When the Going Gets Tough

Mark 6:1-13
6th Sunday after Pentecost
Elizabeth M. Deibert
8 July 2012

Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Many of you know that I served as interim pastor of my hometown church for two years before accepting the call to come to Peace in 2005.   When I read scripture from the pulpit, I read from the Bible, given in my father’s memory.   When I proclaimed God’s word, there were some there who remembered when I had no words.  There were others who had gone to school with me from Kindergarten to 12th grade.   There was my mother in the choir, my sixth grade teacher, my jr high basketball coach, an old boyfriend’s mother and sister, my piano teacher, my high school chorus director, and I could go on.   I was now faith leader to those who had taught my Sunday school classes and fed me at youth group, and watched me grow in faith.   It was an interesting time to find my voice, my God-given authority as a pastor among people, most of whom had known me well for the first twenty years of my life.

Yet there is a familiarity that breeds contempt.    There is no one who can cut you down quicker or point out your inconsistencies better than a spouse or sibling who wishes to put you in your place.    In Jesus’ hometown it was no different.    The people who had watched him grow up figured he was just like them.    How could a carpenter’s boy act like the Son of God?    I mean, really, that just Mary’s boy.   “Don’t you remember his brother?   He was an average guy.” So the hometown community rationalizes away all Jesus’ authority.

But the interesting thing about this story is that when Jesus realizes his power has been thwarted by those who don’t believe in him, he then simply passes off his healing power to his disciples and sends them out in twos, multiplying the mission of God.

Let us now ponder what the Spirit is saying to her church, as we read Mark, chapter 6, verses 1 to 13.

Mark 6:1-13

He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

² On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue,

and many who heard him were astounded.

They said, "Where did this man get all this?

What is this wisdom that has been given to him?

What deeds of power are being done by his hands!

³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses

and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?"  

And they took offense at him.

⁴ Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown,

and among their own kin, and in their own house."

⁵ And he could do no deed of power there,

except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.

⁶ And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.

⁷ He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two,

and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

⁸ He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff;

no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;

⁹ but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

¹⁰ He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house,

stay there until you leave the place.

¹¹ If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you,

as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."

¹² So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.

¹³ They cast out many demons,

and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

(New Standard Revised Version)

Have you ever considered that Jesus’ exercise of power is dependent on those around him, believing in it?    Our text tells us that when Jesus’ hometown questions him, he is not able to do much, except a few healings.   All of us function better when people believe in us, when they affirm us, when they trust in us.   But ordinarily when we talk about believing in Jesus, trusting in him, we think of it differently -- that Jesus demands trust as a proof of our loyalty.   But in this story, it is clear that he needs it.   Believing in him is essential to empowering him to do what he is capable of doing.    Could the same be true in your life – that your trust in Christ empowers him to do more in your life and others?   I expect so.

The New Testament only records two occasions where Jesus is amazed.   Once, he is amazed at the faith of the centurian, who believes Jesus can heal his servant from a distance, only by saying the word.    The other instance is in this story, where Jesus is amazed at his hometown friends’ lack of faith.   Faith or lack of faith are what amaze Jesus.   Jesus may not be actually be amazed with us, but if he is, I prayed he is amazed at our faith, not at our lack of faith.   But I fear the latter may be true – that Jesus is shocked at how little faith we have.    Faith must be exercised to grow.    Following Christ is exercise.   Going where he says go.   Doing what he says to do.    All of this takes faith, courage, and dogged determination to keep trying, even when the going gets tough.

In C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan, the Lion King of Narnia, is a Christ figure. Lucy, conversing with Mr. Beaver, is curious about Aslan. She has never seen him, but has heard everyone say that he is "on the move," and anticipates meeting him. "Is he safe?" she asks.   "Who said anything about being safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Course he's not safe, but he's good. He's the King I tell you."   Following Christ is not safe, but it is good.

And Jesus truly is the one "on the move."  In Mark’s high speed Gospel, it is clear he is going places and all who follow him must be ready to go also.   The second part of this passage is the sending of the twelve.   In fact, the word “apostle” means literally “sent ones.”  

