Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7 Yr B June 20 2021

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7 Yr B June 20 2021

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16, Psalm 133, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Mark 4:35-41

 

Have you ever watched a storm come right at you? I was life guarding at a lake in Minneapolis. It was one of those hot as you know what late afternoons when you can just feel the storm brewing. There were tons of kids swimming, until we saw lightening. With that, we pulled the kids out of the water, and most of them went home. There were a few who stuck around, because they always do. We were sitting on the sand, watching the sky, and all of a sudden I saw across the lake a wall cloud coming at us. I could see some of the stuff it had picked up in its path. I grabbed the kids who were with me and hightailed it into the ditch on the other side of the road that rings the lake. I laid the kids down, and laid on top of them. We watched that wall cloud pass over us and heard the crashing of cars being picked up and thrown into the ditch. We heard the sound of the trees crashing around us, and the sound of that wind roaring over us. And then, silence, calm. Dead silence. Dead calm. Eventually we got up out of the ditch to look around us and see the destruction everywhere. It was only then that I felt fear. 

 

The tornado sirens went off after the storm had passed. I actually don’t know that I would have done anything differently had I heard them earlier. 

 

The disciples were experiencing a storm of some magnitude, their siren, Jesus, was asleep at the switch. Who could blame him? Teaching, healing, calling the disciples, eating, and all those people! He must have been exhausted; it seems the only explanation for sleeping through that storm. And it wasn’t even the storm that woke him up, the disciples had to shake him awake. But after the storm was silenced, there was dead calm. And Jesus’ question to the disciples is, why are you afraid? Not why were you afraid, suggesting that they didn’t trust Jesus to do anything about the storm. But why are you afraid? Amid the dead calm, what are the disciples afraid of, what could be making the disciples so afraid?

 

To answer that question, let’s remember what has happened and where we are. Mark gets his gospel off to a quick start. At the very beginning, and we’re only four chapters into it at this point, Mark introduces his purpose for writing, this is the Good News of Jesus Christ, the son of God. And by the 16^th verse, Jesus is calling the disciples. It feels like with the disciples we’re on the run. No wonder the disciples seemed a bit confused, no wonder they seem to not quite understand. That’s a lot of learning in a short period of time. Mark begins and ends this chapter 4 by the sea. Crowds are gathering to listen to Jesus teach. And leaving the crowd behind, Jesus takes them in a boat to the other side of the sea.

 

In the dead calm of that sea, what makes the disciples afraid? Here they are, really at the very beginning of a journey with a man whom they are just beginning to get to know, this leader whom they really don’t understand, telling them stories they really don’t understand, and he is taking them across the sea to a place they may well have never been. That dead calm may very well be a portent to the discomfort, the challenge, the difficulty they have in moving into an unknown land.

 

On the other side, they will encounter people who are as different from themselves as they could be. These are aliens, foreigners. These are people who live among the tombs, people who have unclean spirits, people who are not Jewish. Why are you afraid Jesus asks them? Wouldn’t you be afraid? Going to a place you’ve never been, with a man who the wind and sea obey. You better believe they’re afraid. And Jesus goes to this foreign land to heal, and sometimes when Jesus heals, he touches. He touches people who have been deemed unclean by the powers that be. He gets up close, he makes what was broken, whole.

 

God intends that those who are different, in this case those who are unclean and those who are Gentiles, become full participants in God’s expansive coming reign. Jesus was a Jew, those who followed him in the very beginning were Jewish, but the mission is changing, expanding, growing. The fear comes when Jesus answers the storm with his actions by crossing over into Gentile lands. This boundary breaking reality is where the calm carries them. Jesus’ actions tear down the wall of separation offering God’s love and grace to everyone. 

 

The truth here is that like the disciples, we are afraid of that which we do not know, and people who are different from ourselves. At the very same time we hear over and over again, do not be afraid. How do we do this? How do we set aside our fears and co-conspire with Jesus in breaking boundaries and erasing margins? 

 

First of all, step back from that question I just asked and look at where you stand. You and I stand in the center, don’t we? You and I stand in the place of power and privilege. This is where we begin, by acknowledging that for more than 2000 years, God’s dream of a world in which all creation is included in God’s kingdom has been thwarted by people like us. We must cross boundaries and reach out our hands and our hearts so that God’s dream of inclusion may grow and grow. 

 

Yesterday marked the first time in history that as a nation we acknowledged the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. And yet, this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans initially.

 

I wonder if the calm after the storm is a gift, and out of this calm we may give of ourselves that very basic truth that we believe, every person is created in God’s image. And that we will never look into the face of someone God does not love. 

 

I think this is what Jesus means with the question he asks, why are you afraid? Not that they don’t have faith in him, but that they don’t yet know the full extent of the amazing and abundant love that is available to every person God loves. It’s a question filled with hope. 

 

Be not afraid. Invite people into your life that don’t look like you or act like you. You might find they challenge your assumptions and make you grow. And remember, God loves you, God loves those who don’t look, or act, or love like you. Go into the world and change it, and we will come closer to God’s dream.

