A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But Jesus 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 [feared a great fear] and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Mark 4: 37-40
Just over a week ago the city of Charleston, South Carolina was stunned by an all too familiar act of violence. A young man named Dylann Roof attended an evening Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. As it ended, he pulled a .45 caliber handgun out of his fanny pack and began a murderous rampage that left nine people dead. Dylann Roof murdered these men and women for a reason. They were born with the wrong skin color.
For those of us at Lutsen, Bethlehem and Trinity Lutheran Churches, this evil strikes particularly close to home. Two of the victims, Pastor Clementa Pinckney and Pastor Sharonda Simmons were graduates of ELCA seminaries. Dylann Roof, the shooter, is a member of an ELCA congregation.
In our shock and horror, we find ourselves asking almost the very same question that the disciples asked Jesus as they were tossed by the violent waves of the Sea of Galilee, “Teacher, do you not care?”
Once again we cry out in our confusion and pain. Where is God to be found in these moments? Where is God when an inoperable tumor forms in the brain of a loved one? Where is God in the violence of our inner cities? Where is God in the bloodshed of the Middle East? Where was God during that Bible study at Emanuel AME Church? Where was God as Jesus’ disciples were in danger of drowning?
We believe that God is present in all of these situations, yet we live in a world that is broken. We live in a universe that is chaotic and that, according to the laws of thermodynamics, trends toward entropy. We live in a world where all living things die. God’s presence in our lives doesn’t separate us from the perils and the sorrows of this life, but rather it points us toward God’s ultimate will for us.
All four gospels share a story of Jesus and his disciples caught out on the sea in the chaos of a powerful windstorm. In biblical terms, chaos is literally the undoing of creation. But then the unthinkable happens. Jesus says to the sea, “Be still!” The wind ceases and there is dead calm.
What fascinates me about this narrative is that Mark doesn’t mention that the disciples are afraid until after Jesus calms the waves. A literal translation tells us that they “feared a great fear.” It is only after Jesus stills the wind with his voice that they experience an unfamiliar kind of fear, the fear of being in the very presence of God.
Our encounters with God rarely make our troubles seem to go away. Rather, encountering the living God means that we are pulled into a life of sacrificial love. It is a journey that leads to anguish at the cross and ends in wonder at the empty tomb. And yet we assume, like Jesus’ disciples, that the miracle is found in God rebuking and calming the storms of our lives.
But this isn’t a story about God’s power over nature. Instead, it’s a story about how often we fail to believe that God is with us even in the midst of death. The miracle in this gospel story isn’t that Jesus calms the storm, but rather that God himself is present with those disciples in that fragile boat in the first place. God isn’t watching over them from a distance, God is right there with them in the middle of the tempest.
The faith of Jesus’ disciples did not guarantee them a safe journey across the Sea of Galilee; just as the faith of those at that Bible study in Charleston did not keep Dylann Roof from pointing his gun and pulling that trigger. And yet, for Jesus’ disciples gathered in that boat, for those faithful gathered in that Bible study, and for us living here along the shore of Lake Superior, it is our faith in the resurrection of Jesus that assures us that God is in the boat with us and that we are never alone in the chaos that surrounds us.
Encountering the resurrected Christ leads us to a faith that cannot be shaken even as the storms of this unpredictable and violent world rage around us. It leads us to a faith in which our fear of this world is removed so that we can live joyfully, and love passionately, and forgive abundantly once again. Our faith doesn’t separate us from tragedy, but rather it gives us a means of seeing beyond our fears and our sorrows so that we can live as true disciples even in the midst of prejudice, hatred and violence.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s contributor is Tom Murray of the Lutsen and Zion Lutheran Churches.
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