“Peace, Be Still”

Mark 4: 35-41

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, June 23, 2024

Early one Saturday morning in September 1989, Joe woke me up and said, “Get up! There’s a hurricane coming. You have to get to the grocery store to buy basic supplies before they’re all gone.” We were living on the island of Puerto Rico at the time, which, as you know, is occasionally hit by hurricanes. Joe worked for the U.S. Geological Survey at the time, and had to fly out that day to a meeting in Washington, D.C. So after closing up the apartment as well as I could, I hunkered down in a walk-in closet with water, snacks, flashlight, and a battery-powered radio. We were on the third floor of a cement building, so I wasn’t worried about flooding or even wind, at least inside the closet. Thankfully I was fine, and there was no damage to our apartment, although not everyone else fared as well. The scariest part for me was hearing the emergency broadcast system go off, with the announcement, “This is NOT a test. Hurricane Hugo has made landfall with sustained windspeeds of 110 mph. Do Not leave your shelter. Do not call 911 as we will NOT send out any emergency vehicles until the storm has subsided.” In other words, “You’re on your own.”

I wonder if the disciples felt that way when the storm came up suddenly on Lake Galilee. Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the stern. Didn’t he care that they were all about to drown? He had been teaching and preaching on the lakeshore that day. The crowds were so thick, that he got into a boat so everyone could see and hear him better. When evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Now the other side of Lake Galilee was Gentile territory, home to people who raised pigs, so they were definitely not Jewish. This was the first time Jesus had ventured outside of Galilee to non-Jewish people to preach, teach, and heal. The disciples must have wondered what was going on, but they didn’t question Jesus. They just got in the boat and went. 

If the disciples had stayed at home telling first century jokes, around the campfire, or watching TV that evening instead of heading out into open waters with Jesus, none of them would have been caught in the storm. You have to give it to them – they acted on their faith and followed Jesus, and they took a lot of risks to do so – not just drowning, but maybe the risk of losing their livelihood, disappointing their family, even losing their friends. Not everyone would agree that they had done the right thing in following this itinerant rabbi called Jesus.

If we stay where we are and let our fears keep us from venturing out to something new, where God is calling us, we will be safe, perhaps, but we will not be where Jesus is – Jesus is always moving “to the other side” across the lake, seeking the lost, the last, the left-out and the least. Just as Jesus invited the disciples, Jesus invites us to go with him, too, to face new challenges and opportunities for ministry.

So the disciples got in the boat with Jesus and headed over to the other side of the lake. Storms can come up quickly on Lake Galilee, the result of dramatic differences in temperatures between the shoreline (680 feet below sea level) and the surrounding hills (up to 2,000 feet). The strong winds that funnel through the hills easily whip up waves in the relatively shallow waters.

 It must have been a bad storm, because even the fishermen, who were experienced sailors, thought they were about to drown, as the boat was being swamped.

Even if we’re not caught at sea in a storm, we all face storms in our lives sooner or later. Storms come in all shapes and sizes from literal hurricanes, wildfires, and pandemics – to smaller storms in families, workplaces, communities, and our own country, that seems torn apart by hatred and menaced by senseless violence.

Besides these storms, all of us have our own personal fears. Fear of something happening to our loved ones, fear of not being loved, fear of failure; Some people even fear success. Our world is full of fears. So many things seem out of our control, and we feel as helpless as the disciples in the small boat, at the mercy of the wind and waves.

Author and pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber writes: “…being God’s people doesn’t give us special dispensation for an easier, storm-free life. [Some] would have us believe that if we just have enough faith - or think positively enough - we will draw only good things to us. But life doesn’t work like that. Bad things happen to all people…Faith and/or positive thinking are not some kind of shamanistic formula for a storm-free life.” 

But no matter the storms we experience in life, Jesus is with us and has ultimate power. Just as he said to his disciples, he says to us, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

We often think that the opposite of faith is doubt.  Yet this story implies that the opposite of faith is fear - fear that keeps us from being all we can be, from doing those things we have always wanted to do, but were afraid of doing. Fear that keeps us stuck where we are and prevents us from growing as human beings, fear keeps us from reaching out to others, especially those who are different from us. 

Remember Pastor Ryan of Sweaty Sheep? He’s the guy with the Presbytery Catamaran in Santa Cruz. Pastor Ryan says, “Do something scary every day.” He clarified, “I don’t mean something dangerous, but something you are scared to do.” I would rephrase it as “go beyond your comfort zone,” and in particular, “Go beyond your comfort zone for God.” I think that’s what the disciples were doing that day –getting into the boat and going over to the other side, to an unknown land, where people with a different culture and religion awaited them. That must have been a bit scary. But they got in the boat.

Unless we get in the boat with Jesus, we will never go anywhere in our lives of faith. We may stay safely on the shore, but we will not reach the destination God intended for us. If we allow fear to stop us from following Christ, we will never witness the miracle, when Jesus says to the wind and the waves, “Peace, be still!”

Maybe the last straw for the terrified disciples was when the storm was at its worst, and all seemed lost, Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat. How often it’s like that in our lives.  When difficulties come, and we are overwhelmed by fear and distress, it seems that God is nowhere to be found. This story reminds us that although we may not sense Jesus’ presence, he is with us. He is the one who can calm the wind and waves and the chaos of our lives, and give us peace. As the song Deb sang earlier reminds us, “Sometimes He calms the storm, and other times He calms his child.” Sometimes the storm keeps raging, but Christ puts peace in our hearts, so that we can weather the storm.

In the midst of their terror, as the boat seemed about to be swamped, the disciples did the right thing: they called on Jesus to help them. Just because we don’t see God act right away when problems come, doesn’t mean God will not act – and at just the right moment.  Maybe God allows some storms in our lives to get our attention, so that we will finally call on him for help.

Catholic author, Robert Ellsberg, wrote, “When we look with the eyes of faith, we see God all around us.  Otherwise, we see nothing but ourselves,” and, I might add, our own fears. I John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear.”  With faith and love, we can face our fears with confidence – confidence that even though the future seems scary, or our lives seem out of control, Jesus is present with us.  Look with the eyes of faith.  Look with the eyes of love.  Jesus is in the boat with us; he still knows how to calm the wind and waves, and He still knows how to bring peace to our troubled hearts. If we listen carefully, above the howling of the storm, we will hear his calm and loving voice, saying, “Peace, be still.”  Amen.

©Deborah Troester 2024