1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our
Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The
message from God’s Word this Father’s Day weekend is taken from Mark 4:35-41
and is entitled, “Jesus, Like a Father,
Calms our Fears.” Dear brothers and
sisters in Christ.
2. Recall a time when
you were truly scared. It could have been as a child or when as an adult you
learned you were about to lose your job or in those slow-motion moments when
you realized you were going to be in an car accident. Our young men and women
of the military in war zones know the sheer terror of being shot at with the possibility
of dying.
3. On this Father’s
Day weekend I can recall a time I was truly scared as a child. My brother Eric and I were away from home for
the first time at a Summer Boy Scout Camp for a whole week. I remember Eric and me crying for the first
day or so we were away from home. We
were very homesick. One of our Boy Scout
leaders phoned home and told my parents how distraught we were. My dad took vacation time from his work to be
with us at the camp for the rest of the week.
My father became that sense of security and protection for my brother
Eric and I so that we could continue to enjoy the Boy Scout Camp for that
week. I can also recall the first time a
big thunderstorm took place in my first parish at St. John Lutheran in Baldwin,
IL when our second son Marty was just born and at home with us. When that thunderstorm came up the only thing
that could console him was being near his mom and dad for protection, security,
and comfort. The final episode I
remember in my life with my dad was when he drove me to my College Cross
Country meet in Iowa to compete. This
was back in my much leaner years. My dad
cheered me on the whole time and I remember breaking 29 minutes for 5 miles in
that Cross Country meet for the first time.
It was my dad’s cheering and encouragement that gave me the courage to
be my best at running. On this Father’s
Day we are reminded that dads are very important in our lives. They offer to us a sense of identity, they
give us a sense of protection, security, but most importantly they point us to
God, who is our Heavenly Father, who watches over us and has provided us His
Son Jesus for our salvation.
4. Put yourself in
the boat with the disciples. They were afraid, the waves were crashing over
into the boat. But there was another
matter. Deeper than the sea in which they feared drowning was a fear of the one
they should have trusted. Both are fears we may also experience, but both are
fears that Jesus addresses when he speaks a powerful word in our text: Jesus’ speaking “Peace” stills our terror. Jesus, like a Father, calms our fears.
5. Jesus’ speaking
“peace” stills our terror in dangers. In
Mark 4:35-37 it says, “35On that day, when evening had come, [Jesus] said to them,
“Let us go across to the other side.” 36And leaving the crowd, they took him
with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37And a
great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the
boat was already filling.” The
disciples’ speaking cried out their terror of the storm, accusing Jesus! They were seasoned fishermen, and yet they
were terrified. They spoke a rebuke to
Jesus because he didn’t intervene in their behalf. The reason they spoke was purely selfish: “Don’t you care” about us (v 38b)? And how foolish to turn on the one who could
help them.
6. Our speaking may
also turn to accusation when we’re terrified.
When we’re afraid, we often turn defensive, accusing. When we fear illness and death, we often turn
our frustrations on those who try to help—family, friends, the medical staff
that’s trying to help us. When we fear a
relationship is in danger, we turn to distrust rather than devotion, blame
rather than bond. And, don’t we also get
impatient with God when it seems he doesn’t care? Sometimes in a moment of danger, the first
word out of our mouth might be to take God’s name in vain.
7. How often have you ever wondered, “Does God
care?” Has sickness visited you? Do you find yourself wondering, “God, don’t
you care?” Family problems? “God, don’t you care?” Business difficulties? We
want to know if God cares. Whenever any
tragedy, hardship, storm of life or hurt appears, the question comes up: “God,
don’t you care?”
8. Be sure about this—Jesus cares. Jesus, like a father, calms our fears. He
cares about your financial problems. He cares about your child’s cough. He cares about the water you drink and the
food you eat. He cares about whether you love and are loved. He cares about the
events recorded in your Sunday paper and about how you sleep at night. There’s
not an aspect of your life or anything so small that it escapes. If Jesus knows and cares about the hairs of
your head, he will also care whether his disciples drown in a storm or whether
you feel you are sinking under problems. Jesus cares and in words and actions
says, “Don’t worry. If I can conquer
death, heal a leper, and bring somebody back from the dead, I can and will take
care of your problems.”
9. That’s why with
Jesus present, the disciples—and we—really have nothing to fear. Jesus was at complete peace in the boat—and
is just as confident he has our every crisis under control. But, of course, sin rules and we doubt. Then Jesus speaks: “Peace! Be still!” (v 39). He utters the perfect words to still the wind
and waves, creating a peace and a calm. His
speaking “peace” calmed the disciples’ terror in the storm.
10. Most important for
us, Jesus speaking “peace” calms our fears when we face danger. He speaks “peace” because his death on the
cross has removed the sin that not only disrupted the harmony of creation but
also destroyed our relationship with God. Now that that sin has been removed,
we’re reconciled to God, back at peace with him, so that we now can be assured
of his constant care. His speaking
“peace,” therefore, says he will never leave us or forsake us when we face
danger, illness, death, aloneness.
11. Strangely enough,
after the storm was stilled, the disciples were still afraid. Of what? Weren’t
they now in the clear? Amazingly, it’s still necessary that Jesus’ speaking
“peace” stills our terror at being in his presence. The disciples’ speaking whispered their
terror of Jesus, fearing his power! “They were filled with great fear and said to
one another, ‘Who then is this?’ ” (v 41).
A greater terror than the sea was being in the presence of the one who
could control the sea and wind and all creation. As sinners, they sensed that such a mighty
Presence could only destroy anything or anyone less than holy—and they knew
they were. They were right—without a
word from Jesus, his presence would surely destroy anyone corrupted with sin.
12. Are we afraid of
having Jesus too close (v 40)? Does our
failure to pray or worship eagerly hide a fear that God isn’t really eager to
hear from us? Does our awkward struggle
for words at a funeral reveal a fear that meeting Jesus face-to-face may not be
a blessed end? For all these fears, the
thing we truly want is peace.
13. For this, too,
Jesus’ speaking “peace” to the wind and waves speaks to us. Remember, it’s the cross that enabled Jesus
to speak peace to the storm. Yes, the
creation is restored because God and man have been reconciled by Jesus’ death. Peace always means that sin and its effects
have been undone.
14. Jesus’ speaking
peace to the storm is also his speaking forgiveness to us. As he does in every Divine Service—in the
Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, the Sacrament of the Altar, the
Benediction. As he will do when we see
him face-to-face after death. When
Christ speaks peace, we have nothing to fear.
Jesus, like a Father, calms our fears.
15. What do we finally
say? Jesus is in control, over nature and over our eternal welfare. He has
spoken the word that declared us whole, based on what he did on the cross. With
God for us, how can anything or anyone prevail against us? They can’t! All
praise be to God that we now have this peace, the peace that surpasses all
understanding. Amen.
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