WORRY
(Mt.8:23-27)
It is one of the Bible’s prescriptions for worry--this incident on the sea I just read to you. How often we are told not to worry, but worry we do about our health, job, family, some personal problem, some world crisis, whatever. It’s one thing to read: Let not your hearts be troubled (John 14) or Do not be anxious about your life (Mt.6) but it only takes a phone call with bad news or an unexpected dismissal from work or the wrong results on a lab test to make us mock or think ridiculous Paul’s words to the Christians in Phillipi:
Have no anxiety about anything (Phil. 4:3).
To remind us just how severe a problem worry can be, it was not that long ago we read or heard in the news of the priest, Rev. Donald Rooney, who took his own life worried about the repercussions of past sins. If the clergy have trouble not worrying, it should be a reminder to me this morning that even talking about a solution to worry can be more like “whistling in the wind”.
What is it about this story on the sea that should help us with our worrying?.
It’s a rather simple episode told in only four verses. Jesus was asleep on a boat with His disciples. A storm came up and the boat was being swamped— a situation that would cause most of us a lot of anxiety and worry as it did for the disciples who woke up Jesus saying: Save us, Lord, we are perishing (and they weren’t kidding). And Jesus said to the disciples:
“Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?”
That’s like the preacher saying: “What are you worried about?”
Then Jesus got up, rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm.
If we were to look at this incident as an analogy for you and me today, we could compare our life to a boat—you and I are a boat on the sea of life, and as we well know many storms come up that cause us to worry and feel anxious.
Some of those storms, some of our problems, can really start to swamp us- we get discouraged or depressed, sometimes to the point of wanting to take our own life. In this story, Jesus is on the boat and to follow the analogy, Jesus is on your boat and my boat, in your heart and my heart, and if I can call upon Him and tell Him what’s happening He can rebuke the violent wind and sea and you and I will be safe.
We should not forget that because Jesus was on the boat the disciples were not excluded from having problems—the storm still came.
What made all the difference were two factors:
Jesus and having faith. It was not only that Jesus was on the boat but that the disciples
thought He could do something about the terrible storm.
The question often asked by the evangelist:
“do you have Jesus in your heart or have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?” may not be as crucial as: is He asleep or active in your life?
That was the key here-Jesus became active on this boat; He calmed the troubled waters.
Maybe the reason we worry too much is because Jesus is asleep in me instead of active.
We don’t like to think it or say: I prayed to Jesus; I asked Him to heal me or to help me but nothing happened. It was like He didn’t answer my need.
You could make that argument after reading about another storm that came up. This time the disciples were in the Garden of Gethsamane with Jesus and out of the night came men carrying clubs and swords. The disciple Peter was ready to fight; he drew his sword, but Jesus said “No” and before you knew it; the bad guys had taken Jesus away
and the disciples were scattered like sheep without a shepherd. Now the disciples really had something to worry about- this time Jesus did not calm the storm but got swept away by its mighty force, imprisoned, beaten and mocked.
That’s why I mentioned there were two significant factors in this story on the sea: the one of course is Jesus, who was on the boat and the second is faith, why are you afraid, O men of little faith.
Jesus wanted these men to have faith. He used almost the very same words another time on the sea when He came to His disciples at night; they saw Jesus coming out of the darkness and thought it was some kind of ghost or apparition walking on the water until He spoke to them- talk about being worried again. Peter said: “Lord, if it is you tell me to come”; so Jesus said: “Come” and the next thing you read is Peter is walking on the water toward Jesus until Peter felt the wind and saw the rough sea and began to sink. Jesus saved Peter but you remember His words to Peter as He lifted him into the boat:
“O man of little faith, why did you doubt.”
There’s Jesus using that word faith again and how important it is throughout His ministry of healing and teaching. Perhaps it’s not so much a case of Jesus being asleep in
our hearts rather than active; perhaps our faith is too little in believing what Jesus can and will do for you and me.
