Our sermon this morning is from guest preacher Rev. Dawn Daloyo, Director of Pastoral and Congregational Care for the Pacific Northwest Conference.
A Less-Anxious Presence
Mark 4:35-41
May 10, 2020 – Fifth Sunday in Easter
Hello Valley Covenant! It’s good to be with you virtually, though I wish so much it was in person. My family brings you greetings. We are all well and have each found our corners of the house to do our work from home. While Alex misses life at UO and Sage will miss her 8th grade graduation, they are doing remarkably well. And, Carlos and I are thankful we can work from home too. My work in this season and always is to support the health and growth of our pastors and Covenant Churches. So, today I am grateful to be able to bring this message. May God use it to encourage and bless His people. The Lord be with you!
I’d like to begin by reading the Gospel text: Mark 4:35-41
It started out as a simple suggestion: We’re already in the boat, let’s head to the other side. A mundane request; an ordinary day. But, before they reached their goal, their destination, the disciples and Jesus found themselves in the midst of a freakish and fierce storm.
Storms. We know about those, don’t we? The adjectives used to describe this time in history are just as tired as we are: Unprecedented. Historic. Unparalleled. Exceptional. Novel.
If I were preaching this sermon prior to March, I would have provided a list of examples of what storms might look like in our lives. But, given our current pandemic, we are all familiar. Too familiar. We are all experiencing this global “coronavirus” storm…to one degree or another.
For some of us, this storm is an inconvenience, perhaps throwing us off course, or knocking us around a bit. For others this storm threatens to throw us off the boat altogether. For all, regardless, it is a swirling, mysterious, heightened challenge that disrupts our sense of equilibrium and harmony and leaves us crazily seeking and longing for stability and security.
And, I want to affirm that in the midst of storms – any storms, this is a normal response. Anxiety – that feeling of worry or dis-ease – is an automatic and natural response to disequilibrium…to our boat being rocked or feeling out of control. And that’s important to know, so that we don’t feel guilty about it or seek to dismiss it or judge others for feeling on edge.
I know in our Christian circles we like to quote the passage in Philippians that says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” This is a beautiful invitation to bring anything we are experiencing to God in prayer. I don’t know about you, though, but being told “Don’t be anxious”, or just telling myself “Don’t be anxious” doesn’t exactly take the anxiety away. I have not found some quick on/off switch for anxiety. Yes, prayer works, but not as a magic trick. I find anxiety can have a pretty tight grip, and it is only through active dialogue in the context of relationship with God, that I can let go and anxiety be diffused. I’ll say more about that later. For now, don’t feel bad if you can’t just “turn off” the anxiety; and let’s explore this topic together.
To do so, we will turn to Scripture and the Living Word to help us understand how to navigate the anxiety brought about by storms. The storm passage in Mark’s Gospel is going to offer us an image to reflect upon. But, I’m going to call on your ability to use your imagination and be creative with the scene.
The disciples were obviously quite anxious. Remember that a good number of these disciples were fishermen. They’ve no doubt experienced many storms. But this must have been a whopper of a storm, for even they were scared. The passage says, “the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.” They felt the boat could go under at any point and their lives were in jeopardy. They were understandably anxious, which is appropriate given the life-threatening situation.
Let me repeat: Being anxious is a natural response; it is part of our fight, flight or freeze brain mechanism. I’m going to give a very rudimentary description of our brain functioning when it comes to anxiety (those with training in this area please forgive me). I want you to think about two parts of our brain:
The lower, primitive brain is responsible for those reflexive – fight, flight, or freeze – reactions. When a storm occurs, or any trigger of danger that produces that anxious response, our lower brain is activated and our automated system kicks in to find safety and stability. It is the part of our brain that all animals have. This part of the brain is concerned with self-preservation and the need to survive. It comes in handy in emergency situations.
However, what all humans have is a well-developed cerebral cortex, which allows for higher brain functioning. The thinking part of our brain, we might say. This part of the brain is unique to humans and is what allows us to step back from an experience and observe it. Animals are bound by instincts, but we can ruminate, observe, consider, reflect, assess. In other words, think and respond thoughtfully. This part of the brain can regulate the response of the lower brain.
So, while anxiety is an automatic response, we also have the capacity to understand the anxiety and make decisions about it. We can decide how best to respond, if we are willing to do the work and not allow our lower brain to dominate reactive behavior. And, at this point, let me offer an important caveat: there are some whose brain chemistry makes what I am saying challenging if not impossible. If you suffer from chronic anxiety and/or depression, get help. By God’s grace, there are medical and mental health professionals who can assist. What I am addressing today is the natural anxiety we all may experience during stressful or “unprecedented” times in our lives.
Back to the boat in Mark 4, I try to picture the scene and imagine what it might have been like between the lines of the story we have. We don’t know how long they were out there or how long it took for the storm to build up. But it was enough time for Jesus to fall asleep – a deep sleep apparently. And so, I wonder about the group dynamic in the boat. What happened between the buildup of the storm and the final decision to wake Jesus? Why did they wait until it was that bad – to the point where they concluded that Jesus must not care about them all drowning? When a storm hits, the lower brain jumps to action and the ensuing anxiety can block pre-frontal cortex thinking. Self-preservation mode kicks in and we become defensive. And this can result in all sorts of reactions such as criticism, blaming and judging.
Another interesting dynamic about anxiety is that not only can an individual be anxious, but so can a people. Within a group or community, anxiety can be contagious. Anxiety and fear are emotions that can act like viruses. They propagate and spread throughout a system, such as a family, work community, or church. Each of these groups is an emotional system unto itself. You just need a few anxious people to create a stir for the rest of the system to become anxious.
