Have You Still So Little Faith?!

 

Job 38:1-11; Mark 4:35-41

According to Merriam Webster, chaos is a state of utter confusion.

Ancient peoples were terrified of water because of its uncontrollable nature. A body of water could be serene one moment and roiling the next. It looked like chaos to them, a state of utter confusion.

So when the disciples are out in a boat with Jesus and a storm comes up, they are wary. When the storm becomes violent, they are terrified. They are bailing water, trying to lower the sails, holding onto the rails to keep from being thrown from the boat.

Mike and I were on the Sea of Galilee in 2010. It’s now called Lake Tiberius. It was supposed to be a 30-minute trip from Capernaum to the southern tip of the Lake for lunch. Fifty of us were in a modern boat with a skilled crew, and it took us at least an hour and a half to get there. There was no rain, but the wind kept the water roiling. To correct the way the wind pushed our boat sideways, we had to tack this way and that the whole length of the Lake.

We all were remembering the stories of Jesus and the disciples on the water in a storm. The disciples are freaking out, terrified. Jesus, meanwhile, is asleep in the stern. “Jesus! Jesus! Wake up! Can’t you tell that we’re going to drown!?”

I find Jesus’ reply to the disciples puzzling. “Have you still so little faith?” It’s relatively early in Mark, and we don’t know how long Jesus and the disciples have been traveling together. A few months or a couple years? And we don’t know which disciples were so fearful that they had to wake Jesus. Was it those who had been fishing these waters all their lives, or was it those who were afraid of the water to begin with?

It seems to me that Jesus might initiate such situations. Perhaps he only appeared to be sleeping, but in reality, he had created the storm so he could demonstrate he had power over nature – power over the waters of chaos.

The Greek phrase Jesus uses is, “Muzzle yourself.” It has the sense of Archie Bunker telling Edith to “Stifle!” It’s a rude, crude way of telling the wind to cease blowing. Jesus uses this same word to cast out the demons earlier in Mark. “Stifle, demons!”

 Usually, we shake our heads in dismay at the way the disciples in Mark’s version of Jesus’ story don’t get what Jesus is doing, or see that he really is the Son of God. But, in this story, I sympathize with them.

 It takes time to grow faith. We have 2,000 years of stories of people trusting in Jesus, the crucified, risen, and ascended Son of God. At this point in their story, however, the disciples have witnessed a few healings. They don’t yet have the full picture. I want to grant them the grace Jesus promises to us.

I know that faith sometimes comes easily, and sometimes it’s hard to grasp. I think this past year we have all had our faith challenged at least a bit. How can a good, loving, merciful God allow this virus to become so terrible, killing so many people? How can a good, loving, merciful God allow so much political and social unrest to occur around the globe and here at home? How can a good, loving, merciful God allow so much devastation to the planet in the shape of hurricanes and fires?

To my questions and challenges comes the answer God gave to Job. God speaks to Job out of another form of chaos – the whirlwind. “Where were you when I created the world, when I gave it shape?” Basically, God says to Job, and to us, “Who are you to question what I choose to do with the powers I have?”

Who indeed are we? We are the followers of Jesus, the one who shows himself to have powers only God has. We are the ones who sometimes struggle to believe, just as the first disciples did. We are the ones who fail to understand that Jesus trained his disciples to follow in his footsteps, and we are the ones who fail to understand that we responsible for the care of the world God created and of the people who reside in it today.

We have just as much and just as little faith as the first disciples had. Our specific tasks may be different, but our calling as followers of Jesus is to believe and tell others about Jesus. We may do the telling with words – sharing how Jesus has been with us through good times and bad times. Or we may do the telling in other ways – by volunteering at Interfaith or a women’s shelter. We may share our faith by participating in a peaceful protest against injustice.

If we have never done these things, it is a growing edge for us, and a way to increase our faith. Jesus invited the first disciples to step out of their comfort zones, and he continues the same invitation to us today.

Only God – the Holy Trinity – has the power to control nature, to make order out of chaos. But we have all been granted the power to make small changes to bring order and justice and God’s love and mercy into the corner of the world we each inhabit.

I want to share a video I discovered a few years ago. It is from Thailand, with English subtitles. It’s not about believing in Jesus, but it is about growing in faith, and it is about sharing with others. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Amen