Sermon for 4th Sunday after Pentecost – Mark 4:35-41

Were you afraid of the dark as a kid? I was. We lived out in the country, where there weren’t streetlamps, so when it was dark, it was really dark. My bedroom was at the end of a long hallway, so going to bed was always traumatic. And my parents were always so frustrated with me. “What’s wrong with you? There’s nothing to be afraid of!” But even if we trusted our parents to tell the truth, somehow that wasn’t enough. We were so convinced there was some monster out there ready to attack us.

This came to mind as I was studying this week’s gospel reading. Jesus has been teaching a large crowd by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He’s been spending the day telling parables, like the mustard seed which we read last week. Now, Jesus has mixed feelings about crowds. Sometimes they drain him and he has to get away to find a little peace and quiet. Sometimes he feels really frustrated because folks treat him like a celebrity – Jesus the world famous magician. “Whatever you say Jesus, I just came here for the miracles.” Sometimes he feels misunderstood because he just wants to glorify his Father, but folks just want to glorify him. So there’s all that, and maybe he’s a little worn out because it’s been a long day. Evening comes, so Jesus rounds up his disciples and says, “Hey, let’s go across the Sea of Galilee.” So they get in a boat and go, and maybe the crowd are kind of like groupies at a concert yelling, “No, Jesus, don’t go! Come back!”

So they’re out in the water. It’s dark. And a massive storm rises up. Now, the Sea of Galilee has a reputation for violent storms. In 1992 there was a storm that sent ten foot waves crashing into Tiberias along the shore and caused major destruction and flooding. So this is serious. The disciples are terrified, because the wind’s tossing the boat around like a toy. Waves are crashing over them and filling the boat. Now, 10 foot waves are tall, and these boats weren’t huge. The google has photos of a fishing boat they excavated from the sea. It’s just an open boat. No cabin. And it’s actually kind of hard to imagine all of them in one boat, but that’s fine. What’s weird is that if Jesus really is asleep on a cushion in the stern, then I don’t know how he can sleep with all the tossing and water dumping on him. So he must be pretty exhausted.

It reminds me of a friend who told me a story about when she was in college. She had done an all-nighter, and the next day she went to bed in her dorm room because she was exhausted. And wouldn’t you know, there was a fire drill. The fire department arrived, and they were going through the dorm to evacuate everyone. They got to her room and pounded on the door to wake her, but she was still sound asleep. So, somehow they busted into her room, and actually carried the bed outside with her still asleep on it. And when she finally work up, she was pretty confused. Like, “wait a minute, this isn’t my bedroom.” So maybe Jesus really was asleep that deeply.

And maybe it’s a miracle that the disciples managed to wake up Jesus. And they’re like, “Jesus, do something! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” It takes a bit, but Jesus comes to. He rebukes the wind. He commands the sea to be still. And what he really tells the wind is “Shut up! Put a muzzle on it!” Then it’s a dead calm. Which would seem pretty eerie, right? Like the eye of a hurricane? Then Jesus scolds the disciples. Our translation actually kind of falls down here, because what Jesus really says is, “Why are you a bunch of cowards? You STILL don’t have any faith?” And where our translation says “awe”, the actual word is incredible fear. Jesus calming the storm is terrifying to them. So that puts a very different spin on when the disciples say, “Who is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”

So we’ve got a couple things going on here. Here’s the first thing. The disciples are just as terrified of Jesus’ power as they were of the storm. It’s easy to miss that, not just because of translation, but because we domesticate Jesus. He’s our buddy the superhero who always holds our hand. But the disciples don’t know yet that Jesus is God. They know he teaches and heals and casts out demons, but he hasn’t yet said he’s the Messiah. They don’t know if these superpowers are of God. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that Jesus was publicly accused of being in league with Beelzebub. “By the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” So we shouldn’t be surprised that the disciples are terrified.

Then here’s the other thing. This Jesus isn’t very likeable. I mean, he leads the disciples into a deadly place. Then when the worst case scenario happens and they feel terrified and wake Jesus, Jesus doesn’t comfort them. Sure, he calms the storm, but then he’s just really annoyed with the disciples and calls them a bunch of faithless cowards. Does that build trust? No. That’s like the person you only go to for help after you’ve exhausted all other choices and you’re desperate, because the entire time they’re helping, they’ll make sure you know what an irresponsible idiot you are. Thanks, I guess.

So what do we make of this story? A lot of folks say that the storms of life we face are just the way that God tests our faith. But that’s a terrifying thought, because what happens if we don’t have enough faith? And deep down, we already know the answer. We don’t. How many storms have we faced where Jesus just seems asleep in the boat? Where prayers and thoughts don’t seem like enough anymore because we’re desperate for Jesus to DO something? Where we can’t really tell the difference between faith and luck. Either way we suffer and die. Look at what happened to Jesus.

But the good news is that this story isn’t really about faith or luck or miracles. It’s about Jesus. Because he knows the storm is coming and he gets in the boat with us anyway. Every time. He knows our lack of faith. He knows we wonder if he really cares. But he doesn’t just tell us. He shows us. By suffering with us and even dying with us. He did it on the cross, once and for all, but it’s not the end of the story. After three days he rose, in the glory of his resurrection. So that there would be peace between us and God. And we know it’s true because Jesus makes a promise to us. He forgives us and calls us his beloved disciples. We never have to wonder what Jesus thinks of us. We KNOW what he thinks.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all our storms will just magically go away. We still suffer. So Jesus gives us faith, to trust that he’s right there with us in the wind and the waves. Now, this doesn’t mean that pain and suffering aren’t terrible and hard. They are. And sometimes they’re just not fair. We should tell the truth about that. But what hurts worst is that nagging thought that we’re alone in it. Like watching the world pass us by while we’re invisible. So Jesus gives us faith to trust that we’re not invisible or alone. Because Jesus calls others to abide with us as he abides with us. Just like in our gospel, as Jesus and his disciples set out upon the water, other boats were with them. He sends other boats, other disciples, to care, to pray, to hold faith for us when we can’t seem to hold onto it ourselves.

And Jesus calls us to do likewise for others. Because everyone goes through this. But here’s the thing, it’s really hard to weather the storm with someone if you’ve never been through the storm yourself. We don’t have to come up with answers or figure out who to blame, because those didn’t work for us either. We don’t have to pretend like it’s not really happening, because we’re bad at pretending. We can just be ourselves with each other, and trust that the peace which weathers the storm really will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.