Was Lack of Faith Rewarded?

In recent years, I have become less certain that I understand the point of the story of Jesus calming the storm. The bible story is well known enough and is repeated in all three gospels. I will use the story as described in Mark 4.35. (click here)

In summary, the disciples are in the boat with Jesus, when a storm brews up. Jesus is asleep, and they wake him up, demanding to know whether He is going to let them die. Jesus calms the storm and criticises them for their lack of faith. 

I am intrigued by a number of points in this story, but I will try to keep to just one of these. This question could be represented by “Were they rewarded for their lack of faith?” After all, by generally panicking, Jesus saved them; If was not the appropriate response, what should their response have been? How would Moses, for example, have reacted if he had been on the boat?

One of the lessons that is typically given from this story is that we should have more faith and trust in God. This is a good lesson. When things get tough, we should turn to God, but not in a desperate panic like the disciples “Are you going to let us die?”

One possible implication of Jesus’ criticism is that the response should have been to wake up Jesus, but in faith.  Would Moses even have bothered to wake up Jesus? The answer based on this line of thinking is “yes”.

I put forward five possible responses, including the response shown by the disciples:

1. Prayer with panic and lack of faith.

This is the response of the disciple and Jesus rebukes them for this. However, it is considerably better than nothing, has the benefit of being generally effective and has plenty of examples in the Old Testament, when the People of Israel “Cried to the Lord”, usually when they were being disciplined or punished for turning away from God.

2. Prayer with a request. This might be described as “I trust you, Lord, but I don’t like it and want to get out of here”

This has the benefit of honesty, even if the starting point is ourselves and what we want. This has a good biblical precedent in Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane “Lord, deliver me. But not my will, but Yours.”

3. Prayer with acceptance. This is trusting and also active. The question “Lord, do you want us to drown?” could be asked as a genuine and neutral question. i.e. “If the answer is yes, then that is fine.”

This is not a common experience among Christians that I know, although not unknown. Also I could not find any good examples of this in the Bible. However, I could imagine that sometimes it is the only way that we can deal with extremely difficult circumstances. 

4. “God, I do not know what is happening. What are you saying to me here? What should my response be?

That God uses difficult circumstances to challenge us and speak to us is probably a generally accepted truth. However again, the Bible does not give us many examples, so we should be cautious about this. The one example that does come to mind is from the “Book of Job”, and explained in the last 4 Chapters.

5. No response, not even a prayer, with complete acceptance. “Lord, I can accept whatever you want and whatever you do to me”. In this scenario, we do not even wake Jesus up, in which case, I guess, we drown. We don’t like this, as it is completely passive.

This is an interesting one and has the appearance of spirituality. It may have its place on some occasions, but examples of this in the Bible are in short supply. The only one that I could think of that supports this is one of the most famous verses from Psalm 23. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” God’s presence is sufficient.

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Note: Other points which are worth some thought are:

- The disciples were experienced sailors. Why were they afraid? Whatever the answer is to this, what is the lesson?

- Did Jesus calm the storm to show his power? What is the purpose of this “Showing off”?

- Is the panic amongst the disciples significant?

- What happened to the boats that accompanied them? (Mark 4.36) (My son-in-law’s point)

He is a Jealous God (and He feels the pain)

Just in case you have been following the overall storyline, this is Key Belief Number 9.

I remember going to church as an 11 or 12 year old. Dragged might have been a better word. Our Sunday morning visit to the 10.30 service and then quickly back home for Sunday lunch, usually with plenty of shouting and screaming, probably from me.

My weekly visits to church service were disconnected from anything else that went on in my life. In fact, at the end of the service, to the extent that I prayed at all, I would say “See you the same time, next week, God”. It seems rather humorous or ridiculous in retrospect.   

But the absurdity of the statement was not at all obvious to me at the time. Actually, I do not know how it could have been obvious. Church was a compulsory event, like Latin and History. They had to be fitted into the diary, and dealt with before I could do the things that I wanted to do, such as watch television or play cricket. It was an obligation, which was dropped at the first opportunity.

And I do not suppose for one moment, that I was unique in this respect. What God made of all this, I have no idea. It could be patronising amusement, indifference or anger at the whole charade. I have no idea whether I ever learned something. I do not remember anything at all from this, although some chants from the “Sung Eucharist” still go through my head, when recalled from deep memory.

The whole thing had about as much to do with God, at least for me, as a game of cricket. God was remote and of no practical relevance. It had no relevance to either of us, I guess.

