Thank God for Storms (Scripture readings: Job 38:1-11, Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32, Mark 4:35-41)
Our reading today describes the familiar story of how Jesus calmed the storm. So let's look at what’s going on in the text of our gospel reading?
On the surface, this is what happens: Jesus has been teaching in parables all day, sitting in a boat because the crowd is pushing in. Evening comes and Jesus says, “Let’s go to the other side” leaving the crowd behind. They set out, experienced fishermen, and head to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus falls asleep in the stern, the part of the boat reserved for people of importance but also the part of the boat that the navigator steers the boat from.
A violent storm erupts with waves that are swamping the boat. Their efforts to bale out the water are futile, more and more water is filling the boat and they are about to capsize. We can imagine how frightening this must have been especially in the dark of night.
They turn to see Jesus sleeping in the stern and are clearly upset in their words, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus wakes up and does not respond to the disciples but simply speaks to the waves and the storm in the same way he spoke to a demon in a possessed man in the previous chapters, “Be quiet, be still” and the storm went from complete chaos to complete calm.
I imagine the water becoming flat as ice reflecting the moon and the stars above. Even the lapping of the water against the boat in the quiet moonlight swaddles the mind with a peaceful comfort.
The water is still in the boat and needs to be baled out; their hearts are still racing; adrenaline is rushing through their veins; and their fear of the storm turns to fear of what Jesus did. When they woke him up, they were probably hoping he would help them bale water out of the boat. They had no expectation that he would be able to control the storm. But Jesus is God of storm and sea, Lord of all creation, of water earth and sky. And the disciples, rather than rejoicing like the seafarers in the Psalm reading today, stand in awe and fear of him.
How has Jesus been teaching his disciples? Through parables. This story seems like yet another parable, but a real life parable that teaches both through experience and through interpretation.
The boat is our existence, so precious, floating on the border of life and death.
The storm can be anything that enters our life that threatens our security: an illness, a divorce, a loss of employment, terrorism, war, arguments in the home, the death of a loved one.
But what about storms... Let us consider. Where do the storms come from? Our Psalm reading says, ”He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.” It would seem that God sent the storms so that the sailors would cry out to God for help. So do the storms in our lives come from God? Are they sent for punishment? Are they sent for a reason? Where did the storms in Job’s life come from?
I believe that storms are a natural part of our existence… it’s part of what happens as the world turns on its axis. We have such a desire though to find meaning though. We want to know why. This can be either a pitfall or an opportunity.
If we assign meaning that attempts to place God in our own perception of justice, we may end up like Job’s friends, telling a suffering soul that their own sin has brought on their pain. In Romans 8 (you know what Ken says about Romans 8… read it every day) in vs. 33 we read, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” We so often seek to assign blame for the tragedies in our lives and the lives of others. Remember how, when the apostles encountered a blind young man, they asked Jesus who had sinned, the young man or his parents, to cause his blindness. Jesus replied that neither had sinned. Seeking to find the evil cause of tragedy can lead to the pitfalls of hypocrisy and self-righteousness.
But if we seek to find good even in our darkest hour, we have the opportunity to grow closer to God and neighbor. Viktor Frankl wrote of his time in the concentration camps, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
I agree with Frankl but would add that it is God’s gift to us to allow us the peace and grace to choose the way of good, even in suffering.
I’ve talked about the boat and the storm. But what of the calm… the calm is the presence of Christ in our boat; the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The calm is the peace that passes all understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Christ. The calm is our surrender of control, surrender of the helm, while remembering our role in still working to bale out the boat.
Our lives
We live in a world in which there is both joy and sorrow. Most of the time we are in between those two extremes. Where do we see ourselves in each of these times?
In Joy, we are like a boat on the water, when it flies along the surface of the water, dancing on the waves as we guide our vessel with sail and rudder. The rush and joy of this moment fills us as we revel in our skill and ability to deftly maneuver along the sea.
In sorrow, tragedy, or fear, our boat is tossed about, thrown this way and that by crashing waves, heading straight for the rocks, or filling with water like the boat in our story today. It is not our skill or ability that we notice in these times but the force of nature bearing down on us. We are in pain, feeling the wind whipping us, tearing our sails. We are bogged down by the water of depression filling our boat. We worry and are filled with anxiety as we see or imagine the rocks of future calamity in the distance.
Joy and sorrow are very salient experiences. They make for the most vivid memories in our lives. But most of the time our boat is either steadily on course or it just floats along, possibly in the doldrums, possibly gently gliding along in a relaxing meandering way, sails down, fishing line out, our feet dangling over the side. We’re on autopilot; neither rejoicing nor crying out in pain; simply going about our daily routine.
Where do we see God in each of these times?
