In the Face of Fear: Sermon Mark 4:35-41

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin D Roosevelt spoke these words at his first inaugural address in 1932. He spoke these words to a country that was facing one of the hardest times in its history, the Great Depression. Roosevelt tried to calm the fears of the country in that time of economic struggle and yet the greater struggle, World War II, still loomed ahead.

In today’s society, fear seems to be a commodity in high demand. We as a society love to be scared. Every time we turn around there seems to be another horror movie being released, around Halloween countless haunted houses that spring up all around and we just can’t seem to sit around a campfire without telling a few old ghost stories. We loved to be scared every now and then, but some people do live their lives in constant fear. Peladophobia is the fear of bald people. Porphyrophobia is the fear of the color purple. Chaetophobia is the fear of hairy people. Dextrophobia is the fear of objects on the right side of the body. Thalassophobia is the fear of sitting down. Odontophobia is the fear of teeth. Some even suffer with Phobophobia, fear of being afraid.

We also have fear in the church. Just try to create something new or different in a church and I can almost guarantee that in some way, confrontation with fear is inevitable, just as the disciples became afraid in the midst of a storm. Our story today contains three types of fear seen in the church from time to time; the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, and the fear of the unexpected. Each one of these fears requires the same solution and that is the steadiness and strength of Christ. Today we will explore these three fears and how Jesus’ response to the disciples gives us an example of our responses to fear in the church.

First is the fear of change. After a long day of preaching and teaching the people, Jesus wanted to take a boat and go across the Sea of Galilee. I imagine that Jesus wanted to because he was tired and wanted to get away from the large crowd of people that had gathered to hear him teach. He was tired and needed some rest. In fact, Jesus was so tired that the Bible says he fell asleep in the stern of the boat. These fishing boats were not that big only about the size of a small sailboat today and so this must have be a pretty uncomfortable ride, but still Jesus was fast sleep. Now the Sea of Galilee lies in a basin between two mountains and the weather is subject to change almost immediately. The disciples became caught off guard in unexpected storm and they became afraid of the changing weather. Churches can be like the Sea of Galilee, calm and serene one moment and then in the blink of an eye we find ourselves in the midst of turmoil and storms. In addition, we just like those disciples become afraid at the thought of change, especially in the United Methodist Church where pastors come and go every few years. Congregations always have apprehension when the new person comes in. Will his sermons be informative and interesting? How will get along with everyone? How will things we different? We get so used to things staying the same, we become so accustom to the status quo that when anyone tries to rock the boat, we have a tendency to panic a bit. This fear of change can be crippling to a church. It can prevent growth and evangelism within the community. Sometimes the changes don’t have to be within the church itself but within the community. Perhaps the socioeconomic landscape is changing, perhaps more minorities are moving in, fear of these changes can prevent a church from doing its function which is to spread the gospel of Christ within its community.

The second fear is similar to the fear of change and that is the fear of the unknown. Change leads to the unknown and to uncertainty. The disciples feared the storm because their future was unknown to them. We must remember that these men were fishermen and they had lived and worked their entire lives on the Sea of Galilee, so the storm that they were in must have been tremendous for these seasoned fishermen to be so afraid. The water was rushing in, they were many miles away from shore, and so the real threat of drowning was there. They feared the unknown. Why do we fear death? It is an instinctive fear found in all animals. It is the flight or fight reaction. When confronted with a life-threatening situation we either run or get ready to fight. Why? We believe that heaven exists and those who have faith have less fear than others do, but I would be willing to say that almost each of us has some fear of dying. Death is the ultimate unknown and just like any unknown, we tend to worry about the outcome. The church can fear about what it is uncertain. It might be creation of a new children’s ministry, it might be the building of a new life center or parsonage. Any time the future is unknown we tend to fear what might happen. Some of us tend to see all the bad things that could happen. If we borrow money to pay for a new building, what happens if people stop giving? What happens if we can’t pay the mortgage? This fear of the unknown, like the fear of change causes stagnation within a church. We don’t want to try anything new because of the fear of what might happen. We don’t want to invite new people into the church because we might get some riff-raff in here. The fear of the unknown causes a church to panic just as the disciples started to panic in that boat.

Thirdly, is the fear of the unexpected. The disciples had expectations of Jesus. They had seen him heal lepers, give sight to the blind, and yet Jesus was in the back of the boat snoozing while they were about to sink in the middle of the sea. They had an expectation that as long as Jesus was there that they would be safe. Jesus’ reaction was unexpected and caused the disciples to have even more fear. They cried out to Jesus “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” They didn’t expect Jesus to wait so long before he did something. They didn’t expect Jesus to just lie there while they were running around bailing water out of the boat. Many people fear to talk to others about Jesus because of the unexpected reaction. The person might ask questions we cannot answer. The person might get mad and even become violent. This fear prevents many people from fulfilling the Great Commission to spread the gospel to the whole world. In addition, sometimes we just like those disciples have expectations of Jesus. We expect because we are followers of Jesus that everything should be smooth sailing and even when things get rough Jesus will be there to help at first sign of trouble. However, things get worse and worse and fear begins to grow in our hearts and we think, “Why is God doing this to me?”

What can we do when faced with these fears? Faith is the enemy of fear. Jesus stood up and said “Peace! Be still!” and just as quickly has the storm had begun the winds and waves stopped. He turned to his disciples and said, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Faith is the only thing that conquers fear. There is a direct relationship between the two. The less faith your have the more you fear and vice versa. When we grow in faith, our fears diminish. When we place our faith in Christ those changes are not something to be feared but something to be embraced. When we have faith, the unknown ceases to be, because we have the knowledge and the faith that Christ is with us no matter what. When we have faith then even when Jesus doesn’t come at the first sign of panic, we trust that he is always there to help us in times of need and that he won’t give us more than we can handle in a days time.

Jesus wanted to teach the disciples something. He wanted to teach them that the power of Christ is perfect in the midst of human weakness. Just as we might think that all hope is lost, Jesus shows us that there is always hope. We just need a little faith. The disciples also learned that only by going through the storm that they truly understood who Jesus truly is. Only by going through the bad times can we, just like the disciples, see how truly good and powerful Christ is. The disciples reacted to Jesus by saying, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” At that moment, they truly began to realize whom they were following, this person was not simply a prophet or a rabbi, but Jesus was something much, much more. When we truly begin to understand who Jesus is and what he can truly do that is where faith begins. That is where fear begins to die.

As a church, we always have problems and things always change some for the good and some for the bad. We cannot stand idly by and be in fear of growth. We must stand on the foundation of faith in Christ. The unknown and unexpected are no longer something, which leads us to fear when we put our whole trust in Jesus.