June 24, 2012
It’s tempting to say that the story of Jesus stilling the storm is intended to assure us that nothing bad will ever happen to us as long as we are trusting Jesus. Or if something bad should happen, that God will deliver us in the nick of time, before the crisis turns fatal. There are people who suggest that if something terrible happens to someone, it’s because they did not have enough faith, did not pray hard enough, or live righteously enough.
But we know that’s not true, don’t we? If it were true, how could it be that we had a funeral here yesterday for Jack Ewers, a faithful man who loved Jesus? Jack was beset by many storms in recent years—not only his own illness and death, but the sudden loss of his wife and the prolonged suffering and death of his daughter, just in the past two years. It brings to mind the story of Job.
Job, as you might remember, was a faithful man, let’s say the Jack Ewers of his time. In the story, God points out Job as an example of righteousness and faithful living. Satan scoffs, saying that he is faithful because he has everything going for him—great house, great family, perfect health. Who wouldn’t trust God if it were so obvious God was benevolent to him? So Satan inflicts a variety of trials on Job (please note, it is not God who sends these problems)—Job’s home is destroyed, his children die, and Job himself becomes very sick. Several of his friends come to him, urging him to confess his sins, so that God might forgive him whatever he did to bring such punishment upon himself. Still, even as he descends into despair, Job refuses to believe that these horrible things have happened to him because he deserved them in some way. He wrestles with doubt and cries out to God, begging God to show him why he has been sent such trouble, why he has not been spared his suffering. It is possible that he uttered words like the ones from Psalm 22—“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Or maybe he used the very words the disciples on the boat yelled at Jesus in today’s reading from Mark, “Do you not care that we are perishing?”
If trusting in God was what spared people from catastrophe, not only would Job have been rescued promptly, but the disciples on the boat would surely not have been saved from the storm. In spite of the powerful things they had seen Jesus do firsthand—like healing the sick and feeding the multitudes—when the waves arose in the darkness, they were certain that they were headed for destruction. Even though Jesus was RIGHT THERE! The disciples woke their exhausted teacher with words that convey anything but trust: “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” It doesn’t sound like they expected Jesus to save them. It doesn’t even sound like they are sure he would want to. “Don’t you care?” Instead of trusting in Jesus, they “feared a great fear,” (as verse 41 is more accurately translated).
So if Job, a righteous man, and the disciples, decidedly unrighteous, do not get what they deserve, what on earth should we expect for ourselves? How does God determine who gets spared from suffering, and who has to endure it?
I know it’s somewhat unsatisfying to hear (it’s certainly unsatisfying to say) that God’s way is a mystery, but that is the truth. It seems unfair that Job or Jack (or many of you) should have to go through painful experiences. Job’s friends—and maybe the disciples—assumed that suffering was sent to people as a sign of God’s judgment and disapproval. This perspective is not validated by Scripture. You need to know that today’s reading from Job—which begins, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” is the only answer Job ever gets about his trials. God never answers his question, “Why me?” Likewise, Jesus never tells the disciples in the boat why the storm came. He doesn’t say that the storm was meant to test their faith or anything like that. He simply asks them, “Why were you afraid? Why didn’t you trust that I would be with you, caring for you in the midst of whatever calamities come your way?”
There is no satisfactory Biblical answer to the question, “Why?” when people suffer. We cannot say with certainty that such experiences are meant to test our faith, or to show God’s mercy and goodness. What we can say, concerning Job, the disciples, and, I feel confident in adding—YOU—is that God never leaves us alone in our peril. Despite his agony, Job keeps hearing God’s voice in dreams and visions. He keeps seeing God in the daily works of nature (check out chapter 33 of Job!). And the disciples, though they felt alone in the dark, were never far from other boats in the water. Best of all, they had Jesus in the boat with them. We may not be spared difficulties, but we will be spared the agony of having to go through them alone.
I think this is one of the reasons many churches are built in the shape of boats. It is an architectural reminder to us all that we, the church, are the disciples, traveling with Jesus to “the other side.” The journey may get perilous at times, and the destination may be scary, but we aren’t alone. Like the disciples, we may have some anxiety about heading into Gentile territory, deliberately aiming toward an encounter with “otherness.” But Jesus says to us in our trepidation, “Peace; be still.” Jesus isn’t saying that we won’t encounter terrifying things in the world—he’s only reminding us that the scary things don’t own us, don’t control us, because he is with us. We are not alone in the boat.
So, since we can rest assured that God is really right here with us, and that God is strong enough to command the seas— “Who is this that even the waves obey him?”—what keeps us from boldly sailing wherever and toward whatever God is calling us? Yes, heading to “the other side” might mean we have to shift from what is comfortable and familiar to us. It will assuredly mean trying to see and speak about God in ways that we may not have grown up with. But Jesus calls us to be a voice of hope and compassion to ALL the people God loves, some of whom are not yet in the boat. Jesus is longing to be with folks who are weighed down by feeling persecuted or abandoned or inadequate. We live in a stormy time; we are not the only ones on this tempestuous sea.
Since we know that Jesus is not only powerful enough to calm a storm, but also gentle enough to embrace little children, tender enough to draw our attention to seeds and birds and flowers in a field, we know that God is both strong and good. Because we have experienced God’s grace in our own lives, have felt the power of forgiveness and the rush of belonging at the Lord’s table, we are able to give a word of encouragement to other people in pain. We can sit next to the Jobs that we know, not to point out their sinfulness, but to assure them that God is with them, even in the dark times. The God we love, even when we aren’t able to fully understand, holds back absolutely nothing, but gives it all for the world God loves. God is not only the power at the heart of the universe, but also the heart itself. God is the author and giver of Love, pulsing with the lifeblood of tenderness and goodness, mercy and compassion, justice and peace. In the end, God will make all things true and right, including our small but immeasurably precious lives.
Yes, we have known and will know storms, together and individually. Yes, we are headed to the other side, to people and endeavors we can’t imagine, but we do not go alone. The great surprise of being in the boat with God is that the journey, no matter what happens, will be blessed. Thanks be to God.
~Pastor Susan Schneider
Trinity Lutheran Church 