A Reflection for the Urban Outreach Ministry, June 23, 2015, Chattanooga, TN
Gospel Reading: Mark 4:35-41
There are many ways to
interpret this passage. It helps to put it in context.
We have been reading the
verses of Mark leading up to this passage. Jesus has been explaining to the
crowds the nature of the Kingdom of God through parables. The parables of
Jesus, as we learned, are really riddles meant to provide a context to
understand the Kingdom of God.
Jesus has taught us that
we have no power to bring the Kingdom of God to the world or even to enter it.
On the first hand, Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to us. On the second hand,
we can only enter the Kingdom of God through the action of the Holy Spirit when
it calls us to the Kingdom.
If you deny the Holy Spirit,
or fail to listen for it, you will not hear the call. You are stuck in the
Kingdom of the World.
Just before the events of
this passage, Jesus explained to the Disciples the reasons for the parables,
and as they were able, he explained the mystery of the Kingdom to them. We use
the word mystery in its true sense,
hidden knowledge possessed by insiders whom Jesus has informed.
Now after ministering to
great crowds beside the Sea of Galilee, the disciples have the full explanation
of the purpose of Jesus. Jesus decides it is time for a respite and bids them
to get into their boat for the other side where they will go into the mountains
and talk more.
The sea, even a big lake, like our Great Lakes, is a dangerous
place, even for fishermen who have experience. They know the sea is an
unpredictable, terrifying place respected especially with care.
Furthermore, if you live in the desert-like place of Palestine, you
have other worrisome fear of water and storms. Other than sailing on a large
lake at night, the worst place to be is in a wadi in the desert near the
mountains when a storm is threatening. Water runs off the mountain in torrents.
In a matter of minutes the wadi transforms from a dry creek bed to a raging
river washing every loose object in sight away.
But the sea is their place of work so they do as Jesus bids and sail
towards the far shore. Jesus decides to take a well deserved nap.
(I certainly get the idea that Jesus has set up this situation,
given that he has just explained to the Disciples who he is and what is his
purpose.)
A storm arises, typical of the reality of living on the sea at night.
The language of the Greek text suggests the boat is swamped by the water and on
the verge of sinking.
The disciples wake Jesus terrified and perhaps outraged he has led
them out into a dangerous situation where their lives are threatened. He in
turn stills the storm saving everyone from danger.
Jesus shows what seems a little bit of frustration, even anger, or
at least astonishment that the Disciples seem to have failed to hear what Jesus
has just told them. “Don’t you remember anything I told you? Don’t you believe
anything I’ve told you? What is the problem? Why are you afraid?”
The disciples asked for protection. Perhaps Jesus did not expect
them to ask, but to know truly he would
protect them?
The disciples have experienced something beyond their expectation of
reality. Should they be surprised, having experiencing such things as they travel
with Jesus and the crowds? Maybe hearing and seeing is not always enough for
believing? Perhaps they really were not taking what Jesus said as seriously He?
There is something to this story beyond the experience of the
disciples that is pertinent today. Perhaps Mark knows there is something else here
to understand because we know the end of this story. Jesus faced the ultimate
threat of extinction, of death and of denial by his adversaries but overcame
those threats in a reversal of power that defeated death.
We know we are called to walk in this world as Jesus walked. We are
called to extend the collegiality and love to everyone that Jesus did, and to
honor the Lord as the source of all good gifts. We know that, don’t we?
So, why is it so hard for us actually to trust Him at his word. Why
are you worried? Do the birds worry because the Lord does not take care of
them? Then why do you, for whom he cares exceptionally so?
The irony is that we look for power where it does not lie and
refuse to go to the places where power rests.
Last week a horrible event occurred. A young man went into a church
desiring to “start a revolution” by killing nine African-American worshippers
who were meeting in Bible study.
Yet, the public comments reflected overwhelmingly a solidarity
with the families of those who lost friends and loved ones in the shooting. But
there are so many negative Facebook posts and letters to the editor and
comments on TV. Liberals were calling for repentance for collective guilt. Some
African-Americans were calling for harsh action and talking as if all “white”
folks carried some culpability for this act. Others, thankfully a very small
number, thought the shooter did not do enough. Some politicians went out of the
way to avoid acknowledging the evil in this act, or the possibility that some
people cling to symbols of history as symbols of hate.
