June 22, 2003
By Jack Price

            "The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed; If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost."  Now, the boat in our story was not the S. S. Minnow and those aboard were not headed to Gilligan's Island, but there was a big storm and the crew feared all would be lost.

            Recall that "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."  Jesus was tired.  The days were long and the demands by people for healing signs and hopeful words was exhausting.  The compassion he gave so freely to others surely took a toll on him.  Taking the helmsman's spot in the rear of the boat, Jesus was probably asleep before the disciples even pushed off from shore.  So "they took him with them in the boat, just as he was."

            "Other boats were with them," though we don't hear any more from them.  ³⁷ A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat.  You all know about great windstorms, of that I am certain.  Living pretty far from the ocean, even from the great lakes, you may not be as familiar with the power of waves beating on a boat, but they can be very destructive.  The boat was already being swamped.  But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on cushion.

            They were crossing the Sea of Galilee to get to the other side and a sudden storm caught them in the middle of that vast lake.  The other boats presumably scattered for safety.  It's everyone for himself in those circumstances.  Mark does not give much detail, but we can imagine things were pretty rough.  The fisherman aboard tried everything they knew without success.  Finally, the disciples decided they had to wake him up.  They had seen enough of the amazing things he had done.  Surely he could do some of that for them and save them.

            They shouted to him above the sound of the wind, "Rabbi, don't you care that we all gonna die!?!"   What an ironic twist that later on, in the Garden of his passion and agony, when the storms of approaching death swirled around Jesus, it was these same disciples who slept.  But now they were scared and they woke him.  "Don't you care that we all may die?" 

            Biblical scholars are unified in the opinion that all four gospels were written many years after the events they portray.  All of them are written from the perspective of those who regarded Jesus as divine, as saving Son of God.  From the time of his baptism in Mark's gospel, the Spirit identifies Jesus as the Son of God.  And so Jesus has the ability to still a storm and calm the sea - the power of the creator over the creation, power over the forces of nature, power over the demonic realm, power to heal.  At the same time, signs and miracles are never the reasons to believe.  The gospel writers consistently portray Jesus as downplaying his power.  It is, in fact, the compelling power of his words, his actions, and his life pointed people to the Eternal Spirit

But in a panic, during a frightening storm, the disciples were looking for a little supernatural power.

Jesus responded to the disciples by speaking to the storm.  ³⁹ 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."  The storm listened and shut up.  Do we do as much?  The disciples felt a sense of awe, but they were still afraid.  Jesus confronted the b disciples because he loved them.  He was concerned, not about the storm around them, but about them in the midst of the storm

                ⁴⁰ He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" ⁴¹ 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?  Don't you get the feeling they still did not understand

They were in awe of what they had just witnessed.  They would not get past the experience of the Christ.  And so they could not understand Christ at the center of the experience.

            Storms rage, oceans roar, and divine forces often don't calm them for our benefit.  This is my experience and I expect yours is similar.  Jesus' miracle stories usually have a deeper meaning, even deeper than demonstrating his power over nature, or illness, or poverty.  This story challenges us to face our fears and our lack of faith during the storms of our lives.  As it us, it tells us a lot of really good news.

            The storm reflects scary images for us.  Storm-tossed seas are like the chaos before God's creation.  We can find ourselves definitely out of our element.  Winds roar - hurricanes, tornadoes.  We feel out of control and may soon be in over our heads.

Storms definitely rage around us.  What can bring peace?  As a congregation, our current budgetary struggles feel a little stormy.  As we now work to sort out priorities against the backdrop of developing a budget for the coming year, we are pulled between competing values:  fiscal responsibility in tension with living by faith, tithing as a congregation to outside missions with supporting the ministry of work groups in and through the congregation.  Storms around us are real and they can be threatening and dangerous.  Can we hear the master saying, "Peace, be still."  

There are storms in our individual and family lives that can also cause destruction:  threatening illness, fearful loneliness, financial worries, estrangement, loss, death.  Storms that rage within us can be even more destructive as they affect our attitudes and relationships.  Can we hear the master saying, "Peace, be still." 

Peace comes in the presence with us of the "creator of ocean and earth and sky."  Peace comes with the realization that the Divine Mystery of life around us also lives intimately within us, "Peace, be still."  When there is peace within us, the storms around us lose much of their terror.  We cannot answer many of life's most fundamental questions.  What we can do is grow in our ability to trust God's work in us and in the world, grow in our perception of how God is calling us to invest ourselves, and grow in our ability to trust the community of disciples who walk the path of faith with us. 

Horatio G. Spafford began his sacred poem, now famous as a hymn of faith:  "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll.  These are the two extremes.  When I feel safe and at peace or when anxiety and fear roll over me like a tidal wave, Gracious Spirit "Whatever befalls, You have taught me to say, 'It is well with my soul.'" 

True shalom is peace within us regardless of the circumstances around us.  True peace is like being anchored even in the roughest sea.  It is the gift God has for all of us, the gift God has for each of us as well.  Peace is not just a hope out there somewhere.  It is a reality in the process of becoming, a reality that lies among the treasures God has already given us.  Perhaps Jesus was fussing at his frightened, awe-struck disciples because they failed to look inside themselves for the salvation they were seeking from him.  But how do we find the treasure of peace? How do we access God's peace for our souls. 

Jesus is talking to us as well as to the storm, sometimes saying (in effect), "Knock it off"!  Quit blowing all over the place!  "Peace, be still."  Thomas Merton tells us:

 Everyone needs enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable that deep inner voice of their own true self to be heard, at least occasionally.  Without that inner voice, we cannot [know peace].  Without that inner voice, we no longer move from within, but only from outside ourselves.  We are propelled through life by a series of collision with outside forces (with storms).

"Peace, be still."  Trust that your scars are your blessings.  They are the way we find our life's values, our life's calling.  "So very often [we discover ourselves] at the point of something we think is a wound or disability or a handicap or a problem [a storm].  As we wrestle with it and perhaps struggle to be free of it, we may find that it has something to give us.  And as we begin to come to terms with it, we discover that it contains hidden gold, the beginning of a personal call from God." (Francis Dewar)   And then, we may discover something else -- that we become the pathway for others to peace.  There is a neighborhood a few blocks over on Wayne Avenue.  We are developing a partnership with them.  I think we will discover the path to true peace for our church and their neighborhood lies through that relationship, through what we will give and receive from each other.

"So stand still with your wounds and your damage.and all the baggage of your life.  This is the blessed space, [the tossing boat, the fractious meeting, the contentious relationship], this is the space that the Creator hollows out for you [the space the Creator hallows for you]; a space where neither darkness nor chaos can finally overwhelm.  God meets you in that space and nowhere else."  (Angela Tilly)

Like the disciples on the boat, we cry with fear.  "Master, save us!" 

Listen, now:  ""Peace, be still.  Don't' be afraid." 

No, I will not fear:  "No storm can shake my inmost calm when to You I'm clinging.  Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?"

The storms within calm and there is peace.  Let the ears of your soul listen and hear a still, small voice:  "Come, follow me with all your lives; your time, your talents, your treasures." 

Even so, we come.