2021.06.20 | Stormy Weather
“Stormy Weather”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
June 20, 2021
Mark 4:35-41 (NRSV)
The way that Mark tells the story, Jesus and his twelve disciples had been hunkered down, working their tails off for months in and around his hometown, and finally, he declared the need for a day off. So he declared a holiday and directed his team to jump in their boat and go to the other side of the sea for a rest.
The disciples were all for a vacation. They jumped in the boat, dropped the rudder, hoisted the sail, and headed for the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee.
Even though it was night, the crew was undaunted. They knew the way. They were lifelong fishermen who were familiar with their rig, the water, and the weather conditions. They could cross the sea in their sleep.
Jesus knew that he was in good hands and he was tired, so he lay down in the stern of the boat to rest, and quickly fell asleep.
As it turned out, there would be no rest for the weary. Soon after the crew embarked on their trip, a storm came up. Waves crashed against the hull of the boat and water rushed over the bow. The boat was swamped. But Jesus didn’t notice. He was sound asleep.
In a panic, the disciples roused him saying, “Jesus, don’t you care that we are about to drown?”
Jesus awoke with a start, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And all was calm.
Then Jesus asked the disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"
Crickets. The disciples did not reply. Instead, they asked each other, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
II
The image of a stormy sea and fearful disciples has crossed my mind many times during this pandemic--so much so that it has become a crucible of the pandemic for me and a constant reminder that what has been needed more than any commodity in this mess is faith--faith, not fear.
As it turned out, I was not the only person who had this thought. Other faith leaders, including evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, have shared my assertion--”faith, not fear.” But after doing some research on the matter, I quickly concluded that we have different ideas about what it means to live with faith, rather than fear.
The movement that is now associated with the phrase was introduced in a press release distributed by the Religious News Service back on April 6, 2020. It’s titled “Faith Not Fear: crosses bring cheer, and critics.”
In the article, authors Aysha Khan and Bob Smietana describe how the Faith, Not Fear movement encourages Christians to erect crosses wrapped in Christmas lights in their front yards, and to promote prayer and conversion to Christianity. According to Susan Polhill of Louisville, Georgia, founder of the movement and who is cited in the article, “...prayer is the only answer to the pandemic.”
Here’s where I differ from Ms. Polhill--for me, prayer is part of the answer to the pandemic, but it is not the sole answer, and converting souls to Christ isn’t the cure. Sharing accurate public health information, offering COVID-19 testing and vaccines in culturally-appropriate ways, and funding scientific research and following the paths of logic and reason are the ways to ameliorate and end the pandemic.
III
My assertion isn’t simply my opinion. My position is backed up by the gospel lesson today. Let’s look again at how Jesus handled the panic in his boat that night.
The first thing that Jesus did when awakened was to call for peace and stillness.
As human beings, we do not control the elements, but we have choices about how we prepare for and respond to them.
We can, for example, cultivate stillness. We can build stillness into each day, week, and season, so that when we come upon turbulent times we are better able to find and keep our centers, ride out life’s storms, and help others keep their wits about themselves when they encounter rough seas. How?
Pause. Pace ourselves. And, as one of my clergy colleagues often says, “Make sure that you are all prayed up!”
Secondly, when the storms of life beat at our boats, we can put matters into perspective. We can remind ourselves that even the harshest storms will pass.
There will be a time beyond this time when the worst of what we are experiencing will dissipate, and a new normal will emerge.
As the Senior Minister of this congregation, I have often find it helpful in especially challenging times to remember that Eden Church is 156 years old, and that this congregation has survived two world wars, two devastating earthquakes, the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and somehow, yes, we, too, will survive this COVID-19 pandemic.
A third strategy that we can employ for coping with life’s storms is that we can get stronger. We can take the spiritual and metaphorical equivalents of swimming and boating lessons.
We can learn the school of life, our forebears in the faith, and from other faith groups how to weathered life’s storms and grow stronger.
We can draw from these lessons and become survivors and thrivers, rather than victims of life’s storms. We can learn to pay attention to the weather and to professional forecastors and better anticipate and prepare for life’s storms.
We can also prepare First-Aid kits, develop Disaster Preparedness plans, and have our Go-Kits at the ready.
Fourth, we can stick together. We can share tangible resources with each other and our neighbors. We can express our feelings, share memories, and offer lessons learned. We can brainstorm and workshop strategies to address monster problems in front of us, and we can evaluate, adapt, and press on.
Mark 4 reminds us that the storms of life are inevitable, even for Jesus and his followers, and that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, as Jesus said. So our hope does not lie in avoiding the unavoidable, but rather in preparing for and weathering life’s storms together.
V
Through these four steps--1) saying our prayers, 2) taking the long view, 3) building our strength, and 4) sticking together--we can experience the peace that passes all our understanding, weather the storms of life, and share that deep peace with others. Amen.