June 14,
2020 Mark 4- “Jesus Calms the Storm” Ps.
107:29; Mk. 4:35-41
When I was a boy my father and I were in a
little jon boat on a pond in Newberry County going fishing together. We had a little electric motor. We had made our way around the edges with no
luck so we decided to go out into the middle of the pond. About that time, and very suddenly a funnel
cloud came up- and we saw a tornado. My
father didn’t say a word, I was not so calm.
We quickly headed our little electric motor toward the shore, but we
were getting absolutely nowhere. I
started paddling with the motor, and we were moving like molasses on a cold day
in January. We could hear trees
cracking, felt the strong wind and the little pond started having white
caps. To say we were praying would be an
understatement. The tornado missed us,
and after it was all over we got to shore.
I kind of feel like that about what
is happening. We hear of things breaking
around us: health, whether people feel safe to get out, family tension from
being closed in, racial tension and injustice.
Maybe there are signs that the storm is going to pass us- or it may be
that we are in the eye of the storm, but I hope we are calling out like the
disciples- “Lord save us!”
We thought we were having it bad in
South Carolina when the Coronavirus hit and everything shut down in
mid-March. But then in mid-April we had
a rash of 16 tornadoes hit our state in one night. The Washington Post wrote about it as a
unique occurrence when two tornadoes from two different systems actually merged
to form a mega-tornado near Williston-Elko, South Carolina. I can remember the governor coming on TV telling
us that we who were already under one state of emergency would declare another
state of emergency. Then the deaths of
three African Americans at the hands of white men in Georgia, Louisville, and
in Minneapolis led to protests, but then riots, and then calls to defund or
even ban the police. What next? Murder hornets? Portuguese Man-O-Wars hitting our
beaches? SO WHAT IS GOING ON? When should I start looking over my
shoulder?
It is hard to understand. I, as a
Presbyterian, have often thought we are meant to understand everything. But quite to the contrary, John Calvin, the
founder of the Presbyterian Church refused to answer questions that scripture
did not fully answer. He would not get
involved in the scholastic questions of his day like “How many angels could fit
on the head of a pin.” But he would say
what scripture says. Remember Job? Some of us are feeling a bit like Job these
days- his business, his savings, his children, his health were all taken from
him. He was extremely perplexed. He asked God for an answer. God’s answer came in the last chapters- one
verse sums it up, “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things
beyond our understanding.” He goes on
and says, “Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning
flash? …Where were you when I laid off the earth’s foundations?” The answer is that it is unanswerable
here. The old song says it right, “We’ll
understand it all bye and bye.” We
cannot comprehend the variables.
Research says we cannot handle solving more than four problems at a
time. Yet there are billions of
people. I think, if this is true
research that any more than four major problems overwhelms us too.
Circumstances can seem to overwhelm
you. But they do not overwhelm our
soul. This is the point of this passage. The crux of this passage is not when the wind
blew, or when the lightning flashed, or even when the water started to come
into the boat. It is not when the
disciples turned and called out to Jesus.
It is not even when Jesus calmed the waters. The crucial point in this passage is when
Jesus looked at the disciples and said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” It was at that point that they asked, “Who IS
this?”
WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID? Fear can grip us and control us. Fear can take our circumstances and blow them
up bigger than they need to be. Fear can
make us curl up in the fetal position and lock ourselves in a padded cell. Now Jesus can say, “Why are you so
afraid?” But that is not our place to
ask others. Christians are not to flaunt
our courage or be foolhardy. But perfect
love casts out fear. In other words,
when you love something you risk it. One
of the problems is that some of our governors, some of our preachers, maybe
even some of you think religion is not important. Even in Jesus’ day, people went to see Jesus
because he gave bread to them, or he was entertaining, or maybe he could help
them with a healing. But when you think
something is important you risk for it.
Our God is not our health. The
crazy thing is that we the longer our life expectancy has grown, statistically,
the less we have devalued eternal life.
Life expectancy for my grandfather in 1900 was 42; For my father in
1960s is 62; for today it is 72, and our major expense in life is
healthcare. In Richland and Lexington
Counties the biggest buildings are not churches or malls but hospitals. Health and long life hear and ease of pain
are great blessings from God- and answers to thousands of years of prayer. But we fool ourselves when we only live for
our health. There is something more
important than our health. Jesus was
saying this to the disciples here. There
is something more important in the boat than your health. If you can’t understand why Jesus asked, “Why
are you so afraid?” Then take another
look. God is more important than your
health. God is in the boat with you. The
waves of life may seem to be overwhelming you- but God is here. Call out to Him.
DO YOU STILL HAVE NO FAITH? Now the disciples had seen amazing things and
heard amazing teachings. They had heard
demons shriek and say that he was the Son of God. They had seen people healed who had been sick
for their whole life time. He had healed
lepers. He had preached the Sermon on
the Mount- the greatest sermon ever preached and greatest philosophy ever
espoused. John has Jesus calming the
storm after the feeding of the 5,000.
How can you see all that and still have no faith? How much does it take- is what Jesus was
asking. So let me ask you, “How much
does it take for you to really put your trust in Jesus?” How much does it take for you to believe that
Jesus can calm your storm? How much does
it take to believe Jesus can help you through your family problems? How much does it take before you give up your
fear of losing your sin and instead put your trust in the living God who calms
the waters? How many storms, how much
water in the boat, how many infections around us, how much fear of racial
strife, how much economic ruin will it take before you say, “My Lord and my
God!” What does Jesus have to do? How many storms in your life does He have to
see you through? How many times does He
have to provide for you? How many
blessings does He have to bestow on you?
Is Jesus asking this about you as He asked it of his own disciples- “Do
you still have no faith?” Does He have
to rise from the dead before you see that you health is not the main thing in
life?
This passage ends with two
rhetorical questions. One is (what we
just talked bout) “Do you still have no faith?” and the other is, “Who is
this?” If you had been in the boat, and
you had seen it go up an down and the waves crash in, and Jesus gets up and
rebukes it, who would you say it is? If
you had been on the shore and Jesus fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves and
fishes, who would you say it is? If you
had been in that room with the door shut and Jesus came in and said, “Peace be
with you?” Who would you say it is?
Martin Luther was persuaded to be a
monk in a storm. I told God in the midst
of a tornado at Camp Barstow that I would even become a minister if he saved
me. Storms are terrible and scary. But even storms can bring good. One of the best pictures ever taken on Lake
Murray was a picture at a fourth of July fireworks gathering taken by Kenny
Anderson of the cross beside the lake all lit up with lightning.
In 75 countries the searches for
prayer hit five year highs. People are
looking to find Jesus in the midst of this storm. The number of people doing internet searches
for “hope” on Christian sites has
increased 170% according to Christianity Today.
John Newton was a kind of a wild guy
who became a sailor. He left the navy
and became a slave trader- bullying and torturing other human beings. But in 1748 his ship was almost sunk at sea. He was thrown overboard and called out to God
– like the people in the boat called out to Him. God saved Him. He later went on to write- “Amazing Grace how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me- I once was lost but now am found,
was blind but now I see.” He worked with
Wilburforce to abolish the slave trade in England. God can change you through a storm. He can change you through this storm if you
will call out to Him and let Him help you.
