This is what trust looks like, what faith looks like. Not only in the mustard seed, but in the calming of storms. Not only in the theoretical, but in our lives; in our triumphs and challenges; in our doubts and our assurances; in our despairs and our elations. GOD is there and way more committed than we can possibly understand.
The power of GOD and the faith of the people
Proper 7B | Mark 4:35-41
They were filled with horror
Jesus is sleeping in the back of the boat. Let’s take a second to appreciate this image. Jesus, sleeping soundly in the midst of a storm, is awoken by the disciples because they are afraid, I suppose. It is a truly potent literary image: Jesus is so calm, so chill, that he can sleep in the middle of a storm. This calm is juxtaposed by his next action; he turns, and quite dramatically, calms the storm.
This very short story is gorgeously written and is even more provocative than anything we’ve read up till now.
If we were to go back to the beginning, we would see the familiar sequence of Jesus’s baptism, temptation, and calling of his disciples. Then he immediately gets down to business, healing and casting out demons. His followers are witnesses to acts of great world-altering power. Signs that Jesus can control the created order. But of course, these are easily explained away as “healings.” These are something different from that, I suppose.
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Then Jesus confronts the tradition about the Sabbath at the end of chapter 2, beginning of 3, then he appoints the Twelve, calling them apostles, telling them that they will have this same work to do. And then we find ourselves in our recent readings: Jesus is confused for demon-possessed and calls his followers his real family. Then he teaches them about GOD’s work in the world through seeds. The last teaching is about the mustard seed and faith. Then they get in the boat.
Of course, when they get in the boat, the storms begin to rage and they start to worry. They rouse Jesus because they don’t know what to do, I suppose. But what happens next is the true shocker. Tradition has downplayed the disciples’ response to Jesus, suggesting that they were in awe of Jesus’s calming of the storm. But that’s not what the text actually says. It says they were terrified by what Jesus had done, after he asked why they were afraid.
According to Scott Hoezee, The greek “really piles on the fear,” saying instead that they “feared a great fear.” They may have feared the storm, but Jesus’s calming of the storm freaked them right out.
How can you be so calm?
This story, which could bring great comfort to us, and should, I believe, contains also the seeds of fear, confusion, and outrage. In the way that these people knew they were following a healer, they didn’t know they were following someone who could control the weather.
We aren’t surprised in our reading of these things. We call them “miracles”. We’re comforted by the powerful Superman who has come to save us. But what of those times when Jesus doesn’t meet our expectations, when Jesus terrifies us with a power different from those expectations? How do we underestimate the power of GOD?
How do we see GOD as a healer, rather than a restorer? When we expect GOD to worry about the sick and protect them from harm, rather than bringing the poor out of poverty; the widow, the tax collector, and the “sinner” out of the shadows; and the evil, the dead, and the broken, back to life.
We are scandalized every time the small GOD we worship breaks the bounds in which we confine GOD in. Every time GOD is revealed in the loud and the inarticulate and the happy clappy. Every time GOD is revealed in the burdened and the desperate and the different. And we are scandalized every time GOD seems to be asleep in the back of the boat when he should be up here where we are.
Each of us should recognize that impulse the disciples embrace: how can you sleep while we are afraid? Parents and children live this reality constantly. Don’t you care about me at all? I’m trying to tell you I’m hurt / afraid / upset.
And Jesus’s response is essentially Of course I do. I just know you’re going to be fine.
How to trust
It is no coincidence that the teaching Jesus gives them before they get in the boat is about faith and power. That this parable of the mustard seed is not only about the power of this tiny seed, but that this demonstrates the character of faith.
Pairing our reading with 1 Samuel 17 is ingenious – a story about the power of GOD and the faith of David. Calling it a story about the power of faith is a bit misleading, since the power is GOD’s and (hopefully) we understand that pursuing power is the last of our goals as Christians. Instead, the focus is on the small act of faith.
We’re already on this trajectory: finding out that Jesus is no ordinary healer, not simply focused on the sick and the possessed, but is seeking to reveal GOD’s restoration of all of creation. Not only for the sick, but the afraid. Not only for the faithful, but for all of the people.
So then when we get to sleepy Jesus in the back of the boat, if we’ve been listening, we know what Jesus believes about GOD, we just haven’t seen the true nature of GOD’s power yet. A power that isn’t merely bigger than we think, but more expansive. A power that challenges what we hope for and what we expect.
After calming the storm with a great “Shut up!”, he says to his followers
“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
There is no reason to be afraid, but they are. He has taught them, but they hadn’t experienced, they hadn’t felt it yet. They hadn’t trusted that Jesus meant all when he said “all.” They hadn’t trusted that he meant do when he said “do.” They hadn’t trusted that Jesus meant trust when he said “trust.”
This is what trust looks like, what faith looks like. Not only in the mustard seed, but in the calming of storms. Not only in the theoretical, but in our lives; in our triumphs and challenges; in our doubts and our assurances; in our despairs and our elations. GOD is there and way more committed than we can possibly understand.
Horror and hope
Some may wonder how Jesus can sleep when 9 beautiful people were killed in Charleston, South Carolina. He wasn’t sleeping, he wasn’t ignoring them, he wasn’t protecting them in the way NRA claims is the only way to protect a person, which is to kill another person. Jesus was there! Jesus was with them as he promised to be. He was there as in every gathering of 2 or 3 or 12. And he was there with The Rev. Daniel Simmons in the hospital room as he succumbed later.
He was there to plead with this young man to change his mind. He was there to change the racist programming, the evil in his heart. He was there.
Do we still not have faith? That the power to heal and the power to break the storm are not superpowers to be used to “save the day” but are expressions of a GOD who created this world, but was too lonely to just sit back and watch, so GOD created a couple of partners to bring about GOD’s great shalom.
And even while we cower before Goliath’s taunts, Davids rise up among us. Not to prevent every evil, but to overcome the power of evil, taming the fears and vindicating the name of GOD. For it is our faith in a living GOD and a GOD who promises us living water who stays with us and encourages us and teaches us and gives us hope in times of great fear.
“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” He asks them, asks us. This is what terrifies us: that we are afraid; that our hope is gone in times like these. But this is the point of the teachings and healings; of the mustard seed and calming the storm. That we have faith in GOD when the actions of the world suggest we shouldn’t. That’s too tame. When racists desecrate GOD’s temples with their hatred for the Christ embodied in black and brown skin, is the faith driven from us then? Are we trying to rouse Jesus from his slumber? Or are we afraid of learning who GOD really is? That the Spirit is here, provoking us, waking us from our slumber, our confusion and fear, prompting us to put an end to hatred in our community. That the power of GOD can be seen through our work. And then we must confront our true fear: that GOD’s power, through us, might actually work. That we can put an end to real violence in this community this year.
May GOD’s blessing be upon all those who make GOD’s work of reconciliation their work now, upon those faithful reeling and in desperate need for healing in Charleston, and upon the souls of those good and faithful servants whose deaths wound us. May GOD’s demand for righteousness wake us from our slumber and provoke us to act; raising our love for all of our neighbors to that level in which we love ourselves. And may our work continue and grow until we can all rest and breathe easy. Amen.
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