Date: June 23, 2024 

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

Sermon Title: “Give Us Faith”

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon

You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”

Jesus was teaching the crowd beside the sea. He got into a boat on the sea, at there, and began to speak. We may think that Jesus got into a boat so he would not be crushed by the crowd who were rushing to him for healing. It is possible that he did so because speaking from the boat helped him to vocalize more loudly, as the water helped to reverberate the sound. And he was teaching them about the kingdom of God through parables. A sower went out to sow, spreading some seed on a path, rocky ground, thorns, and good soil. Oh, the kingdom of God is like the seeds on the ground that would sprout and grow. The kingdom of God is like the mustard seed that grows up and becomes so fruitful and wonderful that the birds of the air come and rest. 

After he taught the crowd, he told his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” So, as he was in the boat, the disciples, probably Peter, Andrew, James, and John, the four fishermen took charge in maneuvering the boat to the other side of Galilee, as it was the shortest way to cross to the other side. And what does he do? He found a cushion and started sleeping. After all, Jesus is God and at the same time, he is also a human being. He taught the crowd for many hours and felt exhausted. I know many of you have your family tradition on Easter. You have a family dinner with ham, turkey, mac and cheese, and other wonderful dishes. People ask me, “What is your plan for Easter?” My honest answer is, “I am going to nap the whole afternoon.” 

While the boat was crossing the water, a great windstorm came suddenly, beating the boat all around. The Gospel of Mark says that the boat was already being swamped with water. The disciples probably found some buckets lying on the boat and hurried to get the water out of their boat. Those who did not have buckets used their hands, crying “We are doomed. We are going to die!” No matter what they did, they realized that all their efforts were futile. After all, you cannot fight the storm. According to Sidney Perley, the author of Historic Storms of New England, the storm 1839 was a severe one. He writes, “The men could only look at each other through the falling snow, from land to sea, from sea to land, and realize how unimportant they all were.” 

As these disciples were panicking and crying out in fear, they found Jesus still being comfortable on the cushion and snoring. So, they woke up him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying out here?” I suspect that many of us here at some point said the same words to God whether in our sighs or our prayers. “God, are you kidding me? Really?” This January, I was leading a retreat at Rolling Ridge, teaching a group of students who were preparing to enter ministry. We started the retreat on Sunday. I was supposed to be there by 5 pm and stopped by the church to quickly grab some supplies on my way there. That day happened to be a day of snowstorm. My SUV got stuck in the snow at the church. I was stuck for about 5 hours all by myself in the church, surviving on whatever I found in the church kitchen. 

The next day, I drove to the retreat center. We started the day at 7 am with morning devotion. The students started their classes from 8:30 am and finished their last class at 8:30 pm. I taught one or two classes per day. And I crashed in the bed every night. On Thursday, I was trying to connect the computer with speaker and needed a cable. So, I reached out to a bag with many cables. As I pulled the right cable out, it popped out of the bag and hit me in my right eye. I instantly realized that something was wrong. So, I checked my contact lenses and discovered the top of the cable hit and made a hole on my right lense. I became upset and said, “Really? God? Really?” I have small eyes and what are the odds such a small object hit nothing but the eye in my body? 

I know that some of you have gone through something more serious in your lives. If we compare our life as a boat that has the departure and destination, at some point you felt like your boat was sinking. There was no help at all. I once knew a woman who had such a wonderful smile. I always knew her as a happy person but after three years of ministry, she told me her story that as a young mom, she had a son and then gave a birth to twin daughters. But not long after the birth of her babies, her husband walked out on her, leaving all her children to her. Life was tough. She was an artist, so she painted for sale. But her income was not stable. Besides, she had no time to recover from the labor. Her life as a boat was sinking, met with a great storm. And she prayed, “God, don’t you care?”

 I recently saw a posting on Facebook that a pastor asked his friends to pray for his wife as she has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. He did not say what stage her cancer was but showed a picture that she was starting a chemotherapy. I know that there are some breast cancer survivors in our church today. When you find about it at first, how did you respond to such news? If you are the family of the patient, how did you react to such news? Did you instantly respond with the statement of faith such as, “Honey, it is going to be ok. God with us today. All will be well.” Or did you feel like you were collapsing in your heart, upset why something like this was happening to you and your spouse, or your mother when you thought that you have been good, decent, and generous? 

