Scripture Readings for January 8, 2025

1 John 4:11-18, Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13, Mark 6:45-52

Actually I think today’s Psalm sums up the message in today’s readings.

For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
… the lives of the poor he shall save.

God will rescue us if we are willing to ask for help. However, if we don’t see ourselves as poor and needy we don’t ask. We often have a little too much desire to go it alone. We can be driven by fear and anxiety instead of by love.

Mark’s Gospel uses the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee to illustrate the problem. The disciples trying to do what Jesus asked of them are out in the middle of sea, on their own. They are having a tough time because the wind is against them. How often are we trying to do something but the prevailing attitudes, maybe our own habits are against us? Then out of the blue a figure of some kind, a ghost maybe, something they don’t understand is terrifying them. The wind and waves are bad enough but now this unforeseen, inexplicable thing adds to their fear. Amazingly, however, the very thing that was a source of their fear, the unknown, identifies himself and calls out that they don’t have to be afraid. What’s more, when he gets in the boat with them even the wind and waves subside. All that has made their journey difficult is brought under control. Jesus is with them and his presence changes everything.

With a different circumstance 1 John is talking about a similar problem, human fear. Fear caused by doubt, he mentions possible punishment, perhaps it’s loss of respect or friendship or not knowing how things will turn out. In John’s community, some of the people they knew had left and it was unsettling. They worried, perhaps the Spirit of God wasn’t with them anymore? John was able to tell them that the very act of loving one another was a demonstration of God’s presence. What’s more they believed in Jesus and that belief was another marker that God’s Spirit was with them. No need to fear. Wonderfully he says, “There is no fear in love.”

For me that is such a key understanding. It can be a basis for measuring our motivations, for reviewing our choices and evaluating what faces us. Is this about love or is this coming from fear? God is in the love. Fear comes from somewhere else. John stresses over and over, four times in this short section that “God remains in us.” In terms of Mark’s story, Jesus will stay in the boat as we make our journey. We certainly have to keep rowing but we shouldn’t have to fear.