Faith over Fear

Fr Michael Rasicci’s homily for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, 06/23/2024, Calvary Episcopal Church, Batavia, IL.

In today’s Gospel (Mark 4: 35-41) Mark tells of a time when Jesus and His disciples were in a boat crossing to the other side of a body of water. This was at night and Jesus was sleeping on cushions on the boat. A great wind and storm came up and the boat was close to being swamped. His disciples woke Jesus up and, immediately, Jesus rebuked the wind and the storm–“Peace, Be still.” Everything was suddenly calm and His disciples responded with awe.

In the first lesson, Samuel tells of David’s defeat of Goliath. David, still a boy, trusted in God and did what he knew how to do. He felled Goliath with a stone from his sling. In the second lesson, Paul tells the Corinthians that the apostles have endured much to share Christ’s teachings with the Corinthians–and that that is what they have been called to do by following Christ and His teachings.

All three lessons deal with having faith in God and following that faith to overcome fear. We, too, need to think about these lessons and to see how we can increase our faith to overcome fear and other challenges in our lives. “Faith over fear” is the common denominator in all of these lessons.

(Readings: 1 Samuel 17: 1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49; Psalm 9:9-20; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41)

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