Proper 7

Let’s read from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, a familiar story

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

There’s a lot to discuss here, like the kingship of Jesus over all of creation.

But if we consider the other lectionary readings for this morning, it focuses are attention on one thing: the presence of God in trials and suffering

The first reading is from the the book of Job, which, if you know, is all about a man who has lost everything, trying to make sense of his suffering

Then we have a Psalm that describes situations like

Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.

We have a reading from 2 Cor 6 where Paul describes being beaten and imprisoned and hungry and sleepless during his missionary journeys

And then this story in Mark

Our prayer for this morning says

Your hand is upon your people, O God, to guide and protect them through the ages. Keep in your service those you have called and anointed, that the powers of this world may not overwhelm us, but that, secure in your love, we may carry out your will in the face of all adversity. Amen.

How do we not get overwhelmed?

How do we stay secure in God’s love?

How do we persevere, in the face of trials and suffering?

I think these passages help us when we consider them together offering some lessons to take with us along the way

First and foremost, the presence of these passages and countless more that speak to suffering, show us that when we suffer we are not alone.

When we are in the midst of it it can feel like, “Why me? No one else in history has ever suffered.”

But we’re reminded that to be a human being in a fallen world is to experience suffering

AND, try as we might, we cannot avoid it

Money doesn’t protect us

Physical fitness doesn’t protect us

Withdrawing from the world doesn’t protect us

Being a Christian doesn’t protect us

IN FACT, being a Christian increases your likelihood of suffering because

Following Jesus puts us at odds with the world in many ways

AND the way of Jesus is love and love is a risk in which we open ourselves up to others

So, we aren’t in control as much as we like to think we are and we can’t organize the perfect life to protect ourselves from suffering

Encouraged yet?

But that leads to the second point which I think is the emphasis in Job: we aren’t going to make sense of suffering

To alleviate the pain we often want someone or something to blame to direct our anger at

But even when our suffering is self-inflicted its a complicated web of factors

There aren’t easy answers

All the more so when our suffering is the result of OTHER PEOPLE’S actions

certainly we can diagnose issues and work to alleviate suffering of others but as for the deep existential why there isn’t an easy answer

And when its something like an illness there isn’t an easy answer to “why”

Sometimes we grab onto some explanation of why this or that tragedy is actually a positive and how God is going to use it

But we don’t have to argue that it’s a positive to believe God can use it, we can weep and say “this isn’t how it’s supposed to be” and believe that God can use it

If you want to be angry, be angry at sin.

Be angry at the fallen state of our world.

It is perfectly in line with the faith to say “I HATE THIS!”

But then we have the witness of the Psalms

Psalm 107, along with so many others, reminds us that our God is a God who sees our suffering and delivers us

The Psalm is taking its own advice when it says

“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.”

Then it tells a story

“I was as low as one can be and God met me there are brought me up”

This is the story of scripture, all the way back to the Exodus

God heard the cries of his people in bondage and acted

That is the theme of the entire gospel.

God hates this too. And he’s doing something about it.

And what Paul’s witness in 2 Cor tells us is that even when God doesn’t totally protect us from suffering it doesn’t invalidate the good news.

When Paul became a witness for Jesus, it got WORSE for him.

He got beaten and dragged outside a city because people thought he was dead.

But he didn’t assume that meant God didn’t care. And he didn’t stop being a witness.

In fact, he found an even stronger connection to God because he understood that God is with us in the midst of suffering

And that is what I want to emphasize in the Mark passage

We’ve talked at length about how the incarnation of Jesus shows us God’s commitment to be present with his people

Jesus’s presence with the disciples in the storm gives us this beautiful illustration of that

The disciples are pretty sure they’re about to drown and if you’ve ever been on the water during a storm there is not a more helpless, terrifying feeling in the world. You are 100% at the mercy of your environment. But notice what happens.

Jesus doesn’t get up and give them a pep talk.

He doesn’t tell them to reach inside and be mentally strong.

They never actually pull themselves together or find some inner resources the didn’t know they had.

Instead, Jesus calms them and the storm with the power of his presence.

He doesn’t tell them, “there’s nothing to be afraid of”. He tells them “do not be afraid”. And those sayings are different.

One commentator put it this way

The hard truth is that fearsome things are very real: isolation, pain, illness, meaninglessness, rejection, losing one’s job, money problems, failure, illness, and death. As we grow in faith, we come to understand that even though such fearsome things are very real, they do not have the last word. They do not have ultimate power over us, because reigning over this world of fearsome things is a God who is mightier than they.

Put it this way, for those of us who are parents we probably know what it’s like for children to wake in the middle of the night sweaty and panicked, or maybe unable to go to sleep at all, because they’re scared.

Our reflex is to say, “there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

And in the specific context that might be somewhat true.

The child may be imagining things that aren’t real or afraid of things that aren’t a threat in that moment.

But the whole truth is that there ARE things to be afraid

So instead of saying “there’s nothing to be afraid of” we might say instead, “Don’t be afraid because you aren’t alone. I’m here.”

And in the security of our presence the child can learn which fears are real and founded and which are imagined and exaggerated.

But the truth holds even when a very real and present danger is at hand

“Yes, this is scary. Whatever happens, I’m here. You aren’t alone.”

And when it’s God saying “I’m here” we can rest in knowing that even if the storm swallows us its not the end.

He still has us.

There is a quote by Frederick Buechner that is referenced often, but for good reason. He says,

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you.