Mark 4: 35-41 

The fishing was fair.  The sun was high.  The wind was blowing, and the waves were growing.  I was certainly glad there was no storm on the horizon, but the waves were getting the better of me.  My stomach was growing more and more uneasy.  That bothered me more than physically.  My pride was being affected as my queasiness grew.  I had been on the ocean before with high waves.  Why was my stomach rebelling this time?  Even thirty-five years later, I can’t tell you why. So was my last trip on a fishing boat in the Atlantic.

 It would have been a good time to pray, I guess, but I didn’t.  In relating this to Mark 4 where the waves grew and the boat had its fair share of fishermen aboard, they didn’t pray, but the disciples felt the need to do the next best thing, WAKE UP JESUS! 

 They saw a need, went to the source of all help, asked for relief and received it.  As a result, Jesus asked them, “Why do you have so little faith?”  Didn’t they do what they were supposed to do?  That’s how we pray and are supposed to pray, right?  

 Jesus wanted them to live out of their faith, faith in the name of him who was with them.  They are his disciples, his learners.  We learn from Jesus in order to be like Jesus.  When Jesus was awakened, he knew what the will of God was, to still the storm.  The disciples knew what THEIR WILL was.  It was to still the storm.  Perhaps they weren’t sure WHAT THE WILL OF GOD WAS in this situation.  

 We sometimes think God might have a bigger purpose in mind than what we think.  Maybe it was the will of God for several elementary-age kids to die from a tornado in Oklahoma a few years ago.  Maybe it was the will of God for at least 10 people to be shot in Birmingham on a Sunday three years ago, including at least seven in just over an hour.  Maybe it was the will of God for a cashier to be shot dead and two others wounded during an argument in a Georgia store during the COVID years over the store’s mask wearing policy. or the six drownings in and around Panama City this weekend. Need I go on?  Isn’t that downright stupid?  Surely, we can all agree none of this was the will of God.  If it was, I’ll stop preaching now and become a content agnostic and you stop listening to such dribble. Sorry, I won’t stop preaching. WHAT ABOUT YOU? 

 We are his learners.  From him, we learn what the will of God is.  From his actions and words, we learn what our responsibilities are from what he said and did on the earth – to bring heaven to earth is the prayer.  Jesus didn’t bless this storm in Mark 4.  He calmed it by declaring the will of God in the atmosphere.  Disciples are to learn the will of God and declare it, live it out, share the Good News in deeds and words and see what heaven looks like. 

The Old Testament lesson for this Sunday in the lectionary is the story of David and Goliath. It is in 1 Samuel 17. The Philistines gathered their armies against the armies of Israel. Their champion from Gath, Goliath, emerged from their ranks, taunted the Israelites and insisted they send out their champion to fight him. “When (King) Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. (1 Samuel 17: 11)” This went on for forty days (17: 16). Eventually, David came to bring provisions to his brothers who were in the army. He heard Goliath trash talk Israel, and said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”  

The story eventually leads the reader and listener to the confrontation of David and Goliath. 

“The Philistine (Goliath) said to David, ‘Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.’ But David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand. (1 Samuel 17: 44-47)'”  

What does this story supposed to do in the ears and the hearts of God’s people? We know what happens. The defeat of the Philistines, according to David, would bring a witness to all the earth there is a God in Israel, and “all this assembly”, the king and the army of Israel may know the Lord does not save by weaponry because the battle is the Lord’s, and the Lord will take care of it. These stories do not encourage us to passively recline and say whatever God’s will is is good enough for us. To be honest, this attitude comes from seeing TOO MANY DEFEATS AND NOT ENOUGH VICTORIES. Those who taught pastors and lay people in the previous century to DEMYTHOLOGIZE SCRIPTURE, make it less mysterious and more reasonable, did us no favors. It impacted our faith and made us more inclined to depend on human effort and reason and resources than the power of God. These stories stir in us a passion to draw near to God and trust his will to truly be best for all of us, and God’s will is most dramatically seen and given to us in the words and life of Jesus Christ. 

What are these stories supposed to do in us? They’re supposed to overwhelm us with a passionate, mysterious, child-like faith that leads us to declare and believe ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE for the one who believes in the God of heaven and earth. It is interesting NO ONE PRAYS in either story, too. The disciples come to Jesus, as if in prayer, and wake him up. He stills the storm and asks them where their faith had gone? The teenage David is the one who comes out to fight Goliath while the armies and king of Israel remain too afraid to do anything for forty days. David trusted the God of Israel and knew it wasn’t God’s will for Israel to endure cursing and taunting for weeks on end. The disciples, who had already been given authority by Jesus to cast out demons (3: 15), were more overwhelmed with fear than faith. Ultimately, they were simply filled with awe and asked themselves who this man was that even the winds and the sea obey him. That’s a good place to be, overwhelmed in awe, while their faith grows like a crop soon to be harvested, such a faith that results in GREAT BIG THINGS.  

The Lord of the battle and the God of the wind and waves is the one we can trust to do great big things. We do not merely trust in our own strength and resources to deliver us from difficulties. WHAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE STRENGTH AND RESOURCES? The one in whom we trust to forgive and save is also the one who inspires us to believe in GREAT BIG THINGS so we can speak of him boldly and with great confidence to others who need him in us to do great big things now for others. I say with confidence and praise, Alleluia and Amen. 

(Preached at St Mark United Methodist Church in Anniston, AL, 6-23-24)