Year B
Mark 4:35-41
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Faith vs Fear in an Anxious World
Some years ago, before I came to Annunciation, I had the occasion to read rabbi and psychologist Edwin Friedman’s book, titled, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. In it he defines the effective leader as the person who is able to maintain a “non-anxious presence” in an anxious system. He goes on to say that all systems or organizations are by nature anxious. Families, corporations, boards of directors, committees, etc. are all anxious, and especially churches. When I arrived here, now retired Bishop Benhase required that every new clergy person to the diocese attend a week of Emotional Intelligence training at Honey Creek where we learned how to be an emotionally non-anxious presence, just what Rabbi Friedman spoke about in his book.
The clergy leader needs to be able to remain non-anxious to be effective when everyone around them is anxious about the possibility that things will change or that things won’t change, or they feel threatened in any way. Not always a very easy thing to do for anyone especially when that clergy person may feel threatened also. Today, the common theme though out our lessons is: God’s presence in our lives can help us to maintain a “non-anxious presence” in a very anxious world. When we are threatened by forces that threaten God’s purposes of love, justice, peace, and abundance, God is with us to strengthen us and to help us challenge those forces. God sustains us in threat and chaos and when others challenge our faithful witness.
In the beloved OT story today from the first book of Samuel we hear about the shepherd boy David, a non-anxious leader, who was helped by God in a very anxious time. The Philistines were cavalry, chariot fighters who stood a better chance of winning the battle if they could lure their adversaries into the flat valleys below the hills. The Israelites were infantry who knew that their only chance against the Philistines was to lure them onto the hillsides where their chariots would be slowed and easily toppled. So they both stood their ground and shouted insults at each other, hoping to draw each other out, but it wasn’t working. Finally, hoping to get things moving and possibly stop some of the inevitable bloodshed of war, the Philistines offer a suggestion: our best warrior against your best warrior; winner take all.
This sounds pretty good until the Israelites get sight of the Philistine’s best warrior, a 15–foot-tall giant named Goliath, who, besides being huge, is a lifelong veteran of warfare. The Israelites respond by cowering in their trenches until one of their number steps up, a young slinger and former shepherd, named David. Last Sunday, you may remember, we read where God chooses David to be the next king and he is anointed by Samuel for the job, although, he won’t become king for many years. David tells the Israelites that he has killed lions and bears in defense of his father’s sheep and he can kill the Philistine giant as well.
Many of his Israelite brothers don’t believe that he possess the anxiety, fear, vexation etc. needed for this situation. So they give him a hard time, thinking he is being stupid and arrogant. King Saul even goes so far as to offer young David his own armor, which turns out to be much too heavy and awkward. I don’t need those things… I’m not afraid, David says, I have God on my side and it is God who will, ultimately, win this match for Israel. We know the rest of the story; David bonks Goliath on the head with a stone, which knocks him out then he kills the giant with his own sword. God enables the shepherd David, a non-anxious presence, who offers himself as a vessel to do God’s will; to defeat Goliath. God helps us when we are threatened by forces that threaten God’s purposes. The Philistines flee. The Israelites win the day.
We hear of another non-anxious leader sustained by God, in the text today from Mark’s gospel. The disciples and Jesus are out in a boat in a storm and they make up an understandably anxious system. Jesus is the non-anxious, well differentiated leader whose lack of fear is mistaken for apathy by the disciples. “Teacher,” they cry out, “do you not care that we are perishing?” In his answer to this question, “Why are you afraid? “Jesus reveals to us the secret of how to be that non-anxious, well differentiated leader that is so needed today in our “culture of fear.” The gospel writers felt that this story was so important that all three of them include it in their gospels. This little story is not so much a story about Jesus, as a parable about the nature of faith and its relationship to fear.
The Sea of Galilee was, at that time, about 15 miles long and eight miles across and was and still is notorious for its sudden and unexpected storms. Only the most gifted sailors then dared go beyond where they could see the shore, so a direct crossing was always risky. At night, it bordered on foolish. Yet, this is what Jesus asks of his disciples and they comply without question. In minutes, a storm arises with a strong wind and the waves begin to spill into the boat. The disciples filled with fear, panicked and rushed to Jesus who calmed the storm. The early church, when they heard this story, saw the boat as the church trying to make its way in a turbulent time. Times are not much different today for the church. This incident became for them and now for us an allegory, designed to bring comfort and hope.
If this were simply a miracle story, told to demonstrate the power of Jesus over nature, it might well end right after Jesus stills the storm. But it does not end there, there is more to come. Jesus asks “Why are you afraid?” Have you still no faith?” When we translate the adjective “afraid” we find it holds several meanings, including “timid” or “fearful” which conveys not simply fear but lack of courage. Therefore, faith for Mark means not simply an intellectual knowing but also, trust in God along with action when faced with serious threats to life and well-being. We recall the actions of the shepherd boy David. Faith is not just believing something to be true but acting as though it is true whether we accept it to be so, intellectually, or not. The opposite of faith is fear, the inability to act.
Faith requires action and faith is that which allows us and institutions like the church to be the non-anxious presence in the midst of a culture of anxiety and fear. Paul today another non-anxious leader gives us a list of how-to’s for those who would commit David like acts of crazy love and wild faithfulness. Paul is ever quick to remind us that God doesn’t promise deliverance from the anxieties of life, but that our faith will give us the inner armor we need to enter and persevere in the fight for love. Beyond faith, we are to arm ourselves with “innocence, knowledge, patience, and kindness in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, with the message of truth and the power of God” and “the weapons of justice in both right and left hand.”
In this way, the power of fear is broken and the light of saving love begins to change things from the inside out, through relationships, and in the building of community and connections that honor the worth of each of God’s beloved children. As Paul encouraged the people of Corinth, hearts open to the power and faithfulness of God, that don’t restrict affections or guard against the call of the Spirit to wild acts of love, are hearts that are ready to face whatever chaos comes, and to be vessels of God’s work in the world as non-anxious faith-driven leaders. May the God who armed David for the battle and, through Jesus Christ, who calmed the raging storm, be in us to conquer our fears and set us on the course to a greater faith, a boundless hope, and a passionate, healing love of all humankind.