Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 23, 2024 - Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41

One summer, when I was a teenager, my parents decided that we should go to the Jersey shore for a week. Not the Jersey Shore but some little town on the Jersey shore where they could find a motel that took dogs. That was the primary consideration. So, we wound up in a little tiny town that had one main road. The main road ran right along the ocean. On this side was the motels and stores, then the road and then the beach. No break whatsoever. So, the first day that we were there, after breakfast we all put on our bathing suits and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. The waves were gentle. Tons of people at the beach. People frolicking in the water and the whole thing, you know. And we had a great time. The next day it was a little warmer than the day before but a little bit overcast. The sun was through a haze, which meant you’d burn more quickly. It also meant it was more humid and it felt hotter. But also, we discovered that the waves were stronger and the way the people were enjoying the ocean that day is that mostly they were going into the surf and turning their back, waiting for a big wave to come and splash over them. But still, lots of fun. 

The next day, we woke up to a terrible storm. Not so much teaming rain, as a persistent rain with very strong winds, very strong winds. And we had to put on sweaters. We couldn’t go on the beach because the waves were so high from this storm that they were crashing over the beach onto the road. It was quite a spectacle to see. And the locals told us that the storm was actually 20 to 30 miles out in the ocean. All we were getting was the aftermath of it, yet some of the waves were two stories high. Gives you a good idea of what the ocean can really be like. Now, Jesus and his friends, they weren’t in the ocean they were on the Sea of Galilee. But the Sea of Galilee is large enough that it has its own current, its own tides.   

This past week there were three separate incidents reported in the news of people that drowned at the seashore because of riptides. And that happens more frequently than we’d like. There’s also been a few more shark attacks than we ordinarily have at this time of year. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine sent me a little clipping and said this person was presenting a whole paper on how to avoid shark attacks. And the one thing the person never said in the paper was, “Don’t go in the water.” 

But beyond these local tragedies, the world is filled with tragedy. It’s in newspapers and on tv all the time, you know. We hear all the time, for example, about the refugees in Ukraine and the refugees in Palestine. What we don’t realize is that there are more refugees in several African nations than in Ukraine and Palestine combined. Things that we are never told by our local newscasters. And when you see this kind of stuff, random tragedies, and huge masses of human suffering, the tendency we all have is to say, “Where is God? Where is God in all of this? How can you say that there’s a loving God when this kind of stuff happens?” And that’s where today’s gospel begins. Because it begins in a time of great upheaval for the early Christian community, of great tragedy and trouble. And this story is meant to talk about that.  

So, what do you think came just before this story? It’s the same in all four gospels. First comes this certain story and then the story of the calming of the waves. The story that comes just before this one is the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. And there’s a deliberate reason for that. In all the stories, this is how it goes. “The kid is brought up with his little basket of bread and Jesus takes, blesses or gives thanks, breaks, and gives. Those four verbs. Verbs in the ancient world were much more important than verbs today. There are only about five or six hundred verbs in the entire language, and those four verbs were key. Take, bless, break, give. Because they’re the same four words that are used to describe what Jesus does at the Last Supper when he creates Eucharist. He takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks, and gives. And so, the setting for this story is people who receive Eucharist. 

Notice the first of the illogical things. Jesus says, “Let’s cross to the other side.” It was nearly evening. No one who knows the water goes out in a self-propelled boat when darkness is coming on. Very illogical. So, what is this darkness? It’s the darkness of the world of the early Church. The darkness of the world of the early Church. Because it is near evening and Jesus says, “Let us cross to the other side.” What’s the other side? The other side is death. But he says, “Let us …” - not just you but all of us together. Let us all get into the boat and start the journey toward death. 

The next illogical thing is that we’re told the boat was already filling up with water because the waves were so strong and splashing into the boat. Jesus couldn't possibly have stayed asleep through all of that. First of all, he was soaking wet. But also, the tossing and turning would have awakened him. So, to say   that Jesus was asleep in the boat is the way that the Christian Church is thinking about Jesus’ presence or lack of presence among them. “Where is Jesus in our trouble?” 

When Jesus finally wakes up, he says three things. The first thing he does is speak to the waves. He says, “Quiet. Be still.” The very first miracle that Jesus works in the Gospel of Mark, he says the same thing. He goes into the synagogue to attend the service and there is a possessed man babbling away. And the possessed man screams at him, “I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us?” And Jesus looks at this man and says, “Quiet. Come out of the man.” And a great calm descends on the whole synagogue. Jesus does the same thing here because, in each case, he’s imitating God the Father, creator, as described in the Book of Genesis, when he breathes over the chaos of the waters and says very simply and gently, “Let there be.” And so it was. In the midst of all this trouble, Jesus was recreating calm.  

The next thing he says is, “Why are you afraid? Do you not yet have faith? Where did you think I was going to go? I am right here with you in the boat, journeying in the dark to the other side. Where did you think I was going to go, you who received me in Eucharist?” And that’s the story that is being told. 

In every age of the Christian Church, its members are going to have private troubles among themselves and their families and their community and worldwide troubles. And most of those troubles are beyond our capacity. The best we can do is act in Christian love and Christian justice to the extent that we are able. But a lot of it is always going to be beyond our power to fix or change or even live with successfully. We are just stuck in the storm. 

But we’re not alone in the storm because we receive Jesus and we carry him with us into the boat of the Church, into the storms of life. There is a saying they use quite frequently for troublesome things. “Well, we’re all in the same boat, together.” Precisely. You and me and Jesus we’re always in the same boat, together.