Presbytery met this
past May down at Camp Kintail on the shore of Lake Huron. A massive storm came off of Lake Huron that
Tuesday afternoon. I was riding with the
Owen Sound Rep Elder down HWY21 and all was fine until just south of
Southampton when the wind began to pick up and dark clouds began to gather
over. Just south of Port Elgin we got a
good view of a "Day of the Lord" storm laying it on the Bruce Power
plant. I started to have those
apocalyptic sorts of thoughts that you have when big thunderstorms are putting
it to a nuclear power plant. I think the
plant itself even lost power. Storms are
scary. I couldn’t image what it would have been like to be out on the lake
underneath that storm in a little twelve-seater rowboat. I probably would have panicked to death or in
the very least soiled myself.
Well, it was in such
a storm as that we find this little group of believers, the Twelve Disciples,
the fledgling church, in a small boat with Jesus. It had been a long day and for some unknown reason
Jesus wanted to go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. So they got a boat (but no pony to ride on
the boat) and started out, several other boats accompanied them as well. Jesus takes advantage of the opportunity and
falls asleep on a pillow in the stern of the boat. The disciples soon find that they are more or
less on their own in the middle of a big lake with a Jesus who’s checked out. And wouldn’t you know it, its right then while Jesus seemingly has his guard
down that a great windstorm arose causing monstrous waves to break over into
the boat and it begins to fill.
The way Mark tells
the story we are supposed to think that Creation, or at least the chaotic
unknown elements of Creation, the wind and the sea, have personally decided to
come after the disciples with the intent to destroy them. The wind and the sea and storms often showed
up back then in a particular genre of writing known as apocalyptic of which the
Book of Revelation is one. They
represent the unknown and its destructive powers sort of like what we mean when
saying things come flying at us out of left field. What will the disciples do in such a
massively overwhelmed with fear kind of moment?
Indeed, what can they do?
Now, I said Mark is
telling the story here in such a way as to make it sound like the wind and the
sea are coming after them, like the Creation itself has got it in for
them. I say that because Mark says Jesus
rebuked the wind. He rebuked it. He did not just command it. He rebuked it scolding it as we would someone
who has done something terribly shameful.
We’ve all had days where it
seems the world is out to get us.
Indeed, here it seems the creation is out to get the fledgling
church. The same creation that Paul says
in Romans 8 is groaning in labor pains and eagerly waiting the day when the
children of God will be revealed and it will be set free from the futility of
death. We see here just how deep sin,
our sin, affects the whole universe.
Human sin affects everything to the extent that the creation itself
would try to destroy the children of God who signal its liberation from the
futility of decay to which it has been subjected because of sin, our sin. We like to think of the creation as
non-personal, meaning impersonal and unable to relate. The Bible seems to say otherwise. What that “otherwise” might be is a topic for
another day, but for now it is safe to say that Mark is portraying the Creation
here as out to get the fledgling church, doing something it should not be doing
for which Jesus rebukes it. That's your
interesting thought for the day.
Moving on, the disciples believe they are
going to die. They are utterly powerless
before these chaotic, uncontrollable elements of creation. No technology is going to save them. They are utterly powerless. They are perishing. So they go to the sleeping Jesus with the
complaint, “Teacher, we are perishing
and you don’t seem to care.” I think life gets that way
at times. Things can come out of left
field and the next thing we know life is careening in a half-million different
directions and none of them look safe and we are powerless before it. And then, where is our Lord in the midst of
it…asleep on a pillow? That’s
early church code for enthroned way far off in glory. We, like the Twelve complain, “Jesus, we’re perishing. Don’t you
care?” I think
that is a legitimate complaint.
Well, as a matter of
fact he does care and this is what he does and I have to warn you that the next
couple of verses (actually the whole vignette) are full of code words and
phrases that the early church used to describe its situation and its
beliefs. Jesus comes wide-awake, rebukes
the wind, and calms the sea and it is a great calm not a ripple on the water. That's early church code referring us to the
day Jesus finally returns and puts things to right and also to the fact that he
does now for us in his time and in his way put things right in our lives in a
way that gives us a new start when things otherwise seem to have ended, a way
that causes or learns us to lean on him in faith, a way that creates in us a
deeper trust in him and his steadfast love and faithfulness.
