Our summer series on Faith, Hope, and Love began last week by looking at the parable of the mustard seed. I shared aspects of my faith journey with the many different twists. And as I remember this journey I am on, I am reminded that God always provided the people who needed to walk it with me. Whether or not that was people from church or school, coaches, teachers, doctors, pastors, friends, or family. Throughout my journey, God has taken my small faith, walked with me, challenged me, and has helped my faith grow in miraculous ways. On this journey God, has allowed for me to walk this journey with others teaching folks how to live out their faith as well.
The fascinating thing about faith journeys is that not one is the same and all have led down different roads. In addition, the depth of our faith and how we have individually lived out our faith, has been different too. We have all had the opportunity to walk along this journey of faith with other people and been affected by other peoples journeys too-in either positive or negative ways. As I have been talking and thinking about faith journeys, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what faith really is. One of the authors I love is Kathleen Norris. She has written a book about faith called ?The Vocabulary of Faith.? Whenever I look for the definition of things connected to being Christian, I look in her books. So I loved what Norris says about faith. She said, ?faith is like energy itself?fluid, always in motion but never constant?has been instructed by the Bible, the Christian theology, and my own experience. Faith is constant, always there, but surging and ebbing, sometimes strongly evident and at other times barely discernable on my spiritual landscape. Faith is fragile, something that needs tending.? As we walk through this passage from Mark, I invite you to pray with me over the sermon titled ?Faith: In the Calming of the Sea.?
Let us pray: God of eternity, by the power of your Spirit, speak your Word to us this day, that hearing, we may know your truth and live ever more faithfully for you. In Jesus? name we pray. Amen.
Throughout life, living out our faith because of a relationship with Jesus Christ causing life to look a little different. Life in Christ doesn?t mean life is easier, but it means that someone is experiencing every single thing with you along the way. It means that when life is good, God is with you and when life is hard, God is with you. No matter what, the God who created the Heavens and the Earth is there walking it with you. Believing in this energy that ebbs and flows, this energy, is faith. It is believing and living, even when we might not fully understand it. I think the act of the disciples responding to Jesus with a ?yes? and following him, was such a great act of faith. In the passage from last week, Mark said, ?Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand?but when he was alone with this own disciples, he explained everything.? As I think about the faith of the disciples, I have often imagined what it would be like walking next to Jesus and being so close to him that he looked right at you and explained everything? How amazing it would have been to be able to actually ask the teacher those direct questions and have questions about faith answered! So much less wondering, and more understanding. And being a disciple now, might take a little more work, but we are still experiencing many things those first disciples did?but just in slightly different ways. So there could be more to decipher through and to gain understanding through, but I believe being a faithful disciple takes work no matter when we became one, no matter how long we have been one, and not matter what has happened on that journey.
In our passage for today, there are many emotions captured in these few verse.-fear, anxiety, peace, doubt, comfort, awe, wonder, and terror. And all of these emotions are connected to faith and being on the journey with Christ. With all of these emotions shared in the passage, there are movements in the text to express and respond to those emotions. So let?s walk through the passage a little closer. Jesus and the disciples get into the boat and cross the sea?they are crossing to a part of the country where Gentiles live. Where people, outsiders, who the Jews were not allowed to socialize with lived. This would be considered dangerous, or even an inappropriate destination. But in order for Jesus to demonstrate that his mission would fully extend beyond the Jews, they crossed the sea. By taking the message into Gentile territory, Jesus was reaching out to the strangers, the others, and even the enemies of the house of Israel. This would have invoked a great sense of fear in the disciples at the beginning of their journey as being disciples of Jesus. And if this wasn?t causing enough fear and anxiety in these mean, then a windstorm came and the boat was swamped. Now these disciples were well-seasoned fisherman who were already fearful of the unknown on the other side of the shore, and now have become even more fearful because of the giant storm. Their anxiety levels increased because of people who are unknown and situations that are known. And through all of this, Jesus comfort during his journey that is confusing to the disciples. Jesus was demonstrating what total trust in God truly looks like even through going into an unknown territory and through a tumultuous storm. But out of their fear, the disciples wake Jesus, asking if he even cares about them. Jesus has the greatest response. He acts and calms their fear?he tells the wind and wave to ?be quiet and still? and nature obeys him. Then Jesus questions the faith of the disciples, asking them why they are afraid. Jesus acted, then he asked. And the disciple question one another our of terror and trying to figure out who Jesus is??Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.?