Well He didn’t do anything about those bad guys who took Him away and now we are left without anything- how are we suppose to have faith in Him? And don’t think some of them weren’t thinking that because we know Judas was so depressed and discouraged he hung himself. Imagine being a disciple of Jesus for 3 years- walking, talking, living with Jesus day after day- going through one storm after another with Him and then finding yourself still wondering, doubting, questioning, when this last storm seemed to take Jesus out. Before you know it whatever faith you thought you had is gone; I’m going back home to my fishing business said Peter…
What can be even more embarrassing to us as Christians with little faith is when we look around to see who does have faith and the search leads to our small children. A three or four year old child when told that daddy can fix that stops crying and takes the broken toy to daddy. And where has grandma gone now that we put her body into the ground the small child asks? Jesus has taken her to Heaven to be with Him there, you answer and the young child of faith is satisfied. No wonder Jesus said: “Except you become like little children, you shall not see the Kingdom of God.” He was not talking about acting childish; Jesus was saying- look at the faith the child has- look how the child believes in God, the Father, without hesitation or reservation.
To remind us how important is having the faith of a child, we read in I. John 4:4 the
words: “little children” a phrase the author John used to speak to adult Christians:
“Little children, you are of God, ….for He who is in you is greater than he (satan) who
is in the world.”
Here the writer, John, is taking us back to our first point about Jesus being in my boat or as we said in the analogy in my heart- He, Jesus is in me and says John, this Jesus is greater than the evil one in the world about us.
But do we really believe that in faith, when the results facing us are negative and there
aren’t anymore options to try. What we need to realize here is that this is not a religious thing or a church thing.
People are always blaming or accusing “the church” or “some religion” as not meeting his or her needs, but the real issue for the Christian is not the
minister or the people of the church or the “Christian religion”, the real issue is Jesus Christ. Do I have Him in my boat (in my heart) and do I believe in faith that He really is greater than all these disappointments and sufferings I face. Sure it’s easy to blame this guy or that church or those people or this unfortunate turn of events, but the more honest answer as to why I am worried and anxious: “they have taken my Jesus away and now my faith is less than little.”
The challenge facing us as Christians is how to keep Jesus alive in me and to build such a close personal relationship with Him that my faith in Him is increasing instead of decreasing, especially when things are going wrong.
Most of us are here this morning for just that reason- to know Him and the power of His resurrection in our lives. So in worship to Him we pray and sing, read and hear His spoken Word to us, give our offering and at least for this hour have a sense that yes, Jesus Christ is alive and I do have faith in Him. But we have only to leave this holy house and be tossed into the sea of life ravaged by storms and calamity to find out that Whom I thought I had seems to have vanished.
To meet this challenge the Catholic tradition offers mass everyday and protestants are told to have your daily devotions with the Lord. They are both worthwhile answers. But there is one answer out of the many others we have heard so often that I would like to repeat to you and that answer is the parting words of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 28:18:
…all authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me….
If we can believe in those words by faith knowing at the same time Jesus is alive in our hearts, surely some lessening of our fears and anxieties will come. It’s like knowing the boss who has all the power and knowing that the boss is on your side. Of course problems come up at work but you never have to worry because you know the boss and he’s in your corner. Remember in grade school the kid in the class who was the teacher’s pet; he or she could get away with practically anything-never had to worry about grades or homework, why, because that kid was “in” with the teacher who had all the power.
The next time a storm starts blowing your ship around and you are getting swamped
maybe it wouldn’t hurt or scare you and me so much if, in our heart , we knew and really believed that Jesus is on my boat and all authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Him. I just know that however great the mess is or however long it may take to get it straightened out that He will rebuke the winds and sea and there will be a great calm. One Christian woman tried to put this kind of believing faith in Jesus Christinto a prayer that went like this:
God give us your perspective on sickness, on loss, on death, on healing. I don’t want
To change Your mind, Lord. Your thoughts are perfect; I want to think Your thoughts. I don’t want to change Your timing, Lord. Your timing is perfect; I pray for the grace to accept Your timing, Your plan and to see You glorified through my life.
Some men on a boat in a stormy sea remind us this morning that against all odds, we have a Savior who is able and willing to save us. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. And to any of us who will live by faith more and more in Jesus Christ, to him to her will come the calm sea.
