Being afraid – 22 June 2018

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.  A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.  He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”  And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41)

Let’s agree firstly that there are plenty of situations in life, in which it is proper to be afraid – it is appropriate, necessary, and not at all to be condemned.  Fear is not in itself wrong.  It is reasonable to be afraid of sudden danger, or of serious pain, or of being disastrously misunderstood, or of great calamity…and so on.  The disciples in a boat on the lake in a violent storm, with the boat getting swamped, were understandably afraid… perhaps of drowning, certainly of feeling helpless in the situation.  We are equipped with the capacity for fear, partly because it may help us escape or take some necessary action.

Yet Jesus says to them: Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?  Something of a put-down…  Well, the worst thing we can do with this story is to iron it out into a literal record of events.  It is not that, it never was.  It bristles with image and symbolism intended to help us at another level than facts.  The story invites us to understand that crossing to the other side with Jesus, as it were, (Let’s go across to the other side, he said), is unlikely to resemble a quiet scenic romantic drift down the Mahurangi River from Warkworth.  If you think life with Jesus should be blissful, peaceful, joyous, and you will be shielded from harm, you are in for a surprise.  The other side, pictured in this story, is where the crowd is not – they left the crowd behind, it says.  They have left their comfort zone, but Jesus is there with them.  Life with Jesus differs radically from life with the crowd, and the transition from here to there may be rocky as we learn change, new ways with a new heart… as we learn grown-up faith.

The life of faith starts and nourishes a process, in which fear, what we are afraid of, comes to be under review.  Typically we discover these shifts in watching the ways we react.  The fear of what others might think of us, for instance, which can cripple some people, is one day not an issue – or perhaps has changed into a reasonable concern for how we are affecting other people.  But more importantly, it’s the shedding of the fear of God – that is to say, the God who is out to get us if we don’t shape up, the God who zaps people.  We learn to embrace the God Jesus called Father, with reverence, reticence and love.  The fear of death undergoes change… in Paul’s words, its sting is drawn.   It is that the universe is no longer revolving around Me, the Ego, the demanding paramount Self.  I am learning in stillness and silence to yield place to God.  Perhaps you would like an apt quotation from the Gospel of Thomas:  Jesus said, “The seeker should not stop until he finds.  When he does find, he will be disturbed.  After having been disturbed, he will be astonished.”