There are many people who believe that the reason the Church (big C Church- not Peace and not just the Presbyterian Church) is struggling is that we forgot that we are the sent ones.    We are called to go, to take the Gospel into the world, not wait on the world to come to us.   What are you doing about that?

And don’t miss the fact that when Jesus sent the twelve he told them to travel light.   The Gospels vary on exactly which articles of clothing they should take, but the point is, especially in Mark, that they do not need to carry a lot.   This means they will be depending on others for hospitality, for food, as was customary in their day.    He challenges them not to try to find the most comfortable room in the town, but to stay with whomever offers them a place first in that town.    And then, of course, the most memorable part of the message he gives them is the shaking the dust off your feet when your message is rejected.   This was a practice of pious Jews when leaving a Gentile house, to purify themselves.  Jesus, having been raised as a faithful Jew, thought that the same should apply when people are not open and welcoming to the Gospel.  Move on, rid yourself of any regrets, any bitterness or blemish left with you by their lack of faith.  

For those of us who particularly like to please people, this is a very helpful message.   Some of us have very muddy shoes, from carrying around with us all the negative comments we have received from others.    And it is not a good idea to track the mud from previous relationships into the homes and lives of new friends.   Shake off the dust.   Wipe off the mud.   Rid yourself of all that negativity.   Shake off the Christians who were a bad witness.   Shake off the people who don’t want to give the church a chance.    Shake off the people who are just plain rude.   Don’t be rude back, but let it go.   It does not need to dirty your day.   Shake off all the horrible, hurtful stuff and put on Christ as Paul describes in Colossians 3.   As God’s chosen ones, put on the forgiving love of Christ, along with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  (Col 3:12 NRS)

Gospel sharing cannot happen without Gospel living within you.   You cannot share what you do not have in your life.   So cultivate a life of faithfulness, of trust in the good news of God’s love in Christ.   But even so the Gospel is not easy to share.   Sometimes people are not interested.   Sometimes people misunderstand.   Sometimes people reject us because they have lost trust in the church as institution, and understandably so.   The church has committed some atrocities through the years and we’ve been terribly slow to admit it.  

And don’t forget:  people expect us to be more loving than the average person.  They want to know we were Christians by our love.   We, the Church, need to regain the trust of people if we ever hope to have an effective witness again.   Only if they trust us, will they open their doors and hearts to us.   Only if our lives are a faithful witness we might earn back the trust that the church for years has been losing by hypocrisy, by judgmentalism, by sexual misconduct and by ecclesiastical battles over non-essentials.

But this passage reassures us, that no matter how hard we try to be an effective witness, we will still be rejected sometimes, even as Jesus warned the first twelve who went out.  Jesus, thinking he could not secure the respect of his “homeys,” sent others and empowered them to be witnesses of his goodness by their healing of those in need.    And Jesus explicitly told his followers to travel light.   We live in such a different culture than 1st century early Christianity.   What does it mean for us to travel light as we engage the great commission – going into the world to share good news?   It surely does not mean that we travel with no money and no clothing beyond that on our backs.   But perhaps it means we simplify.   Too much stuff slows us down, encumbers us, makes it more difficult to trust in God to give us each day our daily bread.   We do not have to have every latest and greatest electronic gadget.   We do not have to have a pair of shoes for every outfit.   We do not have to eat out so often.  We could live with fewer cars, a lot less sugar, and smaller houses.   We’ve doubled the average house size in the last fifty years.   Why not begin to live more simply?  

Had the first disciples not been so willing to carry the torch for Jesus, to go where he sent them, to share good news of his power and healing touch, then the church may never have gotten a foothold in the world.   But they did and it did.   They were captivated by a desire to follow, even at great risk and sacrifice.   By the power of the Holy Spirit at work even today, may we too be willing to accept the cost of discipleship and live grace-filled lives of gratitude that commend the gospel to others.

Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly

than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus

to all generations, forever and ever.