We could have had a fairly comfortable co-existence, God and I. Going to church on a Sunday these days is no longer “de rigor” from a social point of view, so I am not so sure what the benefit to me would have been. But God would have had another public supporter.

Of course, the whole thing is quite absurd. God has no interest in such a relationship. Neither would another person. “See you next week”, indeed. On the other hand, perhaps it is not so absurd, or at least many people might not feel that it is absurd. Perhaps that is how they live, in so far as God ever has a place in their lives.

It is one of my themes in these blogs that people, to the extent that they think of God at all, think of him as a kind of Father Christmas. He should do nice things generally and in particular do nice things for us. To the extent that he does not do this, then the response is “I could not believe in a God, who …..”

The Bible describes another side to God. He wants us for Himself, full-time, not part-time. The concept is not so strange, although people may find it difficult to conceive this in the context of God. The concept of jealousy in an established relationship, whether in marriage or in a partnership, is well understood and experienced by most adults. Marriage, in particular, is centred on faithfulness, rights and exclusiveness, at least as far as many aspects of the relationship as concerned. No one else, other than the one person in question has these rights.

When this relationship breaks down or one side is let down by the other side, the feelings of jealousy on the other side are easily aroused.

We don’t think of God as being jealous. I am not sure why not, but I can imagine that the word has overtones with which many people are uncomfortable. I described separately in an earlier blog, the thought that God requires us to obey him. Click here for Link.

The act of obedience can be seen in Father / Child relationship; or Employer / Employee relationship. The relationship here may be “I say; you do” and need not involve anything emotional.

But Jealousy is altogether different. God wants us for himself. This is not ownership of a thing, in the sense of “This is my car”, but in the sense of “This is my wife / husband”, together with the emotional pain when this is not returned. God feels the pain.

He wants our hearts. He wants it all. He insists on it. The Old Testament records God’s statement to the people of Israel and is the 2^nd of the 10 Commandments. Exodus20. 4-5. (Click for link). "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God."

It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

Where is the Voice?

In September, last year, I wrote a blog about the Book of Nahum and God’s judgement on the city of Nineveh. See Link  I noted that the judgement was carried out without any additional warning, and was total. I could have added that the instrument of the destruction of Nineveh was an external cause or force, as opposed to internal decline.

In that blog, I concluded that if we are still standing, and have a dispute with God, then there continues to be time to put this right. However, when God says that it is the end, then it is too late.

But how do we know if we have a dispute with God? We do not even think about Him most of the time. In fact, we may deny his existence or if we accept that there is a possibility of his existence, then He is too remote to be of relevance in our daily lives.

If this is the case, it is for God to make the move, to indicate that all is not well. How exactly He might do this could be a subject of another blog. Grumpy’s brother first blog had a crack at this, March last year, entitled the “The CommunicationQuestion” See link.   

The Old Testament also records that He sent His Prophets to tell them that what the people of Israel were doing was bad and why, what was going to happen to them and what they needed to do. What was going to happen to them was usually bad, unless they changed their ways.

Of course, it was usual to ignore these Prophets. They usually dressed strangely, behaved oddly, and told people all kinds of things that were at least inconvenient and what they certainly did not want to do. Therefore in the Old Testament, the usual response was for the People of Israel to imprison them, beat them up or even kill them, after which Israel wondered why their enemies defeated and conquered them. (Those of you who read Deuteronomy 28 will recognise this pattern.) Start at verse 15 and just keep going. See Link  

In my search on Old Testament themes, I was looking around for a prophet in today’s world. I am not thinking of those who tell us that the Eurozone is going to collapse into recession tomorrow and that more money is needed, which at the moment is everyone and every day. Rather the people who say that this is happening because God is speaking to us, and demands something from us, that this or that needs to change in the way we behave towards God and to each other.

Acually there are plenty of people telling that we are doing things wrong, and what we need to do, but few (if any) who connect this to a demand from God and spell out consequences that God will inflict if such changes do not happen.

Having said that, there are plenty of websites and TV channels devoted to Religion generally, and Christianity in particular, including messages of impending disaster. Not all are credible, but more importantly, none are read or watched by those for whom the message is needed. The Prophets of the Old Testament were public and well-known figures. The People of Israel may not have been interested in what they were saying, but they heard it and were in no doubt about what they were saying.

