At the United Methodist church that I attended this morning, the
pastor preached about faith, in light of the recent Charleston tragedy.
Our Scripture text was Mark 4:35-41, in which the disciples are
fretting and panicking on a boat on account of a storm, and they wake
Jesus up because they want him to care. Jesus then rebukes the storm,
and it goes away. Jesus asks his disciples why they were afraid—-do
they still have no faith?
The pastor was talking about how things were miserable for a lot of
people in those days, and many resigned themselves to that misery.
Jesus, however, was proclaiming a different reality, the Kingdom of God,
as he was healing people and helping the poor. The disciples should
have been recognizing that God was at work all around them, but they had
a hard time letting go of their resignation to misery. Faith,
according to the pastor, entailed recognizing God’s work, but also
realizing that God has empowered them to change the world. The pastor
said that our little interactions can have ripple effects that can
change the world. Regarding the recent Charleston tragedy, the pastor
said that many people have come to the point where they just accept that
this world is a violent place, and that shootings will occur, but she
was challenging that resignation. She also said that faith entails
accepting some loss of freedom for the sake of the public safety, and
she was probably referring to gun control there.
I can probably comment on this sermon, as I do with sermons that I
hear. But I will just let my summary of her sermon stand. As I write
this, I am watching ABC This Week, which I taped while I was
away at church. Even pundits and newscasters who would probably be
stereotyped as secular people are amazed and moved by the display of
faith, forgiveness, and yet honesty on the part of the church in
Charleston that was victimized last week. Is that an example of what my
pastor talked about this morning: People living their faith with the
power of God, and that sending ripple effects throughout the world?