Peace Be Still

Sermon – “Peace Be Still” – Mark 4:35-41
Rev. Sara McCurdy, Laguna Niguel Pres. Church
July 21,2024

In today’s passage we turn to the gospel writer, Mark, who recounts a situation in which fear overwhelmed a group of disciples– a situation that asks us to consider how our faith helps us in the face our own fears.  

Read - Mark 4:35-41

When I drive to the church on Sunday morning the first thing I do is tell Seri to play Taizé on Apple Music.  Seri is very obedient so for the 20 minute drive I’m calmed by a beautiful meditative, prayerful form of music.  In Taizé a line from scripture is sung over and over and becomes a musical centering pray.   For example, Jesus words in this passage “Peace Be Still, Peace Be Still are slowly sung to a soothing melody. The storm is raging.” Usually, by the time I get to the church the storms in my life feel calmed and my mind is much more focused on worshipping our Lord.  

When the Gospel writer Mark recorded this miracle story, the storms of life were raging in First Century Jerusalem.  It was early in the year 70 CE at the height of Nero’s persecution.  Rome was crushing the Jewish state. Paul and Peter are martyred. The disciples’ pleas, “Teacher do you not care that we are perishing?” take on a deeper meaning because of the historical content. It was a violent time.

 What frightens you?  Some of our fears are associated with physical circumstances.  Someone I was close to had a fear of heights.  We used to laugh about that – seemed paradoxical for an airline pilot.  I could not handle the old submarine ride at Disneyland.  Closed spaces still freak me out.  Most of those kinds of fears we can avoid.  But there are other fears that sort of take up residency in the corner of our minds – fears over possible loss of lifestyle, or fear of losing a cherished relationship, or over our own mortality.  
The men in the boat were terrified.  At least four of the disciples were fishermen who perhaps had  survived storms on this sea.  They may well have known of other fishermen who had been lost.   The danger they faced on that evening was deadly and they knew it.    
      It is within that intensely emotional situation they witness a miracle.  Jesus rebukes the wind and says to the sea, Peace! Be still!” In response to Jesus’ power and authority, but more importantly in response to Jesus’ faith in Godly powers, the wind ceased and there was dead calm.  The disciples had seen a miracle take place before their very eyes. Then into their fear Jesus speaks, saying, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”  

     Normally we think the fact of simply witnessing a miracle increases our faith. But according to Mark that is only part of it. And that is not what Jesus says on many occasions regarding miracles.  To the woman with a hemorrhage Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” To the man with paralysis the text says, when Jesus saw their faith (that is the faith of his friends lowering the man through the roof to see Jesus) then the healing took place and then Jesus said to the paralytic, pick up your mat and walk.  When Jesus uses his authority and power to bring about a miracle of healing, it is Jesus’ faith and believer’s faith that produces the miracle.   MIRACLES DO NOT PRODUCE FAITH.  FAITH PRODUCES MIRACLES.  Faith produces miracles.  

     So, these are the two fundamental questions Jesus continues to ask when we cry out, “Where are you God? Do you not care?”  Questions that lie at the heart of this passage.  “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  

    Note that Jesus isn’t saying, “there’s nothing to be afraid of”.  That is a very different thing from saying, why are you afraid or even “do not be afraid.”  Fearsome things are real:  isolation and loneliness, pain, illness, depression, money problems, failure, and all manner of losses. mass shootings – It is a long list not even to mention common fears that used to comprise the top 10 of public speaking, snakes, spiders.  In today’s world American’s top fears center on government corruption No. 1, Economic worries, war and terrorism, followed by concern for a our loved ones (Illness or death). Things like snakes and spiders have given way to political and economic worries.  

     What Jesus seems to be offering is assurance in the midst of our fears, rather than denial of their reality.  Our fears hit us on every level – physical -blood pressure rises, mind - our minds become cluttered with scary thoughts, or we fall into a state of emotional denial.  So  our fears spiritually challenge us to ask ourselves what part does our faith play in calming our fears – will fear lead us to avoidance or paralysis or to action?  To reactivity or to thoughtfulness?  When the storms of life hit will you exercise your faith or fear?      

      Exercising a vital – life giving faith involves all aspects of our being - our body, mind, and our spirit.  Body – mind – spirit –thoughts and emotions and the presence of the Holy Spirit are one within us.  They aren’t dual process running parallel in response to fearsome situations.  The oneness of these aspects of human life - mind, spirit and body is well established and not just by new age health gurus but by what modern medicine and science have told us for a long time.   It’s the way God created us.  We may think and talk about our feelings, and thoughts and spirits as being divided parts of existence but in fact every aspect of our living being are essentially inner-connected. Which mean that we aren’t helpless in challenging situations.    

  Prayer and meditation, reading the Bible and worship on Sunday morning are intentional actions that have power through the Holy Spirit to exercise and deepen our faith in God – Father, Son and Spirit and thereby calm our fears.

     Jesus saw their faith.  The theme throughout the Gospel of Mark is that Miracles on their own do not produce faith.  Faith produces miracles. Daughters and Sons says Jesus, your faith has made you well.  MIRACLES DO NOT PRODUCE FAITH.  FAITH PRODUCES MIRACLES.  Faith produces miracles.  

      In this scene Jesus lies asleep undisturbed by the chaos and danger of the sea – demonstrating his faith, trusting in the power of his heavenly Father.  While the disciples are terrified not knowing that the power of God is greater than anything they have ever been taught or imagined.  A great windstorm arose, waves beat into the boat.  The boat was already being swamped.   Yet Jesus was amazingly faithfully sound asleep.  So asleep they had to wake him up.  In panic the disciples cry to Jesus for help.   They thought they were dying wondering if Jesus even cared that they were perishing. Peace! Be Still!  And the wind ceased and there was a dead calm.  “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”, he asks.

      Old Testament scholar, Walter Bruggeman, reminds us that “the calming of the sea takes on added meaning in the recognition that the sea symbolizes throughout the Old Testament the abode of chaos.  When Jesus calms the storm, it is not merely a brute demonstration of power over nature, but a redemptive act in which chaotic forces – the demons themselves - are rebuked.

   Along life’s journey we all encounter some very perilous passageways.  The truth is that fearsome things are very real.  We don’t need to name our fears again.  You know what they are in your life.  We like the disciples are vulnerable and we long for the One who calms both the storm and us.  Notice that in this story the disciples’ fears are confronted.  But there is no superhuman burst of courage.  They do not try to discover some inner resource they did not know they had.  It is faith in Jesus who calms both them and the storm with the power of his word and his presence. Peace!  Be still! He commands.

      You can cooperate with Jesus’ command for peace and stillness, you can strengthen your faith by taking time for  bible reading, for enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, by bringing an open heart to worship and throughout the day especially when you face a fearsome experience by practicing the simple spiritual disciple of prayer. leaving behind your lists of things to do, the demands of your office, the incessant presence of your cell phone, setting aside any urgency you feel to respond to anything other than Jesus’ love.  Talk to God in prayer. Exercise your faith with me right now as we pray together this Breathe Prayer. Breathe in and pray Jesus’ words,

Peace! Be Still!
Peace Be Still!  
Peace Be Still!
Amen and amen.  
 
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Sermon Sources:
David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.

David J Schlafer, Joel B. Green, et al Editors, Connections, A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, WJKP. 2021