Sermon: Fear and Miracles

Rev. Jennifer Whipple
Congregational Church of Brookfield (UCC)         

Fear and Miracles
1 Samuel 17:1-11, 32-49
Mark 4:35-41

June 24, 2012

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our minds and hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our Strength, our Peace, our Hope.  Amen.  

            About a month or so ago I came home from work.  The kids were asleep.  Ryan was watching a show in the living room.  When I walked in to say hello there was a man on the TV talking about building a pre-fabricated home under the ground and stocking it with about 6 months worth of food.  I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention.  There were other things to do before I relaxed a bit for the night.  A few weeks after that, though, cases of bottled water started to stack up on our porch, and we are not a family that needs bottled water for drinking purposes on a regular basis.  So I had to ask him.  What on earth are you doing?  Ryan replied that he just wanted to be ready.  Ready?  Yup, I have been watching this show…  And that is when it clicked. He had been watching a show that some of you may have seen.  It’s called “Doomsday Prep-ers.” 

            I was very intrigued because Ryan isn’t much of a worrier.  He doesn’t really get anxious about anything.  He is the one who calms me down and balances me out because, truth be told, I worry about A LOT.  But here was my sensible husband buying cases of water and doing other things to prepare all of a sudden for the end of the world.  Now, this is a reality show that chronicles folks who are preparing for the end of the world in a variety of different ways.  They range from growing extra veggies & canning them to selling off all the things in life that bring them joy, building million dollar underground bunkers and teaching their 6 year olds how to shoot a pistol for self-defense.  Each of these folks has a different theory about why or how the world is going to come to end, and in each one they are the ones who make it to see another day, because they are prepared.  Now I am not judging or knocking this by any stretch of the imagination.  After all, if the world were to end tomorrow Lord knows I would not be ready….except for the fact that I would apparently be well hydrated.

            Now there is something to be said for being prepared for things.  Even the water thing…I mean we have had some pretty big storms recently that make me think that is not completely outer limits.  I like to be prepared for things.  I am jarred when I am not.  My stomach ties itself up in knots, and I pretty much freak out – at least on the inside if not on the outside.  But there is something else to be said for ramping up the anxiety of a whole viewing audience by sharing theories about the end of the world.  And really between the 24-hour news cycle, reality TV like this, and the creativity (for lack of a better word) of shows like CSI and other crime dramas, we could spend our whole lives in fear – fear of what might happen, fear of what might be around the corner.  In our society today we have a good deal of fodder for fear to be sure – and real legitimate things like illness, losing jobs, watching our teens take off in their own car for the first time, even concussions on the sports field.  But every time I think about the things of which I am afraid I realize that no matter how prepared and in control I think I am, I am but one teeny tiny cog in the wheel of the world.  Other things and other people happen to throw my plans out of whack every day. 

            So in 2012 with all that we know, with all that we have to rely on as far as security measures go, with the improvement in things like science, medicine, and technology, one would think that we might have less to be afraid of.  Certainly not like the Israelites going up against the Philistines or the disciples caught on a small boat and sinking fast in the middle of a raging storm.  And yet we live in a climate of fear and worry, always wondering what might happen.  So as I read through these scripture passages again and thought about the main characters in these stories, ones that are some of the best known of our faith, I thought about how they dealt with their fears.  And I also wondered, as people of faith, where is God in the middle of all of this – when we are fearful and worried, when we are not sure what next step to take?  What do we learn about God in the words of these scriptures – or from the lives of David & the Disciples?

            So first let’s check out a little bit about David and the Disciples.  (Sounds like it could be the name of a new band or something!)  Now by the time David comes back on the scene in the story of David and Goliath he is a young teenager, coming to the front lines to gather word about his brothers to bring back to his father.  He certainly didn’t plan to have a showdown with a giant.  And yet here he is, a young shepherd boy, probably about 15 years old, with a sling shot.  If there was anyone who should have feared for the end of his own world, it should have been David. 

