Sunday's Message - Two Aspects of Faith

As disciples of Jesus, we've been called to follow him by claiming his example and learning from his teachings. From June to October, we're going to focus on the Gospel of Mark so that we might better understand how we might follow our Savior and live as his community. 

During the following twenty Sundays, the message will apply following passages:

June 6, 2021 - Mark 3:20-35

June 13, 2021 - Mark 4:26-34

June 20, 2021 - Mark 4:35-41

June 27, 2021 - Mark 5:21-43

July 4, 2021 - Mark 6:1-13

July 11, 2021 - Mark 6:14-29

July 18, 2021 - Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

July 25, 2021 - Mark 7:14-23

August 1, 2021 - Mark 7:24-37

August 8, 2021 - Mark 8:27-38

August 15, 2021 - Mark 9:30-37

August 22, 2021 - Mark 9:38-50

August 29, 2021 - Mark 10:2-16

September 5, 2021 - Mark 10:17-31

September 12, 2021 - Mark 10:35-45

September 19, 2021 - Mark 10:46-52

September 26, 2021 - Mark 12:28-34

October 3, 2021 - Mark 12:38-44

October 10, 2021 - Mark 13:1-8

October 17, 2021 - Mark 13:24-26, 32-36

On Sunday, June 20, 2021, we looked at Mark 4:35-41. The passage, the message and the podcast is below:

Mark 4:35-41 [Contemporary English Version]

That evening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the east side.” So they left the crowd, and his disciples started across the lake with him in the boat. Some other boats followed along. Suddenly a windstorm struck the lake. Waves started splashing into the boat, and it was about to sink.

Jesus was in the back of the boat with his head on a pillow, and he was asleep. His disciples woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown?”

Jesus got up and ordered the wind and the waves to be quiet. The wind stopped, and everything was calm.

Jesus asked his disciples, “Why were you afraid? Don’t you have any faith?”

Now they were more afraid than ever and said to each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Aspects of Faith

Well, since today is Father’s Day, I thought I’d share a little bit about my dad, and in particular something we’ve been doing for the last year and a half. Now, just to give you a little background, my mom passed away; it’ll be three years in a couple of months. And since then, my dad and I have become a lot closer then we’ve been in a while. Of course, that just makes sense, especially considering the fact that I haven’t lived in Norfolk, Virginia for over forty years. But since, mom died, I’ve called Dad every Sunday evening. And usually we talk about what we’ve been doing over the last week and what’s going on with my brother and sister, nieces and nephews, and of course, what’s happening with Debbie and Maggie; you know, stuff like that. And every now-a-then, we’ll kind of wander off into sports and old movies, but never politics. Anyway, that’s what we’ve been doing.

But about a year and half ago, something got added to mix. I mean, as all of y’all know, that’s about when the pandemic hit and everything shut down. And that really effected dad in a special way. You see, he’s taught an adult Sunday School class for about twenty-five years, and so every week, he’d write up his lesson and present it to the folks who came. Now that’s what he’s done every Sunday at 9:30 for longer than my daughter’s been alive. And I’ve got to tell you, right along with solving mechanical problems (my dad’s an engineer), for him, teaching this class is a really big deal. In fact, I think it actually helped him deal with mom’s death. But of course, all that changed when his church closed and they went to a purely virtual service with no in-person classes. Now when all this hit, I remember asking him what was going on with his little group. And he said that he was still writing out his lessons and either emailing them or printing them and then hand delivering them to folks who don’t have computers. Now that’s what he said, and I told him that I had idea on how we might be able to get his lesson out to even more people. You see, if he wanted, every Saturday, he could send me his lesson. I’d post it online and then he could give the computer people a link and I could also link it to some other sites and pages, you know, so more folks could see it. I also told him that I’d add some pictures and maps and stuff like that to sort of complement the lesson. And if this was something he wanted to do, he could trust that I wouldn’t change anything he’d written, even if there was something in the lesson that I thought was wrong. You see, he could have faith in me. 

Of course, I recognize that faith is not all that easy, at least it doesn’t seem to be now-a-days. As a matter of fact, a lot of people find it difficult to trust anyone, including God. And frankly, I think they’ve got some good reasons for feeling that way. I mean, just consider everything that’s happening all around us. My gosh, politicians often tell us what we want to hear to get our vote and then go off and do whatever they please. Advertisers promote products that look and sound great until they’re delivered. And how many of y’all have gotten phone calls about your extended warrantee or your student loans or maybe even that you’re being investigated by the FBI or IRS? I know I have. None of this encourages trust, now does it? And I’ll tell you, when you add what’s happening on the outside with what I think you could call a little bit of internal conditioning that we’ve received, you know, to be skeptical of everyone and everything, it’s no wonder so many people distrust government and media and leaders. Man, a lot of folks don’t even trust monitored elections or medical doctors or statistical polls. And that probably explains why a lot of people carry a really negative attitude into every situation that involves trust while, at the same time, they feel this profound sense of being alone and afraid, because if we expect everything to be fake, then who can we trust? Nobody.

I’ll tell you, I think that’s where a lot of people are now-a-days. And for that reason, as we continue to move with Jesus through the Gospel of Mark, this morning we’re going to spend a little time talking about faith and trust. And we’re going to use the story we just read to consider two different aspects of faith that might actually make trusting in both God and one another a little easier. And with each idea, we’ll consider how it might change our attitudes and our feelings.

