Whiteboard: Jesus Stills the Storm

This Sunday I'll be talking about Mark 4:35-41.

It is a familiar story. One that we know as "Jesus stills the storm."

So there is Jesus, with his disciples, in a boat as they are crossing the sea. While they are journeying, suddenly, from out of nowhere this massive storm comes crashing down on top of them. We're talking wind, waves, torrential rain and the genuine threat of the boat going down into the deep. The disciples are freaking out as they are being battered back and forth and Jesus is...well, Jesus is sleeping.

Sleeping?!?

I know, I know. That is what the disciples think too. They are convinced that this is the end of the road (to mix my metaphors) and in the face of this impending doom they can't believe that Jesus is sleeping peacefully through it all. 

So they wake him up. They give him some attitude ("Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?!?"). Then something truly incredible happens. 

Jesus says three words. That's it. Three words. "Peace!" he says, and adds, "Be still!" 

And the winds stop. And the boat still floats. And their is a dead calm. 

Then Jesus speaks again. He only had three words for the wind and the storm. He has more words for the disciples.

He asks them two questions, each important. First he asks them "Why are you afraid?" 

Notice he doesn't ask, "What are you afraid of?" No, it is the deeper question. One that cannot be answered with a simple description of what is going on in the outside world ("We're scared of the winds, and the water, and the shaking, and the sinking boat"). The question can only be answered by looking deeper within ("I'm scared because I thought I was alone." "I thought this was the end." "Everything is out of my control." "I wanted so much more from this life.").

Then the second question, and this one is demands an even more introspective evaluation: "Have you still no faith?" 

It is the "still" in that second question that stings so much. He says "Be still" to the wind and everything stops. He says "still" to the Disciples (and lets be honest, to us) and it cuts us to the quick. "Have you still no faith?" implies that Jesus knows this isn't a one time aberration. That there have been times in the past (and lets be honest, there will be times in the future to) when our fear has overpowered our faith. 

This Sunday we'll be talking about some of those times. Those times when our fear has overpowered our faith. Those times when we have felt alone, isolated, at the end of the road (to keep mixing those metaphors). In particular this Sunday I'm going to be talking about Pew Research Forum's Religious Landscape Study -- the one that nearly blew up the internet a few weeks ago when it revealed that religious affiliation is cratering in this country, and is doing so much faster than anyone thought. Congregations are shrinking, churches are closing, and people are freaking out. 

Which is why we'll be looking at those two questions Jesus spoke after he stilled the storm: Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? 

Because if Mark 4:35-41 teaches us anything it is that Jesus is in the boat with us in the middle of the storm.

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If you want to learn more about the Pew Research Forum's Religious Landscape Study then click here. You can also read interesting responses to the study's finding here, here, and here. 

There is also a good chance that I'll be talking about my friend and colleague Derek Penwell's new book The Mainliner's Survival Guide to the Post-Denominational World. It is on my summer reading list and even though I am just a few chapters into it I'm really learning a lot already. It is a great read, and if you are an e-book person you can start on before my sermon on Sunday! And to bring everything back around, you can check out Derek's response to the Pew Research Forum's Religous Landscape Study by clicking here.

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Mark 4:35-41 Jesus Stills a Storm

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’