The Healing Power of Trust

Mark 5:21-43
5th Sunday, Ordinary Time

Elizabeth M. Deibert
1 July 2012  

You know the scene in the movie, Bruce Almighty, where Bruce is suddenly bombarded by the cascade of voices of people praying to God for help?   Sometimes we wonder, “Does God really care about my illness in the midst of so many major problems in the world?   And does God have the power to make a difference?”   Today’s intertwined stories help us to see that God Incarnate is responsive to our needs and does have the power to heal us.   Having just calmed the storm on the sea, then healed a person severely deranged, the Gerasene demoniac, Jesus keeps moving, surrounded by crowds of people.    He is approached by two people in this story, one is a powerful man, Jairus, a leader in the synagogue, whose daughter is gravely ill.   The other is an unknown, powerless woman, who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years.   In these two stories, we see the boundless compassion of Christ, ready to assist all people in need, no matter their station in life.   We see the enormous power of Christ in his touching and being touched by others that gives them life and healing.   We see the relational integrity and timeliness of Christ, such that he attends to the present crisis of need without failing to fulfill his promise to the next one waiting for his care. 

Most significantly, we see the power of trust in those who are seeking Christ.   If you will just lay your hand on my sick daughter…. If I can just touch his clothes, I will be made well.”   Trust is a huge factor in the power of the healing relationship.  We know this to be true in our relationships with spiritual, mental health, and medical professionals – just as it is true in our relationship with Jesus Christ. 

May the Spirit guide our reading and hearing of this Holy Word, Mark 5:21-43.

²¹When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,

a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.

²² Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and,

when he saw him, fell at his feet ²³ and begged him repeatedly,

"My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her,

so that she may be made well, and live." ²⁴ So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.

²⁵ Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.

²⁶ She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had;

and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

²⁷ She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,

²⁸ for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."

²⁹ Immediately her hemorrhage stopped;

and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

³⁰ Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him,

Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹ And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you;

how can you say, 'Who touched me?'" ³² He looked all around to see who had done it.

³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling,

fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.  ³⁴ He said to her,

"Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

³⁵ While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say,

"Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?"

³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue,

"Do not fear, only believe."

³⁷ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

³⁸ When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion,

people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ When he had entered, he said to them,

"Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping."

⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside,

and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him,

and went in where the child was.

⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum,"

which means, "Little girl, get up!"

⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about

(she was twelve years of age).

At this they were overcome with amazement.

⁴³ He strictly ordered them that no one should know this,

and told them to give her something to eat.

(NRSV)

Richard and I had only a brief scare when Emily was in Korea and had her seizure-like experience in the night.   But it was enough of a scare to make me realize how desperate a parent must feel when a child is gravely ill, like Jairus’ daughter, or like the parents of Leanna Knopik, 16 year old at First Presbyterian, Sarasota.   We’ve been praying for Leanna whose heart was so damaged by a viral infection that she is existing with the help of a heart pump.   I can only begin to imagine the Knopiks desperation and Jairus’ and his wife’s desperation over their sick child.  

Like many people rushing into emergency situations, pleading with the medical personnel, handle my urgent need first.   Please Jesus, come to my house now to heal my daughter.   And Jesus does, but not without getting side-tracked, delayed briefly when he notices that healing power has flowed from him to someone who touched him.   “Who was it?” he wants to know.   “Who touched me?”   And everyone, including the disciples, just want Jesus to acknowledge that any number of people in the crowd have touched him.  Let’s get on to the emergency, to protect the daughter of the very important man.   But Jesus was not interested in anonymous healing experiences.  Jesus was not interested in ignoring the poor to help the wealthy first.  Jesus WAS, despite his hurry, interested in the particular person in the crowd who was so desperate and so full of faith, that she reached out in trust, grabbed Jesus’ robe, and with it took some of his healing power.   She, shocked by the power that had entered her body and stopped her menstrual cramping, fell down before him and told him the whole truth.   I suppose that the whole truth in her case may have been a testimony of twelve years of misery.    Not only did she have a chronic disease, but her disease made her ritually unclean and thereby an outcast in society.   Jesus called her “Daughter” and said your faith has made you well, your trusting has saved you.   Go in peace and be healed of the disease that has plagued you. 

While he was still talking to the woman, the worst fears of Jairus are announced.   His daughter is dead.   Messengers come and tell Jairus to excuse Jesus because he is no longer needed.   It is too late.  But Jesus, apparently able to hear two conversations at once, something Bruce Almighty could not handle, says to Jairus and friends, “Do not be afraid, only trust/believe/have faith.”  