I see this happen all the time in our family. When I am anxious say about a situation, I am looking to find order or peace in my life. I’m trying to soothe the anxiety. So, I need the house to be clean. I end up being frustrated with messes the kids leave and ordering the kids around to clean, in which case, they become upset at me. Then I unload all my worries and frustrations on Carlos and he picks up the anxiety and starts to carry it around as well. Soon, he is upset with the kids, but only because I was first upset. I may even feel better temporarily because I have a clean house and now Carlos is carrying the worry for me. But, it won’t last because the root of the anxiety merely got covered over, not resolved.
Now expand that contagious dynamic to a workplace or a church or even our nation. This is an anxious time. Besides the very real pathogen that is spreading around us, there is a societal pathogen, an anxiety that is in the air that is easily amplified.
Again, anxiety can be a normal response to all storms of life – whether conflicts, painful losses, changes or disruptions to our lives – but left unexamined and unchecked the anxiety “oozes” out in unhealthy behaviors or reactions which can affect and infect others. Also, while it has a preservation role, anxiety it is not meant to be the normal or chronic state in which we live. So, we need to learn what to do with that automatic response.
In the boat, in the midst of the storm, the disciples were fearing for their lives. They were in a precarious situation and understandably anxious. I want you to use your imagination [close your eyes if it helps]. Picture the boat. Imagine it being tossed about. Imagine the waves whipping over the sides and the frantic and fretting going on inside – trying to save themselves. Do you have the image? Can you feel the emotion and panic? That your life is in danger? That you don’t have control? Maybe that’s not so hard to imagine right now.
Now look at Jesus. Imagine him – asleep in the midst of this. It’s a crazy picture, right? But, what does it tell you about Jesus? [pause] He is the calm in the midst of the storm. He is so calm, that he can sleep. Jesus gives us a picture of who He is and what it looks like to be calm and not anxious in the midst of life’s storm. And, no, I’m not saying we should sleep through the storms of life – as tempting as that can be! Nor is God sleeping through all our storms either. But, praise be to our Lord who is not disoriented or confused or thrown off course by such storms!
What I find really helpful is to put myself in the story. I know I am like the disciples: anxious, fretting, panicking – and there are good reasons for that. But then I see Jesus…calm, peaceful, and present. Then I imagine myself going over and sitting next to Jesus and watching the storm or experiencing the storm from his perspective. What does that feel like? What is it like to imagine Jesus’ calm presence calming my experience? I think about how he is a rock and a refuge; an ever-present help in times of trouble. And, then I ask myself, will I wake Jesus? Will I ask for help from the One who has the power to calm the storms in my life…or calm me in the midst of storms?
Maybe this is new to you, but I’m a visual person and it helps me. It helps me to remember that Jesus has this. He’s not freaking out. It’s good to pray and ask him for help; to choose to remain near, sit for a while, release my grief or worry to His calming presence.
Jesus is the perfect non-anxious presence. An important teaching of family systems theory is that when one person in a group or family becomes less anxious or is a calming presence, it helps changes the energy of the rest of the family. Because not only is anxiety contagious within a church or family or community, but so can peace and reflective calm be as well. It just takes a little more effort to get there: to move from lower brain reactivity to upper brain thoughtfulness, or to move from the frantic eye of the storm to the seat next to Jesus in the boat.
Well, as we know, the disciples did finally wake Jesus, out of desperation and exasperation it seems. Nevertheless, they then had front row seats to witness Jesus’s miraculous intervention. Their fear of the storm and of dying turned into a different “fear” or a better translation, an “awe” or “fearful reverence” of Jesus as Lord, One who has command over this anxiety-producing situation.
I know that I will never truly be a non-anxious person. I’m not sure outside of Jesus that exists. But, I can continue growing into a less anxious person. That is the direction I desire to head. I desire to be aware of my anxiety: the symptoms and its side-effects -as in, how it affects those at my side, whether it be family or community. Am I letting the anxiety take the lead? Am I helping spread the anxiety contagion to others? Or, can I recognize the signs, acknowledge the very real storm and choose to get help?
What occurs to me, and I want to express to you, is that in our anxious times, it is us – the Church, the Body and presence of Christ in this world – who can be in some small dose the rock and refuge and example of God’s peace in our world. We are the community that can incarnate to some degree the non-anxious presence of Christ. I would love to witness followers of Christ saying, “I hear you world. I hear your fear and see your anxiety. I feel it too! However, I will not raise it, nor add to it, nor will I infect others with it.” Instead I will cling to my Rock and Refuge. I know the One who is not troubled by these storms, but can assist us through it.
Returning to Philippians, where it says, ““Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”…I doubt Paul was very aware of the brain science around anxiety when he wrote that. But, he did know that anxiety wasn’t meant to be where we lived. I wonder if the admonition isn’t so much to never feel anxious, but rather, don’t let it take residence; don’t stay there. Rather, take these concerns to Jesus. Make sure we are taking residence with Him.
Church, this is our call during these anxious times. Each of us personally has a choice in how we respond to these triggers of anxiety – whether personal or in our community or things we hear in the media. We are left with the questions: What kind of presence will we be? And to Whom will we cling in the midst of it? I really want to get better at recognizing my anxiety and the triggers, and choosing to find a seat next to Jesus’ non- anxious presence in the boat. I hope you will join me in this.
Amen.