Our Psalm this morning proclaims:
They cried to the Lord in their trouble, *
and he delivered them from their distress.
He stilled the storm to a whisper *
and quieted the waves of the sea.
Then were they glad because of the calm, *
and he brought them to the harbor they were bound for.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy *
and the wonders he does for his children.
I imagine that once the disciples who had been in the boat with Jesus during the storm finally got to dry land, and had a chance to reflect on their experience, I’ll bet psalm 107 came to mind.
Jesus had calmed the storm with a word and quieted the waves of the sea. They God thanks for his mercy and wonders he does for his children.
In fact, the words of the psalm point to the answer to the question the disciples ask at the end of Jesus miracle: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” It is none other than God himself.
I’m thinking, though, that the disciples weren’t thinking that Jesus was acting like the omnipotent God the psalmist describes when Jesus was sleeping in the boat. Jesus was exhausted, as I’m sure the disciples were after a long day of teaching the crowds by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus and his disciples, in several boats, began to cross the Sea of Galilee over to the region of the Garasenes. That’s the place where, in the passage after this passage, Jesus encounters a man with an evil Spirit living among the tombs. This is the demon-possessed man, who, when Jesus asked the Demon’s name, he responded, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And Jesus cast out those demons into a herd of 2000 pigs that ran down the bank and drowned themselves in the lake. Most of you know that story.
But right at that moment, when the storm first hit, Jesus wasn’tcasting out demons or calming the sea, he was sleeping. The disciples’ reaction to Jesus sleeping was “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”
Isn’t that the question that so many of us ask when we are facing the storms in our lives? “Don’t you care that we are perishing, Lord? Why don’t you wake up?”
The storms in our lives have all different causes. Storms can rage against us from the outside, like the wind and the waves in today’s story, or they can rage against us from the inside, like the tormented and oppressed man Jesus will soon encounter across the sea.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a storm because of the consequences of our own sinful or wrong choices… For example, if you choose to have an affair, and you may find yourself in the storm of divorce and losing your family. Choose to embezzle from the office, and you’ll likely experience the storm of life behind bars.
Sometimes the storms we face are the result of others’ sinful or wrong choices. We celebrate Father’s day today, but some of the fathers among you know how a wayward child’s actions can wreak havoc on family life, causing a tempestuous storm for all, and some of you know the pain that absent fathers can cause in their own families. Another example might be how the newfederal holiday of Juneteenth we celebrated yesterday reminds us of the often stormy ride through rough seas on the way to freedom caused by those who would seek to oppress.
Many storms, however, aren’t of our own or others’ making. They are simply the “weather” life has dealt us. The Pandemic has been such a storm. There are plenty of others: The loss of a job. A challenging health diagnosis for yourself or a loved one. A home fire or natural disaster that can wipe out everything in a flash.
Our Gospel story today show us such troubles. The disciples are being assaulted by a fierce storm that threatens to capsize their boat. They will survive this storm and will arrive on the other side of the lake to see a poor man so held captive by demonic forces that he is outcast and forced to live among the tombs.
In these stories, we see people battered from without and from within. Neither of these struggles results from something these people did, or anything that someone did to them.
Think about the struggles of this life that you and I battle against. Think about the storms that hit us from without and from within. I’m sure you could add to the ones I named earlier.
What gail forces have pushed against your life boat recently? What about the storms and trouble you experience from within? You may not be literally oppressed by demons, but there are demons that can haunt us. Chronic depression or self-doubt. All-consuming Anger or Rage, a sense of worthlessness or self-destruction, mental illness or addiction, and fear… a whole gamut of fear and anxiety.
You didn’t do anything to deserve this inner struggle. Sometimes the cause for these problems can be traced to an external influence, but not always. There is a storm raging inside you, or someone you love, and it threatens to keep you tortured, in a place of decay, among the tombs of this world.
When we experience the storms of this life – those that hit us from without or from within, we often cry out to God with the words the disciples used to Jesus:
“Don’t you Care that we’re perishing?!?”
You see, we have this cause and effect view of God. If I’m good, God will protect me, but if I’m bad, God will get me. So when I see the “bad guys” getting all the good breaks, and the “good guys” suffering, I cry out, “Not Fair!” We ask why God would allow such a thing to even happen.
Our first reading today is from the Book of Job. Job, as you may know, is the man who was righteous in God’s sight, but who was tested by the devil and lost everything – children, land, health, and even his friends. He has lived a righteous life, and even though he never curses God, he doesn’t understand his sufferings.
Earlier Job had lamented, “Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?” “But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.” (Job 29: 25-26)
The passage we heard this morning is God’s response to that plea of “why?” And basically, all God says is that there is a lot we cannot know. We do not have God’s mind. We cannot understand suffering, just as we cannot comprehend God’s action in the creation of the world.
But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about our suffering.
Some have the misconceived view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually, being a Christian means being delivered in adversity.
Jesus is with us in our struggles. He doesn’t abandon us in them. Jesus was in the boat with the disciples. He was not sleeping because he didn’t care. His rest meant that he was at peace and without anxiety. When we realize that Jesus is “in the boat” with us during our struggles, he can help calm the storm and anxiety that rages in us. Maybe if the disciples had truly had faithknowing that Jesus was in their boat, maybe they might have been able to take a nap in the middle of the storm as well. In the middle of storms we cannot control, we can have inner peace, knowing God is with us. It is Jesus’ words of Peace and Calm that can calm the outer storms and our inner storms.
In the Bible, James wrote, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
Notice that James said, “whenever” you face trials, not “if” you ever face trials. And James adds the curious phrase, “Consider it nothing but joy.” Count it all joy that you face struggles because those struggles can bring you closer to God. That was certainly Paul’s experience as he wrote our passage in Corinthians. They endured many storms: afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger… but while others thought them as poor and having nothing, they knew they were rich, possessing everything. They had Jesus in their boat.
We often lose sight of the fact that our very sufferings and struggles make us stronger people and better witnesses of God’s power, especially when we lean into God for strength.
That’s a lesson good fathers and mothers are always trying to teach their children. No, we don’t make you do chores or finish your merit badges or practice your piano or study algebra because we want to make your life miserable. No, we do it to build up your strength and skill in the face of “adversity” so that you can deal with the much bigger issues you will face in life. And when you as parents help your children know that Jesus is their constant companion in the midst of all that, even in theserious storms, they can know true peace.
God does indeed care about us in our struggles, and Jesus can bring us Peace. Sometimes that means that the outer storms of our life are dissipated. Othertimes we will know God’s Inner Peace, that allows us to remain without anxiety in a boat being tossed by the waves of life, because we know Jesus is with us in the boat with us.
So when we find ourselves in times of storm, our faithful response is to turn to Christ and his Body, the church, for support and strength. There we can find true Peace.
Perhaps this hymn text by Annie Johnson Flint can sum up God’s promises for us:
God hath not promised Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways All our lives through;
God hath not promised Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.
But God hath promised Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, Light for the way,
Grace for the trials, Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, Undying love. Amen.