When I started out this week with
the Gospel reading from Mark, I thought that it would be an nice way to raise
up the uncertainty of the process that we here at Immanuel are going through
with respect to the call process and how it bring anxiety, just like in the
boat.
It wasn’t till I woke up Thursday to
hear the news about a small group of people in their worship space, in their
sanctuary…in God’s house and the tragedy that occurred did this reading really
begin to have deeper and truer meaning. Through this tragedy our Gospel reading
brings emotions to the forefront of who we are as children of God.
I mean, we can relate to these
people in the boat. They are just sitting in this boat riding along with Jesus,
everything seemed to be going pretty well. He was teaching and they were
listening. I can imagine there is some break time from the teaching because
Jesus is now sleeping in the back of the boat. This storm…powerful storm comes
up and starts going at the boat.
The people begin to get nervous. It
starts out with winds picking up. I can imagine they are a little nervous and
as the winds get stronger, so do the waves. The waves start beating on the
boat. Just as all this is happening, the people on the boat…or boats…get
scared. It is nothing to be ashamed of but these people are not dealing with a
quiet lesson on some topic. They are nervous because now, their lives are at
stake.
If the boat goes over, what’s gonna
happen? I would hope that the disciples would be able to swim. But they are
even scared. Makes sense because the boat is taking on water! They better know
what to do because they will not have a choice pretty soon because they will be
in the water. The chances of them getting through this are looking dimmer,
every passing moment. The outcome is not looking too good for these people!
SO what do the people do, they go
wake up Jesus and there he is. Imagine him sleeping like a little baby as the
boat is being tossed all over the place, it is starting to take on water, and
he didn’t even come out to see what was going on. I would think after the first
heavy roll he would have landed on the floor of the boat or rolled into
something (I have done that before and it is not fun).
But Jesus doesn’t skip a beat. He
gets up and rebukes the wind. He says “Peace! Be still! That is all it took and
the wind stopped, not went to a gentle breeze, but stopped! That is all it
took, three words, for this moment of chaos that was headed to disaster and
possibly death to cease! Three words “Peace! Be still!” After that, no more
words, just calm in the sea. Then he turns to the people in the boat “why are
you afraid? Have you still no faith,” Jesus asks.
That is a stunning moment right
there. I don’t know about you but when Jesus turns to me and says that I would
be frozen! Notice the people don’t respond? Who can blame them? Jesus just went
at them to ask where is their faith; expecially, after what has been going in
Jesus life and these people are following, yet they still don’t know who this
Jesus is NOR do they have faith in Jesus.
We can relate to the people in the
boat. There is one slight difference, though, we know who Jesus is because we
can read the larger stories about Jesus through the Gospels, Paul’s letters,
and the Old Testament. When we have all that information AND we have promises
from Jesus we can still lose sight of who Jesus is. When we encounter problems
in our lives, we begin to feel that boat rocking in our lives. The events in our
life can make it feel like our boats..our lives and our faith are getting
swamped and taking on water. We can get so consumed by outside events that we
might start getting nervous, feel a separation from God…from Jesus.
We might even get to the point where
we cry out, “Don’t you even care, Jesus! Things are getting so bad and where
are you!” I have to admit that this was one of those weeks and Charleston,
South Carolina was one of those events. Believe it or not we are connected to
that church in several ways: Both our names are Immanuel (E or I makes no
difference), two of the pastors killed graduated from an ELCA Lutheran Seminary
in Columbia, S.C., and the shooter was ELCA Lutheran. We are most importantly
connected as the body of Christ to the victims and the shooter.
I got to the point this week where
my boat was angry, faith was feeling like it would be swamped and consumed by
this particular water which was evil. I go angry AT GOD! I asked the same
questions the people in the boat asked, “Don’t you care, God?! How could this
happen!”
It was on Friday morning that I
heard the response. Debbie Dills is her name. I don’t usually lift an
individual up in a sermon but I do believe God used her to speak to me and
hopefully many more people. In her way, she spoke Jesus’ Words of “Peace! Be
still!” She told how she recognized this shooter and contacted authorities and
he was captured. Throughout all questioning, she kept saying that it was a God
thing. She witnessed that as scared as she was…maybe her boat of faith was
being stretched or felt like it was sinking…she heard God’s Word “Peace! Be
still!” and she contacted authorities.
I heard one newsman say a voice
inside her head. That is not what she said! They plaid it over and over again
and she used God’s name as the one who she gives her life to and who gave her
the strength…God! In a moment of being scared, she was still and let God’s
peace come to her so that she could hear and rely on God to do what she did.
When
I heard this, I had to stop…stop my anger…my disbelief…my crying to God! I had
to stop so that I could hear. What I heard was family and friends of these
victims…these church leaders, children of God looking at this man through a
camera lens to say “I forgive you.” They, too, were still enough through their
shock, pain, and mourning to be still so that they heard and were able to say
those words “I forgive you.”
As
I was listening to all this, I started listening even more. I began to think,
“how often do we allow ourselves to hear “Peace! Be still?” We come to worship
and do the same things that we have done before. We go through motions because
it is what we are taught…because it is the way we have always done things…or
because that is what we do as Lutherans. How often do we ask a question about
how we do worship? How often do we allow ourselves to be open enough to hear
the words of confession as we speak them? Do we, me included, hear “this is my
body given for you?” Do we hear in that Peace and being still God’s words “I
can calm this sea and you won’t perish because I love you too much?” Do we hear
“be still and know that you are a beloved child of God?” Do we hear “be still
and do not fear for I will be with you always?”
IN
this week that has been tragic, may we all know and hear Jesus’ words “Peace!
Be Still. I will watch over your going out and coming in.” AMEN!
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