WE’RE ALL IN THIS BOAT TOGETHER
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Text: Mark 4:35-41
He must have been exhausted – telling tales to the crowd, teaching the disciples, healing the sick, exorcising demons. On this day he had begun speaking to them standing on the shore, but the crowd had grown so large that he had gotten into a boat, pushing away from the shore so that he could have a more commanding perspective as he spoke to them. Now night was coming on. It was time for the crowd to disperse and he felt the need to move on. In spite of the grueling day, he must also have sensed some urgency in spreading the word. He didn’t say, “It’s been a long day; let’s go home and get a good night’s sleep.” Instead, his instruction was, “Let’s go…across the lake to the other side.”
The disciples must have wondered, but, exhilarated by this day so rich in sharing with their teacher the mysteries and the riches of the coming kingdom, they launched their boats. Their little flotilla set out for the other side – familiar territory, perhaps, but also a land of others. He was taking them to the other side, to gentile territory. However, the story does not say they objected or complained. They were willing to go with him on this part of the adventure, too. Here they were, all in their little fishing boats together, the whole entourage out on the lake, joyfully and expectantly headed for the other side, ready for the next chapter in their journey.
But then, the perfect storm! Oh, these were seasoned fishermen, perhaps as many as 8 of the 12 fished these waters. They knew the Lake of Galilee and they knew it was subject to these sudden, wild storms that came roaring out of the ravines along the lakefront, whistling down from the summit of Mt. Hermon. But this storm was worse than usual. The wind howled and the waves lashed the little boats, filling them with angry water and threatening to swamp them. After first they bailed as fast as they could; then they looked to their leader, like old Jonah, sleeping soundly in the stern of the boat, apparently so exhausted or so blissfully dreaming that not even this storm roused him.
What should they do? What should they say? Finally, in terror for their lives, they shook him awake. “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to die here?” Rudely awakened from his sleep, Jesus lashes out first at the storm. “Peace! Be still” is a mild translation for his rebuke of the storm. A strong, “Hush! Silence!” is more like what he said. Or, in the language of his first exorcism, rebuking the evil spirit, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” For those on the boats, such a storm on their lake was surely the work of evil spirits, the manifestation of the chaos over against which God had wrought creation. Words of exorcism would have sounded right to their ears.
But they weren’t entirely ready for the response. The storm stopped. As suddenly as it had blown up, it dissipated and the sea was calm again. Before the disciples could express their gratitude, they had to deal with their wonder, a new fear, really, at this further manifestation of the power of their teacher. “Who is this man that even the wind and waves obey him? Who is this strange and powerful one to whom we have attached our sails and committed our craft?” An awkward but accurate translation of Mark’s words here are that they “feared a great fear” in the face of what Jesus had done. The storm itself had been terrifying, but this action challenged them to see Jesus in an entirely new light. Surely they felt awe, but there is also a sense that they are in uncharted waters. Remember these are not seafaring folk. This experience must felt like they had been drawn out into water way over their heads. It seemed they had sailed their little boats to the edge of the world, and they were terrified of what lay ahead.
In their tradition, only God had the power to rule the waves, to hold back the chaos, to stop the storm. Who was this man who could act so powerfully for God? In an early sermon Dietrich Bonhoeffer addressed the ways in which people want to domesticate Jesus, to hold him within an acceptably gentle and loving range of possibility. He suggests that this view of the Incarnation leaves followers unable to “feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us.” He says, “We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us" (Quoted in Kate Huey, “In the Boat Together” SAMUEL, Pentecost +3, 2009, at ucc.org.) What the disciples discover, here on the sea, is Jesus’ capacity to make a difference in the world, a difference that goes far beyond any previous image or understanding that they had had of him.