Now we have had the pleasure of studying the life of David in the Monday Morning Women’s Group these past few months, and so we had a chance to learn a bit more about this story.  First, there are mixed reviews on how big Goliath was.  Was he nearly ten feet or nearly seven feet tall?  Either way a pretty big guy, especially if he could wear 150 pound armor and carry a 20 pound spear.  He stood on the Philistine battle grounds and taunted the Israelites for a long time – promising victory in the war to whoever won the battle and at the same time defying and spitting on the name of God. 

My guess is that David could have handled it if Goliath were just taunting the Israelites, but it was the second part – that talking smack about God bit, that got David really fired up.  So here is this kid, telling the army and the king that he can do it.  He can take down this behemoth.  When I read this story I read a bit of the teenage invincibility complex into it, but I also see a kid who was sure of himself – knew himself well enough to try to be authentic.  “I can’t move in this stuff,” he says to the King when Saul tries to get him armored up.  David was also sure of his skills with the slingshot.  And this was not any old slingshot, by the way, but rather one that shot baseball sized stones at people at about 60 miles an hour.  Hit in the right place that could certainly take someone down no matter what their size.  But the thing that impresses me most about David is his sure and certain faith – not in a God that just walks along beside him and gives him comfort, but in God who has been at work in David’s life, keeping him safe from harm, allowing him the opportunity to grow….in God who has proven himself to be real and at work in the lives of God’s people.  David looks to God as the solid strong foundation, the Deliverer.  And so with his own skills and abilities, and his deep faith and belief in God who would not let him down, David slew Goliath and won the battle against the Philistines for his people.

            Now, honestly, David and I don’t have much in common.  I sometimes wish I had that kind of confidence or (at times) that kind of deep seated, nothing can shake it type of faith.  However, I find myself in the midst of the storms of life, when I am truly fearful, reacting much more like the disciples….really scared….and really human.  They are on the boat on the way to a foreign shore, to work with Jesus sharing the word of God with those who were “other”, a fearful prospect in and of itself, when a storm picks up and has them fearing for their lives too.  This is one of the few stories that shows up in one version or another in all of the gospels, so there must be something to it, right?  And depending on which version of the story you read, the disciples get pushier and, in this version, downright biting in their interaction with the sleeping Jesus.  In John they are terrified and speechless.  In Luke they state emphatically, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” but ask for nothing in response.  In Matthew they approach Jesus with the words, “Lord, save us!” 

And then we have our disciples in Mark, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  An invitation to response, no doubt, and one that in many instances would hurt the person addressed.  Don’t you care?  Doesn’t it matter to you?  (Have you ever said those words to someone?)  And Jesus’ response, of course, is to calm the storm raging around them.  I would assume partly because he really did care, and considering the work schedule he had been keeping, partly because he wanted to get some real sleep.  And then Jesus asks the disciples why they are afraid…And whether or not they really had faith.  The disciples, in each version of this story, end up just as afraid after the storm is calmed as they were in the midst of it – wondering who it is that they have partnered with, who it is that they had hitched their wagons to here.  They had only known Jesus for a short time and had spent a lot of time up to this point listening to some super confusing stories that were supposed to have some kind of a meaning that they weren’t quite sure of yet – also known as the parables.  And at the same time, they had seen some pretty crazy things – exorcisms, healings – but this calming of the storm business went beyond the understandable realm of crazy to a new level.  Who has the power to speak and even the seas obey?  Certainly not a human being.  The disciples were being challenged for real this time to see Jesus as more than meets the eye – to truly see him not just as teacher but as Lord, as the Son of God.  They were being challenged to deeper faith, to more faithful discipleship, to deeper understanding of the ways of God – sound familiar?

I think we learn something both from David in his battle with the Giant Philistine, Goliath, and from the Disciples’ interaction with Jesus.  I think David teaches us about the desire and ability to keep faith at the forefront and to hold on to a deep and abiding trust in God.  David did not for one second doubt that God would be with him during the battle.  David also was not about to allow someone to trash God’s name or God’s ability to work in people’s lives and in the world.  After all it’s David who was suspected to have written Psalm 23, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”  David spent a good deal of time as a young man preparing for the throne in battle, so it was important to him to believe that God was with him, strengthening him and protecting him from the dangers of this life. 

