Fourth Sunday after Pentecost 20th June 2021

Mark 4: 35–41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But 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?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ 

Reflection:

Have you ever been caught in a storm? Living in this part of Australia I can be fairly confident that we have all got some storm stories to relate to one another.

I think my worst storm experience was out towards Hernani on the other side of Dorrigo. I had my youngest son, who was a teenager, with me and as we drove along we could see this huge big greenie black cloud looming in front of us. Sure enough before we had travelled another few kilometres down it came, the wind blew wild and there was lightening and thunder straight on top of each other. We pulled off the road, I didn’t want to park under a tree but it was frightening to be out in the open…and then it began to hail. The noise was awful, and even though it wasn’t large hail it went on for ages. When it stopped all around was white as white. It looked as if it had been snowing, you couldn't even see the road and the trees were full of hail caught up in the branches. It may have looked beautiful in some ways but it was like we had been through a battle zone, branches were down and leaves were stripped from the trees… 

Storm weather is a force to be reckoned with, and it can leave a trail of devastation in its path. No wonder the disciples on the lake were scared.

In our gospel reading Jesus escapes the pressure of crowds and goes off in a boat with the disciples. Who could blame him? He must have been exhausted, it seemed as if he just went from one crowd to the next. And so, he takes some time out as it were and on the peace of the water, the sea of Galilee, he falls asleep.

The sea of Galilee, sometimes called the sea of Tiberius, was known for fishing, trade and sudden violent storms. The sea is only about 50 meters deep, is 54km in circumference and its location puts it just over 200 meters below sea level. The differences in climate and elevation between this sea and the eastern mountains cause strong wind that could happen quite suddenly and without a lot of warning. Storms of the kind that Jesus calmed as in our reading from Mark, are a common hazard for Galilean fishermen.

So even thought they probably had previously experienced severe storms, when this storm erupts, the disciples panic and turn to Jesus for help. ‘Do you not care that we might perish’ they scream to him in their fear. 

Jesus wakes up and in just a couple of words ‘peace, be still’ he calms the storm and rebukes his disciples for their lack of faith. It seems they still haven’t quite got it!

This story represents a pattern of human behaviour that is often repeated, even today. You see the followers of Jesus panic and call to him when things don't go smoothly and we find Jesus in the midst of the storm, seemingly undaunted, confident in the power allocated to him by the Father, thus ready to act. 

The storm the disciple’s experienced that day was a physical one, but storms that threaten to overcome us may come in other forms. In life there are storms, situations that can cause great anxiety.

Whatever the storm we face there are two options: we could worry and assume that Jesus no longer cares, or we can choose to resist fear and prayerfully put our trust in Him. This doesn’t mean that then all will go as we might desire, but it does mean that we will know that Jesus is with us and his peace will calm our troubled hearts.

The disciples cry for God to come to their rescue when he was already in the boat with them. Little wonder when Jesus woke, and commanded the storm to cease, he spoke not only to the disciples but also down the years to us: Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ Why do you doubt my promise that I will be with you always, even to the end of the age?

The picture of the disciples and Jesus in that tiny boat sums up for me, simply but powerfully, a large slice of what happens in the relationship between God and humankind.

God promises to be with us, then trouble and anxiety strike us and we doubt. I wonder if that is happening to many in our present time with the Covid pandemic still impeding the world and the way we used to be able to freely travel, live and feel safe. In the midst of our present time when things are not quite right and particularly, I think of countries overseas who still suffer even though the news is no longer hardly reporting, there are countries such as India and Nepal that are still affected greatly. I think of people living in fear not just from pandemic but also from the violence of others ever day. Not to mention so many other storms experienced in life.

We cry to God in fear and desperation- where are you?

We forget that God IS with us and that he has never left us.

Last week I spoke about praying Thy Kingdom come. ‘Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.’ As we pray these words, we are inviting God’s rule and will into every part of our world and our lives. Knowing God is trusting God. Knowing God is allowing his will to be done even when we don’t understand why things turn out as they do. I question if God is crying for us, for what we have become and how we as humankind often live with our own needs in the forefront and often forgetting about him. (perhaps this should be one of our daily prayer points- that humankind will turn to our Lord and proclaim him as King of heaven and earth.)

The picture of the disciples in the ‘storm tossed boat’ is both absurd and deeply comforting. Absurd because that for which they cried out: Save us Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us - Jesus - is already there, Jesus is already here. Yet because of their fear and lack of faith they were blind to this reality.

This is also a story of the real world. Life isn’t easy because we live in a flawed world and we are imperfect people. And, stuff happens– difficult stuff, tragic stuff, stuff that knocks us down and threatens to overwhelm us. This might be natural stuff, like the storms in our Gospel text that seem to come from nowhere and are indiscriminate in destruction. We’ve seen that in recent times with the storms in Victoria, floods nearer to home, fires and mouse plagues that have caused massive damage. Or it could be human stuff – the way we mistreat, abuse, oppress one another simply because we can, like the abuse Paul suffered that he recounts in 2 Corinthians 6. Life is full of good and bad- we don’t have to look far, just watch 5 minutes of the evening news to get a small taste of the diversity of life experiences. And a natural human response then, when trauma, anxiety and fear strike us in our lives, is to panic and we cry to God: where are you? 

Again I suggest that we need to remember what even the disciples could not: That God is with us. He has never left us.

Young David, in the story of David and Goliath, knew that God was with him. David knew that he only needed to be himself and God would equip him and strengthen him for the battle he was going to face. He didn’t need the worldly armour that Saul was offering him, he only needed to trust God was with him and also realize the power of God.

When storms strike or giants come in our lives and our well-being is at risk, we could well fear. Or we could be mindful that God does not abandon those to whom He gave life, even to the point of death.

If we cannot sense or experience the presence of God in our storms of anxiety, it doesn’t mean that God is not there. If we can hold within our very spirits the image of a tiny boat tossed on stormy night sea with fearful humans at one end and a calm, powerful Jesus, God with them, only meters away, then our problem can take a different perspective: -

From, O God, where are you? Do something… To, Jesus I am aware that you are with me….

We might then pray, ‘Help me Lord that I may let go of my fear and allow me to trust and rest in you.’

It reminds me of a story in ‘God calling’- the image of a young child who has a tangled ball of wool and brings it to his mother to untangle, then the child runs out to play while mother fixes his problem. Assured that all will be well…Oh if we could all trust in Christ like that.