Stilling the Storm

Here is my sermon from Sunday (Father's Day). 

Grace, peace and mercy be multiplied to you from God our Father, and the Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

A mother was out walking with her 4 year old daughter. The child picked up something off the ground and started to put it into her mouth. The mother took it away and said “Don’t do that!”

“Why not?” asked the child.

“Because it’s on the ground,” said her mother. “You don’t know where it’s been. It’s dirty, and it’s probably loaded with germs that could make you sick.”

The child looked at her mother with total admiration and said, “Mommy, how do you know all this stuff? You’re so smart.”

The mother said, “All Moms know this stuff. It’s on the Mom’s Test. You have to know it or they don’t let you be a Mom.”

There was silence for a minute or so as the child thought this through. “Oh, I get it,” she said at last. “And if you don’t pass the test you have to be the Daddy?”

I vaguely remember my Mother once saying, “Your Father knows everything, but Mom knows more!”  Happy Father’s Day. All kidding aside, I wish all Fathers a blessed day! I will remember my dad today as the one who taught me to treat others with respect, honor and dignity. For that I am forever grateful.

In our Gospel lesson, the disciples come to know more about who Jesus is, and so do we! We meet up with Jesus and his disciples after a seaside teaching session. The group gets in the boat and heads across the sea. So, why did Jesus and the disciples cross the Sea?  To get to the other side!

Mark 4:35-41On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" ³⁹He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

A storm arises. There is very little that is more terrifying to most people than a storm at sea. And many of the disciples were professional fishermen. They knew how easily even a good boat could capsize or be swamped by the waves. They knew what happened to those on board a boat in this predicament. There would be no way to swim out of the situation, in the dark, in the waves, in the storm. You get swamped in a storm, you drown.

What was Jesus doing? In the middle of the storm with the wind and the waves roaring and the disciples panicking, Jesus was calmly sleeping on a cushion.

The panic stricken disciples shouted to Jesus above the roar of the wind the sound of the waves crashing over the sides of their boat. "Lord, don’t you care that we are about to drown?"  In other words, Hey Jesus, we’re dyin’ here!

Jesus stands up. Without answering their question about whether Jesus cared for them in their time of deep trouble, he demonstrates how much he cares and speaks a word to the wind and the sea: "Be quiet! Be still!" It's calm. Jesus brings peace and calm to the terrified and panic-stricken disciple. Yes, maybe that command was meant for them too!

Notice that Jesus never gets out of the boat. He does abandon his disciples. Notice, too, that the disciples don’t ask for help, just compassion. They don’t realize what Jesus can do. They didn't expect the Jesus they had. He had done healings, sure. He had cured the lame, healed, even on the Sabbath. He had cast out unclean spirits. But such things are nothing compared to a storm, at least not a storm that might disturb a lake crossing at night. I wonder what they would have done had they known what Jesus could do? I wonder what they would have asked him? Could they muster the faith to trust God as Jesus did? We may never know.

What we do know is that when Jesus did what he did, they are taken by awe and wonder, amazement and fear. They did not have answers, just a question; "Who, then, is this, that even the wind and waves obey him?" Who Indeed?

This is not the first time God’s people didn’t comprehend God’s power. The children of God were in the wilderness for 40 years. For 40 years, God provided for them bread from heaven – manna it was called. When they entered into the promised land, the manna was no longer there – now they were to farm the land. They hadn’t farmed in 40 years, so they asked their neighbors, who told them about the gods they worshiped. The children of Israel started to worship these other gods, which made God (Yahweh) very upset – I AM the Lord your God.  You shall have no other gods!

And we hear that in the lesson from Job (38:1-11) – Job complains to God with all that has fallen upon him. God’s response?  “Gird up your loins like a man and let me ask YOU – where were you when I was creating?”

