Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 21, 2009

Lessons designated by the Common Lectionary include: I Samuel 17: 32-49, Ps. 9:9-20, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, and Mark 4: 35-41

Centuries ago while crossing over the Sea of Galilee on a small boat Jesus encountered a heavy storm that terrified his companions. Remembered in all of the synoptic gospels, it was a telling event! Although in no way identifying himself with Jesus, Andrew Jackson, may well have identified with our lection from Mark’s Gospel. Once traveling to his home in Tennessee “riding by steamboat down the Chesapeake, the seas were rough. A fellow passenger named James Parton recalled a man who ‘exhibited a good deal of alarm.’ Jackson was preternaturally calm. ‘You are uneasy,’ he said to the worried man. ‘You have never sailed with me before, I see.’” (Meacham: American Lion, p.255.) In this incident, we might discern the courage of our seventh president. But what, aside from its drama, is the meaning of the story in Mark? Is it simply a display of courage with the addition of a miracle? I suspect the answer is “yes” but more than that.

If we were able to consult with a psychologist like Carl Jung or a cultural anthropologist like Joseph Campbell, they might help our understanding of our lection this week from Mark’s Gospel. They might tell us, for example, that what we have here is a universal symbol. It’s a story that speaks profoundly to a truth inherent in life itself. Life is a voyage where we can’t escape times of tempestuous sea. Throughout the Bible it’s the sea that symbolizes chaos and all that it means in terms of anxiety and confusion for all of us within the human family. And as Kate Layzer reminds us in a recent Christian Century (6/16/09) article, in such storms of chaos when “offered a choice between fight or flight…Jesus speaks to the storm and utters that word of power…greater than the wind and the waves, greater than our fear of conflict, greater than our drive for power and dominion, greater than sin, greater than death.”

That voice of engagement and exhortation, however, is often the voice we don’t want to hear; for that voice urges us forward to new and different and at times difficult and very challenging tasks.

I don’t know about you, but I believe we need stories like the one Mark tells. Because what it teaches is that eventually, every one of us will come close to the end of our own human resources. No mater how great those resources are and no matter how intelligent we may be; no matter how great the capability of our human spirit, all of us, at one time or another will find ourselves engulfed in some serious storm that shakes us to our core. It may be the turbulence of a personal crisis of sickness, or financial trouble, or family tragedy, or the breakup of a marriage. In all of these storms that afflict us, if the mind of Christ and the spirit of God is alive and well within us, then somehow, says this universal story, somehow there can be a Peace and passes understanding. There can be an inner calm very hard to understand — except that it’s there. There can be a quiet strength that resists fear and confusion and sees us through to the farthest shore.

Earlier in my ministry on Long Island and through work on the local council of churches, I met and developed a friendship with the Bishop of the Episcopal diocese, a man almost thirty years my senior. He was a fine biblical scholar and on the first Sunday in Advent for several years it became a near tradition for my congregation to hear him speak on some aspect of our faith. Finally, the time came when he retired, and after a few years more and a severe heart attack, he prepared to move to New England. But not many weeks before his move, as he was driving his car on an errand, something happened. He blacked out, lost control of his car which jumped up onto the sidewalk and struck and killed a young man who was just walking along, minding his own business.

My first thought when I heard the news was that such a tragedy would certainly kill my friend as well! Even though he didn’t have control over what happened, how could such a sensitive man live with himself through the chaos of a storm like that in his life?

But he did, and in a humble way and with great courage he faced into that tragedy. The years of spiritual discipline brought that mind of Christ and spirit of God closer, so that he was able to trust God while squarely facing up to that unfortunate event. Then, he calmly ministered to that young victim’s family as well as to all of us who were so shattered by what had occurred.

The inscription beneath the lectionary assignment for this Sunday in my UCC Desk Calendar is “In the Boat Together.” As members of the human family we are “in the boat together” where we are beset by much chaos and many a storm. Sometimes it’s pretty scary, and sometimes we want to cry out, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mk.4:38) It’s then that this story can help us to understand that God is with us; that there is strength beyond our own individual strength that can enable us to confront our fear and move beyond it, and that, yes, while there is a limit to our own human resources, with God nothing is impossible.

Ralph Ahlberg

~ by Immanuel Congregational Church on June 16, 2009.