God is Good, All the Time!
Mark 4:4:35-41
Rev. Frank Schaefer

I think we can all relate to the disciples in today’s bible story. Life gets rough sometimes and we start to worry or even panic. This lesson from Mark teaches us that we need more faith, especially when those dark and boisterous storms come.

Honestly, sometimes when those storms of life hit us, it feels like God has forsaken us. There is an intrinsic teaching value in this bible lesson, telling us that God does not forsake us. After all, Jesus, the son of God, was in the boat with the disciples.

So, maybe God hasn’t forsaken us, but what this story expresses is that sometimes it feels like God isn’t doing anything. God isn’t answering our prayers in the hour of our greatest needs.

So, Jesus was asleep while the disciples were frantically trying to stay afloat, trying to steer the boat clear of the roaring waves. How was it even possible for Jesus to sleep through such a storm? Was he that tired? Did he really not know what was going on? Or did he pretend to sleep to test his disciples’ faith?

I’m saying this because Jesus, after calming the storm, said this to the disciples: “Where is your faith?”

I think, other questions are implicit in this teaching moment, such as: What were you thinking? That the son of God would drown? That I would allow a storm, a few waves, and a little wind, to destroy us?

Do you see what’s happening here? Suddenly our question to God: “why don’t you answer our prayers?” is turned right back at us: “where is your faith?” Turns out that Jesus expects us to keep our faith during those hard times.

Personally, my biggest question is not how God can expect us to have faith in those “God-forsaken” moments, but rather: “what does such faith look like? What did Jesus expect the disciples to do differently?

Obviously, the disciples had to do what they did to try to steer the boat away from the big waves, they had to bail water out of the boat. Surely, Jesus did not expect them to ignore the danger and do nothing.

So was it that Jesus did not want them to worry? Actually, I think there is a lot of confusion about worrying.

In my understanding, there are different kind of worries. Some are bad, and others are acceptable, understandable, and might actually serve a purpose.

When Jesus talks in Matthew 6 about not worrying, please pay attention to what he is talking about:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”   Mat. 6:25-27

Jesus was talking about the everyday worries of life, what you wear, eat, how you appear to others. Note that he wasn’t talking about an emergency, or a shortage or a famine.

During times of crisis and hardship, we have reason to worry. But here Jesus is talking about everyday things, worrying about little stuff. Did anybody by worrying about those everyday things ever add so much as an hour to their life? Nope. So, that kind of worrying is futile!

But then, there is the other kind of worrying which seems to be acceptable. We worry about our safety, about our children, about finances when things get tough. These kind of worries often lead to solutions. We are to worry for our future and about others.

However, it seems that God does expect us to show faith even when the storms of life become life threatening. Note that Jesus asked: “where is your faith? “and not “why did you worry?” Losing faith is not an option in God’s book. And the disciples showed little, if any faith during the storm.

As we established earlier, we can be confident that God will not forsake us, God is with us in the storms of life. Jesus was present in the actual boat.

The second lesson is that while it feels like God is not answering our prayers, God is still watching us. God is fully aware of our problems and our needs. God also observes us and watches how we handle the situation.

I guess the kind of faith Jesus expected from his disciples was a certain assurance of faith. While they needed to bail the water out of the boat, they should have been confident in the fact that Jesus was with them. So, their attitude should have been: Yes, this is a bad storm, but surely we’re not going to go under. Jesus is right here with us. There is no way God is going to let us perish.

Instead, the disciples panicked and seemed to have believed that they were going to perish in the storm. They didn’t really have faith in Jesus being God’s son, at least not until after Jesus calmed the storm.

When John Wesley, founder of Methodism, encountered a bad storm during a journey across the ocean, he took notice of a group of Christian believers who portrayed the kind of faith that I believe Jesus expected of his disciples. They were confident, they were fearless, they sang hymns of praise to God. John found out that they were Moravians. So impressed was he by their faith that he visited a group of Moravians when he made it back to London. That's where he had the extraordinary "Aldersgate" experience when he felt his heart “strangely warmed.” It changed his faith. It changed his life.

The kind of faith that God is looking for in us is the kind that calmly says: no matter what happens to me, I know God is in my life. One way or another this storm will pass. Whether I live or die, I am secure in the hands of God.

That’s what the author of the song "It’s All Good, even on the Sinking Boat” had in mind and that's what his lyrics express in the refrain:

It’s all good, even on the sinking boat.
Through wind and rain, God is in my life to stay.
For I know in the end He will calm every wind.
At the close of the night I know I’ll be alright; it’s all good!

It's all good, not because life feels good in the dark and stormy moments, but because God is with us and because God is good—all the time. Let’s pray for this kind of faith, this kind of confidence, assurance and trust in God.

God is good . . . all the time! Amen.