Jesus in the Storm-Tossed Boat – 20 June, 2021
The sea as the environ of chaos is a metaphor that begins in the first chapter of Genesis and extends throughout the Hebrew scriptures. Mark easily employed it as an image for the threat the disciples faced when equipped only with small faith. He is suggesting that it is a threat facing Christians in any age if we attempt to engage the chaos when we are in thrall to fear.
For Mark there is a simple syllogism that might strengthen faith: . . . only God has power over the creation God authored. If Jesus is the Messiah then he will be able to subdue the chaotic forces of creation when they are out of control. Jesus is able to calm the storm; therefore, Jesus is the Messiah. . . . The function of miracle is to inspire belief. –– L. Ann Hallisey
Mark 4:35-41
Mark’s recounting of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. . . is the first in a series of stories that show Jesus’ power over nature (the calming of the storm in 4:35–51); demons (the Gerasene demoniac in 5:1–20); physical illness (the woman with chronic hemorrhages, 5:24b–34); and ultimately, death (the healing of Jairus’ daughter, 5:21–24a, 35–43). The disciples do not understand and respond with fear. The crowds do not understand and also respond with fear. Each miracle is an effort to disclose Jesus’ messianic identity and each time the audience sees only the mystery and misses that to which the mystery points.
What is Mark trying to say to his nascent Christian community? . . . Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” (Cat’s Cradle [Delta, 1998], 63) The disciples must have wondered what Jesus was thinking when he invited them for an evening’s sail, with storm clouds on the horizon. Yet, that is the very condition for Mark’s Christians—sailing into the dark with storm clouds on the horizon.
Perhaps that is what Mark wants to communicate: this life in faith is a trip not of one’s own choosing but a command from the living God. So step into the boat of your life and sail into the darkness of what the world might do to those who believe because the One in the boat with you is the only one who can still the storm. –– L. Ann Hallisey
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Paul speaks of the ways in which he has tried to demonstrate that he is not an imposter in the faith. What in our own lives warrants commendation as servants of God? What might reveal us to be imposters? How does God embrace us nonetheless? How will we respond to such grace? –– E. Byron (Ron) Anderson
Job 38:1-11
[This text] is the epitome of the response of the Hebrew wisdom tradition to the same questions of faith, fear, and the human response to the presence of evil and chaos in the world. While the disciples ask Jesus, “Do you not care that we are perishing,” Job is more definitive and direct:
“[YHWH] does not regard any. . .’’ (37:24). In chapter 38, YHWH responds. –– Amandus J. Derr
Amandus J. Derr served for 22 years as senior pastor of St. Peter Lutheran Church (ELCA) in New York City.
L. Ann Hallisey, an executive coach and organizational consultant, spiritual director and retreat leader, licensed marriage and family therapist, was a parish priest, rector, and interim rector in the Diocese of Northern California for over thirty years, and for six years Dean of Students at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley.
Homily Service 42, no. 3 (2009): 38-47.