As I think through these movements and emotions in this passage, crossing to the unknown, fear, storms, waking, commanding, questioning of the disciples, and disciples questioning Jesus, I think this is still how faith works. This passage truly shows the energy of faith. I do believe that God can provide a peace and stillness during the storm-whatever that storm might be. This starts with putting your trust in God, not within yourself. Then God works from within each individual and then permeates throughout the rest of the congregation and then out into the world.
Last summer, we talked about the difference between being a rowboat church and a sailboat church. The rowboat church has an attitude in the congregation of ?we can do this? or ?we can?t do this.? The church?s progress depends on circumstances like the amount of money in the bank, the number of volunteers available, the charisma and skill of its leaders, and the demographics of the community. The key question becomes, ?What can we do with what we have?? While the sailboat church has the dominate attitude of ?God can do more than we can ask or imagine.? Its leaders know that what they have or lack in the way of human material resources is not the decisive factor in what they can accomplish as a church. Rather, they look on church as a continuing adventure with a God who leads and empowers them to do more than they could ever dreamed. This adventure involves believers in an intimate relationship with the triune God who guides their life as a church. The key question asked is ?What is God leading us to be and do now in the place where we find ourselves?? They are willing to spend considerable time and energy on discerning where God is moving and where God is inviting them to invest themselves in God?s work. They take this approach because they believe that the God who calls is also God who provides, and that if they are invested in doing what God wants the church to do, God will provide the resources (Spiritual Leadership for Church Officers by Joan Gray).
I think the disciples were in a place of rowing as they began their journey with Jesus, but as they heard the stories and watched Jesus heal people, they slowly moved into truly having faith and sailing. They recognized through the experience of Jesus calming the storm that even when fear overtook them and the storm was out of control, there was a power in believing in Jesus that caused them to obey. With every story in the Gospels, we see the disciples were trying to figure out what it meant to be followers of Jesus and to live a new way of life. Over the course of their time with Jesus, they learned how to row less and sail more. But sailing truly happen through the Day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit came upon them. Then all of the teachings and experiences the disciples had experienced with Jesus took them to the place where they began to trust the wind and sail forward, living out their faith in new and exciting ways.
As I think through this passage for us today, I wonder if we are still trying to figure things out on our own and work from within ourselves, or if we are putting our trust in God and allowing God to work in and through us so we can live out our faith in new and exciting ways too. But more importantly, I am realizing how vital it is for each of us to tend our faith individually and as a group. These first disciples grew through their relationship with Jesus. If they had not been in constant relationship with Jesus for that intense time period, I wonder if their faith would have grown in order to receive the Spirit. As our faith ebbs and flows, as different things happen in our lives that cause us fear, confusion, anxiety, doubt, awe, and terror, I pray that all of us remember to place our faith in Christ and not in ourselves. As we walk this journey this summer through faith, hope, and love, it is my prayer that we look at how we are individually growing in our relationship with Christ as we prepare to grow in our relationship with Christ as a community. One of our goals for the next few years is for Wintergarden to grow in faith and numbers. Deepening our faith is incredibly important for me as we grow as a congregation. As we grow in our faith, and people visit with us, they will see that we are genuine and authentic followers of Jesus Christ. People will see that as we grow deeper, we will are relying more on the Spirit to move us forward, and we will live out our faith where people see we are obeying even more. Spiritual growth of everyone who walks through these doors is essential and vital to being the church of Jesus Christ. I want us to be grounded in our faith and that through our faith, we go out to serve in the world. The first disciples listened to the stories of Jesus, the followed his teaches, and they went out into the world-even when they were afraid to cross the sea or street into places that were unknown. They were able to do this because they had faith in the one that even the wind and seas obeyed. Let us pray.