Job 38:1-11 Mark 4:35-41
Lectionary 12 5thSunday after Pentecost
On that day, our reading begins. That daywas a long one, it was the day Jesus, using parables about seeds and sowers, taught about God’s kingdom. He spoke to the crowds that had gathered, and then explained the parables more fully to his disciples in private. It was the end of the day, and Jesus now wanted them to go with him to the other side. He was talking about going across the Sea of Galilee. This is their first venture into gentile territory, the country of the Gerasenes. There were hostile strangers there, and even enemies,–or so they thought. The unknown made it a dangerous destination. It was also evening, when the sun has gone down, and the darkness was getting darker.
Jesus was already in the boat, just as he was, and the disciples climbed right in with him. It wasn’t long before a great windstorm came upon them. Four of the disciples were fishermen, and no doubt they had experience with severe storms. This night, the winds were especially fierce, like a tornado. The boat began rocking back and forth, and they had left their dramamine in the other boat. The wind and the waves made their journey chaotic and terrifying. Kinda like life is right now.
According to author Thomas Friedman, our political disagreements arise from the disparity between our advances in science and technology and our response to them. We live in an age of acceleration. The world is rapidly changing and being dramatically reshaped. We know this to be true. Friedman provides details in his recent book, Thank You for Being Late.[1] For example, it used to take 20 or 30 years for scientific or technological changes to cause societal discomfort. Think about cars. As they advanced, so did the need to change roads, and ways to manufacture parts to repair them, and adapt insurance policies, and new traffic laws, and product liability lawyers, and personal injury attorneys. Only ten years ago, a cell phone was not capable of storing a single photo. Now the storage capacity of a phone is more than sixteen billion bites. So far, I have 3, 217 pictures on my phone. When things change in our world faster than we can adapt, we feel out of control.
Quoting Dov Seidman, Friedman writes, “’The world is starting to operate differently’ in many realms all at once. And ‘this reshaping is happening faster than we have yet been able to reshape ourselves, our leadership, our institutions, our societies, and our ethical choices.’”[2] The resulting storm is chaotic and terrifying. So what is it that frightens you?
While the wind and the waves battered the boat, Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushions, dreaming of rainbows and French bulldog puppies, — white ones. The intensity of the storm grew, and the disciples were unable to manage their fear. Shaking Jesus awake, they demanded an answer. Don’t you care that we are perishing?
Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? ask those who do not have enough to eat.
Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? ask those who cannot afford to buy medicine.
Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? ask the victims of violence.
Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? cry the children of illegal immigrants.
It’s a situation that seems to be changing daily, but the fact remains that at our borders, thousands of babies, toddlers, and children have been separated from their mothers and fathers. Some children will be lost forever from their family. The psychological damage to the children resulting from this experience will be hard, if not impossible, to heal. This is a moral and ethical issue.[3]
Jesus calls us to care for those who are most vulnerable, and there are none in this world more vulnerable than children. Our ELCA bishop, Bishop Eaton, declares, The Forced separation of children from their parents is unnecessarily cruel, further traumatizing families who have already suffered in their countries of origin and on the dangerous journey to the U.S.[4]
There is fear in everyone these days. Fear can paralyze us. Faith breaks the shackles of fear and stirs us to be God’s hands and feet in the world. Fear can stop us in our tracks. Faith calls us forward beyond our fear toward God.
Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing? Jesus woke up, and told the storm to be still. In the dead calm, Jesus asked them, Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? Have you no faith because of the wind and the waves? Have you no faith because human sinfulness seems to be running rampant? Have you no faith because God’s kingdom appears to be taking such a long time to come into its fullness?
In the book of Job, keeping faith alive while experiencing unjust suffering is a mystery of the human heart. Job suffers the death of his children, he loses his wealth, and he becomes painfully ill. Job angrily asks God to show up and to explain. God comes, out of the chaos of a whirlwind, making it clear that God does not answer to humans, but humans are to answer to God. God does not give an explanation of suffering, why God allows it. He reminds Job that it was God who laid the cornerstone of the earth and hung the stars in the sky. God does not provide answers to the questions of suffering, nor does Jesus give an explanation of the storm. Though we don’t get answers, scripture is very clear that we are called to help those who are in need.
Job endured tremendous losses, which God did not stop, but God showed up out the chaos of the whirlwind. God did not stop the storm from coming, but Jesus was in the boat with the disciples while it was being battered by waves and wind. We are not left abandoned. God does not give answers, but rather gives God’s self.
Where is your faith?Jesus asks. Is it in the wind and the waves, or is it in me?If our faith is in the wind and the waves and the chaos, we will be paralyzed with fear. If our faith is in the wind and the waves, then we have no hope. God calls us to faith so that we can be God’s voice and hands in this world.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1]Friedman, Thomas L. Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.
[2]Ibid. p. 28.
[3]Find ways to help immigrant children separated from their families on our Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service web page at https://www.lirs.org.
[4]https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/7935accessed June 21, 2018.