It occurs to me that faith and fear have at least one thing in common: both are highly contagious. You and I are delicately impressionistic, vulnerable to the contagious influences around us. And our lives are formed, conditioned, shaped by the influences to which we have the most exposure. By our very natures, we pick up the vibes from the strongest people around us. If everybody else is afraid, then we are likely to be afraid, too. You have to be a strong person to keep faith if those around you are ruled by fear. The Twelve caught Jesus taking a nap as they crossed the lake in the boat. When a violent storm arose, Jesus continued to sleep. The disciples woke him, shouting, “Master, don’t you care that we’re drowning?” Jesus replied, “Why are you so frightened? What has happened to your faith?" I am calling this sermon, “Teach Faith To Say Its Prayers.”
Have you ever been in the middle of a storm on a lake when the boat was filling with water? Who wouldn’t be frightened? Back in the early fifties we lived on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. We lived in the third house from the boat dock. Our two-year-old son got out of the house when one of those dangerous hurricanes came and water was up into the yards. We were frightened at the storm, but when we learned that David was out of the house, we were almost paralyzed. I want to say something about fear. Fear is a good thing so long as it does not master you. I don’t ever want to lose that faculty that makes me get afraid. Fear is my alert system telling me that danger might be nearby. If I hear strange noises, I check. If I am in a strange location, I keep a cautious eye.
Fear is my natural defense mechanism. It tells me I care about what happens. But fear can be overpowering. When fear masters my emotions and my rational ability, it is immobilizing. When fear becomes my master, a lot of things happen to me: I lose my ability to function rationally; I get all up-tight; my blood pressure shoots up; my heart beats faster; an excess amount of adrenalin shoots into my bloodstream. All of this is exhausting.
There is a lady who calls me frequently she used to call me every day but I told her I would get an unlisted number if we couldn’t agree on one call a week so, she gradually learned to limit her calls. And I commend her for it. This particular lady is retarded, rather significantly so. She’s in her early thirties. She never goes walking on the street alone. Her older brother always walks with her, to the shopping center, to her friends’ homes, or wherever. This woman is absolutely horrified by storms. Thunder, lightning, winds and rain make her go “bananas.” If she calls me during a storm, she’s gasping, hardly able to speak, frightened to death, as the saying goes. I say, “What’s happening, Sharon?” “Oh, you know. You know. That thing ... I don’t want to say it.” I reply, “Yes, Sharon, it’s raining here, too. We need rain. Yes, there’s some thunder and lightning. I’m doing a word-puzzle. Then I am going to bed. What are you doing?” And the fact is, she’s running from one window to another, pumping her heart, sending up her blood pressure, cutting off her ability to breathe properly, preparing herself for nightmares. I get her talking and she calms down a bit. She asks me, “Where do you get so much faith that the storm doesn’t scare you?” I tell her I am very cautious about storms. I cannot stop the storm, but I can control the way I feel about the storm. I tell her God is in control. That is my firm belief. Sure, a storm may be dangerous and we may have to take special measures to protect ourselves. By the time we have talked a few minutes, even though the storm may be continuing, she begins to calm down.
A little boy and his father were with some passengers aboard a sailing ship when a storm came up at sea. They were at the mercy of the waves. Passengers were panicky, rushing here and there in dread and fear. Only one little boy remained calm and cheerful. Someone commended the little boy for not being afraid. The little boy replied, “Why should I be afraid? My father is at the helm.” That boy obviously had a trusting relationship with his dad. And dad had done a good job of training the boy to handle the fear of danger at sea.
William Barclay, one of modern day’s great biblical scholars, says that Jesus means to communicate trust, trust in God, your Heavenly Father. Believe that God is in control of your life and universe. You’ll have a matchless steadying influence that will bring you a lot of poise, a lot of serenity, and save you a lot of needless worry and stress.
Teach your fear to say its prayers.
