Mark 4:35-41; 5:1-20 Faith is often tested in the known, not in the unknown.
3 Pentecost

Faith is a very unpredictable thing. For the most part, the fact that we come to church on  Sundays and engage in some kind of a prayer life indicate that faith is an important enough factor in our lives. We can talk for hours about all kinds of faith and read thousands of books on faith, but with all these there is something frustratingly elusive about faith. Elusive because when we need it most, often we find ourselves drained of all the faith we thought we had.  So, out of curiosity I looked up to see what the dictionary says about faith. I was quite amused to find that there are at least three definitions of faith with sub-categories in each definition, and one of the definitions say, “firm belief in something for which there is no proof” (Merriam-Webster). Talk about elusive!

In our gospel reading for today it is just the fourth chapter in Mark, but by this time Jesus had already healed many sicknesses, including demon possession, paralysis, leprosy, and a withered hand.  Jesus had also spent days and hours preaching the Good News of God and teaching about the Kingdom of God. And astonishingly, a handful of perfectly sensible, hardworking men, had without a moments’ hesitation left their livelihood on the spot, to follow Jesus when he called them.  If Jesus were to walk down this aisle and say to me, “follow me” I would definitely think of a hundred things to tell him why it would not be a good idea to leave everything and just follow him. I do have faith in our Lord Jesus, otherwise why else would I be a priest in His church? But of course, I am learning that faith is not about doing the right thing in the right place, it is not even about that peculiar sixth sense of a certain spirit leading us in a certain way.  The interesting thing about questions of faith for me comes in especially in situations where I have a better grasp of things. It is much easier to say that I have faith in God with regard to situations that I have absolutely no knowledge of, because I am forced to depend upon Him and not on my know –how. 

These disciples in the boat with Jesus were seasoned fishermen. Far from being scared by what they did not know, they were in fact scared because they knew their sea only too well. The Sea of Galilee lies about 680 feet below sea level. It is surrounded by hills, especially on the east side where they reach 2000 feet high. The high hills are a source of cool, dry air. In contrast, immediately around the sea, the semi-tropical climate generates warm, moist air. When the contrasting air masses meet, storms arise quickly and without much warning.  The Sea of Galilee is also shallow, just around 200 feet at its deepest, and a shallow lake can be whipped up by wind more rapidly than deeper waters. So the disciples knew about the violent storms in the lake that could come out of nowhere, which were often dangerous for smaller boats. It is no wonder that these disciples who had so readily followed Jesus into the unknown were suddenly filled with fear because they knew the storms well. Our hardest tests of faith come in places and situations that we are very familiar with.

We say things like, “oh, he will never change, I know him too well,” “this church will not change, it has been like this for years” “what do you expect?” words that reflect our faithlessness. Familiarity and experience are great things to cultivate in any situation, but we often allow our experiences to predict the outcome of our lives rather than look to God in faith who has the ability and the will to transform even our most tested situations into a holy and special experience of His presence. "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Who is this that can completely change the sum of all our experiences? When there is no proof whatsoever that something can be changed, that something unexpected can happen, when storms are known to drown even the most seasoned seafarers, when we have failed far too often, and when we are paralyzed by our fear of what we see and hear around us, Jesus commands the winds to be still and says, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"

When we decide to follow Christ, his promise to us is not that there will never be storms, nor is his promise about miraculous transformation in every situation, the promise is a change within us, in our perceptions and expectations.  In fact, he does not even need to give us promises, because he is already in our boat. His presence should be enough to assure us that things are going to be different that he is in control of our lives. However much he calms the storm or transforms a totally predictable situation into something glorious, if there are no changes in our perspectives and attitudes, Jesus will always appear great but not concerned or connected to our lives. It is in our transformation, the reorientation of our lives toward Christ that brings the peace and the calmness. We will definitely perish if we continue to depend on what we know and rely on ourselves. With the coming of Christ into our broken and tumultuous world, our lives have been changed forever. We no longer live for ourselves depending on our experiences alone, but we live as a new creation in Christ reconciled and at peace with God and all our fears. May we learn to recognize Christ for who He is and believe in Him, especially in situations where we have began to rely so much in our acquired knowledge.  It is that recognition of Jesus as the Christ, the redeemer in his life that led Apostle Paul to write, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” (Phil. 1:21). May the Lord Christ bless us all with the gift of the faith that generates peace and joy always.  Amen.