One only needs to look around to see that there is a pervasive
attitude in our culture that is dissonant to all theses calls for solidarity.
They are reflected in the hostile use of labels to categorize people into
easily identified boxes. This is not all that different than the language of
racism and religious bigotry. (Far more damage has been done in the name of
religion than the loss of these nine lives by this one hell-bent person.)
Perhaps the thing to take away from this is the action of the
families of the nine victims who confronted the shooter in court. They did not call
for damnation and execution (though the South Carolina governor was quick to do
that). Do you know what they did?
They forgave him. Here are three comments taken from a New
York Times article.
““You took something very precious away from me,” said
Nadine Collier, daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance, her voice rising in
anguish. “I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her
again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.”
“You have killed some of
the most beautifulest people that I know,” (the mother of Tywanza Sanders) said
in a quavering voice. “Every fiber in my body hurts, and I will never be the
same. Tywanza Sanders is my son, but Tywanza was my hero... But as we say in
Bible study, we enjoyed you. But may God have mercy on you.”
“I acknowledge that I am very
angry,” said Bethane Middleton-Brown, sister of one of the victims,
DePayne Middleton-Doctor. But “she taught me that we are the family that love
built. We have no room for hating.”
We want to gauge this event through the lens of the world, but these
comments are voices of great power, the same power Jesus used to defeated
death, Rome and evil. It is the power of faith so strong it can do the
ultimate. Trust that Jesus has our back.
Not many of us have that power. We want to trust the ballot box, our
President, the local policeman, the president of our club, the power of our
guns, even our own strength because we do not listen and do not hear the words
of this passage. We must answer the two questions in verse 40 in the
affirmative. We are afraid, and we have no faith.
Many
of us are blind to the progress we have made in improving the plight of the
poor and oppressed. The killings last week have a special impact because they open eyes that have not seen at a time when having sight is a heavy burden that
may obscure the hope behind it, or wake us up. I have always recalled the discourse between
the Lord and Isaiah as he was called in Isaiah 6:1-13. Here are the words,
somewhat abridged:
“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,
high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in
attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces,
and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole
earth is full of his glory.”
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those
who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among
a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphs … touched my mouth with (a hot
coal) and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed
and your sin is blotted out…And he said, “Go and say to this people:
‘Keep
listening, but do not comprehend;
keep
looking, but do not understand.’
Make the
mind of this people dull,
and
stop their ears,
and
shut their eyes,
so that
they may not look with their eyes,
and
listen with their ears,
and
comprehend with their minds,
and
turn and be healed.”
Then I
said, “How long, O Lord?” And he
said:
“Until
cities lie waste
without
inhabitant,
and
houses without people,
and
the land is utterly desolate;
until the
LORD sends everyone far away,
and
vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it
will be burned again,
like a
terebinth or an oak
whose
stump remains standing
when
it is felled.”
The holy seed is
its stump.
I look back on the past half century or so and see that
great strides have been made to lay waste to the underlying attitudes that made
the several thousand year old institution of slavery a reality. It still
persists in the world but it is dying.
The governor of South Carolina is calling to take down
the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol, as is Senator Corker. But
hearts need to change. How shall we do it?
The only way to do it is to use the power those church
members have.
How many of us challenge racially bigoted statements with
hostility when they are made, rather than invite a person who expresses them
out to lunch to talk about it? More importantly, how many of our congregations
have active programs in the primarily African-American and Hispanic
neighborhoods that offer housing in their homes for the destitute?
How many of us treat the destitute as brothers and sisters
rather than just complain about how hard are their lives but avoid them? How
many of us trust that Jesus has our back when we lend a hand to help, and how
many of us look at his two great commandments and choose death, not life?
How many of us hear when it is said, “’Who will go up to
heaven for us, and get (this commandment) …’ ‘Who will cross to the other side
of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’
No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you
to observe.” Is your heart circumcised to the Lord? The only ones subject to these calamities are those who are not listening.
The families of the people killed in Emanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston certainly seem to get it. They
have that faith. May we all aspire to hold the power they have.
There is a person sitting in a jail cell in Charleston
that fully understands the power that overturned the power he thought he held
in his hands. Today he sits in jail on suicide watch, much like Judas
after betraying Jesus. May God rest his soul as he has those of his victims.
Amen
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