No one, including the Christian, is shielded from the storms of life. How often do you find yourself at a loss to explain the troubles life brings? Some make no sense at all. Once we feel the storms beating at us, we tend to blame people or the devil or a reckless life. Sometimes we blame God. Bishop Sheen used to liken life to a deck of cards, saying, once the hand is dealt, it’s a question of how you play, not whom you blame. No one is shielded from the storms.
An old Quaker stood up in a meeting and told of a young man he knew who had lived a very undisciplined life. The young man did not believe the truths of religion. This young man invited a pious Quaker friend to go sailing one day. A sudden storm came up and the undisciplined and unbelieving man was drowned. The Quaker sat down, the people thinking he had made his point about where an undisciplined and unbelieving life will lead you. But after a few minutes, he stood up again and said, “Friends, for the honor of truth, I have to tell you, the Quaker also drowned.”
No one is exempt from the storms of life.
The boat on a stormy sea, the boat that carried Jesus and his disciples in the midst of an angry sea, has had its counterpart in every generation, possibly in every life. What storm threatens your boat right now? Faith did not shield the apostle Paul from being stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned. Hospitals today have many beds occupied by Christians and non-Christians. The highway deaths include those who profess Jesus as Lord as well as those who couldn’t care less.
A study showed levels of stress on a scale of one to one hundred. An ordinary illness was rated twenty-five, a job loss fifty-one, a divorce seventy and a death of a spouse was rated ninety. Each one of us has his or her own unique vulnerability to the stresses of life. And that vulnerability changes from time to time. Your pressure point, your vulnerability spot, right now in your life, might involve your children, your parents, your spouse; it might involve mid-life crisis, your sexuality, an illness, or just every-day frustrations. Some days we feel we are in charge. Some days we don’t feel in charge. Some of you were born with a gift of buoyancy, have a greater ability to ride the waves. Be thankful and offer a hand to someone not so blessed. Some are, by nature, allergic to the anxieties of the times. They need the help of you gifted ones.
William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience, deals with two types of people: those who seem to have started life with a bottle or two of champagne in their hands; and those others who seem to have been close to the pain threshold which the slight irritant fatally trips. We all need to be where faith is contagious, not where fear is contagious. How do we do it? Where is the help we need to do it? One, you do it by turning away from preoccupation with yourself. I love the old German tale about the Centipede and the Fly. The fly says to the centipede, “I have six legs and I know how to walk. You have 100 legs; how do you coordinate 100 legs and walk?” The centipede started thinking about it, and he became immobilized and couldn’t walk. I know a lady who is afraid to step around the corner on the street where she lives. But she’ll get on an aircraft and take a trip around the world.
Stop preoccupation with yourself.
Then the Gospel is saying, get yourself aligned with Jesus Christ. But even there we have to have help, at least I do. That is why the church offers prayers, worship, Word and Sacrament, opportunities to share, and other disciplines. I need to see it and feel it in other persons. Malcolm Muggeridge, that strange and wonderful Englishman who was editor of Punch, tells how seeing Mother Theresa influenced his life. He and his director arrived in Calcutta in the midst of social upheaval. People were afraid, like the disciples in the storm. Mother Theresa appeared in her ambulance driven by her driver to take them to their location. Muggeridge’s non-Christian director pointed out that in her company they never felt the slightest anxiety, not even over her driver’s very erratic driving!
Have you ever been with anyone like that, someone who eliminates all your anxieties, communicates faith to you so that your anxieties are gradually disquieted? I can’t go to India to see Mother Theresa. And I cannot be like her. But I can put myself close to others who are close to Jesus. My wife and I spent a weekend with friends recently. I laughed more during those two days than I’ve laughed in years. Being near those people calmed my anxieties.
Teach your fears to say their prayers.
O God, although we wonder why we are caught in the midst of so many disturbances, grant that we may never be afraid that they will sweep us from your presence. Be with us to steady us and enable us to take anything that comes to us quietly, with confidence, with faith.