5 Pentecost Proper 7 Yr B June 24 2018

5 Pentecost Proper 7 Yr B June 24 2018 Audio 

Tom and Willie, Rick and I, were canoeing and camping in Minnesota’s boundary waters. It wasn’t perfect weather, hot and sticky most of the time. Not unlike the kind of weather we’ve had recently, the kind of sky that you expect to rain down on you. Now rain is rain, you just get wet, but rain accompanied by wind is another matter entirely. As we looked toward the sky, we made a quick decision to bug out, pack up and outrun the storm we sensed was coming. We loaded up our canoes, me in the stern, Willie in the bow, Tom and Rick in the other canoe. We took to the water, and paddled into that wind like our lives depended on it. The water crashed over us, the wind pushed at us, I feared we may not find our way, and I believed for a time that that might be it. I remember clearly praying out loud, because I believe, Jesus transforms our fear into courage.

Jesus has spent the day teaching and tending to the needs of yet another large crowd gathered by the seashore, and the long hours of a hot humid day are coming to a close. Settling into the quiet of the evening as the disciples row toward the opposite side of the Galilee, we can imagine the gentle waves rocking the exhausted Jesus into a deep slumber. He falls fast and soundly asleep, seemingly oblivious to the catastrophe that is about to unfold around him. They watch the wind and the rain come at them across the lake. The waves beat into the boat filling it with water, nearly turning them over. Now, many of Jesus’ followers are fisher people, they’ve felt the wind and the rain before. This storm must have been a dousy given their terror. I’m right in the boat with them, feeling the chaos of that wind. Frightened beyond belief that I’d be at the bottom of that lake in no time.

The disciples are really just getting to know Jesus. I wonder if they assume that they deserve rewards for following Jesus. They clearly expect Jesus to protect them from this storm; they clearly expect Jesus to protect them from suffering. They have yet to meet the resurrected Jesus, like you and I have. In this boat, being tossed on the sea and filled with water, they don’t know what Jesus can and will do. For them, all in the same boat, the immediate future is terrifying; all they want is for Jesus to save them from that storm.

When the disciples awaken Jesus, they say “what are you doing Jesus, don’t you care that we are about to die in this storm?” And they accuse Jesus of being indifferent to their plight; and Jesus chides the disciples for their fear and lack of faith.

So they hold tight to the sides of the boat. But Jesus wakes up, and Jesus does something, Jesus transforms their fear into courage, and Jesus calms those waters.

A couple in their thirties rushed to the emergency room after receiving news that their teenage daughter had been injured while playing on a tire swing. The child arrived with a critical head injury sustained when the tree holding the swing fell on her. On his knees, the father prayed for God to heal his daughter from the crushing brain injury. A devout Christian, he asked, “Where are you, God? Do you not care that our child is about to perish?”

I know you’ve asked a similar question. Where are you God? Do you not care that your people suffer? Where are you God? Do you not care that so many are dying from opioid addiction? Where are you God? Do you not care that so many return from war with wounds of the head, and the heart, and the body? Where are you God? Do you not care that the powerful people have the authority to separate children from their parents? Where are you God?

We, like the disciples, pray that God will relieve us of our suffering, and reward us for doing well. We pray that God will somehow get us out of this boat alive, all the while knowing that none of us do. This world in which we live rocks our boat, the waves crash over us, it begins to feel like chaos. But in the chaos, Jesus transforms our fear into courage.

Who is this Jesus who was in the boat with them? This is Jesus who transforms our fear into courage. This is Jesus who cast out demons, this is Jesus who heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, this is Jesus who cleanses a leper, this is Jesus who heals a paralytic and a man with a withered hand, this is Jesus who feeds people. All of these stories show us how Jesus cares for us, God’s beloveds.

And this is Jesus who calms the storm. Just see him do it. Jesus had been sound asleep in the back of the boat; head on a pillow no less. The boat is rocking and swaying and filling with water. Just hear him do it, “Peace, be still!” Did you see that? Did you hear that? “Peace, be still!” Not like Moses when he raised his staff to part the waters. No, “Peace, be still!” In the middle of that chaos, that wind blowing, that water raging, Jesus, says, “Peace, be still!”

Jesus shows up and calms the storm. There are many storms, there is much suffering. Jesus doesn’t remove any of that, but Jesus shows up and cares for those he loves. Jesus doesn’t take away the pain, the sadness, the heartache. But Jesus transforms the disciples fear into courage. They can get to the other side of that lake; they can do what they must. Jesus transforms our fear into courage, so that we may also follow Jesus.

What I would have given to have Jesus in my boat with me that day. I was afraid, that day in that canoe, in that storm. My prayer calmed my fear, and gave me courage to go on. We did get to the shore that day, wet, tired, grateful.

The doctors came to that couple, whose daughter lay in that hospital bed, to say they had done everything within their power – she was not going to survive – and now was their chance to say good-bye. With faith-filled strength, they let go of their expectation that God would “fix” their daughter, that God would spare them from the heartbreaking chaos. Instead, they stepped into it and gathered her broken body in their arms, surrounded her with their love, and spoke the words she needed to hear: “Go to Jesus. He is waiting for you. Peace, be still.” For this family, Jesus transformed their fear into courage.

The good news is not that Jesus rescues us from our difficulty, or suffering, or pain. We know that because we know about Jesus’ journey to the cross. We know that because it is for love that Jesus hung on that cross. The good news is that Jesus does not leave us in the storm. The good news is “Peace, be still.” You see, it’s not so much the water that needs to hear “Peace, be still.” It’s you, and it’s me, it’s the disciples, it is this mom and dad and child. It is that promise of peace that calms our fears, and gives us courage to go on or to let go. It is the reality of God’s love that calms our fears, and gives us courage to step up and speak out. It is the truth that love wins that calms our fears, and gives us courage to embrace even what is hard.

Do not be afraid, have courage.

Story from Feasting on the Gospels