I am not sure if we would recognise these prophets if we were to see and hear them today. How could we? What do they look like? I don’t think that ordinary people listen to the church generally, and if they did, would they hear a clear message. Anyway, the church these days has not found a way of reaching the general public in a credible way, other than through its leaders on some occasions. Even then the message, at least as it is reported, tends to be of a social, rather than spiritual message. (The most recent Queen’s Christmas message was an exception). See Link

Who do I think these modern Prophets might be? Where might they come from? I am into highly speculative territory here. However, to speculate further for a moment, the Old Testament suggests that this would come from a well-known and respected religious organisation e.g. from the senior hierarchy of the Church of England, and would make themselves a nuisance, through persistence and consistency in the clarity of the message.

They would not be popular.

We should Obey Him

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6.4)

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In my blog, “Trusting God”, I had tried to link “Trust and Obey” as one item, but I failed. Nevertheless, in the previous blog, I tried to deal with some aspects of “Trusting God”. In this current blog, I wanted to continue the theme by looking at the some of the meanings of Obedience to God (which, by the way, is Key Belief Number 8).

I found describing this topic more difficult than I had expected. The references to obedience to God are numerous. Furthermore, they do not all point in a single direction and many are either difficult to take at face value in terms of our daily lives, difficult to interpret or difficult to tie up with other references. Whatever they are, we have to make sense of them in our daily lives, in some way.

Jesus appears to set the standard very high. I give three examples.

“Follow me and I will make you Fishers of Men”, caused his disciples to leave what they were doing and to follow Jesus. (Matthew 4.19). [Click for link] 

In Matthew 8.18 (and following) Jesus reminds people what is involved in following Him and this does not seem to be easy either. [Click for link] 

A rich young ruler wanted to obtain eternal life and was told that he needed to give away all he owned. (Mark 10.17) [Click for link]

These references lay importance on some form of personal sacrifice and is a theme emphasised by the some sections of the church.

I will contrast this to some parts of the Old Testament. The Book of Leviticus (third book of the Bible) lays down detailed regulations for the People of Israel concerning ceremonial matters, sacrificing, cleanliness, various rules about food, what can and cannot be eaten and regulations. While perhaps of interest, these are not regarded by the Christian Church, as having any practical significance, but were taken seriously by the people of Israel then, and in the present day in some parts of the Jewish faith.

These are the two ends of obedience: self-sacrifice in following God / Jesus, or an adherence to a set of detailed set of regulations.

Bridging the Gap

In the Old Testament, the prophets make an attempt to bridge this gap or at least give a way of interpreting these. They stated that these are incomplete and that on their own, neither is completely correct. They argued that God’s commands are not difficult to follow and that a correct attitude of the heart towards God is more important than the act itself. They argued that what God required was our hearts. The action itself was not as important as the attitude of our heart towards God.

There are several such references. I will make reference to just two examples. From Hosea (Chap 6.6) [Click for Link].  Hosea argues that God desires mercy and love; the acknowledgement of God, rather than a daily ritual of sacrifice (“burnt offerings”).

Micah argues (in Chap 6.6 to 8) in a similar vein. [Click for link]. He asks a question and gives the answer: “What does the LORD require of you? It is to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

(I have added a short list of other relevant quotes from the Old Testament at the end of this blog.)

Jesus uses a combination of both of these quotes in Matthew 9.13 [Click for link], when He addresses the religious leaders of the day. One of the major themes of the Gospels is Jesus’ dispute with the religious leaders of the day, and their obsessive adherence to rules and regulations, while ignoring the important aspects of their faith, such as love and knowing God.

Jesus has a more rewarding conversation with another religious teacher in Mark 12.28 [Click for link]. Jesus states that the most important commandment is “The Lord, your God, is one God, and you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind and all your strength.” And he adds: “And you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” The teacher agreed and Jesus said that he was not far from the Kingdom of God.

In my opening paragraph, I used the first one of these two commands. God’s first command to his people was always that we should to acknowledge Him in our hearts, as the one true God.

Perhaps this is the heart of Obedience.

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Note: Here are some other relevant Old Testament References.

Isaiah 1.11 to 17 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%201&version=NIV

Jer 7.21 and following  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%207&version=NIV

Amos 5.21 and following  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=amos%205&version=NIV

 Ps 51.17 (sacrifice of a broken heart)  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2051&version=NIV

Personal Encounter with God

In my earlier blogs, I tried to draw a distinction between the different ways in which we can know things, whether knowing is intellectual or personal.

In “Acknowledge What WeAre” (Click for link), I finished on the note that knowing God was like knowing a person and involved a personal encounter. It may start as theoretical knowledge, something interesting, but distant or remote. It may even be knowledge that is nearer to home, but not necessarily affecting anything that we do in our lives.

