Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Rev. Jon C. Olson
Feb. 2, 2014
“Why are you fearful, O you
of little faith?”
Well,
let’s see: there’s the wind gusting, the lightning flashing, the waves crashing
and the boat is fast filling up with water near to the point of sinking, and we
are all about to begin drowning and death is very likely - and you happen to be
sleeping completely unaware of your surroundings and what is going on around
you, and you are asking us why we are fearful – and are picking on us for the
little faith we have?
What
is hard for us to understand is that Jesus apparently doesn’t "get"
the life of fear that we comprehend so perfectly. Who here today has the least bit of trouble
identifying with the disciples and what they were going through? Are any of you surprised by the disciples’
behavior? Fear is something we
understand all too well. We all know all
too well what it means to be afraid. Afraid
of losing a family member, afraid of the uncertainties of the future, afraid of
a relationship breaking up, afraid of losing friends, afraid of suffering,
afraid of another person’s anger, afraid of losing control, afraid of gaining
control, afraid of responsibility and accountability, afraid of getting hurt
again, afraid of disappointing those who depend on us, afraid of change, afraid
that things will never change, afraid that people will hate us if they really
knew the evil we hide inside, afraid that we’ve done something too awful for
God or others to forgive,. Afraid, afraid, afraid…
And
so, yes, to us Jesus asks the question - and asks it as the winds howl into our
lives and the stormy waves crash and beat against our lifeboat and we feel like
we are about to drown – “why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”
If
we really stop and think about Jesus’ seemingly ridiculous question, a whole
new world and way of looking at life opens up to us: it becomes the world in
which our Lord lived and which He came to open up for us, so that we could live,
really live, in it too. It would not be
going too far to describe it as a life without being afraid. Which is not quite the same as a life without
fear.
The
Book of Proverbs says that “the fear of Lord, is the beginning of wisdom.”
(Proverbs 1:7) Which is to say that the
fear of the Lord is not the same thing as being afraid of Him. Notice that the fear of the Lord comes at the
end of the Gospel reading today, not the beginning: The fear of the Lord is actually
what leads the disciples to wonder aloud, saying, “Who can this be, that even
the winds and the sea obey Him?” And it
is precisely this fear of the Lord which releases from being afraid. To know and believe that God has their lives
all under control is a great relief to the disciples.
A
life without being afraid? A life where
there is no fear of being in the dark, where every circumstance and person is
met with confidence and joy, where suffering is not feared and death is not terrifying
and regret does not paralyze and peace reigns over all parts of your life? Such a life belongs to Jesus and He lived it
out fully. He was never afraid, for He
could cry out with the Psalmist:
“The
Lord is my Light and my Salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom
shall I be afraid?”
He
cried that prayer with every ounce of His being, and so in Him there was no
fear, and He calls upon us with our little faith to enter into that life with
Him and live - really live.
For
what is there to be afraid of when Jesus is with you in your boat? When He is
with you in your life? Does death
terrify you? He is the Resurrection and
the Life, He is the Death of death. He
is death’s worst nightmare come into human flesh. Death cannot hold you when He who died and
rose again calls you from the grave. Death
will have to release you and you will arise in your body - He has made death simply
like a little siesta, like the nap Jesus took on the boat.
Do
your sins terrify you? Jesus is the
Pardon for all your sins, nailed to Calvary’s cross, wiping away the
handwriting on the wall that was your death sentence.
Do
you fear the loss of friends and family? Truly, truly I say to you, any who believes
and is baptized are connected to Him and are never lost, for those who die in
Him still live! Jesus has promised and
desires reunion in heaven.
Are
you afraid that you won’t have enough, that you’ll suffer hunger or poverty? But He promises you daily bread and even
better, He freely gives you a food that that supplies your deepest and enduring
need: His body and His blood delivering to you the forgiveness of sin, the
promise of your resurrection, and the gift of life with Him forever.
Are
you afraid that He may have suffering in mind for you and your loved ones? Don’t worry. He does! He promises that suffering awaits you in this
life. How could it not? If we are walking the path of love with Him,
this world which rejects that love will see to it that we suffer. The persecution of Bible believing Christians
will continue and probably even increase.
Yet, Jesus also promises that through every hardship faithful,
individual Christians and the faithful Christian Church bodies face, He will
bring nothing but blessing, because He works all things together for the good
of those who love Him.
You
see, the One in the boat who asks: “Why are you fearful?” has literally taken
away from us every reason to be afraid of anything in this creation. Anything at all. He reveals to us that the entirety of life and
creation itself as a gift of love from a heavenly Father, and the measure of
that love is that He gave His Son into the flesh that you might never fear,
ever again.
It
is true that in our weakness, we still do fear. The Church knows this. In her wisdom, she teaches us to pray the
Collect for Peace. In it, the Church
asks God for a most precious gift: “and that we, being defended by You from the
fear of our enemies, may pass our time in peace and quietness.” Did you catch that? The Church does not ask God to deliver her
from her earthly enemies, but from the fear of them. Our problem is really never the evil people or
institutions. The problem is always with our being afraid of
them, as though they had some power over us to separate us from the love of God
in Christ! No way.
To
belong to Christ, to have the Crucified and Risen One present in your life, in
the boat with you, means learning how to live without fear - except for the
joyful fear of bowing before Him and confessing Him to be the Almighty God in
our flesh and blood, come to save us eternally. Amen.
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