June 23, 2024

Sermon title:  “Peace! Be Still!”

Scripture:  Mark 4:35-41

(Other lectionary suggestions include I Samuel 17:32-49, Psalm 9:9-20, and II Corinthians 6:1-13.)

Mark 4:35-41

Jesus Stills a Storm

35On 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?"

          The first suggestion from the lectionary this morning is about David and Goliath. But I figured you knew that one pretty well, so I went with the sleeping Jesus in the boat, instead! In all seriousness, there is a lot in this short passage. The Hebrews always feared the sea. You know:  that's where sea monsters come from! And yet, here is Jesus, zonked out on a pillow as the storm starts coming up! (To be clear, some of the disciples were fishermen - but I'll bet you the rest of them couldn't swim!) What the author of Mark knows is that his listeners and readers remembered the Jonah story:  true, he tried to get away from what God wanted him to do, and a storm arose. Jonah said to throw HIM overboard and the storm would subside. (It did!) The good Hebrews of Jesus’ day also remembered the story of the Exodus, and how God made a way through the sea (with the help of Charlton Heston! I mean, MOSES!). Or go all the way back to the first few pages of Genesis:  God separated the sea from the dry land. Says scholar N. T. Wright, “The sea came to symbolize....the dark power of evil, threatening to destroy God's good creation, God's people, God's purposes.” No wonder the disciples were scared to death!

          What I like is the last line:  “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” The Gospel of Mark doesn't take on the question of the divinity of Christ, but he's dancing all around that question here! He doesn't say Jesus is God, but when the disciples say, “Who is this?,” Mark is getting very close! Who indeed calms the storm in Genesis and makes the waters obey his word? The Lord himself! No, Mark doesn't tackle the question.....but he's making us think about it!

          Back to what Professor Wright says:  “The forces of evil are roused, angry, and threatening, but Jesus is so confident of God's presence and power that he can fall asleep on a pillow.” The disciples wake him up, saying, “Don't you care that we're about to go to the bottom of the sea?” But Jesus reverses the question:  “Where is your faith?”

          Aren't we ALL in the boat with Jesus? Isn't this your story and my story, regardless of whether we like it? “Wind and storms will come your way,” says N. T. Wright. “The power of evil was broken on the cross and in the empty tomb, but like people who have lost their cause and are now angry, that power has a shrill malevolence about it. Christians - the church as a whole, local churches here and there, individual Christians - can get hurt or even killed as a result. Mark's first readers probably knew that better than most of us. They would have identified easily with the frightened men in the boat. That's Mark's invitation to all of us:  OK, go on, wake Jesus up, pray to him in your fear and anger. And don't be surprised when he turns to you, as the storm subsides in the background, and asks when you're going to get some real faith.” Amen.

Pastor Skip