When we meet someone for the first time, it is not usually possible to remember who spoke to whom first. It doesn’t really matter, unless the circumstances are awkward, embarrassing or contrived in some way. Perhaps they were accidental, like a chance encounter in a lift or on the street. However it is done, normally someone has to go first.

Initially, of course, we must talk to God. I am not sure of all different the reasons why we might do this. It might, at some point in our lives, just seem a very natural thing to do. For example, for those in a family, who go to church, it may just be something that they do as a matter of course.

Alternatively someone might suggest talking to God as an idea or a solution to a situation or problem. For example, faced with a serious problem, such an actual or potential unemployment or an important and difficult decision, a friend might suggest that praying to God for help can at least have no downside. I don’t suppose that this happens very often.   

But what about most cases, where people have no contact with someone who believes in God. In this case, the act of talking to God must either be spontaneous, perhaps self-motivated or motivated by something external.

I can suggest two ways in which this might happen.

When Good Things Happen

Something very good might happen, whether expected, like the birth of a child or an unexpected kindness, a piece of good fortune or an accident or problem avoided, because of someone or something else. In these circumstances, we might feel a sense of thankfulness, even the thought “There is a God, after all”, not in an ironic sense, but genuine gratitude.

These circumstances provide a brief period, if only felt for a fleeting moment or a few hours or even a number of days when God is not hidden from us. It might be like the parting of dark curtains or like the sun briefly appearing in the crack in the clouds. In this moment, God reveals something about himself to us, if only his existence or presence. However, in most cases, we do not consider how we should respond to this and such moments are all too brief and quickly forgotten.

When Bad Things Happen

However, in most cases, we do not recognise God’s hand in these ordinary daily events. To be honest, we generally consider someone a bit mad, if they start to see ordinary good things that happen to them as something from God. Such thoughts are generally regarded as bordering on the superstitious. God may speak gently and kindly to us, and we ignore him.

This therefore leads then into my second idea on how God might speak to us. He is left with more direct methods. I am not talking here about a punishment from God, but ways in which He can get our attention. Perhaps for years, we have had a good and sufficiently successful life. How often have we thanked God for this, or asked Him what we should do in response? The answer most likely is never or at least very rarely. One should reflect on this before complaining that God causes events to occur that we find painful.

In, “Where Would You TurnTo” (Click for link),  I thought that some great need might drive us to look for God’s help. This seems to me a very sensible response by us. This turning to God in a time of trouble is also one of the great themes of the Bible. In moments of extreme need, we are meant to turn to God. Perhaps God has even made these circumstances come about to encourage us to talk to Him. We can become resentful and angry or we can respond like the writer of Psalm 31, who cries to God for help. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2031&version=NIV

Although it seems very harsh, when God takes the carpet from beneath our feet, He will at last have our attention. We cannot have it both ways. We cannot ignore God in the good times and then complain that He has caused things to go wrong.

Trusting God

I have failed. I had made it my aim to condense my Key Beliefs into twelve. (If you go back to my original thinking behind this, Jesus could make do with twelve disciples, so I can do the Key Beliefs in twelve Blogs).

I was doing reasonably well to start with. I began with eight, which quickly were expanded to twelve, where they have remained for some time. But now I have been stuck on “Trust and Obey”. The problem has, in some measure, been caused by a very pretty and meaningful hymn, “Trust and Obey”. (Listen to this on YouTube, if you want on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLJ7Hkx6YwM, so you know what I talking about.)

I set myself the task of writing a Key Belief blog on “Trust and Obey”, and quickly tangled myself in knots. My problem was that the Bible says that they both are important, but rarely links them together. I am sure that they are connected, but in fact, I could not find a linked reference to the two in the New Testament.

This is a puzzle, but never mind. Therefore, I have separated the two, and will leave it to others to prove that I am wrong or if I am correct, point out why this is the case.

I don’t know with which parts of the New Testament that you are familiar, so let me start with one passage that I think is well known. In Matthew 6, Jesus is preaching and tells us to “Consider the birds of the air”. Here is a link to this part of the sermon, which starts at verse 25. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%206.25-34&version=NIV

The heading in this version is “Do not worry”. In this sermon, Jesus us tells us not to worry over matters which are all too familiar to us. (Food, clothing i.e. pretty basic stuff. You might add money, work, family and plenty of similar items).

