The Perfect Storm
By Caroline Dean
June 24, 2012
Mark 4: 35
[ Audio
(mp3, 5.7Mb) ]
reading from Mark chapter 4:35
On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, “Let us go across to the
other side.” And leaving the crowd
behind, they took Jesus with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with them. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat
into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But Jesus 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?” Jesus 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?”
Let us pray: Loving God,
grant us the strength to hold faith and fear together, in the midst of our
storms, and in our every day life. May this
meditation reflect your love and infuse us with your spirit. Amen.
Confession:
my most terrifying nightmare usually revolves around some sort of zombie
apocalypse. My mother is the kind of
person who cannot watch any violent or emotionally disturbing movie and
apparently I am the kind of person who cannot watch any movie remotely related
to zombies. What is your worst nightmare? What keeps you up at night? What are the silly things and the legitimate
things that we fear? Perhaps it's some pain
from the past that you carry with you that you cannot face or that you are
afraid of re-living. Perhaps it is
something that you are living through right now. Maybe it is something you anticipate, like losing
something that you love or facing your own mortality. And in all seriousness (moving beyond scary
movie genres) when our nightmares come true – it is surreal – we wonder is this
really happening? Time slows down. There is a part of us that remains in denial,
a part that can't handle the horrible reality that is presented before us. Sometimes storms hit in a moment of crisis or
loss and sometimes storms arrive gradually and they beat us down for months and
years at a time.
“A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat
into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped” - This is a
nightmare scenario for the fishermen disciples. If disciples do this for a living and have great expertise and they
cannot even get this situation under control, we know they are in trouble. They have seen storms before but nothing like
this one. The wind and the waves are the
perfect combination for chaos and terror – perhaps some of them have lost
friends or family in a storm like this – perhaps they barely survived a close
call, a shipwreck years before – and so now they are preparing for the worst.
Perhaps at the beginning of the
storm – when Jesus has just fallen asleep – they think to themselves – we got
this – we are experts – it might be a tough one – but let Jesus sleep – and
then ten, twenty minutes go by and they are literally “in over their
heads.”
And then they look around and see
that Jesus is still asleep – this is the point in the story that I find most
ridiculous! How the heck could Jesus be
asleep while the boat is getting hammered and swamped by this storm? People are bailing out water left and right –
the boat is slamming against the waves – and Jesus is sleeping? They are confounded! (rightfully so!)
They wake him up and say to him
“Teacher do you not care that we are perishing?” Essentially they say, “Jesus wake up and die
with us! This is it! Do you not care that we are ALL about to go
under?”
This is the crux of the story – Jesus
says to the wind and the waves, Peace! Be Still! And it happens – the
storm miraculously recedes. And then
there is this awkward moment when everyone is just as terrified of the calm sea
as they were of the windstorm and Jesus is angry with the disciples and he
rebukes them saying “You of little faith! Why are you afraid?” I wonder
what makes Jesus so angry? It seems to
me that the disciples' response is pretty logical. They are freaking out for good reason – they
are all expert fishermen and they have seen hundreds of storms and between all
of their combine experience they can't beat this one – they think that they are
going down.
But here's the thing: yes it is a
normal response to be afraid in this situation – but they don't just doubt
their survival – they doubt the very foundation of their friendship with Jesus
– They say to him “Do you not care that we are dying out here?” They doubt that he cares about their storm –
they doubt that he cares about them at all! And this for Jesus is as if they are calling his whole operation a lie
because his love and compassion for others is at the root of who he is. Of course he cares! Of course he is pained by their suffering and
fear – he cares enough to rebuke the wind and the waves
But he gets angry – not because
they feared the storm – but because they tried to brave the storm without him
and when they finally call out to him – they doubt their friendship with him
and Jesus' intentions of love and grace.
Kate Braestrup
tells a story of her experience on 9/11
“My friend Laura and I were
together on September 11. We are both
ordained ministers – she's an Episcopal priest—and we both serve as chaplains
for first responders. You would think,
therefore that Laura and I might have been able to come up with a better, or at
least more specific, prayer than this one:
O God, O God, O God, O God, O God,
O God, O God, O God
But that was the one we prayed when
the towers fell. Frankly, she writes,
neither of us wanted to be praying. We
wanted to be doing, helping, or at least present at the scene, standing with
the cops and firefighters, embracing them, encouraging them, wiping the dust
from their faces and the ashes from their hands. Instead, we sat together on a couch, side by
side, in Maine. We couldn't do a damned
thing. So we said, “O God, O God, O God”
Kate writes:
“I would give my right arm to be
the sort of Religious Person who can force a hurricane to turn aside with my
prayers, raise the dead, raise the Towers, or at least raise a differently abled person from his wheelchair just by speaking a Word.