Taking only the three closest disciples - Peter, James, and John – Jesus approaches and challenges those who were there to support the family with their weeping and wailing, a common practice in first century times, to have people whose purpose is to express the grief, to announce it.   There were no newspaper obits or facebook messages or church bells to ring to announce the news.   Professional wailers made it clear that a grief was being observed.   Jesus tells them to hush because he says the child is not dead only sleeping.     They don’t believe him, but he proves his power once again, in this amazing way, by entering the room with parents and inviting the little girl to get up and the parents to feed her. 

A day in the life of Jesus – calming/healing/saving storm-threatened disciples, a mentally ill person, an outcast with a chronic malady, a child who has died.  In each of these stories, fear is overcome by the power of Christ and people learn to put their trust in him.   

If any of you read my faith column in the Bradenton Herald yesterday, I want to make it clearer now than I did in the newspaper that the point of this passage scripture is trust in Jesus Christ, the Healer.   I also want to make it clear that I truly respect all who have a different notion than I regarding the direction our country should go with healthcare.   But as I was studying this passage and listening to the debate that ensued from Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, I could not help but see some connections in the power of trusting for healing even in our modern medical context where God works through professionals who are paid for their work and their expenses.   

I believe that we need to continue to move toward an economically-sound healthcare system which guarantees access and affordability to all its citizens.   I do not think we have reached the goal.  I am not intending to sound partisan, though many of you may hear me that way.   I simply want to see our broken healthcare system changed into something that will be more healing and humane for all people in this country.    

We can have a discussion about the specifics of how to achieve that, because neither the Republicans nor the Democrats ever have all the right pieces to the healthcare puzzle, but my prayer is that we can work together, not against one another.   My hope is that we can continue to build trust into our system of care so that all marginalized people with chronic medical issues and all worried parents with sick children, not to mention senior citizens, the middle class, and the very poor, can receive the healing touch of good, solid, not overly defensive medical care.   Jesus Christ is the Miracle Worker, but we are His hands and His feet.   Let us pray: 

Lord Jesus Christ we pray for a good and fair, bi-partisan process that will make healing healthcare an affordable, sensible, and enduring reality for all in this great land of the free and the brave.   Teach us to respect one another, listen to one another, and be the healing presence of Christ for one another.   Thank you for pouring your power out on your church and for calling us to be your body in the world, broken yet strong with the strength that we gain from merely touching your cloak as we gather to worship you, to be saved/healed, restored to wholeness by you.   We actively put our trust in you, even in dire circumstances, knowing that you make us new people by your love and power.   Amen.

The Wind Ran Out of Breath

Mark 4:35-41
4th Sunday After Pentecost
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Rev. Tricia Dillon-Thomas

Intro

I know I’ve shared this story with some of you; but seeing as it was several years ago, our congregation has doubled, and you’ve probably forgotten anyway, I wanted to share it again.

Clay and I used to live in Sitka, an island in southeast Alaska. Our house was on Galankin Island, which meant we commuted a mile by boat every day to town and then a mile home at night.

When we initially told people we had decided to rent a house on Galankin, folks would ask what kind of boat we had… a 16 foot open aluminum skif—not exactly a rough seas kind of boat...and then usually followed with tantalizing tales of rough waters, flipped boats, how people who had frozen to death in the icy waters. I heard the word green a lot. We were very green.

Clay, never the one to do anything without lots of research, outfitted us with survival suits, which are these huge orange suits that extend your time in the water, should you fall in. Clay would also drill me. At any random moment while I was in the survival suit, he’d come up behind me and shake me, yelling for me to “light the flare,” “blow the whistle” and “call for help” on our waterproof radio. Yes, we Thomas’s know how to have fun!

About 6 months after living on the island we looked out the window and debated whether we should cross. There were mixed seas that day, which meant the ocean swells were coming in from one way, and wind was blowing from another. It often felt like you were at the whim of the sea on these days. I adamantly said we should not cross (I can be kind of a wimp), Clay reasoned we’d already missed work one day that week and convinced me we could make it. So we put on our survival suits and headed down to the dock. I remember my heart pounding. The boat was being violently blown around. After I got into the boat and untied the stern, I had to hold onto the dock with all my strength, so when clay untied the bow, he would have time to jump into the skiff before the winds blew the boat and me away.