I would have given this section the title “Trust in God for Basic Stuff”. Perhaps that is too long, but I think that my title is better. It is a positive action, whereas the original is a “negative” and we are not good at “Do Not do this or that…..”  Too much like New Year’s Resolutions, which have a habit of failing by the fourth day at the very latest.

There are plenty of good reasons for worrying about these things, especially at the moment. Jesus knows this, but still tells us not to worry, and we can trust God for them.

We could allow ourselves to be bogged down in all kinds of discussions about exactly what this trusting means. However, I will pass this over in this blog, and direct your attention to another reference to “Trust”. In John 3, Jesus has a long conversation with a religious person, over the nature of physical and spiritual life. The writer, John, in verse 16, expands on this discussion by saying that whoever trusts and believes in Jesus will have eternal life. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3&version=NIV

The Old and New Testament are full of stories, encouragement, even commands to trust God, even (or especially) in times when things look desperate. In Genesis 15, God promises Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky (verse 5).

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+15&version=NIV

It goes on to state that Abraham believed God and because of this, God regarded Abraham as righteous. Abraham’s relationship with God was not dependant on anything he had done in the past, or would do in the future, but because of his trust in God.

Whether the trusting involves “Doing and trusting” or “Waiting and trusting”, is a difficult and important distinction. But whichever it is, trusting God is a central point in our relationship with Him.

In my earlier blog, “Acknowledge What We Are”, I suggested that there are four ways in which we can approach God. One of ways is that we can experience God, if we come to Him as children. As in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer, we acknowledge that He is our Father and “Trusting Him” comes from this relationship.

I will have a crack at “Obey” in a few weeks’ time. I am working on it. In the meantime, you will have to make do with “Trusting”.

Where Do You Turn To?

We were watching “Children in Need” on the BBC last November. This year, it raised over £26m for the 2,500 children’s charities that it supports. One felt overwhelmed at times by the need, sometimes caused by illness, accident or misfortune and on the other side by poverty or social and financial deprivation.

What does one do when unemployment takes its toll? The prospect of unemployment, the event itself or the enduring situation itself destroys not just the financial position of individuals and the family, but their self-confidence and self-esteem.

I do not know where most people turn to when this happens. After all, most people do not have spare properties or large savings to fall back on and a personal and business network which will keep them going. What do most people do in the first few days and weeks after this? There are the inevitable feelings of bitterness and injustice. These can, I expect, be so overwhelming, to be the main and permanent pre-occupation, before a sense of helplessness sets in.

And then there is the search for new work, visiting the job centre, seeing what retraining is available, making sure that all the benefits that can be claimed are claimed, providing that there is enough support and mental energy to do this.

And then there is the cry from nearly everyone that the government, councils, social services, companies, charities should do more, that they should create more jobs and that they should spend more.

I state all this, to make the observation that in most cases, there will be no thought of God in all this. I am assuming that, up to this point, God has not been a part of general life of the individual or that of the family. To the extent that God has been considered in all this, He will now be ignored or blamed – yes – most likely blamed. He has never been thought of at all. Life went on quite happily in the good old days without Him, so why think of Him now.

It seems so laughable to look to God for help. What can He do? Why would He do it anyway?

In an earlier blog, I entertained some ideas on how a personal relationship with God might start. http://colinhawkersother.blogspot.com/2012/01/acknowledge-what-we-are.html. Actually, a further starting point is a good old fashioned cry for help. “God, I need your help. I do not know what to do”.

Strangely, I wonder whether there is any the downside in asking for God’s help. If there is no God, then apart from looking or feeling stupid, nothing has been lost. If this is the case, then it is just a tick in the box. “Tried that; didn’t work”.

The problem actually starts if He is there. What is it that you are asking for? Even if you know what you want (money; a job), what is it be that God wants to give you? What happens if they are not the same? …and there is a very good chance that they will not be the same.

We will ask God for the obvious (nothing wrong with this). I need a job. I need money. I need strength to keep going. I need my friends to help me.

But as well as asking God for these things, what else should we think about? What about the nagging fear that continually exists and lurks in the background, and the lack of confidence that sets in? Why not ask God to help with this?

What about your relationships and friends, from whom you need support?  Why not ask God to help with this? (Do not underestimate the support you need from friends; not necessarily just sympathy, but support and encouragement).

You have no downside in asking God for help. As you might expect from me, as Bible quote is always in order. Here is a link to Psalm 142. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20142&version=NIV

But if you do not ask God, then you will certainly not get His help. You can blame Him and curse Him (I don’t suppose that He cares very much), and perhaps even this is better than ignoring Him. But don’t ignore Him.