Second Sunday Before Lent

"Who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?"

Just outside the city of Tiberius on the shores of the Sea of Galilee there is a small car park. It has a notice board which reads: ‘Danger storms’.  Do not park at the water’s edge.  Do not leave your windows open.’ The Sea of Galilee is susceptible to sudden storms. It's nine miles long and five miles wide – but it is geographical position which causes such frequent sudden and at times violent storms. The Sea of Galilee lies five hundred feet below sea level at the bottom of a bowl formed by the Golan Heights on one side and the Hills of lower Galilee on the other. The air is warm and humid most of the time. At the Northern end there is the Jordan valley and indeed the river Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee at its northern most tip. Fifty miles further north along its valley the river Jordan rises in the foothills of the snow-capped mount Harmon where it is cold enough to ski during the winter months. That is how the storms on the lake happen so often. The cold air from Mount Hermon comes down the Jordan valley and meets the warm air of the Galilee. The two kinds of air have a fight for supremacy – and a storm is the result. These storms are both sudden and violent. So the description of the storm on the Sea of Galilee in the Gospel for today is very true to life – that is just how it will have been.

Jesus and his disciples are on the Sea of Galilee bound for the other side of the lake. The other side of the lake was gentile territory – they were heading for the unknown and the unfamiliar in an attempt to extend God’s Kingdom beyond their usual territory. Jesus goes to sleep leaving the disciples in charge of the boat. Then suddenly the storm begins to rage so much so that the boat begins to take on water – they are in sudden and grave danger of sinking. The disciples cry to Jesus for help. And then there is this amazing statement from him. He rebukes the wind and the raging waves; Jesus gives the wind and the waves a good telling off; He puts the wind and the water in their place.  He exerts his power over them. No wonder the disciples ask ‘Who is this that even the winds and the water obey him?’ But even as they ask the question: ‘Who is this’? The disciples will have known the answer. Surely only God can put the wind and the sea in their place only God can rebuke them. Only God has power over them. There can only be one answer to the Disciples anguished cry: ‘Who is this?’ This is God present in Jesus who alone has the power to calm, the storm and save the disciples. And so as those frightened disciples  put their faith in God so too they can put their faith in Jesus who is God with them.

Jesus calmed the storm at sea and so demonstrated his divine power and authority. Now within a long strand of Old Testament tradition the sea was associated with the powers of evil. In Jewish tradition the sea was associated with the forces of chaos and death which undermine human life and destroy it. You can see the power in such symbolism. Both  the wind and the sea have a power beyond human control. Both can make short shrift of human life and both are unpredictable bringing chaos in their wake. Rather like the powers of evil death and destruction over which we seem to have little control and which threaten to overwhelm us.  

In the Hebrew Bible the first thing that God   does in the creation of the world is to subdue the watery chaos of the sea – only then can life begin. God’s power over the forces of evil and death represented by the sea was celebrated in Israel’s worship. Listen to Psalm 89:

‘O Lord God of Hosts who is like you? Your power and your faithfulness are all about you. You rule the raging of the sea. When its waves surge you still them. You scattered your enemies by your mighty arm.’

So when in today’s Gospel we see Jesus saving his disciples from the wind and the sea we are to understand that he can do so only because the power and authority of God is upon him. This is a story about Jesus and the authority of God himself that is on him. But it is also a story about us and our relationship with Jesus. Notice in the story that Jesus and the disciples were together in the boat. Notice too that they called upon him to save them from the waves. ‘Master Master we are perishing’. Jesus is with us – always and everywhere and in all the circumstances of our lives.

We come here to the Eucharist week by week and we celebrate the presence of the Lord with us in his word and in the bread and the wine of the Eucharist. That presence of Jesus with us here is real:  The Lord is here with us his people as we gather in his name. But the Lord present here and now is a reminder that he is everywhere and always. He is  with us wherever we are and in all the circumstances of our lives. When he storms of life threaten to buffet us, throw us off course or overwhelm us then the Lord is in the boat with us. Sickness, bereavement, sadness, disillusionment, a sense of futility to life, fear of the future, people letting us down or betraying us – and so much more are all part of life and theses things come to us all at some stage or other.

The disciples turned to the Lord to save them. They knew his authority and power to save and they were not disappointed. Nor will we be. But often people turn elsewhere. Sometimes we trust our own strength or we look for our own way. We have a proud self-reliance. Or maybe we resort to retail therapy.  Food or drink a thousand and one distractions designed to take our minds off our problems and all of them are futile.

I was reading the other day someone commenting upon life as it is and saying that we live lives of high and conspicuous consumption and yet the incidence of depression and depressive related illness is higher than ever. Christians are not immune from the circumstances in life that conspire to drag us all down. Indeed  following in the way of the Lord can bring its own particular difficulties – for it is after all, the way of the cross. But we do have a Lord who is with us and is ready and strong to save us if with the disciples we ask him to. He may ask us the same question he asked the disciples:  ‘Where is your faith’? Its a good question to ask ourselves. ‘Where or in whom do we put our faith?’ He wants to be Lord of our lives and as Lord for us and with us to share with us a portion of his saving power – not to protect us from the storms  that buffet our lives  but to prevent us from being overwhelmed by them. Amen.