Trinity two

‘Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Most people who visit the Holy Land on pilgrimage are struck most of all by the beauty and the simplicity and the peace of the Sea of Galilee, the region in the north of Israel where Christianity was born. The city of Jerusalem is hectic and bewildering and disturbing. And so for many pilgrims the most memorable time of their visit will be around the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the stillness you can hear the echo of so many of Jesus words first spoken around the shores of the lake.

After he left his home in Nazareth Jesus settled in the town of Capernaum on the North West shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus new home was on a major route the Via Maris- which ran from Damascus to Egypt. Capernaum was an important regional centre for both fishing and agriculture. As he watched the fishermen at their trade and the farmers on their land Jesus will have been inspired to use seeds being sewn and fish being caught as the basis of his storytelling in parables. Most of Jesus ministry was around the shores of the lake. His first disciples came from there. The people who lived there were the first to hear his message. Once Jesus used Peter’s boat as a pulpit when the crowd became too large, and he crossed the lake many times – no doubt with Peter as his captain.

On a warm sunny summer day it is an idyllic spot. But that isn’t all that can be said about the Sea of Galilee. I have seen it when it has appeared dark and menacing. The usually turquoise waters turned black as they reflect the black clouds of a winter’s afternoon hanging above. And indeed, even in the summer the normally flat calm Sea of Galilee changes its mood as the evening approaches and the lake becomes choppy. Smaller boats won’t venture out as the lake bares its white water teeth. The normally calm lake can suddenly be changed into a frenzy of wind and wild water – largely because of the lake’s position 700 feet below sea level. Cold air comes rushing down the Jordan valley from the snow capped slopes of Mount Hermon and when it collides with the warm air of the Galilee a sudden and violent storm can appear seemingly out of nowhere. This is what happens in today’s Gospel story.

Jesus is tired from a day’s teaching and preaching and so the disciples resolve to take him to the other side of the lake. The other side of the lake was foreign Gentile territory so Jesus could rest away from the crowds and their demands. But it wasn’t to be! Jesus' rest in the boat was disturbed not by the storm but by the frantic distress of his disciples "Teacher do you not care that we are perishing". They were in real danger their little boat was being swamped by the waves. The disciples had no intention of allowing Jesus to doze through the disaster. He wakes up.  Rebukes the wind to be silent and commands the waves to be still. And incidentally rebukes the disciples for their large fear and little faith. ‘Peace.  Be still’. He had commanded’. And it came to pass. ‘Who is this?’ asked the awe-filled disciples, ‘That even the wind and the sea obey him?’ ‘Who is this’? That is one of those questions to which there can be only one answer. This is Jesus the Son of God. 

God must be present in him for only God can have authority over the wind and the sea. That is the point of this miracle story. It’s a story about the identity of Jesus as the Son of God for only God could do this. On the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a storm, the presence of God is fully revealed and powerfully demonstrated in the Son of God as he calms the sea and stills the wind. In the Jewish Bible and in Jewish thought the sea is synonymous with chaos, evil, destruction and death. And only God has power over all of that. In the very first word of the bible in the book of Genesis the first thing that God does is to subdue the watery chaos. And in the last chapter of the bible in the Book of Revelation we are told that in the end when God’s kingdom finally comes there will be no more sea. And indeed throughout the Bible God is praised as the one who is able divide the sea by his might, and break the heads of the dragons in the waters.

In Jewish writings death itself is often described as the experience of one being finally overwhelmed by deep dark waters. God’s power at the time of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt in crossing the red Sea is described as a rebuke of the sea and a control of the waters – very similar language to that used by Jesus. The whole point of this story  of the calming of the storm is the identity of Jesus as the Son of God and his power over all that would threaten us or overwhelm us. Thus when Jesus calms the storm it is not a brute demonstration of power over nature, but rather a redemptive saving act of God in which the forces which threaten to overwhelm  are rebuked silenced and muted. Notice though that the storm is not avoided. Jesus and his disciples sailed right into it. And whilst he was asleep it seemed that Jesus was either powerless or careless to help.

That can seem to be our experience too. When the calm course of our lives is buffeted by the winds and the waves of outrageous fortune ‘Where’ we ask is God?'   ‘Where is God in all of this?' Does he care?  Can he help?  Is he here?

A recent book about Mother Theresa of Calcutta has revealed that for many years of her life she was struggling to find God amidst the onset of an overwhelming spiritual depression. Even whilst she was doing her great work for God on the streets of Calcutta yet within herself she felt at times overwhelmed with doubt and the absence of God. We too can find ourselves sailing into stormy waters.  Doubt, fear, uncertainty, faith glowing but dimly. This can be brought on by illness or bereavement, anxiety or concern for the way the world is all around us. There is enough chaos and confusion in the world in which we live to cause anyone to feel that we are about to be overwhelmed by the forces of evil. The experience of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee is a graphic one. They feel all at sea. They feel storm-tossed. They feel up to their neck in difficulty. They feel powerless to withstand the environment of threat in which they find themselves. For sure their experience is not alien to us. And there is Jesus asleep on a cushion. But the point is that he was there all the time. And in the end his presence and the presence of God that he mediated to them was their salvation.  

We believe that Jesus accompanies us on our journey through calm waters as through stormy waters. Sometimes when we face such disorder and chaos around our world and in our lives we might wonder if Jesus has chosen to sleep through the disaster yet again. To journey with Jesus is to journey through storms not around them. The peace of our Galilees will be disturbed.

There was a wonderful moment on our recent journey to the Holy Land. We were on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. I was celebrating the Eucharist in the midst of which we had a period of silence. It was early morning. The sea was flat calm. The silence was palpable and wonderfully peaceful. Seventy people in perfect silence apart from the gentle lapping of the waves on the side of the wooden boat. ‘Peace be still’ was surely the text in people’s heart and mind at that moment. But then faintly, but surely in the dim distance we heard it. ‘Boom, boom, boom, the sound of artillery. The Israeli army were carrying out manoeuvres in the occupied territory of the Golan Heights. In the midst of that moment of idyllic peace we were reminded of the storms of war and the chaos and the confusion and the powers of evil in the all at sea world in which we really live.

To journey with Jesus is to journey through storms not around them. And he is with us with all the authority of the Son of God and in all his saving power to give us peace even when we live in the eye of the storm. The challenge for us which lies behind behind this story is to believe in the presence of Jesus with us in all the turbulence of our lives – however hidden that presence might be. And to believe in the final good outcome of God’s kingdom in a world so filled with storms. That’s not always easy. But faith believes that so long as Jesus is in the boat we will not be finally or eternally swamped.

In the midst of all her pain and struggle Mother Julian of Norwich was led to a great moment of faith when she said ‘He did not say you would not be storm-tossed.  He did say you would not be overwhelmed’.