Grace and Peace to you from the one who was, who is, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The last time I preached on this Gospel text was June of 2009. Kym and I were members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, in Sheldon. Pastor Ron Nelson was on vacation, and I had been asked to lead worship that week.
That year we were nearing the Churchwide vote on the Church’s social statement on Human Sexuality and the Ordination of People in committed same-gendered relationships. We were also in the throughs of the recession. There were plenty of reasons why people were afraid and anxious. Anxious for the economic situation of their families and community, anxious for the future of the congregation and church. I am certain that there were other personal and community storms brewing in the members of the congregation, but I have forgotten those. Kym and I were excited and anxious because our wedding was only a few weeks away.
When I preached on this gospel text of Jesus calming the sea and storm with the simple phrase, Peace be still. I was focused on Jesus’ words not only to the storm, but also as a word to the disciples and to us today. Peace, be still. Jesus can calm the storms in our hearts and minds.
This is a valuable message to us today. Peace, be still. Christ calls you to trust in God and put aside your worries. Worries about your economic realities, worries about the price of corn, dairy, beef, or pork, worries about drought and changes to our global and local climate, worries about the pandemic, worries about cancers, gallbladders, and any other of a myriad of the stresses and concerns that we have today. Peace, be still. Or as it is put in Psalm 46, Be still and know that I am God.
But this text is more than about Jesus as our personal life coach, telling us to trust God, envision our future success, and worry less. This gospel reading is an apocalypse.
When we think about apocalypse, most of us think of big, end of the world type things, the book of Revelation, movies and books about a nuclear war and the end of life and civilization that follows, maybe you are a fan of the Kirkman’s Walking Dead, or Romero’s Day of the Dead zombie movie franchise.
But, apocalypse is really about revelation. We don’t read the Apocalypse of John (the Greek title), but we read the book of Revelation. Something is shown that was once hidden in apocalyptic literature in the Bible, The book of Daniel, God speaking from the whirlwind in Job is another example of apocalyptic literature of the bible. In these texts, God reveals something about God’s self and God’s plans.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells the disciples that they should cross to the other side of the sea of Galilee. They are going to be traveling from the Jewish cities into the Decapolis, out of Israel and Judea and into the Greek lands. But the sea of Galilee is known even today for sudden violent powerful storms that seemingly come out of nowhere.
Jesus falls asleep in the boat. Other boats are also following. A sudden violent storm arises. The sea is swamping the boat. The disciple fear that they will die, drown.
Storms are interesting in the Bible. They are chaos and chaotic. God subdues chaos, in Job we heard God talking about just this,
Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— 9when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
God has made all things subject to God’s will. The storms, the wind, the rain. The great “chaos beasts of Leviathan, Behemoth, and Tiamat, are just playthings for God.
Storms are controlled by God and God alone, God alone can bring order and peace from chaos. Storms become signs of God and God’s presence and judgment.
When the disciples are crying out to Jesus, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” We do not know what they were expecting Jesus to do. It probably wasn’t that Jesus would quiet the storm. They were panicked. This was an all-hands-on deck situation, they need more hands to bail water, muscle to wrestle the sail. Maybe they thought Jesus would pray to God, and God would calm the winds and water.
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, we are presented with the disciples misunderstanding of who Jesus is. He is a teacher, he is a folk healer, and he is an exorcist, but the disciples just don’t seem to get that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of God, true God from true God.
We are told that Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. This isn’t a prayer to God that the storm cease. Jesus’ himself rebukes the wind and says to the sea, Silence. Jesus directly commands the chaos to be still. Jesus reminds the water of its bounds.
The words that Jesus uses are important, Jesus rebukes and tell the seas Silence. In the first three chapters of Mark, these are the words used to describe Jesus’ casting out of demons, Jesus, the exorcist.
This powerful storm is more than just a sudden but common squall on the sea of Galilee. This storm is demonic, destructive of the natural order, it is attempting to prevent Jesus and the disciples from crossing to proclaim their message to the gentiles. But, Jesus here is casting out the demons not just those that have possessed individual people, but even the spirits that have come to inhabit the world.
In this short reading, Jesus the odd folk healer / exorcist / and prophet is revealed to be God, with power not only over the demonic powers that have inhabited the natural world, but over the chaos, the storms, the chaos beasts of Leviathan, Tiamat, and Behemoth. Jesus displays the power that God alone has. The question from the disciples that end the text, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Is a rhetorical question. We know the answer, the reader knows the answer, Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, but more than just an earthly ruler and King, Jesus is God incarnate. Jesus is God come to bring order out of chaos and to cleanse the unclean spirits of the world.
Ultimately the unexpectedness and surprising reality is that the Jesus who can still the sea with a single word, silence, will instead chose to enter into creation, enter into suffering, to redeem and forgive sins.
Our Gospel reading today is an apocalypse, Jesus is revealed to us as truly God, capable of commanding the wind and sea. Jesus is revealed as the Christ, who has come to bring about order from the chaos and who has come to cast out the demons and powers that control the world.
Our God who can calm the wind and silence the seas, says also to you, Peace be still! Your sins are forgiven, the battle is already won. Have faith, trust in God, ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’