The Lord of the Storm.

12th Sunday, Ordinary Time.

Excerpt from the First reading, Job 38
“Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? – when I made the clouds its garment, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”

Excerpts from Psalm 107
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
…He made the storm be still
And the waves of the sea were hushed.

Excerpt from the Gospel, Mark 4
He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was dead calm.
Jesus 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 sea obey him?”

It’s easy to read or hear this Gospel, reflect on the storms in our own lives and then get very frustrated because even though we try to exercise all the faith we have, it never seems to be enough to get Jesus to speak to the chaos inside and outside of us. If we were very honest we would also realize we are angry with God for not responding to our cries for help and safety or for not filling us with the faith necessary to calm the storm. A baby who won’t sleep night after night, a financial situation that seems to have no solution, a child going through the terrible twos, a move to a new city, away from friends and familiarity, an illness that won’t heal, a conflict in a relationship …storms often fill our lives and when they come it is natural for us to feel things are all wrong and that if we had enough faith we wouldn’t have storms with all the ensuing chaos within.

The trouble with the Gospel this week is, in one single short paragraph a storm comes up that terrifies the disciples and, in spite of their terror, Jesus continues to sleep peacefully until they wake him up. In this limited retelling of the event we get no sense of the passage of time or the depth of the struggle involved. The disciples were not dippy tourists in a boat, unfamiliar with boating in rough seas; they were seasoned, hardened and experienced fishermen. Storms rose up suddenly all the time on this body of water. I’m guessing that they didn’t start panicking as soon as the waters started to get choppy or even when the storm got rougher and rougher. Before hitting terror mode they would have done all they could for as long as possible with all the skills they possessed.

I have very limited knowledge of boats, especially the kind of boat they were in so I can’t draw an accurate picture of what they might have gone through before they finally woke Jesus up. Did they have to wrestle hard with the boat to keep it pointed in the right direction? Did they have to try to row because the mast had snapped in half? Did they lose an oar or both oars? Did mountains of water cascade over them as they worked frantically for hours bailing the water out until they were all absolutely exhausted and still the water gushed in?

Did they resent Jesus for sleeping when they needed all the help they could get just to maintain and not get blown way off course? How could he sleep when they were making so much noise yelling at each other over the thunder, rain and wind? How could he sleep when they were bumping against him and tripping over his body as they tried to keep the boat from filling up with water? Did they become more and more frustrated because they were doing all the work and doing all the worrying and all the praying to God while their experience told them they were in real danger? Couldn’t Jesus sense they were in a bad way? What was wrong with him anyway?

But they worked and wrestled and prayed and tried to deal with their anxiety and did everything they knew how to do. Being that they were fishermen who made their living in boats there was probably a good deal of pride going on there too. They didn’t want to admit to a carpenter that they couldn’t handle a boat in a storm. This was supposed to be the one thing they could do well. This was their area of expertise and they wanted to be in control. What if Jesus woke up and saw them so out of control? Would he not despise them for being weak and for not doing the job they were trained to do?

These guys were frightened and they were angry with God.

But Jesus still slept. He slept until they got to the point where they knew they could do nothing more. They were not in control, they could not overcome the storm and they were exhausted. Pride no longer mattered. They had gone beyond their own skills and beyond what they were “supposed to be able to do or handle”. When they finally woke Jesus up, their words to him were filled with frustration, fear and resentment.

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

That sounds very angry to me. But note that Jesus did not get all huffy and say, “How dare you talk to me like that? I am God and you can’t accuse me of not knowing what’s going on!” No. He rebuked the storm and calmed the waters and then asked them quietly in the utter stillness, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Perhaps Jesus intentionally stayed asleep until they had finally run through all their own skills, all their own abilities, all their set perceptions of how things should be and what they should be able to handle – and what Jesus should be doing.

When Jesus asked them “Why are you afraid of the storm?” perhaps what he was really asking them was, “Are you afraid of not being able to fix the situation yourselves? Are you afraid of not being in control?”

When he asked them, “Have you still no faith?” he was pointing out to them that faith understands that God isn’t just a God of fixing it all up in our timing, according to our wishes and desires after we have done everything possible to control the situation. He doesn’t come when we think he should to make things go the way that makes us comfortable or in a way that fits into our perceptions of how things should be. Our mouths and minds often proclaim faith in God and submission to his will while our hearts are filled with impatience and we scramble madly with all our own ideas, skills and abilities to stay in control and make things happen the way we think they should happen. It is often too difficult for us to see that we still haven’t gotten to the end of the rope of our own control, and so sometimes Jesus calls up a storm and then seems to fall asleep. It’s the only way he can bring us to a place where we’re not proclaiming our faith in him while holding on like crazy to our own ropes, oars and sails.

I love the fact that first of all Jesus spoke to the winds and calmed the sea and it was dead still before he finally spoke to the ones he loved. He taught them in peace.

Imagine yourself being on a boat in the middle of the sea with Jesus and he is asleep, lying in the stern with his head on a pillow. It is dawn. The sea is as smooth as glass. There is absolutely no noise from waves slapping the side of the boat, nor are there any other boats in the vicinity. The air is cool and still. The silence is so beautiful you don’t want to shatter it even with a soft word. In that incredible stillness, watch Jesus sleeping. Let the stillness soak into you and tell you it’s all right; everything is all right. You are with the Prince of Peace and the Lord of the Storm.

He only seems to be asleep.