Then he turns to the
disciples saying not, “Why are you so afraid?” But rather, “Why are you so cowardly? Do
you not yet have faith?” Cowardly, Jesus calls them cowardly. The Greek word there isn't the word for
afraid. It is the word for cowardly, deilos. A word was used in the early church for
Christians who renounced faith in Jesus Christ in order to escape persecution,
for turning away from Jesus in the midst of those struggles that test our
faith, for turning away from Jesus rather than going to him when he seems so
obviously asleep on the pillow. I think
what Jesus was expecting from them was their standing firm in the face of the
storm because they knew Jesus was in the boat with them; indeed, high
expectations for so early in their relationship. They did the next best thing and confronted
the sleeping Jesus, something I'm quite prone to do.
After this rebuke to
disciples Mark says that the disciples were filled with great fear or as the
Greek says afraid with great fearful awe.
Fearful awe is also early church code for worship, worship that arises
when we find ourselves utterly depending on Jesus for life come what may. Before they were looking at the storm but
after seeing Jesus and experiencing the calm they worship. This experience taught them to worship in the
face of fear. True worship arises from
us when in the midst of the storms we realize that Jesus really is with us and
our lives really are in his caring hands.
The hymn How Great Thou Art attempts to capture this fearful
awe. That worship is the stilled waters
of what once were howling winds and a raging sea. When it seems the world is out to get us,
indeed like the creation itself is out to get us, we worship. Worship and faith go hand and hand. Standing firm in prayer, waiting, and
worshipping, reminding ourselves who Jesus is and realizing he may be asleep,
but he's still in the boat and will not leave us - that's the way to deal with
worry, anxiety, fear, and faith-trying circumstances.
Worship begins with
this question the disciples asked, “Who
then is this that the wind and the sea obey him?” Who is this Jesus who can
take the most messed up of circumstances and turn them to good for us. Who is this Jesus? The point of this lesson that Jesus took his
disciples out on a stormy sea to learn is that Jesus is himself God. The Jesus we meet by the working of the Holy
Spirit is God and as I like to say there is no other God hidden behind Jesus
who is other than Jesus in the way he is towards us, steadfastly loving and
faithful. God may have to tell us we’re being cowardly at times but even that is meant to move us to
worship, to calm, to peace, to restful assurance of the loving care with which
God regards us, as we are his beloved children.
So, friends, stand firm. Whatever
may come Jesus is still in the boat.
Life quite often feels like all Hell is breaking loose around us and
Jesus, if he’s there, he must be
asleep on a pillow somewhere in the back of the boat. But he’s still in the boat and he is God and he absolutely will not let anything
separate us from the great love he has for us.
Stand firm and remember who he is and stand waiting in fearful awe for
what he is going to do for you in his great love for you.
Mark wrote this
Gospel for a Christian community that was being persecuted for their faith and
in danger of turning away. This passage
as much as any in the Gospel of Mark reflects this. We may find this difficult to relate to for
none of us here is in danger of dying because of our faith in Jesus
Christ. But, the text still has a
message encouraging us to be faithful while faith is being tried, when it seems
Jesus is asleep on a pillow. The trial
of faith that we face today is staying faithful while our faith is not being
overtly tried with the threat of persecution.
This I think is more difficult.
What threatens our Christian faith is a religion of overly individualized
belief amidst a culture of comfort. What’s at stake is the local congregation. There is no such thing as the Christian faith
without the fellowship of believers gathering together to worship, pray, learn,
and serve together. The trial we face is
very subtle, because we believe hook, line, and sinker our culture’s teaching that faith is simply individual belief and one’s own inner experience and the fellowship of believers is not
necessary for that. That’s cowardly. How can we learn
and gain the courage to love one another without each other. Mark wrote his gospel to this group of
perishing Christians who were in danger of doing the “cowardly” thing of renouncing
faith and returning to life as everyone else lives it. He wrote it to get them asking again, “Who is this?” Many churches today are perishing and are
deep down preoccupied with complaints.
To them Jesus seems asleep on the pillow and their hearts are bent
rather to ask him “Don’t you care?” The thing to do instead of letting our hearts
become filled with complaint is to just go ahead and start asking, “Who are you, Lord?” Get preoccupied with that question and you
will find out exactly who Jesus is, that he is God and even the wind and the
sea obey him. Amen.