In Joy, at our best we notice that the wind that propels us speedily on our joyride is God’s dance with our sails. But sometimes we ignore the wind except for how exhilarating it feels whipping through our hair as we revel in our own accomplishments.
In time of tragedy, we are all too aware of God… or what we perceive to be God’s absence in our pain and struggle. We ask, “Why me, Lord? Why me?” or “Why my family? Why my friend? Why my child?” We either cry out for God’s help or stamp our feet and demand answers threatening to no longer believe in a God who could treat us or those we love so unjustly. Like Job, we demand an answer from God why!? Times like these… are good times to read the part of Job we read today. (Job 38:1-11 and following)
The time when we notice God the least is when nothing much is going on… when we are going through our daily routines, same stuff, different day. Our lives are neither in peril nor in any particularly joyful state. At those times, the divine, the supernatural, the sacred might seem unrealistic, impractical, or overly emotional.
Do the storms come to wake us up? Is God trying to shake us into consciousness, to draw us out of our doldrums? It is true that our crying out to God is often the result of pain, suffering, or tragedy. But to say that God intends to wake us from our apathy by imposing pain and suffering would be a bit like blaming the victim or imposing our idea of justice on God. I prefer to leave it that good can come of tragedy and whether God caused or didn’t cause it is beyond our understanding. See Job!
There’s a song (Laughing With – Regina Spektor) that I have heard recently that goes like this:
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor
No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke,
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head
you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money
if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've
lost all they got and they don't know what for
No one laughs at God on the day they realize
that the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor
The message of this song is not to accuse people of laughing at God but to point out how easy it is to vacillate between being apathetic about God and desperately needing God. In those steady-as-she-goes times, our attitude toward our God and creator can be such that we can even laugh at jokes that mock or belittle belief in or dependence on God.
But when the storm waves are pouring water into the boat… we cry out, Jesus, Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing!? What a strange thing to cry out. How strange to expect that Christ can do something to help us when we lacked the faith to trust God to see us through before the storms came.
But the beauty of the gospel reading is this… Jesus woke up and spoke to the storm, “Peace! Be Still!” without threatening us, without abandoning us. Christ calls us to have faith by asking why we are afraid. Christ calls us to trust God by seeing us through the storm. Christ calls us to Peace by silencing the demons of doubt, fear, self-blame, and anxiety, “Peace. Be still!” Christ calls us to trust in God by being with us in the boat, by being with us in our suffering.
What do we draw from this story?
What we do know is that we have storms in our lives.
What we don’t know is why there is a storm,
if it was our fault or anyone’s fault,
if God sent the storm for some reason,
if God did not send the storm for any reason,
or really much about how, in the first place,
we got into this boat… in the dead of night… in a storm prone sea.
Honestly, when I look back at my own life, most of my storms have been pretty mild compared to those of others. Today being Fathers Day brings to mind the storm of my father’s long illness and death… long before I was ready to deal with loss in my family. But when I consider the beauty that came in that time of suffering, the blossoming of my father’s faith, the mending of a rift that began in my childhood, and the deepening of our relationship, I see God at work in that storm. So I say, “Thank God for storms.” Because without them, we would never see such beauty, we would never take notice of people, time, and events so precious to our lives. The pain of losing my dad, and a few years later losing my mom, still aches, still cuts deeply especially days like today. But also on days like today, I rejoice in the great memory of my father’s life and legacy. For those of you who are sitting next to your dads, for those of you who can call your father in the next state or even in another country, for those of you who have a mom who did the job of two parents, and for those of you who, like me, can remember your father or father figure, this is a day to thank God for dads as well. And I don’t mean to draw a parallel between storms and dads… although, if memory serves me, there were times…
However, getting back to the gospel lesson, the message of the story is… regardless of the how’s and why’s of the storm, Christ is in our boat. And that is the source of our peace, our assurance that whatever we are facing, we are not facing it alone, no we are facing it with the most powerful ally in the cosmos, the one who with a few words silences storms, clearing the sky for moon and stars to shine silently on the reflecting waters. God’s presence doesn’t always miraculously take our problems away,
but it gives us confidence
and assurance,
and peace
and comfort,
that with Christ with us,
we can weather the storm.
Once again, in Romans 8, Paul writes, “…all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Paul continues to say, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? …Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So be sure of this: If life circumstances seem stormy or even life-threatening, know that God is in control and will give us peace and help guide us through to calm waters. So rest assured and be at peace in the midst of, even if not apart from, your storms, trials, and struggles. When the storms of pain, illness, or tragedy crash against your boat; or the waves of fear and anxiety pour into your mind …swamping your vessel, call out to Christ to silence your storm, to bring calm to the waters.
Amen
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