(Mark 4:35 -41)

The disciples woke up Jesus to tell him that they were in danger of drowning. There clearly are times when it is entirely appropriate to bring something to another person’s attention. A number of married couples, I know, are locked in to different ways of thinking and doing things. The woman will like to chat as she goes along where as the man will prefer to concentrate on one thing and not talk until he had finished the task at hand(1). After many years of marriage and a number of arguments and confrontations, people I know, Peter and Marianne, had come to an agreement: Marianne would not interrupt Peter’s concentration when he was in the middle of a project. On a number of occasions Marianne had interrupted Peter when he was deeply involved in a task, much to his consternation. Finally, they agreed that when she wanted to ask him something, she would wait until he had finished what he was doing. The arrangement had worked pretty well over the years, until a particular day. Peter was working on a project in the garage. Marianne, well acquainted with their arrangement, walked out to the garage and stood silently by, waiting for the signal that he was ready to be interrupted. When he looked up, she calmly reported, “The house is on fire.”

The disciples are fisherman by trade and so a storm is nothing unusual. They would have a healthy respect for the sea and be fully aware of the damage it might do. Their fear (Mk 4:41) is not at the storm – they are practical professionals. They want to know what part Jesus is going to play in this unfolding drama(2) and they are stunned at what he does. It was a fair thing for them to want to know what Jesus will do – their question is about Jesus rather than about the storm.

The disciples questioning, doubting, wondering is a natural part of the growing searching faith in Jesus. As it was for them, so too it is for us. We see through the glass darkly (1 Cor 13:12). The father of the epileptic boy says, ‘Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief’ (Mk 9:24). Doubt and faith are inseparable; they are two sides of the same coin; they complement one another. Faith that does not doubt is dead faith(3) (Miguel de Unamuno 1864 – 1937). Thomas is the archetypal doubter but it is his questioning and prompting that draws out some underlying truths of a situation. It was in answer to a question from Thomas that Jesus described himself as the way and the truth and the life (Jn 14:6). When Jesus and his disciples hear about their friend Lazarus's death near Jerusalem, the centre of Jesus' opposition, Thomas comments darkly, "Yes, let's go there that we might die with him." (Jn 11:16). He is a pessimist, though clearly devoted to Jesus. Thomas is the first disciple to put into words the truth that Jesus is both Lord and God (Jn 20:28). ‘Doubting Thomas’ utters the greatest confession of faith recorded anywhere in the Bible.

There are two storms that might sink us. One is apathy and the other is worry. Worry is an even greater sin than fear in my opinion. Fear is based upon reality—there was a serious storm raging. Worry(4) is based upon the hypothetical possibility of trouble. “What if I lose my job?” “What if I get sick and can’t work?” The disciples were fearful rather than worried. Had they been worried they would still be sitting on the seashore thinking of all the things that might go wrong. People who worry set up plans of inaction. These are lists of things that they are not going to do. The second storm is apathy. During this last week, I had an energy and identity crisis at the same time– I did not know who I was and could not be bothered to find out. Doubt is the searching part of faith. Worry and apathy can kill both faith and doubt.