Our story invites us to focus on the meaning of faith. What is faith? Perhaps you think that's a strange question for me to ask. Don't we all know the answer? Faith is what we believe as Christians. For some people and for some churches, faith is exactly that: what they believe as Christians. Those folk have all their beliefs very clearly in their minds and written down very clearly in their church doctrine. Anyone who questions those beliefs is a heretic and those who agree with the beliefs are good church members. Often the beliefs are simple, straight forward and said to be biblical. For example: "God created the world 6000 years ago in six days just like it says in the first chapter of Genesis." "Over one million Israelites escaped from Egypt all together in one night, then wandered forty years in the desert before invading and conquering the land of Palestine." "The mother of Jesus was a pure virgin her whole life until the day she died." "Jesus performed great miracles, like the one in our story today, where Jesus controls the wind and the sea."

Such beliefs are then often accompanied by moral precepts which are also absolute: divorce is an unforgivable sin; homosexuality is evil; abortion must never be allowed; et cetera. In the United Church of Canada, we have not held such an absolutist view of faith. That is not to say (as some would say) that we don't have any beliefs in our church. On the contrary, we have plenty of beliefs about God and about morality and there is a fairly good consensus about lots of those beliefs. But I think that we have realized that faith is something much different than simply a list of beliefs that we hold. This is in keeping with the teaching of Jesus, who often points to the faith of a child as an example for all of us to follow. Whatever it is that a child can do so well when it comes to faith is something other than holding a list of precise beliefs. What a child can do better than any of us grownups with regard to faith is to have trust. And trust is that essential component of faith that we sometimes overlook. Faith has to do both with believing and trusting; and trust is the more basic component of the two. Without the activity of developing trust in God and in each other, faith is dead.

We think that children are naive in their inclination to trust. We have to tell them not to talk to strangers. Strangers can not always be trusted. And tragically, acquaintances can not always be trusted either. We know all too well nowadays that it is almost impossible to find people that can be trusted. Can you tell a child to trust her teacher or his family doctor, her grandfather, his church minister? Well, we all know plenty of stories, don't we, where such trust has been destroyed and children abused. Nevertheless, at the same time it is that uncompromised trust of a naive child that is required as the essence of Christian faith. That is an incredibly difficult requirement and so it is no wonder we tend to settle for the next best but inadequate alternative which is paying allegiance to some objective list of beliefs. What can we do then, to develop our faith so it has a greater component of trust?

First, we need to remember the importance of striving for trust in all our relationships. It is more important to be trusting and trustworthy than it is to have the right beliefs. In other words, if we fail to live in trusting relationship with each other, our beliefs count for nothing, our faith is dead. Secondly then, it would be good for us to find ways of increasing the level of trust among us. And that means we have to find ways of being less afraid of each other. Trust is weakest when we are afraid of being hurt. Once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes. Trust is strengthened when we are open and honest with each other. Do I pretend that everything is always fine in my life, or will you let me share those times of pain and despair, the times when God is absent and I would rather die. Will you reject me then or open your arms with love and understanding and deep respect for the vulnerable person at the fragile core of my being? Will you honour my vulnerability and not take advantage? Will we do that for each other and with each other? And will we give each other enough trust and respect to consider the possibility that the other person is actually up to some good? Can we appreciate the way the other person has done something instead of thinking immediately how we could have done it better ourselves? All of this, and more of course has to do with our trust in each other.. and our trust in God. In this respect love and trust are similar and so we might substitute the word trust for the word love in a well known verse of scripture and read: Those who say "I trust God" and do not share trust with each other are liars, for if we do not trust one another whom we can see, we cannot trust God whom we have not seen.

There is no more noble goal in the Christian life than to nourish the trust that we can have in each other and in God. Faith becomes our very most precious possession when it is based on the sort of deep trust that we see in children who are open and honest about who they are. Such faith is to be cherished and nourished in our children and developed within ourselves in our relationship with each other and with God.

One of the questions in our Baptismal service asks, "Will you share your faith with your children and grow with them in faith, hope, and love?" In other words, "Will you nourish the trust that you are called to place in each other and in God?" In the very middle of our United Church Creed we have the core statement of the creed. That statement says simply, "We trust in God." Everything else in the creed revolves around that statement. What does it mean to trust in God? It means that we put our faith and our commitment in the way of life shown to us by Jesus. It means that we put more trust in being there for each other than we put in our insurance company or in our pension plan. Isn't that a radical idea for people living in our society?

The disciples of Jesus in our gospel story today are afraid because they have felt the destructive reality of the storm on the lake. Storms happen in this world and not just at sea. The stock market can crash and take away your pension plan. In certain situations your insurance will let you down. You can be struck with a terminal illness. Lots of disruptive and chaotic things happen to us in our lives. These are the storms that threaten us from time to time. It is our faith in the strong companionship of God's presence and purposes that will help us weather the storms of life. And that faith is meant to reside especially in our hearts. We can hold all kinds of beliefs in our heads, but if we cannot trust with our hearts that life in the way of Christ will make us whole, than our faith is of little value.