear & faith; &, the Big Question, ‘Who is this…?’ 

A useful starting point for the fear-faith option might be to move on from any theories we have about fear to the realities we, or someone else, are experiencing. (It seems fair to me to include ‘anxiety’ with fear in what follows; even if anxiety can’t be pinpointed so readily.) Fear is a great destroyer of lives, whether we’re struggling in its waters, or trying to avoid them in any boats we may be floating in or clinging to

This is the place to reinforce JN’s great words about fear: ‘There is no fear in love… perfect love casts out fear…’ [1 JN 4: 18] Two things occur to me: 1) There’s no love more perfect than God-in-Christ’s love for us. 2) The word JN uses here (usually translated ‘perfect’) comes from the same word Jesus uses on the cross when He says, “I’ve done it!”, or, “I’ve brought this off!” (My preferred translations!) Jesus’ love for His disciples triumphs over anxiety & fear out on that lake. How can we encourage such partnering in love with the One who can still say, “I’ve done it…I’ve brought this off!” in scary situations in which we find ourselves? The ‘I’ve done it!’ kind of love still wins out today!

Is there a more important question for today’s Church than the disciples’ “Who is this….?”

Confusion & division at all levels of life & society, at home & abroad, are proliferating anxieties & fears that threaten to sink our various ‘boats’. Are we promoting such an answer to our Big Question, that whatever else Jesus may be to us, He remains above all Son of God & Saviour? Not in theory, but in practice; from experience?

Preaching ‘sound doctrine’ won’t bring the responses we need, God needs. Not if we don’t experience Jesus today as the disciples out on that lake do. Have they got as far as thinking Jesus may be more than ‘a great Prophet’ till they’re thrown together in this situation out on the lake? We hear the same ‘Who is this?’ question from those watching Jesus enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; a challenging situation rather than the ‘kids’ day out’ we sometimes appear to turn it into! It’s time for us to face & ‘own’ any under-currents of fear in our own struggling to recognise ‘Who this is’ in challenging situations now! What encouragement can our preaching give to those faced right now with boats seemingly sinking under them?

Where do our personal ‘boat in a storm’ stories go on from here? Where, to Whom, does our personal answer to the “Who is this?’ question lead us?

Brian