And like I said, I think both of these concepts are in this passage from Mark. For example, I think these verses remind us that, first, that faith is always a decision and that the decision we make can have a major impact on our attitude. And I think we can see that in this story. I mean, just considered what happened. Mark wrote that Jesus and his disciples were out in this boat when “suddenly a windstorm struck the lake. Waves started splashing into the boat, and it was about to sink.” [Mark 4:37, CEV] And to make matters worst, the guy they’d already seen do some pretty miraculous things, you know, like healing a guy who was crippled and kicking out a whole bunch of demons, what was he doing? According to Mark, “Jesus was in the back of the boat with his head on a pillow, and he was asleep.” [Mark 4:38a, CEV] Man, he was taking a nap. Now that’s what those disciples faced. But instead of deciding to trust this person whom they knew had an authority that was beyond anything they’d encountered before and instead of deciding to trust that just like he could control diseases and demons, he could sure control this storm and instead of deciding to trust that when he said that they were going to be fishers of people that was exactly what they were going to become, something that would be impossible if they were on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee, you see, instead of deciding to trust, they did the exact oppose, and they assumed that they were goners. And then they took that perspective with them when they “woke [Jesus] and said, ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown?’” [Mark 4:38b, CEV] You see, their lack of faith resulted in a negative attitude.

And you know, the same kind of thing can happen to us. Now y’all may not know this, in the Bible, a storm involving water was often used as a image for chaos. And just like those disciples were facing a little bit of chaos in that boat, I think we all face some chaotic and confusing and threatening situations just living our lives. I mean, whether it involves money or health, family or friends, I think a little chaos is just part of life in the fast lane. But suppose, instead of assuming that we’ve been left to deal with these threats and this confusion and chaos all by ourselves, suppose we make the intentional decision to trust God, in other words, to trust that God is in control and to trust that he loves us and to trust that because we’re in his hands, our destinies are secure. I mean, how do you think making that decision will effect us? Of course, it probably won’t miraculously calm the waters or erase the credit card debt or heal my brother’s diabetes. No, the problems will probably still be there. What will change is our attitude as we face them. It’s like going into surgery believing that everything is going to go wrong or trusting that the hospital is equipped and that the surgeon is skilled and that our lives are in the hands of a God who couldn’t love us more than he does right now. You see, I believe our attitude will change when we recognize that, since faith is a decision, we can choose to trust. And that’s one idea we can take from this passage.

And second, we can also recognize that God’s going treat us with compassion and love even when our faith is a little bit shaky. In other words, he still holds us in his loving and gracious hands whether we decide to trust or not. And I’ll tell you, that was certainly the case with those disciples in that boat. I mean, think about what happened right after “his disciples woke him and said, ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown?’” [Mark 4:38b, CEV] According to Mark, “Jesus got up and ordered the wind and the waves to be quiet. The wind stopped, and everything was calm.” [Mark 4:39, CEV] In other words, Jesus addressed the very thing that was stressing out these guys in the boat. But then Jesus said something that I think was truly remarkable, something that I believe should remember. “Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Why were you afraid? Don’t you have any faith?’” [Mark 4:40, CEV] In other words, Jesus knew that, when his disciples woke him up, they didn’t have faith. They hadn’t decided to trust. I mean, if they had, they wouldn’t have been panicked by the winds and the waves. No, when he looked into their eyes, Jesus saw fear, not faith. And yet, instead of chewing them out for being faithless or shaming them for being afraid, “Jesus got up and ordered the wind and the waves to be quiet. The wind stopped, and everything was calm.” [Mark 4:39, CEV] Now that’s what he did. And even though this display of power caused the disciples to be even more afraid, Jesus didn’t withdraw his protection and allow this chaotic and confusing and threatening storm to return.

And I’ll tell you, that’s something else we can sure recognize right here and right now. You see, although there are plenty of situations when Jesus said something like “your faith has made you whole,” that doesn’t mean he abandons us when our faith is not so great, much less perfect. I mean, just like a good shepherd doesn’t care for his sheep only when they’re obedient or a good father doesn’t love his kids only when they’re nice, God just, plain loves us and holds us in his hands. And you know, even though some folks may never know that love or that care because they haven’t made the decision to trust, our decision doesn’t change what’s already there. It’s like a minister told me over forty years ago, that I was going have to live with the fact that God loves me. And I can tell you, he loves me and he loves you just as much on our worst days as he does on our best. Remember God doesn’t just love. God is love. And when we accept this, I think our feelings start to change, because instead of feeling nothing but loneliness and fear as we face the storms, we’re going to start feeling some comfort and peace as well. Man, that’s going to happen when we recognize that God’s going treat us with compassion and love even when our trust is less than perfect. And in my opinion, that’s another idea we can take from this story.

Now remember how I started this by talking about my Dad and his Sunday school class and how I offered to put it online just the way he wrote it. Well, every Saturday since last March I’ve put his lesson up into one of my blogs and I’ve linked it to Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest and several other sites. And there have been weeks when as many as a thousand people from all over the world have looked at what my Dad wrote, something that I can tell you, makes him really happy. Of course, this was only possible because he made the decision to trust his eldest son. And you know, we can do the same thing ourselves. You see, one, we can recognize that faith is always a decision and then we choose to trust and see our attitude become more positive. And two, we can also recognize that God still loves us whether we trust or not, something that I believe will move our feelings from loneliness and fear to comfort and peace. You see, I think this will happen when we claim these two aspects of faith.