We were almost across, trying to keep the boat at an angle, but were being pushed all around, when the boat got caught in a swell, and we were totally out of control. Clay was driving the boat and I was sitting facing him trying to block the spray from his eyes so he could navigate. The way he tells it, a swell lifted the boat up, and the wind somehow got underneath it. Just then another wave came along and slammed the boat back down into the water. The boat had been in the air and apparently so had I. Clay says he saw me floating and thought for sure I was going overboard. Let me tell you, when we safely reached the dock, there has never such a big “I told you so.”

I can’t listen to any story of a boat in a storm without thinking about that frightful day. Today’s lectionary passage comes from Mark 4: 35-41. Let us hear how the Spirit is speaking to her church.

On 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 gospel of Mark is by far my favorite gospel. Because most scholars believe Mark is the first gospel to be written, and that Matthew and Luke both used it as a source for their books, this gospel feels bold to me. I love it’s to the point exactness. There isn’t unnecessary commentary in Mark’s gospel, he means every word he says, and like poetry, a reader can peal away layers of meaning with a small phrase or by the placement of a story.

Our lesson begins, “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”

Jesus and the disciples had spent all that day on the sea as Jesus told parable after parable about the kingdom of heaven. Folks had heard about Jesus’ mighty power and some had come from miles to see him, the miracle worker. I do wonder how disappointed some of them were. Here sat “the great teacher,” a man dressed like a commoner speaking as one with authority not from a throne or mighty terrace, but an old battered boat in the middle of a lake. Not exactly the stuff we expect “the Son of God” to be made of.

Those who came to perhaps see another mighty miracle, instead listened to confusing parables conveying that the most awesome reality in the universe, the kingdom of God, comes in whispers that were “no more outwardly impressive than a seed” and whose message was so vulnerable it “could be snatched away by birds.”[1]

“³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.”

“Just as he was.” Remember, Mark doesn’t waste time with fluff language, so this phrase is intriguing. Like the crowds gathered around him waiting and wanting to see miracles, accepting Jesus “just as he was” was perhaps a challenge for the disciples as well. The Jews had been waiting for lifetimes for a messiah who would be a mighty king. Jesus was about humility and self-sacrifice, he led a life of quiet service to the glory of God. The challenge for the disciples and those gathered on the shore was to look at THIS man and see God.[2] Regardless of the healings Jesus had already done, regardless of his confusing stories, the disciples just couldn’t grasp that this man was the messiah.

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?”

I don’t know if the disciples took swim lessons when they were youngsters, but regardless, there are no lifejackets in the boat and Mark doesn’t tell us what’s happened to the other boats that were once alongside them. But we are told it is dark. Waves are coming out of nowhere, crashing so hard into the boat that it is full of water and about to sink.

As Jesus lay peacefully sleeping with his head on a cushion—I mean the man is exhausted from preaching! Amen?!—the disciples fear for their lives knowing that any wrong move can lead to death. Finally, I’d love to know the conversation that took place here, they yell, “Jesus, is it not a worry to you that we are going down? That we are going to die?”

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?”

We must remember that “water held unfathomable mystery for the ancients; it was forceful and unknowable and entirely unpredictable.”[3] Think to the stories of Noah and the flood, to the Exodus when God held the waters back from the Israelites as they were being pursued by Pharaoh’s army, Jonah and the seas that force him overboard into the belly of the big fish…or any of our psalms including today’s call to worship that name God as mighty ruler of the seas. The only one who could control this symbol of chaos was the ruler of the cosmos, Lord over all.[4] In the Gospel of Mark, while the identity of Jesus as Messiah is boldly pronounced to outsiders (like the man with the demonic spirit), it is always a whisper to the disciples. Remember, “just as he was”? They never quite get who Jesus is. So when they ask, “Who then is this, that even the cosmos listen to him,” they know they have somehow been in the presence of God. If God is the controller of chaos, then certainly Jesus controlling the waters here is a clear sign that he is the Messiah, God with us, and it is then that they are truly filled with awe and fear.

