Two Kinds of Fear

So many persons have gone to a doctor appointment and left reeling from a dangerous diagnosis that was given to them; lupus, fibromyalgia, surgery, cancer, or a host of other things. Fear.

There is that instant fear when one steps on the brake and the car goes into a spinning slide on a slick road.

There is the sinking feeling when the chores are not yet done, and one hears a parent's car turn into the driveway.

I suppose we could gather all the various fears that plague us into two basic categories.

The first basic category are the various things that are fears of failure or of disappointing someone.

At their extreme, these are the fears that lead to death: death of a person, or death of a relationship.

And the disciples know that kind of fear, a Good Friday kind of fear, the fear of death.

They are out crossing the lake in the fishing boat when a storm comes up.

Such storms can roar down the narrow valleys surrounding the Sea of Galilee and out onto that lake before one could row a boat to shore.

It is not a barcarole, causing a gentle rocking motion, but a violent, dangerous storm that can swamp the boat and kill the panicked men

They throw aside the protocol about not bothering the Teacher, and roughly waken Jesus.

“Don't you care?” they shout.

Jesus wakens, pronounces “Peace, be still!” and the storm drops to full calm.

Yes, they had good reason to be afraid, until Jesus changes the situation.

But there is another kind of fear operating here.

Notice that after Jesus has calmed the storm, the disciples are still afraid!

Jesus does not say “Why were you afraid?”, but rather he says “Why are you still afraid?”

The threat of immanent death has passed; why are the disciples still fearful?

This is only chapter 4 of Mark; it is not until chapter 8 that we get Peter's stuttered confession “You are the Christ.”

At this time the disciples are still unclear about it all.

They say “Who is this then, that wind and sea obey him?”

And this brings the second kind of fear, Easter fear.

There is a reason why, as the Gospels tell it, that the predominant emotion on the first Easter Day wasn't joy, ...but fear.

Early in the Easter season we talked about the possibility that the original ending of Mark's gospel (Mk.16:8) notes that the women who went to the tomb first didn't tell anyone, “...for they were afraid.”

Afraid of what?

Were they afraid that Easter might be true?

And we join them in saying, “Who is this, that even death is subject to him?

It isn't over until he says that it is over.

He makes a way where there was no way!”

And it scares the wits out of us.

Our Council is preparing to embark on a planning and goal-setting process.

Well, that may be our scheme, but what are God's plans for us?

They may be quite different, and that scares us because it is not something that we can control at all!

We deal with the fears of death all the time; we manage to muddle through.

We understand these fears.

But then when Jesus rises, awakes, rebukes the wind and waves, and declares a new day, it scares us profoundly.

Who is this?

Who are we, and how are we related to him?

He rises and rebukes evil and death, and demands that we sail on in the boat with him.

Can we, will we stay in the boat?

I grew up in a relatively sheltered time.

There was only one person in the neighborhood who was not a church member, and he was so scary that we were to stay away from him.

My cousin and I, as well as many others in the congregation, had a friendly contest for maintaining perfect attendance in church and Sunday School for 15 years or more.

Can anyone claim that anymore?

The church is headed for a time of minority standing in our country.

It will not be fashionable to be a church member; it may well become costly in many ways to be associated with the body of Christ.

A few years ago the Archbishop of Chicago said that he expected to be able to die in bed, but he projected that his successor may well die in prison, and his successor may die a martyr.

Perhaps you think the archbishop was overly dramatic in what he said, but perhaps not!

Fear? Yes, there is fear of the death of the way things have been for us in the recent past, which has been relatively easy.

But there is also the second kind of fear, the fear that Christ may turn things upside down and make of us something more than we can imagine, things for which we cannot write a 2, 3 or 10 year plan!

I don't pretend to know what the church will look like in the future, but it will certainly be very different from that with which we grew up.

It will likely be leaner, with fewer things and properties, and have a membership much more costly in commitment to maintain.

I read recently about a congregation that got itself reorganized, focused on a new mission, and became a lively place again.

The pastor wrote, “The trouble is that many of our best, long-time members just couldn't take it.

They were all prepared for our last days as a church, and then, wonder of wonders, our church was raised, given a new mission, a reason for living.

And their new life in Christ scared them to death.”

Philosophers from ancient times and still today think that we humans constructed gods to be a buffer between us and our fears of disappointment and death.

But this gospel lesson today about Jesus and the disciples on the sea reminds us of the second kind of fear, the kind that begins with Jesus, the fear of what God may yet do with us.

Jesus is first of all not a projection of our need for security, but as God's own sovereign reality which is very much beyond our needs.

Are we afraid? Yes, of course!

But our Good Friday fear, the fear of death in all of its twisted ways can be replaced with Easter fear, the fear of what God will yet accomplish with us.

And this second fear shall not overwhelm us, because the Lord Jesus himself tells us “Lo, I will be with you to the close of the age.”(Mt.28:20) “I will not leave you comfortless.” (Jn. 14:18) “Peace be with you.” (Jn.20:26) “Follow me. (Jn.21:22).

When Jesus who has been to us merely a good teacher reveals himself to be the powerful Lord of the winds and waves of even our lives, will we stay in the boat and sail on with him?

That's his invitation! Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.