Mark 4:35-41 Proper 7B
6/21/15
The Reverend Roger Hungerford
Glory to God whose power, working in us and through us, can do infinitely more than we can ask
or imagine. Amen.
This morning's reading from Mark highlights a key component of living our faith and that is the
component of believing.
Now I know you are probably thinking that faith and believing are the same thing, but faith is more
than just believing. Faith is made up of trust, confidence, assurance and believing. So you see
believing is just one part of faith.
Believing is also multi-dimensional, but we often think of believing in a limited way that focuses on
how we understand the Messiah. You can be a faithful Christian and profess a belief that Christ's
sacrifice reconciled us to God and believe that Christ rose from the dead, and you can even believe
that because of Christ you will join the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in
paradise after you die, all very important aspects of believing, yet you will still have an incomplete
belief.
You may believe deeply in Christ and yet not believe in yourself. Believing in yourself is an
important part of our faith and is an essential element of one of the things we seek. Believing in
yourself is an essential element for being in communion with Christ. Believing in yourself is
believing deeply that you are a child of God and that you are blessed by the Holy Spirit with unique
gifts. Believing in yourself is how we reach out and fully embrace God like God embraces us.
Believing in yourself is an essential element for being in communion with Christ.
This morning's gospel reading shows how the disciples, at this point in Mark’s gospel narrative, did
not believe in themselves.
From our reading we know that Jesus and the disciples set out to cross the Sea of Galilee in a boat.
Here are some facts about the type of boat they were in, so you can understand how it shows the
disciples did not believe in themselves. The boats of that era were a little over 25 feet long and 9
feet wide. To give you a better reference those dimensions roughly equate to about the size of one
side of our seating. The primary purpose of these boats was fishing, so it was flat bottomed so they
could fish near shore in the shallows. For propulsion, this boat had a sail, as well as slots for oars.
They were well built wooden boats that were very durable, lasted forever, and you couldn't sink
them. By the way they were designed and built, they were hard to capsize even with the sail unfurled
in a strong wind.
Most of the disciples were experienced fishermen. They knew these facts about their boat, and yet,
when the great windstorm arose and the waves beat the boat, the disciples think they are going to
perish. They think are gonna die.
This shows how they didn't believe they had the gifts from God, the knowledge, skills and abilities,
to sailor through this storm and make it to their destination.
But Jesus believed in them. He believed in their abilities so much so that he fell asleep as they were
traveling and remained asleep even though a great windstorm arose. Make no mistake, Jesus knew
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Mark 4:35-41 Proper 7B
6/21/15
The Reverend Roger Hungerford
the storm was raging. He would have sensed the rolling and heard the wind and felt the spray, yet he
remained asleep, because he believed in the protection of God and in the God given skills of the
disciples.
We all know that believing in our triune God has a profound effect on our lives. As much as
believing in God is important, believing in ourselves is equally important.
Here is an example of that importance. I have been blessed by Linda Higdon with a copy of the
book "Unbroken." Some of you may have seen the movie or read the book too. "Unbroken"
chronicles the World War Two trials and tribulation of Louis Zamperini. A plane on which he was a
crew member crashed in the Pacific. Three of the crew survived the crash. Two of the three believed
in God AND believed in themselves. Louie was one of the two who believed in God and
themselves. All three were equally trained and skilled. The one who didn't believe in himself died
while the two who believed survived their ordeal. They survived in a life raft at sea with no
provisions for 47 days, twice as long as anyone before them had survived in an open raft at sea.
So you see believing in God and believing in yourself are important. They are co-elements of
communion.
Returning to our gospel story, the disciples were so unsure of themselves that they wake Jesus and
he calmed the storm. Jesus then asked the disciples "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"
Of course the disciples were awed by Jesus' mastery of the natural world, so they didn't answer Jesus'
questions.
So the unanswered questions linger and should prompt all of us to ask "what are we afraid of and
where in our lives do we not believe in ourselves?"
Where are we denying our God given gifts, our knowledge skills and ability, to handle the situation
causing us concern?
Going beyond us as individuals, this story should also prompt us to ask "where are we as a parish
not believing in ourselves?"
Where are we holding back denying the God given gifts in each member or holding back offerings
of time and treasure because we do not believe in ourselves as a parish? Where do we need to step
out in faith?
Just like Jesus believed in the disciples and their abilities to handle their boat during a storm, just like
Jesus believed in Louie Zamperini and was with him in his life raft, Jesus believes in each of us and
in our parish and is here with us.
Now is the time for us to fully believe - to believe in Christ as our Lord and savior and to believe in
ourselves and our God given gifts. Now is the time to give glory to God whose power, working in
us and through us, can do infinitely more than we can ask of imagine. Amen.
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