June 22, 2003 -
Second
Sunday after Pentecost
1
Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-29
NRSV
KJV
Mark
4:35-41
NRSV
KJV
CEV
“Faith Seeking Understanding”
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
The disciples’ question could be on the lips of many of us, couldn’t it? And if not on our lips, at least deep inside our minds. We read the paper, watch the news, and things assault us, frighten us, that we never even knew existed. Now we have to add SARS and Monkey Pox to the threats of terrorist actions and an economy that just can’t seem to get itself back on track. We wonder if and where it’s safe to travel not only overseas, but here at home as well. We want to have faith in medical science, faith in our government, and faith in our economic system that everything is going to work out, still there are so many questions, so many nagging doubts, so many little things that keep us “on edge.” Part of the problem is that we’re not so sure that those we used to simply trust are trustworthy any longer. Everyone from teacher to physician, politician to financial planner and, yes, even the clergy no longer automatically evoke our trust – it certainly didn’t do a great deal for me to see a bishop arrested for “hit and run.” Life, which is problematic enough, just seems to get more and more so with every passing day.
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
In Mark’s Gospel Jesus wakes up in response to that question and says, “Peace. Be still.” The winds and waves are calmed and he, in turn, asks questions. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Mark’s point, I believe, is not so much to point to who Jesus is as to remind us who we are and how we are to relate to God. There is little question that he’s also trying to paint a picture to remind us that an encounter with Jesus is an encounter with God, a God who looks for us and for our trusting response to the Divine presence. So, the opposite of faith in Mark’s Gospel is not unbelief, rather it’s fear. Fear is the sign, the symptom if you will, that we have not placed our trust in God, in God’s power, and in God’s ultimate will for our good.
The imagery that Mark is using here is evocative of Genesis one, the creation story. God’s Spirit broods over the watery chaos of the world and brings order out of it. In the same way on the Sea of Galilee Jesus speaks a word and chaos is corralled and order restored. It shouldn’t surprise us at all that the disciples asked the question they did, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Yet, their question, like so many questions we ask, evades the real question and hides from confronting the situation. The chaos Jesus was addressing was their own inner turmoil, their own lack of peace, and their own inability to trust God, themselves, and anyone else for that matter. And they just didn’t get it, just as we far too often don’t get it. The issue here is not the identity of the one who spoke those words that calm the rage. The issue here was their fear and their need to understand the nature of faith.
What is faith? Faith is part of human existence, it’s part of the way we know and understand. Faith is engaged when we read a book, drive a car, do math, or in countless other everyday actions. We have faith that 2 plus 2 equals 4. We have faith in the various physical laws that order our world, like gravity. We have testimony that backs them up. I’ve never seen an atom, but I believe that all matter is made up of them. Why? Because there is evidence that convinces me that this is true. We would call this human or philosophical faith. In this regard we could define faith as an assent or belief in the truth or reliability of a given statement, thing, or person.
Faith in the Divine, or religious, sense presupposes philosophical faith and builds upon it. Yet, it calls for something more, and that is revelation, or God’s self-disclosure to us. The classic Biblical definition is found in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.” Theologian Avery Dulles describes it in this way:
Faith in the theological sense is a self-surrender to God as he reveals himself. By making himself discernibly present in human history by signs and symbols. God calls men and women to participate in his own divine life. Faith in its full and integral reality is more than a merely intellectual assent or an act of blind trust. It is a complex act in which assent, trust, obedience, and loving self-commitment are interwoven. [Assurance of Things Hoped For, p. 274]
In short, God invites us into relationship and, as with any other relationship, we have to come to the point where we can open ourselves, take a risk, and enter into what is offered. Through creation, through the person and work of Jesus, through the Bible, the church, and our own experience God makes the invitation and shows us that the Divine will is directed to our good and that the Divine nature is love. Faith is our response to that self-disclosure and our assent, on multiple levels, to God’s existence and goodness.
The medieval theologian Anselm gave us our sermon title today. It’s the subtitle to his Proslogion: “faith seeking understanding.” It seems to me that faith isn’t the end of the spiritual quest, but its beginning, and it grows and develops with us along the way. Part of that growth is the desire to know and to understand. In this he echoes Augustine and his ‘synthesis’ that influenced so much of theology in the middle ages. Another writer, Ellipandus, uses the same formula, “We have not known and believed, but have ‘believed and have come to know.’ For we believe in order to understand.” [in Jaroslav Peilkan The Growth of Medieval Theology, p. 259] Faith seeking understanding is the way of the Christian believer because heart and mind work together. Anselm understood that it was more than just the intellect that brought one to faith, and by faith to true knowledge, it was the heart that led the mind to the source. The mind is led, inclined, to believe by a heart that loves and love is made evident when God reveals God’s self. Thus, both the simplest tasks of the everyday and the most taxing problem that can exercise the human mind can be used of God to bring us to love and to know God.
Our Congregational forebears understood this to be the truth and they were diligent in both their study of the “booke of nature” as they were of the “booke of Scripture.” Thus Thomas Adams would preach, “It is the office of faith to believe what we do not see, and it shall be the reward of faith to see what we do believe.” And my favorite is what Thomas Watson said, “Where reason cannot wade there faith may swim.” Faith seeking understanding leads us from fear of the water to plunge into the depths and there to find the prize, the treasure of life, of truth, of peace passing understanding that lies under the waves.