“God, don’t you care that we are perishing?” It is the cry of many who are perishing in the war today, or watching their children die in the bombings. One of the hot debates during the Annual Conference this year was the resolution to “Attain a Lasting Peace by Eliminating Apartheid in the Holy Land.” A resolution like this is often divisive that people are pushed to take side, “Are you with Israel or are you with Palestinians?” And I see a picture from two weeks ago that after another airstrike destroyed Gaza, the two sisters frantically call out the name of their mother and sift through the rubble. They said, “I pray to God that I wake up and find out that it was only a dream and that it is not true. The children were asleep, they are innocent, they were torn to pieces.” 

So, we cry out to God, “Teacher, do you not care we are perishing?” Jesus woke up from his sleep and the Bible tells us that he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm. Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Suddenly, people were overcome with fear. I am sure they knew there was something special about Jesus by now. He was going around the town healing the sick. He healed a man with an unclean spirit at the synagogue in Capernaum. He healed Peter’s mother-in-law and all those who came for healing. He healed the paralyzed, the man with a withered hand, the man with a skin disease. He taught people with such wisdom and authority. But calming the sea? 

Jesus says, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Again, Jesus gave the parable in the beginning of Mark 4 about the good soil. The seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold! Maybe that is the way the disciples of Jesus wanted to see themselves. The good soil. But when the storm came, they acted like they the rocky ground as Jesus said, “When they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” This is why Jesus often appears to his disciples, offering peace to them. When he walked through the locked doors and appeared to his disciples after resurrection, he said, “Peace be with you.” 

I was frustrated after I accidently broke the contact lenses on my eyes. Without the lenses, I could not see, I could not drive, and I could not teach anymore. Thankfully, I was able to make an appointment with the eye doctor’s office in Brookline, MA. I called Peter around 8 am, and Peter immediately drove to Rolling Ridge to pick me up and drive me all the way there. I was referred to another doctor in Burlington that evening who could quicken the process of ordering new lenses for me. My last prescription was 7 years ago. So, she started using the machine and measuring my cornea. She said, “Wow, your eyes are pretty bad.” I sighed and said, “I know, right?” Then, she said, “Well, the good news is that I am good at this. It can take 10 times or 100 times. But I will do this with you.” Her office hour was supposed to end by 6 pm, but she stayed until 7:30 pm to help me. 

Sometimes, we can regret for making a poor decision in our lives. We can blame ourselves or others for our misery or suffering. Maybe the disciples should have known better that they were expecting some storm on their way and stayed grounded in the land, instead of getting into a boat. They can blame one another to see who was responsible for their poor decision to journey through the sea. And it was actually Jesus who said, “Let’s go across to the other side.” Our refugee and safety are not secured by our better decision of choosing the better place or better time. Instead, we find our peace by realizing that we are in this boat with Jesus who is the Son of God with the power and authority to calm the storm. This is why Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have said this to you so that you may have peace in me.” 

When the great Chicago fire consumed the Windy City in 1871, Horatio Spafford, an attorney who was heavily invested in real estate, lost a fortune. About the same time, his four-year-old son succumbed to scarlet fever. While drowning in grief, he did his best to rebuild the city and assist the 100,000 who had been left without homes. In November of 1893, he decided to take his family to Europe. He heard that D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey were going to have their evangelistic meetings in England. So, he was planning to attend the meeting and tour in Europe after that. Since there was some urgent matter to attend in New York, he sent his wife and four daughters on ahead on a luxurious French liner called Ville du Havre. He said goodbye to them, promising to see them soon. 

But the ship later collided with an iron sailing vessel. Within two hours, the ship vanished beneath the cold Atlantic Ocean. 226 people died in the tragedy which included all Spafford’s daughters. His wife Anna was later found nearly unconscious, clinging to a piece of the wreckage. She sent a telegram to her husband with two words, “Saved Alone.” Horatio immediately booked passage to join his wife in England. En route, on a cold December night, the captain called him and said, “I believe we are now passing over the place where the Ville du Havre went down.” Spafford went to his cabin and was not able to sleep. And he wrote this hymn to be sung for the generations to come. 

                  When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

                  When sorrows like sea billows roll

                  Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

                  It is well, It is well with my soul.

                  It is well, with my soul,

                  It is well, It is well, with my soul. 

You know in your hear the storm you are going through today whether in your life, your family, or other places. As your pastor, I pray that we see Christ in our boat together and stands and says, “Be still, peace be with you.”

Amen.