Fear or Faith?

5th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 7)                                                     LSB #’s 584, 587, 715
Text – Mark 4:40
 
He said to them, “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”
 
FEAR OR FAITH?
 
 
Fear is one of the most common motivators that causes people to act.  Psychologists talk about the fight or flight response   because it is easily observed.  When you see human beings feeling threatened, they respond most often in one of two ways.  They either feel the need to run away, or they try to fight against the threat they feel. 
In this 2024 presidential campaign, because fear is normally a good motivator, both sides are trying to drive the vote by showing how afraid we should be of the other candidate winning.  Biden will continue to lock up in jail pro-life grandmothers.  Trump will destroy democracy.  The Philistines, led by the giant Goliath, struck fear into the hearts of all the Israelite nation. 
Fear is used to drive political campaigns & it’s used to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy during war time.  The attack of Hamas on Israel back in October was all about creating fear.  The Israeli attack on Hamas is about creating fear & about rescuing the hostages.  The protesters on college campuses this spring were all about creating fear. 
In the Gospel reading, the disciples are so afraid of the storm that they wake Jesus up: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  (Mark 4:38b ESV)   Satan’s temptation to Adam & Eve was about creating fear; the fear that God was withholding something good from them. 
Once Jesus calms the storm, He asks two questions to help His disciples put their fear into context: “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40 ESV)     The same questions apply to our lives today: “What are you afraid of, &   have you still no faith?” 
Those are rather confrontational questions, but Jesus is not asking them of strangers.  He is teaching His disciples; men who willingly followed Him when He called them.  They have a lot to learn & in the future, Jesus knows they will suffer greatly.  To do what God created them for, they will need to speak & teach fearlessly until they are put to death.   “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40 ESV)    Have you ever wondered if God has created you & called you to speak & teach fearlessly until you are put to death? 
Jesus knew what the future held for the 12 men He called to follow Him.   Jesus knows what your future holds for you.  I’m certain that each of us still has much to learn.    As Mark describes the storm on the lake, the disciples have nowhere to run.  Their initial response was to fight against the storm, but it became clear they were losing. 
What did they do next?  They began to fight Jesus: “…they woke Him & said to Him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’”  (Mark 4:38b ESV)   It bothered the disciples that Jesus lacked urgency & in fact was not responding to the storm at all.  You probably remember a time or two that you began to fight Jesus because He didn’t seem to be responding to your fears. 
Like the disciples you may have questioned if He cared about you because of some struggle you were facing.  “Why?” is a common question.  Why do I have cancer, why did my spouse die so young, why did my job get eliminated, why are my children so disrespectful?  The list goes on   & on, yet any of our questions are effectively a challenge to God’s wisdom. 
Contrary to what you may think, the heavenly Father can handle & even welcomes it when we challenge Him.   In fact, King David models how to challenge God in many of the psalms he wrote.   Our Lord & Savior wants us to share the challenges that weigh upon our hearts.  In His wisdom, He will use those to sharpen our faith & our understanding of His will. 
When the disciples wake Jesus, first He addresses their fear & calms the storm.   Then, He brings up a third & the best response to fear.  Jesus does not suggest fight, or flight, but faith instead: “Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40b ESV)    Jesus knows that as long as we are alive in this earth, we are at war because Satan is attacking us.   We can run; we can fight, but we will never win.  Faith in Jesus as our Savior from sin is the only path to victory.   It’s the only path to life as our Creator intended life to be.   Jesus used the challenge of the storm to sharpen the faith of His disciples & to sharpen their understanding of who Jesus is. 
In this Gospel reading, Jesus gives us an example of faith while He sleeps soundly & peacefully even during the raging storm.  Yet, those moments of peace can be few & far between in our lives.  None of us are holy as Jesus was during His earthly life.  We need so much more than an example of how to live.  We need Jesus to live the perfect life in our place. 
As Jesus awakens, & calms the storm with mere words, He reveals Himself to be something far greater than an example.  In human flesh, the Creator of the universe is commanding to be still the very wind & sea that He created.  The disciples are struggling to comprehend that Yahweh Himself is standing before them in the boat. 
Christians of our time have always known that to be true.   It was incomprehensible to the disciples in their time.  Mark is trying to capture for us the shock & awe that Jesus created in His disciples as “the wind ceased, & there was a great calm.”   They knew that only Yahweh could command the wind & the sea, but they never imagined that God could be a human being. 
After being afraid they were going to die in the storm, they are even more afraid after Jesus stills the storm: “And they were filled with great fear & said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind & the sea obey Him?’”  (Mark 4:41 ESV) 
Whatever illusions of control human beings might have, such illusions are destroyed in the violence of typhoons, hurricanes & tornados.   No one in their right mind defiantly stands against them & says, “Peace!  Be still!”   This Jesus, on the Sea of Galilee, is Lord of creation.  This Jesus, whom the disciples challenged because He was sleeping while the storm was trying to kill them, is someone to be feared.  And yet, this Jesus is the Lord who saves.  The Creator of the universe was in their boat, but not in judgment upon their fear.   He was God with them in order to save them from their fears.  He was God with them in order to put their fears into context.    He was God with them in order to save them from their sins. 
All of our earthly fears stem from sin.   What are you afraid of?   Old age, & the poor health it often brings, is probably one of the more common fears in a congregation like ours.  What fears are driving you in your life today?   That is a confrontational question, but Jesus asks not to judge.  He asks in order to save, because Satan is at war & he seeks to destroy us. 
Have you still no faith?  Jesus asked that very confrontational question because He wanted to make clear that faith in Him as Savior means that He is at work to save.  Since He is almighty, we truly have nothing to fear, not even Satan or his attacks.   That is easy to preach; much harder to live, but it still needs to be said. 
Jesus is God & He is man.  Immanuel means God with us.  He is faithful & His love for us knows no boundaries.  Recognize though, that even as God is about the work of saving us, that too will cause fear.  The disciples were scared out of their wits by the storm on the lake & yet, they were even more afraid when Jesus woke up & calmed the storm. 
“Fear or faith?” is the question Jesus poses to us this morning.  Faith is the work of God’s Spirit in us, & we thank Him for that with the holy fear that He also grants to us.  Amen. 
 
 
I know my faith is founded on Jesus Christ, my God & Lord; & this my faith confessing, unmoved I stand on His sure Word.   Our reason cannot fathom the truth of God profound; who trusts in human wisdom relies on shifting ground.   God’s Word is all sufficient, it makes divinely sure; & trusting in its wisdom, my faith shall rest secure.     Increase my faith, dear Savior, for Satan seeks by night & day to rob me of this treasure & take my hope of bliss away.   But, Lord, with You beside me,  I shall be undismayed;  & led by Your good Spirit,  I shall be unafraid.  Abide with me, O Savior, a firmer faith bestow; then I shall bid defiance to every evil foe.  Amen.  LSB 587:1-2.