Proper 7, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Proper 7, Yr B (2024)                                                              The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49                                   St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Mark 4:35-41

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

As a child I was terrified of storms.

There was a huge, old oak tree outside my bedroom,

            and I was afraid a strong wind or lightning

would bring the tree crashing through the roof and onto my head.

So…whenever a thunderstorm arose during the night,

            I would grab the sleeping bag out of my closet, along with my pillow,

       and head to my parents’ room.

I didn’t wake them up

but just lay down on the floor next to their bed.

I don’t know if they ever knew I was there;

I just felt safer being near them.

As I read over today’s texts I wondered:

What do we do with our fear?

We all feel fear…

            sometimes it’s minimal,

       but other times it is downright overwhelming.

When that deep-seated, overwhelming fear arises,

how do we respond?

Today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings give two different responses.

The story in the book of Samuel is a story of faith and boldness.

When I saw that today’s Old Testament reading was David and Goliath,

I remembered how large Goliath was,

       but I had forgotten how well fortified with armor he had been!

The weight of his coat of bronze was five thousand shekels,

and he had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze,

        and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron.

Now, to be honest, I’m not sure exactly how much that was,

but it sounds quite impressive.

I imagine Goliath looked somewhat like a modern-day tank, in human form!

And yet…

David’s response to this threat of the Philistine was to leave his sheep with a keeper,   

take some provisions and head out to the battlefront,

armed with nothing but a slingshot and five smooth river stones, saying,

      “Let no one’s heart fail because of him;

     your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

How was he able to do this?

Did David have a death-wish?

Or was he empowered by something else?

Little David approaches the giant and says,

“I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts…

        this very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand.”

David lives in the confidence that he is in God’s hands.

That confidence gives David the boldness to move forward in faith…

            to do what he was given to do…

       however daunting the task.

In today’s gospel story, the disciples respond differently in their fear.

Jesus and his disciples are out in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when a huge storm arises. 

The waves are so large that they come crashing into the boat,

and the boat actually begins to swamp.

Jesus is apparently a sound sleeper

and was likely exhausted from teaching, preaching, and healing the multitudes,

      so he sleeps right through it!

He also knows he’s in God’s hands

and will be just fine.

But the disciples panic and wake Jesus up and essentially say,

 “Do something. 

We’re going to die here!”

I reckon it must have been an unusually powerful storm

because some of those disciples were professional fishermen,

       and surely they had encountered violent storms before on the Sea.

Not only were they experienced fishermen, but other boats were out there with them,

so if they capsized,

      there were other folks around to help!

Nevertheless,

they were utterly overcome by the darkness

       and were paralyzed in terms of their own action.

As they watched their lives flash before their eyes,

they cried out to Jesus,

      “Teacher, do you not even care that we are perishing?”

Now, to give the disciples a little credit,

at least they called to Jesus for help!

The first thing Jesus does is to rebuke the wind and the sea.

He makes everything calm.

And then he asks the disciples why they are afraid…why they have no faith.

Have they been with him and seen his miracles

and yet still do not understand that he shares the power of God…

       and offers the gift of abundant life!

The disciples were not so sure. 

“Who then is this,

that even the wind and the sea obey him,” they ask.

Perhaps they are just beginning to see Jesus’ power with the eyes of their hearts.

I suggest that faith is neither simple nor easy.

I imagine that sometimes we respond to our fear

with the boldness and confidence of David.

I also imagine that sometimes we fall in step more with the disciples.

Anne Lamott, a modern theologian, says that one of her three prayers is:

“Help me. Help me. Help me.”

That was the prayer of the disciples

although I think the prayer of the disciples was one more of last resort

        than one of utter confidence in God’s providence!

But, sometimes that is all we can muster.

And, if our first inclination in the face of being overwhelmed

is to turn to God in desperation,

       then perhaps we are on the right track.

If, like David,

     our underlying belief is that the God of love and grace and healing and forgiveness

is in our midst…

right there in the boat with us,

then perhaps we can act with boldness in the face of such fear.

Courage is not the absence of fear

but acting despite the fears that grip us.

Henri Nouwen, one of the great spiritual writers of our time, says this:

“Nobody remains without some fear.

“But Jesus is in the [boat] asleep!

He is close to us.

“Whenever the fear becomes overwhelming and we wake him up anxiously, saying:

‘Save us, Lord, we are going down,’

he says: ‘Why are you so frightened,

you people of little faith?’

“Then he rebukes the winds and the sea and makes all calm again….

“The [boat] is our home,

and Jesus has made it his own. 

“He travels with us

and continues to reassure us

       every time we are driven to panic or tempted to destroy others

or ourselves. 

“And as he travels with us,

he teaches us how to live in the house of love.

“It is far from easy to grasp his teaching

        because we keep looking at the high waves, the heavy winds, and the roaring storm.

“We keep saying: ‘Yes, yes…but look!’

“Jesus is a very patient teacher. 

“He never stops telling us where to make our true home,

what to look for,

and how to live.

“When we are distracted, we focus upon all the dangers and forget what we have heard.

“But Jesus says over and over again:

‘Make your home in me, as I make mine in you. 

“Whoever remains in me,

with me in them,

bears fruit in plenty…

“I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. (John 15:4,5,11)”  (Nouwen, Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective, pp. 123-4)

The God of love offers us fullness of life by abiding in us

and inviting us to abide and rest in God.

We need not be afraid, f

or God is with us. 

And with God with us, then maybe…

            just maybe,

      we may be able to step out in courage

when God calls us.

Amen.