"How in THIS Storm Do We Survive?"
Mark 4:35–41
June 25, 2006
University Christian Church
Marvin Eckfeldt , Preaching

It was the conclusion of a hard day for Jesus. He had been teaching in parables, ministering to the multitudes. He was tired. In the boat, headed across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus took the place of a guest at the stern and went to sleep. Suddenly winds come through the mountains on the west and the north and a storm happens without warning. And Jesus sleeps; the external doesn’t seem to bother him at all!

In their fear the disciples accuse Jesus of indifference to their situation. Because of their question some scholars think that Jesus must have gone to sleep after the storm began. They accuse Jesus of knowing and not caring what happens to them. “Do something, Don’t just sleep! Do something!” The cry of the human heart when we feel overwhelmed, faced with tragedy, confronted with trying circumstances. The cry of our heart is for someone to do something! When we are in the midst of chaos and despair, we want to know that someone cares!

And the story takes this one step further. After Jesus woke, he spoke to the winds and the waves. “Peace! Be still!” The Message says: “He told the wind to pipe down and he said to the sea, quiet down. The wind ran out of breath and the sea became smooth as glass,”

That was the ancient way of saying that Jesus was stronger than the chaos of life. It was the early church’s way of claiming his authority over the natural world, as well as the human. Jesus both cares and does something about his caring. The wind eases and there is a dead calm. “Peace be still.”

The old British navy had a strange custom. If there was a sudden disaster aboard ship, the “still” was blown. This still was not a particular place where whiskey is made. It was a whistle that calls the crew to a moment of silence in a time of crisis. When the still is blown, people aboard know that it means, “Prepare to do the wise thing ” Historians observe that in this system the moment of calm has helped avert many a catastrophe. It has prevented many scatterbrained, irresponsible actions.

Isn’t it amazing what we can do, what you can do when you have power and claim it, when you know the value of stillness and practice it, you do not give into panic but hear the words of Jesus spoken with authority “Quiet down, peace be still!”

Frederick Buechner, a great contemporary Christian author and novelist says, “We have within us, each one of us, so much more power than we ever spend, such misers of miracles are we, such pinch-penny guardians of grace.”

The story line quickly shifts from the calmness of the sea to the relationship with the disciples. “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Underneath it all the relationship had to be based on trust, or there was no relationship at all. A mother was observed holding her little child in her arms and standing in a swimming pool. As the mother waded deeper into the pool, the child began to struggle more and more. The child feared what might happen If the mother let go. Had the child been able to analyze the situation, he would have realized that the water was already over his head, no matter where in the pool the mother stood.

So it is for us, when times seem chaotic and the waters and winds and waves of life threaten and we know we are in over our heads, we like the disciples, are tempted to want to pull back to old days, to distance ourselves, withdraw, to check out. To try to play it safe. “Jesus, don’t you care?” But Jesus knows the truth, the assurance that we so often forget, we are held in the arms of the Eternal, no matter what the depth of the water. We are already over our heads.

How do we survive in THIS storm? Be still, find that moment of silence, stay close to your center, that place in the middle of it all. If our Lord trusts God to hold him up, so can we. And in times like these, that is good news to share!

But to read the morning news, to see on the television, to be out in our community is to know there are so many storms today, right now, here and all around us! Natural catastrophes like the sudden shifting of the tectonic plates and an earthquake in Indonesia. The inconvenient truth about how we are harming our environment. A possible nuclear storm triggered by a third world power or careless poser-bent posture of our own leaders. Storms that attack the church: decline of our influence, controversies among Episcopalians, Presbyterians and others about becoming truly open and affirming of all. The storms of social unrest here and in so many places on our planet.

Just maybe we survive in THIS storm by realizing that the terror is supposed to be there. Maybe we’ve been afraid of the wrong thing. Could it be that it is not the storm that blows up on the open sea that causes those disciples and us to fear? Because the storm, after all, isn’t the real danger in the water. The real danger in the water is Jesus Christ himself. It is only after Jesus wakes up and takes care of the storm that they get terrified! They are not half as afraid of the storm as they are of his power to calm. It’s his power that they’re afraid of! “Who is this, anyway? Wind and sea at his beck and call?” That’s an important question to ask!

There’s something about the power of God that calls for distance. It is not a lack of faith, but rather a sign of faith, when you recognize it. More often than not it’s a frightening thing to be on the scene when God is present, too. Awe. In an important sense we must not overcome our fear, awe of God. Creator, power, redeemer. We are not gods! We are the created.

With all the obvious danger in the water, those disciples knew that there, in that boat, looking eyeball to eyeball with Jesus Christ, that mysterious One, that disturbing One, that demanding One, they saw what unlikely thing HE had done with that storm – so what unlikely thing was he about to do with them?

CS Lewis has written somewhere that letting that fearsome mystery into your life is something like having your house redone; except that God does it according to God’s own wildly extravagant plans. While you expect only a few changes, God creates an extreme makeover. The design creates something new, something completely outside the box, something beyond the wildest imagination. That’s scary, but terribly exciting. Compelling. Worth sacrificing for. It is not “business as usual.” It is counter cultural. Maybe even radical.

How do we survive in THIS storm? Don’t ever underestimate University Christian Church as a vessel that contains an awesome, even terrifying presence, which has frightening power – the power to transform, the power to make new, to make each of us something we hadn’t figured on – power that can get us in so deep that we won’t know how to get out. It is the power to redeem, to save – and yes it is awesome, terrifying power all the same.

We don’t know how Jesus did it, stopped the wind – calmed the sea. But in this present storm and all the terror it creates, we can have confidence in the future. We can ride out the dreadful storm. Hope in the Divine is not misplaced. Hold on to your center and be held in the arms of the Eternal. God is our peace in the storm.

You fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break

In blessings on your head

William Cooper