5th Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, [Jesus] said to [the disciples], “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. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But 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?” 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 were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Peace, Be Still
When my parents and I went on a road trip across the United States in 2010, one of the places we went to was my father’s sister’s house in South Point, Ohio, where the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia meet. It was summer, which, being from California, I didn’t know was the rainy season for the Midwest.
While we were there, this really intense rainstorm hit, buckets of water pouring down from the sky. I had only ever seen rain like that for a few minutes at a time, but I suppose it was par for the course for the area, because my aunt and uncle wanted to take us to a restaurant that they liked for lunch. So, we went to the restaurant, and it continued to rain. We finished our lunch, and it continued to rain. We started heading back the house, and it continued to rain. By the time we got to the little road that led to my aunt and uncle’s house, the creek that ran alongside it had jumped its bank, and the road itself was now a river flowing in our direction.
We all stared at it for a moment, and my uncle bravely drove onward. Now, if I had been the one driving, I don’t know if I would have made the same choice. But, I had never been in a situation like that before, and he seemed pretty confident, so I figured maybe this was something they did on a regular basis when it rained.
So, we’re driving up the stream, which is absolutely wild to me, but it was kind of exciting, moving forward in the car as the water was rushing by in the opposite direction. It will probably not come as a surprise to any you that the engine flooded, and the car stalled. He tried to start it again, but it wouldn’t, so he said that we would just have to wait for the water to go down, and then we could figure out what to do.
It continued to rain. Instead of going down, the water kept rising, and after a few minutes, my dad yelled, “There’s water coming in the car!”
So, my uncle yelled, “Okay, everybody get out!”
And, we all got out of the car, and went into the river, which used to be the road. The water was almost up to our knees, and the force of it pushing against us made it hard to walk, as unseen debris hit our legs where we couldn’t see it in the muddy water. Luckily, we didn’t have a far way to go; we made it to their neighbor’s carport, where we took shelter, and watched as the water continued to rise up the side of the car.
Mother Nature can be scary. I think most of us have stories of encounters with nature when she’s been angry: earthquakes, wildfires, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes. And, even with all of our modern technology, our homes, our cars, radar, sonar, modern clothing and footwear, we are still at the mercy of mother nature. I saw a video recently of a lava flow slowly making its way down the side of a volcano, engulfing roads and houses and schools and churches. And, I remember thinking, there is absolutely nothing we could do to stop this. We are nothing in the face of Mother Nature.
The men on the boat with Jesus would have been familiar with the moods of the sea. They were fishermen, probably had been their entire lives. They probably had generations of fishermen behind them, going back hundreds of years, all of them passing along their stories and their experiences and their wisdom about the water: its bounty and its allure, as well as the danger. These were men who would have been used to sailing and fishing in a storm.
But, there was something different about this storm, something dangerous. Water was coming into the boat; the waves were crashing into its sides, tossing it about. The wind howled and the lightning cracked. Perhaps they recognized the warning signs, or maybe they were worried because they had never seen a storm like that before. Whatever it was, it was sufficient that they felt the need to wake Jesus up. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
And, Jesus got up, spoke to the wind, “Peace! Be still!” And, the wind was still. Once the sea was calm, he turned to the others on the boat and asked, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Because, they had been with Jesus all this time; they had seen things. They had seen Jesus cast spirits and demons out of people. They had seen Jesus perform miraculous healings. They had listened to the wisdom of his teachings. So, when Jesus asks, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” it’s because after all they had seen, they shouldn’t have been afraid. They should’ve had faith.
But, there’s something kind of funny going on here. Our New Revised Standard Version translates the next verse as, “And, they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Instead of this more tame translation, other versions translate this as “they were terrified,” or “they feared exceedingly.” Because, who was this man who controlled the winds? How could a person tell a storm what to do?
If the fishermen were familiar with the story of Job, and there’s a good chance they were, they would know who Jesus was. Our Hebrew Bible reading today is a small portion of Job’s story, when God is reminding Job of who God is. “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped?’”
There’s only one person this Jesus could be, one entity. And, they know, now. They have definitive proof, now. And, they’re terrified. How can you be in the presence of the ultimate power in the universe, and not be?
Back under the carport, the rain was still pouring buckets. The person who owned the carport gave us some towels to dry off and asked if we wanted to come inside. But, it was Ohio in the summer, so the rain wasn’t cold, and I for one wanted to see what would happen. As the rain continued to come down, the water continued to rise. Somehow, some of the car’s electricals were still working, and my uncle had left the hazard lights blinking. The water kept rising until the force of it sent it arcing up over the blinking lights, spraying muddy water up in a fan, until even those went out. We were all honestly waiting for the water to just pick up the car and float it away.
But, it never did. The rain eventually stopped, and after about an hour, the creek was back where it was supposed to be, running happily alongside the road instead of on top of it. What the water did do was leave a 300 lbs. boulder in the middle of the road. And, it had neatly laid a 2’ x 2’ slab of asphalt right up against the grill of the car. One of my aunt and uncle’s neighbors put us all in the back of their pick-up truck and drove us the quarter-mile to their house. I had no idea how close we had gotten when the car’s engine flooded.
The disciples were afraid, afraid of the storm, and even afraid of Jesus at the end. Which is why Jesus had to ask. “Why are you afraid?” He had never threatened them, never harmed them. He had only ever showed them and taught them healing, and peace, and love. They still had in their minds this idea of a warrior God, an all-powerful God to be feared and respected. But, that’s not why Jesus came to us. Jesus came to us to show us what really matters: kindness and goodness and community.
The rain and the wind are examples of the almighty power of God. But, the purpose of the storm is not to destroy us. The purpose of the storm is to bring fresh water to land and to regulate the temperature of the world. The purpose of the storm is to disperse nutrients and seeds. And, the storm doesn’t last forever. Eventually, the rain stops, the wind stops, and the clouds part. And, a friendly neighbor offers you warm towels and a ride back home. Jesus doesn’t want us to be afraid. Jesus wants us to trust and participate. So, put your trust in God. No matter how scary things get, you can always put your trust in God. And, know that you are a part of God’s grand scheme of creation, a part of the web of life, a part of the community, and a part of God’s family. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