And as people of faith we are called to do the same – to believe that God is with us, granting us strength in the midst of challenge and delivering us from the dangers of ourselves, our lives, that bring us fear and threaten to destroy us.  I do believe, though, that God would appreciate a response from us as well.  Perhaps it doesn’t need to be a long public diatribe on the wonders and amazing works of God, although I guess that would work too, but God asks us to respond with our lives to the way that God is working and moving in and through us.  Perhaps some of our anxiety is lessened in the midst of a tough relationship struggle, thank God for that gift.  Perhaps a big change is on the horizon for you, invite God in to fling the door wide open to new possibilities.  I firmly believe that God wants to be in partnership with us in the world.  In order to do that, though, we first need to have at least a glimmer of faith and then respond to the ways we see God at work, and the ways we hear God speaking to us even today.

And what about those Disciples?  From the Disciples I think we learn both to believe in miracles and to keep a sense of awe and reverence for our God as well.  Mark is the shortest of the gospels, and, as the shortest and first written, there is a lot to fit in within a small amount of chapters.  So every time you turn the page there is Jesus healing someone, casting out demons, and even stilling a raging storm.  While other people at the time only heard about these things through the hand me down stories of others, the Disciples were there with him.  If they didn’t believe in miracles I don’t know who would. 

Now I have never seen a miracle like those in the Bible, although I know people who testify that they have.  I do believe that miracles happen, though.  The ones I have seen just happen to be more of this world.  When a researcher discovers a gene or creates a new medicine that neutralizes or cures cancer, that to me is a miracle.  When I was here on Friday evening and went out into the parking lot and saw a Good Samaritan help a disabled woman whose car had broken down in the middle of the pouring rain, that was a miracle.  When we see people pool resources together when a community is devastated by a flood or some other disaster for support and care, that is a miracle.  When we take time out of our busy lives to be for ourselves and to walk the journey with others as partners, friends, chemo buddies, study partners, missionaries – in order both to fulfill our own call to discipleship and to help others see the love of God, that is a miracle.  When through those interactions people can see a little bit of Jesus, of God, in us, that is a miracle.  I am blessed in that I get to hear about these stories for a living, and they make me believe in miracles. 

But I also believe that the Disciples were on to a little something with their fear at the end of the story.  Because our God is pretty powerful.  I think we perhaps often times try to domesticate God a bit too much, because that is the only way we can understand God – in human terms.  But there is something to be said for a little fear – perhaps in the form of awe and reverence – in the face of our God who has the power to still the storms of our lives in creative ways, to shoulder the burden of all the concerns of the world, to create and continue creating even when we humans work more to destroy at times than to build up.  God deserves a little awe and reverence on our part, maybe even a little confusion.  Because if we are in awe, if we are confused, if we are naturally human in the face of God, then we will want to know more, seek more, understand more.  We will be in and continue to grow our relationship with our God who often times asks for nothing more than that.

So, my friends, can I say that after having preached this sermon I will never worry or be afraid of or anxious about anything again?  Don’t I wish!  Unfortunately, in my make up and in my sheer humanity, I can’t promise such a thing.  But my hope is that I will be more open to recognizing God at work in the creative miracles of our world. That I will be more willing to not only call on the name of God but to share what I know of God with others.  That I will be better suited to face the unknown with God walking beside me.  And that I will be more apt to not only wonder about God but to share that wonderment with a sense of awe and praise not only for what I do know but what I am continually learning.  My hope for all of us is that in learning from our ancestors in faith we will be able to face some of the difficult times with a glimmer of hope, calling on our God and invoking the power of the Spirit, and that we will truly be able to both listen and respond when we hear the words, “Trust in me…Do not be afraid.”  May it be so.  Amen.