His chiding word to them questions how little they have understood of all that he has taught them and shown them. "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" he asks. It is particularly telling that these words come in Mark’s gospel right after he has told us that Jesus taught the crowds in parables but then spent time explaining the parable to the disciples. “With many such parables he spoke the word to [the crowd], as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples” (Mark 4:33-34.) He was depending on them to take over when he was gone. His expectation was that they would discover their own capacity, in and through him, to make a difference in the world, a difference that would take them far beyond any previous image or understanding they had of themselves, but, Lord, they were slow to get with the program. Well, here they were, all in this boat together, for good and ill, in calm seas and stormy weather. Somehow they would have to make the most of it as they journeyed on together. The hope of the future was in their sticking together until they could see their way forward.
Like those disciples of old we’re all in this boat together for good and ill, calm seas and stormy weather. How do we find our way forward? What threatens us? What calms us? How is our congregational life like that of the first century church to which Mark wrote these words? That church, too, had many challenges. They were faced with being small, threatened by cultural misunderstanding and social apathy or downright hostility. We may not face persecution and martyrdom at the hands of a despotic emperor like Nero, but we live in a culture that often fails to understand what the realm of God is all about, its importance and urgency for all of creation. Truth be told, in our privilege and our material comfort, we don’t always grasp God’s desires for us ourselves. We don’t see what God expects of us and needs from us in order to bring God’s reign to reality.
What are our own fears and challenges that leave us wondering, “Who is this man that even the wind and waves obey him? Who is this strange and powerful one to whom we have attached our sails and committed our craft? What does it mean for us to follow him?” Kate Huey asks “…who can fault the disciples for being afraid…?” She says, “We know fear ourselves, from our personal dread of illness, suffering, death (our own and that of our loved ones), and the emotional suffering of loss and loneliness, to the shared anxiety we have about terrorism, war, environmental damage, and economic troubles…the stormy seas of job loss, the emotional devastation of broken relationships, health challenges, worries over…children and…elderly parents, fear of being alone, and death itself.” Do any of those sound familiar? What difference can our little faith community make in the face of so much need? How can we keep our small boat from filling with heavy, angry waters that threaten to swamp us?
Huey goes on to say that “Storms are buffeting the church today, individually…[in] denomination[s], and as the Body of Christ, the whole church in the world. Longtime members fear the end of the story for their much-loved congregation and its familiar and inspiring story; church leaders worry about declines in membership and giving as our wider culture navigates its way through this deep economic crisis; church members struggle with whether to suppress or try to resolve conflicts that arise over issues that were unknown to the early church” (Kate Huey, “In the Boat Together” SAMUEL, Pentecost +3, 2009, at ucc.org.) Does this sound at all like us?
One essential word that comes down to us through this ancient story is “Don’t be afraid.” This is a word that we hear over and over in Judaeo-Christian tradition. From Jesus’ birth to his resurrection, in many ways, from many voices, speaking for the great God of the universe in whose presence the earth trembles, we hear, “Don’t be afraid!” Yes, hardship and struggle may face those who follow faithfully but this is no reason to be afraid, to suffer from anxiety, to give up the voyage. When faced with all the exigencies of existence Frederick Buechner tells us that “[Jesus'] answer to the question of what to do next, what to do with the rest of our lives, is simply stated…Go…Go for God's sake, and for your own sake, too, and for the world's sake. Climb into your little tub of a boat and keep going." In our journey Buechner reassures us that Jesus will accompany us. "Christ sleeps in the deepest selves of all of us, and…in whatever way, we can call on him, as the fishermen did in their boat, to come awake within us and to give us courage, to give us hope, to show us, each one, our way. May he be with us especially when the winds go mad and the waves run wild, as they will for all of us before we're done, so that even in their midst we may find peace, find him" (Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, quoted in Kate Huey, “In the Boat Together” SAMUEL, Pentecost +3, 2009, at ucc.org.)
So, don’t be afraid, my friends. Don’t worry. We are truly blessed to have each other as journey partners. We’re all in this boat together and, praise God, that includes the One who journeys with us always, showing us the way, calming the storms of life, and giving even us the peace that passes understanding. Thanks be to God! Amen.