Many things can trigger the internal chaos we sometimes feel. The events and situations we mentioned at the outset can be examples and there are others. We can cripple ourselves both emotionally and spiritually by our fear of loss, our fear of failure, and our fear of being hurt. As we confront these things our response is very often to withdraw or to pull ourselves in, to avoid the risk by building up our defenses. Our Old Testament lesson gives us an example of how our faith can overcome those fears and lead us to victory.
I love the line, “David said to Saul, ‘Let no one’s heart fail because of him; you servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’” Here is this shepherd, this child, telling the king of Israel, “don’t lose heart.” And what do they tell him? “You’re no match for this fellow. He’s huge. He’s been a warrior since he was a child. Give it up.” David is undeterred. He’s fought big things, defended the flock before and this situation is no different, because the God who was with him through all the other times is just as much with him in this one. “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.” David trusts his experience, trusts his ability and, more importantly, trusts the One whom he believes has given them to him. God has the skill and experience, even if David doesn’t. He’s not going to let his heart fail; he’s going to extend himself on behalf of his people. He does and he prevails. There is the power of faith to overcome obstacles and it is powerful because David recognizes, assents, is obedient, and committed to God. Regardless of what would happen, David knew that God was with him.
I don’t want to appear to be simplistic. I’m certainly not naïve and I don’t believe any of you to be, either. It’s just that very often we give wonderful lip service to faith but we don’t allow it to take effect in our lives. We’ll talk about believing and we’ll invoke God’s presence, we’ll pray and give God our troubles, and then we turn around and try to fix things ourselves or take them right back. Faith is about taking the risk of placing ourselves in the presence, the will, the very life of God and then resting there. It is only when we come to that point that we’ll understand truly who God is and who we are. I ran across a story by Clifford Elliott that I think illustrates what I’m trying to say.
When I was a small boy my parents built a sun porch on the side of our modest home. For those days, it had a lot of glass in it.
I loved that room because it was so bright. I loved it so much I asked my parents if I could sleep there on the couch overnight. My parents agreed and I brought down my pillow from my tiny room upstairs.
But there were no curtains on the sun porch. In the middle of the night, a wild electric storm arose. The brilliant flashes of lightning seemed to stab right into my bed, and the deafening crashes of thunder frightened me to death. I tried to be brave but soon I cried out for my dad. I wondered if he would hear me for their bedroom was some distance away, it was the middle of the night, and the storm was making a great racket. But in no time my father appeared in his nightshirt.
He didn’t say, “Well, I guess you’ve learned your lesson.” He didn’t say: “A big boy like you shouldn’t be frightened.”
He said, “Bring your pillow and come along.“ And he took me back upstairs to my own room where I could shut out the storm by closing my blind and some curtains.
As I look back on my home life, I remember that sun porch not only as the place I loved best because it was so bright and cheery but also because it was the place where, in the middle of a storm, I learned that my father would come when I needed him.
Sometimes we expect that religion will sort out life for us. And that God will protect us from misfortune. We imagine that god will gives us only happiness, health and prosperity – no thunderstorms, only days filled with sunshine.
But that wouldn’t be real life and that wouldn’t be a real God. God seldom changes the circumstances of life. God promises only that no matter what the circumstances are, we will not be left alone. [Snapshots]
Faith seeking understanding is confident of God’s abiding presence and through it makes sense of the situation and the world.
The God who emboldened David is still with us. The One who spoke and calmed the sea with a word is here, because we have asked him to be. We covenant to be followers of Jesus Christ and say that we will “grow in the knowledge and expression of our faith.” We should acknowledge this gift of presence and gift of faith by making it real in our lives, by allowing it to show in our actions and in our thoughts. I would also urge you to take some time each day, if only a moment or two, to remind yourself of the Divine presence and of this faith seeking understanding that is in your heart and mind. A periodic time of retreat, a quiet day, can be of great help in deepening our life in faith. There is opportunity to participate in one here next Friday – I invite you, if you are able, to come and be a part of it.
We live in a world and encounter situations almost daily that can make us very fearful. Yet, they need not paralyze us nor rob us of the peace and joy that God wants each of us to have. Long ago Augustine preached these words from Mark’s Gospel to his congregation in North Africa:
When you have to listen to abuse, that means you are being buffeted by the wind. When your anger is roused, you are being tossed by the waves. So when the winds blow and the waves mount high, the boat is in danger, your heart is imperiled, your heart is taking a battering. On hearing yourself insulted, you long to retaliate; but the joy of revenge brings with it another kind of misfortune – shipwreck. Why is this? Because Christ is asleep in you. What do I mean? I mean that you have forgotten his presence. Rouse him, then; remember him, let him keep watch within you, pay heed to him. . . . A temptation arises: it is the wind. It disturbs you: it is the surging sea. This is the moment to awaken Christ and let him remind you of those words: “Who can this be? Even the winds and the sea obey him.” [Sermons 63:1-3]
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Faith seeking understanding hears the answer, feels it in the heart, knows it deep within the mind: “Peace. Be still.” Be at peace. Be still; know that God is with us. Be at peace and go forth to live in faith. Peace. Be still and know.