Sermon Archive

"Stormy Seas", Mark 4:35-41

Date: June 21, 2009, The Third Sunday in Pentecost
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR FATHER AND THE LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.

            So I told myself, do not bring up the Holy Land trip again—but then I started doing the text work for this Sunday’s sermon, went to the commentaries and what did I find? Quite a few talked about the discovery of a Galilee boat from the time of Jesus. In 1989 two Jewish fishermen from the Ginnosar Kibbutz discovered a first century fishing boat in muddy shallows of the Sea of Galilee. The water level was down and they found a boat, twenty six and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide, four and a half feet deep. The boat was made mostly of cedar but it had been patched with whatever was available and probably sunk because it had outlived its usefulness. It was a boat just like the one in which Jesus and the disciples crossed the lake in today’s Gospel. Our tour had not planned to stop at this museum but I asked Nader, our guide, to make it possible for us to do so. We had just crossed the Sea of Galilee and could understand a bit about the winds that whipped this shallow sea; we could not see the mountains ringing the lake because of the wind, the khamsin, which blew dust from the Arabian Desert. The lake is often calm and then the winds pick up suddenly. Boats need to head for shore or be in danger of capsizing. It was a day like that when Jesus and his disciples sailed across to the lake in our text.
            Jesus had been preaching and teaching along the sea on the western, the Jewish side of the lake. The crowds had been coming out to hear Jesus but then he needed to get away. As the text says, “Leaving the crowd behind the disciples took Jesus with them in the board just as he was.” The other side of the lake was Gentile territory. Twice in Mark’s Gospel the disciples leave for Gentile territory and twice storms arise—this time Jesus is sleeping in the back of the boat and in the sixth chapter the disciples encounter heavy headwinds and Jesus walks on the water. It is as if bringing the Gospel to the lands of the Gentiles involves hindering winds and storms. When people heard this Gospel story, they also remembered the story of Jonah.  He refused to go to the Gentiles of Nineveh and a great storm rose on the sea, Jonah was tossed overboard and the sea calmed. In these passages from Mark it is Jesus who stills the wind and the waves, but Jesus, like Jonah, is asleep and seemingly uncaring. Jesus’ disciples say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And Jesus not only rebuked the storm but upbraided the disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still not faith.”   
            I can understand why Jesus was sleeping because I always take a nap on Sunday afternoon after church and I am sure that Jesus was tired after preaching and teaching but it is also clear here that what Jesus is doing here is to demonstrate his power over the created world because he is the world’s creator. The words used by Jesus to still the sea, “Peace, be still,” are the words used by an exorcist commanding the demon to come out. Jesus is casting out the demon of the dangerous storm and saving the lives of his followers. In creation, God made the world out of the primordial chaos. God separated the sea from the land and made a world fit for animals and people to live. It is with the authority of the creator God that Jesus calms the sea and saves his people
            If we look closely at our text, Mark is shaping this story by using the word “great.” The scene begins with a “great windstorm” and Jesus stills the wind so that there is a “great calm,” the disciples recognize Jesus’ power and they have “great awe” or “great fear”—the words are really “they feared with a great fear.” These words echo those of Jonah: God hurls a “great wind” upon the sea and God sends a “great fish” to swallow Jonah and finally Jonah is sent to Nineveh, “the great city.” The power of God that is revealed to the prophet Jonah is seen clearly in Jesus of Nazareth, not only a rabbi, teacher, and prophet, but Jesus is the Son of God.
            Jesus has the power to calm the stormy sea, to help and save. The disciples may have been men of little faith but they would soon see Jesus cast out unclean spirits from a man living among the tombs and send them into the swine. They would see Jesus raise the daughter of Jairus who had died.  They had already seen him heal a paralyzed man who was lowered through a roof. They had seen him heal a man with a withered hand. The signs and wonders confirm that Jesus had power but also that he sought out those who had been marginalized. The faith that Jesus talks about was not just belief in his power to work miracles but the realization that no one is excluded from God’s loving care. Here is what the text can say to us today: we, like Jesus’ disciples are people of little faith, men and women who doubt God’s presence and God’s love. We live our lives as functional atheists thinking that it is up to us that we make our way in the world, provide for our future, do it all on our own. Did you read the article on Shia LeBoef in last week’s Parade magazine? This young man of twenty-three talked about his insecurity and constant need for affirmation. He looked at his troubled life and said there was a God-sized hole that he didn’t know how to fill. Friends, we may or may not recognize the God-sized hole in our own lives. We confess in the Catechism that we cannot of our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. Our own reason or strength can not fill the holes in our lives. Self-reliance only gets us so far. We need to rely upon God’s power. And we are never really in charge. We may think we are in control but we are not—God is.  God’s arms are always lifting us up and God’s spirit is with us in the storms of life and God is stilling our wind and waves.
            Some years ago my family and I saw a Titanic exhibit, china, salvaged goods—and every time I go to my dentist, I see posters about the Titanic. This ship was supposedly unsinkable but on its maiden voyage in 1912 it hit an iceberg, began to take on water and sink into the cold waters of the North Atlantic. The ship’s orchestra knew that the lifeboats could not carry everybody off so they began to play the hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee,” as the ship sank. It was a testimony to faith in the midst of panic and pandemonium—faith in the face of certain death. There was no miracle to save the lives of those people but still they had faith in the love of God. We are reminded that faith does not guarantee us smooth sailing or a calming of the storms of life. There may be the miracle of healing or helping or saving but there is always God’s presence in and through the storms.
            Dr Joseph Sittler was a theologian at the University of Chicago. He wrote, “Being a person of faith is like sailing on perilous seas, and each new test of faith, each instance of senseless suffering or unexplainable hardship can threaten to sink us.” I have always liked the poem, “Footsteps.” The troubled person confronts God: “You promised never to leave me or forsake me but when I was in trouble there was only one set of footprints in the sand.” And we know the story ends with God telling the person, “My child. I would never leave you or forsake you. When you saw only one set of footprints, in your times of trouble, it was then that I carried you.” We need God’s assurance and God’s promise. We need Jesus—not just Jesus’ words or the recording of Jesus’ miracles but his own suffering and death on the cross. When we doubt God’s love for us, we look at Jesus dying for us on the cross. This is the creator of the world dying at the hands of his creation. This is God for us. And Jesus rose again. God has the power to save. Nothing in all creation, not life or death or anything we can imagine, can separate us from God’s power and God’s love in Jesus Christ. Amen.   

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