Another thing I love about this gospel is how Mark intentionally and mysteriously patterns and sandwiches his stories. It adds more of that layered meaning I mentioned earlier. Our story comes smack at the end of a string of parables (the parables of the sower, growing seed, and Mustard seed) and at the beginning of a series of miracles (the healing of the Gerasene Demoniac, the woman with the heavy flow, and the girl restored to life).[5]

One scholar puts it this way: Mark 4 is surrounded by a remarkable set of contrasts. One the one hand, the kingdom of God, though powerful, looks weak to those who can only look at it with secular vision. On the other hand, Jesus no sooner says this than he performs miracles, which reveal his cosmic Lordship. This simple carpenter’s son somehow is able to tame creation, root out the demonic, conquer death, rout disease, feed the hungry.” [6]

And yet, they still shout to Jesus, fearful of perishing as He peacefully sleeps knowing and trusting in the Father. Why didn’t they get it? Why did they still not know who Jesus was?

Why don’t we?

Our own Richard Diebert has written a commentary on Mark, and remarks that the rebuking of the disciples from Jesus isn’t about their fear; it’s about their lack of confidence. He says, “Mark forces the question: Are you convinced yet, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, [nor principalities] nor height, nor depth, nor any other chaos threatening creation can separate you from God? Or have you still no faith?” [7]

After the disciples witness Jesus bring an instant calm to the storm, there can be no confusion. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is God with us, and God is with us in the storm.

Eugene Peterson in The Message translates verse 39 “(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.”) to :”he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass.

The wind ran out of breath. It lost all its power.

The presence of Jesus in that boat is not merely about a God who shares our predicament amid the storms of life. This isn’t a strategy for coping—that’s just not enough. The presence of Jesus in that boat is about the power of Jesus, who can do something about the storms, who offers us a promise of salvation[8] just “as he was.”

With Jesus, the wind runs out of breath.

This last week I was with our youth and advisors in Montreat as we discerned what it means to be “perfectly imperfect.” We are some broken people. We have suffered loss. We are fearful about our future, we aren’t sure in the world or in ourselves. We give the wind a mighty power.

But I’m reminded by something my mother-in-law says. She says everyone is walking wounded. Do you know one night at our devotion as we gathered I asked for them to raise their hand if they felt somehow broken. Do you know not a single hand stayed down? And I imagine that if I asked the same question here, most of you would also raise your hands.

I have a friend whose teenage daughter was in ICU and who needed to have a procedure done that could risk her life, but if wasn’t done was even more of a risk. My friend stalled going in and talking to her daughter because she didn’t know what to say, and she was scared what she did say would be the last words her daughter heard.  When she finally went into the hospital room her words were this: I love you and God loves you.

She made the choice to trust in the Lord with all her heart and all her soul and all her might. She trusted in the resurrection and stood firm in the hope that no matter what the outcome nothing could separate her daughter from the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

She allowed Jesus to be in the boat with her and giving him the power to take the breath out of the wind.

Friends, so long as Jesus is in the boat, during calm and in the squalls we have hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ…that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, [nor principalities] nor height, nor depth, nor any other chaos threatening creation can separate us from God.

Let us pray:

And so Jesus, please come now. We invite you right into our boat. Will you please give us your very own peace? It's so much stronger than the storms of this world and the storms of our hearts. Please come to every anxious mind and make us still. Through every scary experience, through every hard challenge, keep us with you till the night is over and the storms have passed and your morning comes again. In your name we ask it. Amen.[9]

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[1] Van Hern, Roger E (ed), The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, Eerdmans Publishing (Gran Rapids: 2001), 206-9.

[2] Ibid, 208-9.

[3] Deibert, Richard, Interpretation Bible Studies: Mark, Geneva Press (Louisville: 1999), 46.

[4] Ched Meyers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus, Orbis Books (Maryknoll:1988) 194-7.

[5] Van Hern, Roger E (Ed), 207.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Deibert, Richard, Interpretation Bible Studies: Mark, Geneva Press (Louisville: 1999) 45.

[8] Brueggemann, Cousar, Gaventa, Newsome, eds, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year B, Westminster/John Knox Press (Louisville: 1993), 401.

[9] http://day1.org/1110-a_word_for_the_wind_and_the_waves