June 21 - Pentecost + 3

Jesus Stills the Storm
Mark 4:35-41
Pentecost + 3 – June 21, 2009

It's been a long few days for Jesus and the disciples as we join them in the gospel story this morning. Jesus has had a full calendar. It's been almost non-stop since he started his public ministry. He's gone from town to town, healing and casting out unclean spirits, and preaching and teaching. Everywhere Jesus goes, people follow him, crowds so big & so anxious to see him, to receive wholeness and healing, that their presence threatens to crush him. Last Sunday, we heard about how Jesus has spent this past day, teaching the crowds, telling them parables about the kingdom of God. But now, evening has come, and Jesus says, “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” (v. 36). Everybody piled in, perhaps all a little relieved, glad to leave the crowds with all of their demands behind, thankful for a little downtime at the end of the day, ready for a nice leisurely sail across the sea.

Except, as it turns out, this is no pleasure cruise. Somewhere along the way, Mark says a great windstorm arose, and waves were beating into the boat, swamping it, threatening to sink them. Now remember, at least some of the men in the boat with Jesus were fishermen. Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John away from their nets to follow him, but the sea was in their blood. Sailing was part of who they were, it was what they did. Surely they have been in storms before. Surely they must have some idea of what to do in a storm.

But it seems there was something different about this storm, because before long, the disciples are panicking. The storm is overwhelming, and they don't know what to do, and when they look around them, there's Jesus – sleeping on a cushion, so sound asleep that they have to wake him up, and they say, “Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?” Teacher, how can you sleep at a time like this?! Don't you see what's going on? Don't you know that our boat is sinking? Don't you care? Wake up! We need you!"

You ever felt that way? You're living your life, going about business as usual, thinking you've got it all under control, and all of a sudden, some storm blows up out of nowhere and swamps you. And all you can do is bail out the boat and wonder how you're ever gonna make it to the other side, as you fight against the wind and waves.

The waves of worry and anxiety come crashing in on our boats from all directions. A big wave lately, a tidal wave it feels like, is money. People are losing their jobs, or are worried about losing them. People are taking pay cuts or getting that extra week of unpaid vacation. There's worry about home values and mortgages and bankruptcies of big car businesses. There's concern over the viability of our banks. Yeah, those waves of money concerns have been beating into our boats pretty fiercely for a while now, and we're not sure when that particular storm is gonna abate.

But even when the economy is doing okay, there are other sources of wind and waves: health and medical problems, worry about kids or grandkids, or parents or grandparents, there are relationships in our lives that are strained and broken, or maybe it's lack of close relationships and support, a feeling of loneliness and being alone. Or maybe it's just the crazy schedules so many of us keep, running from one thing to another, over-scheduled, over-worked, overwhelmed.

And sometimes in the middle of all this, when we feel like we're all alone, that we are bailing out the boat and battling the waves all by ourselves, we want to say, “Wake up, Jesus! I'm drowning here! Don't you care that I'm perishing?!”

When the disciples ask that question in the gospel this morning, we can't tell from the English, but in the Greek that it was originally written in, the way they ask the question indicates that they expect him to answer, “Yes, of course I care!” And what he does next proves that he cares – Jesus wakes up, and immediately he stills the storm. He has the power to rebuke the wind, just as he had rebuked those unclean spirits a few chapters before. Jesus has the power to bring order out of the chaos of the storm, just as God did when speaking the world into existence, when the earth was a formless void and a wind from God swept over the waters, and God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. Jesus rebukes the wind and speaks to the sea: “Peace! Be still!” - and the wind ceased and there was a dead calm.

You know, we were talking about this passage at our Bible study the other night, and we noticed a few things about this story. One is that Jesus was always with them in the boat. He was with them through the storm. True, his reaction was completely different – he was at peace despite the weather and the waves, and that could be a whole other sermon all on its own! But the point I want us to focus on this morning is that Jesus never left them. At the beginning of this story, Jesus says, “Let us go across to the other side.” He doesn't put the disciples in the boat and push them off the shore, wishing them good luck while he stays safe on dry land. Jesus is the one who invites them into the boat – and he stays with them the whole time. And when the storm gets to be too much for them and they cry out for help, he's there. He doesn't leave them to fend for themselves. He helps them in their need. As the psalm says, which I commend to your reading, by the way, he “delivered them from their distress. [He] stilled the storm to a whisper and silenced the waves of the sea.”

But just because the storm was over didn't mean that they were done with the journey. They still had to make it to the other side, because Jesus had work for them to do there. This isn't just a random boat trip – they are on a mission to carry Jesus to a new people in a new place, so that he may bring hope and healing there too. So, despite the fears that still remain (the way I read the story), the disciples have to press on. They have to keep going until they reach their destination, because that's what Jesus has called them to do.

It's the same for us. The storms of life will surely come. Following Jesus is no guarantee of an easy, storm-free life. But the promise for us is that Jesus is the one who has invited us into the boat. He has given us a mission, to carry Jesus and his life-giving, life-restoring word to new people in new places. This life of faith is not always easy, but when the seas get rough and the wind blows, we know that Jesus is in the same boat. He won't abandon us to the wind and the waves. He's right there with us, able to still our storms.

And when the storm has subsided, Jesus calls us to continue on, to trust him enough to risk the next storm, to brave the sea of life, trusting that we are with the One who has the power to say, “Peace! Be still,” into the chaos of the world and the chaos of our hearts, knowing that he will be with us and we will reach the other side. Thanks be to God!

Amen.