Ninth Wednesday after Pentecost, Proper11: Sleeping Jesus

Lessons: Psalm 119:49-72; 1 Samuel 25:23-42; Acts 14:19-28; Mark 4:35-41

The water is lapping hard on the shore of Lake Champlain below the cliff and one of the small boats has lost its mooring and taken on water.  The wind is blowing straight at us. We will have to bail it out later.  The wind has picked up strongly and I am reminded how hard it is in a sailboat to make headway against such wind.  One must tack to and fro and if the wind is as strong as it is now even that may not work well for you if your aim is the other side of the lake.  Thus I understand the Disciples' frustration with the confidently sleeping Jesus.

“And they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’  He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.  He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’” Mark 4:38-40

I think I would be annoyed having labored hard to stay steady only to have calm so easily brought.  But perhaps this is just one more simple lesson of faith.

All of us go through stormy times, times when the wind seems against us and headway is hard won.  One sees this all the time in parish ministry.  The person of high principles will find the one of low principles in a superior position and is called to navigate their own principles in a barren land.  How many people in business share this story?  It can get you down. 

The teenager who is kind is so often the recipient of the bully’s attention or the popular girl’s unkind commentary.   Parents struggle to help their young stay steady and it eats at us. 

A pastor confronts a system stuck in isolation that cannot see its way to inclusion of the new and the different and thus to new growth and depth.  Here the pastor must hold the higher vision and slowly work for deeper awakening.  Here is the season of patience and colleague building.

All of these places require the patience of faith and deeper hope.  And at some point you wonder is Jesus or God asleep in the boat, resting comfortable in the bow or not there at all? 

So often these are the places we are to remember in faith that storms are a normal course of life.  In their presence we learn new arts of navigation.  This is where we are to remember, the boat will not sink, and the storm will not last forever. That is having faith--to remember those facts as we navigate. 

Looking back over my shoulder, I have seen business people of ethics win for the company or move on and find different, deeper vocations.  I know in myself the kind teenager can find a deeper way to be an effective presence in life.  The parent finds deep reward in being the steady place as our young become their better selves.  The patient, listening pastor of vision can help the system move to its better, more faithful self.  It is not always this sweet and clear, but it is often enough.

The sleeping Jesus always eventually awakens and we find the storm has cleared or is clearing.  Often we rest a bit before the wind comes yet again.  And we have learned how to navigate it the better.