How about us? Do we NOT turn to God because we feel it is outside of His realm of understanding, power, control? When storms arise, it is best to turn to God. Dr Luke Bouman of Valparaiso University writes these words:

“We experience storms in our lives. And even in these storms, Jesus enters and shatters the illusions which give those storms power. Jesus did not sit in judgment over us when the buildings fell on September 11, 2001, instead he suffered with all those who suffered loss. Jesus did not use Katrina to punish New Orleans, but rather entered and died with those who perished there, leading them to new life through muddy baptismal waters.”

I would add that Jesus does not turn his back on the racial tension we have seen rise over the past year, heightened by an appalling act of hatred in the church in Charleston a few days ago, but walks with us in the brokenness of the community, offering a word of peace in the midst of the chaos.

The tragic hateful event in Charleston is heartbreaking and painful. It hits close to home as two of those killed were graduates of one of our Lutheran seminaries. And the young man who killed the nine at a prayer service in at that church is a member of an ELCA congregation – the same church body to which we belong. What do we say about such things?

We denounce the violence and the hatred and the racism. But what more can we do? We hear cries for gun control and guards at the doors of churches or even allowing people to be armed in the church to protect us from such violence. I do not agree this is the answer, and I say that knowing that part of the reason I feel this way is because of how I was raised. I also do not believe this is the heart of the matter.

I believe what we must do is begin with what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The message of the cross is that God is with us, in the midst of the chaos, in the heart of the storms in our lives, our community, our world and offers peace that surpasses understanding, hope that does not disappoint us, and love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things – a love that never ends. This was evident at the courthouse in South Carolina where family members spoke to the one who killed their loved ones and offered a word of forgiveness. Wow, isn’t that powerful?

Again, Luke Bouman writes:

“All of our storms are linked forever to the cross of Christ. All of our storms are less about God using his power to force resolution and more about God forsaking his power to end forever the hold of sin and death on all sides of any debate. And we, for our part, can only shake our heads in awe and wonder at how completely we are loved and grasped by a patient and committed God.

For there will always be storms that rage; some of them rage around us and some of them rage because of us. And Jesus, the risen Lord, forever calmly walks into the midst of the storm to declare its power null in the wake of his resurrection. Humbled, we are encouraged to stop our circling and posturing and join him in death and resurrection, the only true end to our storms.

But we have one thing that the disciples on the lake did not have. We do not wonder who it is that stills our storms with death and resurrection. We know that it is Jesus, and we know that Jesus is the living presence of God in our midst. Just so, we experience him in worship, stilling our raging lives with the calming waters of baptism, gently encouraging us to trust through his word, spoken and remembered, and sending us as calm healers by feeding us at his table. The more we experience Jesus in this way, the more we become the body of Christ, and participate in the death and resurrection ourselves as healing agents in this world. (Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman - Valparaiso University)

Hear this -

•              God does care that we are perishing!

•              Storms still arise

•              God is present – it is always good to have Jesus in your boat!

In response to what God has promised us in Jesus Christ, hear again a question that is asked of parents when their children are baptized and when  our youth are confirmed – “Do you promise to work for justice and peace as a disciple of Jesus?” Our response – “I do and I ask God to help and guide me!”

Knowing that God is with us, in the midst of the storm, and God’s peace is upon us, what are we to do?  Two words – the first from our Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton:

"I urge all of us to spend a day in repentance and mourning. And then we need to get to work. Each of us and all of us need to examine ourselves, our church and our communities. We need to be honest about the reality of racism within us and around us. We need to talk and we need to listen, but we also need to act. No stereotype or racial slur is justified. Speak out against inequity. Look with newly opened eyes at the many subtle and overt ways that we and our communities see people of color as being of less worth. Above all pray – for insight, for forgiveness, for courage."  

The full text of Bishop Eaton's letter can be found HERE

And from St. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome: Romans 12 from Eugene Peterson’s transliteration, “The Message:”

^14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

^17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

^20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

 

As your Pastor, you have my word that here at Epiphany, we WILL seek ways to talk and to listen, and to pray. We also will strive to overcome evil with good.

The gift of Jesus this day is this – PEACE. Receive the gift. As God’s people let us do all we can to share the gift.  The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Amen 

A song from Steven Curtis Chapman in response to the Charleston can be found HERE