It would be wonderful to be able to
say, “Look just believe this, say this, do this, pray this way, and those giant
waves and tall buildings will not break over those you love, the earth will
never open at their feet, neither shall lethal viruses find a foothold in their
flesh.” I want to be able to say this and
it be a fact not a metaphor.”
Kate Braestrup
brings up a really important question in her piece about her prayer on
September 11th. And this is a
question that I also wrestle with: What
is our role in the midst of the storm? Whether it's our storm or the nightmare of the ones we love. And the second question is: “What is God's
role in the storm?”
First, what is our role in life's
windstorms?
First: It is our role to mix a little faith in with
fear – fear on it's own paralyzes us and puts us in a position where we cannot
see possibilities. But faith helps us to
see possibilities even when we can't control the moment. So Jesus doesn't say “never be afraid,” Jesus
wants the disciples to mix a little faith into that fear. To “consider how and
why the windstorm (has become your entire) reality—and have a measure of faith
that will accompany you.” (Jan
Richardson – thepaintedprayerbook.com)
Secondly – It is our role to yell at
God in the chaos– To say “wake up, God.” Not that God is asleep – but we can experience God that way, as a mysterious
far away, apathetic, God who doesn't care about our situation. But God does care. And when we yell at God to “wake up” we are
also waking up a piece of ourselves that leans on God and yearns for God. And so it's our job to express our pain loudly
and let it be okay and hope that God will peak through somehow. It's our job to say to God, “I want you to be
awake in this storm with me.”
And lastly it's our job to be
helpers in the midst of storm. Kate Braestrup also tells a story in her book Beginner's Grace about Mr. Rogers (yes –
the children's TV show guy with the sweater). Anyway she tells this story about Mr. Rogers when he was a child. Apparently he loved going to the movies and
when he was a kid they showed a lot of news reels as previews before the movie
started and the majority of the news reels were of WWII fighter planes and scenes
from victories and so on. And this one
particular scene was a bit disturbing to Mr. Rogers and his mom leaned over to
comfort him. She whispered in his ear
“look for the helpers.” And sure enough
when he paid attention, he saw strangers rescuing one another, and medics
risking their lives, ambulances and helpers. And so in the storm it is our job to be the helpers to step in and bail
out the water and jump in after the man or woman overboard.
And if we cannot actually be
present to help, it is our job to see the love of God in a perfect stranger who
would stop and risk his or her life to save another. It's our job to be awake in the storm with
each other and to cry out to God, “God, be awake in this storm with __________,
and _________________, be awake in this storm with these dear ones.”
Which brings us to the last question: What is God's role in our storm?
This is a tough answer – because the
fairytale ending would be that God's job is to make the storms go away just
like Jesus did that day. But that is not
what happens in real life storms. Sometimes
the storms go away and sometimes they don't – no matter what we pray. This story about Jesus calming the sea is not
about God's invincible power. The story
is not about Jesus' miraculous ability to control the wildest natural
forces. Nope. This story is about God's compassion for the
disciples and for us and for our pain and suffering.
Jesus gets ticked off that the
disciples doubt his love for them, but it doesn't matter. His first impulse is to rebuke the wind and
the waves, calming their storm. Even
when the disciples call him a phony and toss everything he taught them out the
window, his response is first and foremost compassion.
Jesus doesn't scare the disciples
by letting the storm rage a big longer teaching them some lesson about
faith. He calms their storm because he
loves them just as they are in that moment.
God's love comes first in the midst
of our stormy seas and always. God's
role is to be with us in the storm. To
wake up and suffer with us, even die with us if necessary. God's role is to let us yell at him, even if
we are complaining about ridiculous things. God's role is to love us with unbounded love. God's role is to love us even when our love
for her is limited and conditional.
And so let us go out with courage
and faith even as we face our wildest nightmares. Let us pay attention to the helpers those who
serve and faithfully ride out the storm with us. Let us also have the courage beckon God, to
reach out to waken the divine within us and around us that we might be
comforted. And let us find moments when
we can receive the unbounded love of God as respond with “Who is this, that
even the wind and waves obey him?”
And our closing reflection will be
this beautiful poem written by Jan Richardson, an artist and blogger at the
paintedprayerbook.com. This poem is
entitled: “Blessing in the Storm.”
Blessing in the Storm
I cannot claim to still the storm
that has seized you,
cannot
calm the waves that wash through your soul,
that break
against your fierce and aching heart.
But I will wade into these waters,
will stand
with you in this storm,
will say peace
to you in the waves,
peace to
you in the winds,
peace to
you in every moment that finds you still within the storm.
-- Jan
Richardson
