June 24, 2012

The 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 7

The Rev. Jo Miller

Greetings on this beautiful June morning. You may want to keep Psalm 107 in mind as well as the Gospel reading for this morning. There is an interesting parallel to the two readings.

For several years while I was working in Bandon I participated with the Bandon Ministerial Association at the Blessing of the Fleet.  This would be the fishing fleet and all the casual fishermen who cross the bar into the huge Pacific Ocean.

This meant boarding a Coast Guard Cutter and going out across the mouth of the Coquille River where we would say prayers for those lost at sea, prayers for those who ply their trade in the water, and prayers for the families. Wreaths would be tossed into the pulsating waves. For all the years Ted and I lived in Reedsport, walked the docks of Winchester Bay, played on the Dunes, I never got on a boat to go across the bar of the Umpqua River.

The young men of the Bandon Coast Guard gave us life jackets,  placed us in secure places on the cutter and gave us a ride. As we crossed the bar the waves mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths, my courage melted away as I hung tight to a railing. I felt as though I reeled and staggered like a drunkard. The cutter idled twenty to thirty yards passed the mouth. We were out there oh maybe 15 min.  That was long enough for this landlubber. I don't watch the TV program the biggest or deadliest catch either. It makes my stomach queasy.

Much of Psalm 107 is left out, it skips over the other woes – not mentioned are the homeless who are without food and water, the prisoners, and the sick. We are commanded to give thanks to the Lord for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever. This love in Hebrew is call hesed. It does not lend itself to an easy one word translation. Steadfast love is a good try but as some commentators put it,  "It seems tame compared to the determined, unrelenting love of God that will not let go.

Jesus makes reference to having faith in this unrelenting love. In the Gospel of Mark we will hear and read Jesus saying "oh you of little faith, or have you still no faith." And yes if our faith was the size of a mustard seed oh the things we could accomplish for the good of human kind.

BUT.....and it is that really big but than can hang over so much of our life. So many of us Christians or Moslems, or Hindi would rather cling to our tight religious doctrines, dogmas, and institutional cannons because they feel safer, more secure, more controllable than faith.

As we heard earlier this month in Mark a number of the Pharisees and Scribes were already fearing a power coming from Jesus. Their religiosity took over. They had the power to insist on the law and so they did. However, writings from rabbis of the time indicate that many did not hold so rigidly to many of the Sabbath regulations. For the Pharisees it was about control and power.

We do not like to feel out of control and powerless. It causes fear and fear is the way those who have power can control others. 

The men in the boat with Jesus felt fear. The waves were beginning to sink the boat. Their fear was legitimate.  I use to think that they should not have responded the way they did to the storm and waves. Most of them were fishermen who understood how to manage boats in storms. That was until I went across the bar in Bandon and felt the power of five to six foot swells. I have looked at the story differently.   I have also read commentaries on the psalm 107 which helped me widen my vision.

The narrative describes a violent storm at sea. The magnitude of the rolling waves and the ship is emphasized by the distance they travel through the swells; up to heaven and down to the depths. They were not six foot swells. The experienced sailors are helpless. Their seafaring skills fail; they are left to flounder. None of their attempts to save the ship can bring it under control, so they cry out to the Lord. Immediately, the Lord rescues them and made the storm a whisper.

In our very modern age of science and reason we are often buffeted by the wild waves of controversies, fears of the chaotic world economies, and the earth's strange and frightful changes in climate and weather. A tornado was spotted near Venice Italy, unheard of.

Where do we go now??. .The hard truth is that fearsome things are very real: isolation, pain, illness, meaninglessness, rejection. Jesus did not say to his disciples who, as the Greek says, experienced Hobos megas (geat fear). Jesus did not say, "There is nothing to be afraid of."  Rather he asks, "Why are you afraid?" We can often give many good reasons why we are afraid. Mostly we feel we are alone in our storm tossed boat and that the God of the Universe is not with us and does not care. These are very real feelings of Hobos megas.

The disciples were not alone in their storm tossed boat and neither are we. Faith can teach us that even though there are real and fearsome things in this life, they need not paralyze us, they need not have dominion over us, they need not own us, because we are not alone. A community of faith means we are a phone call away from a reassuring voice. We are a person away from a reassuring hug. Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we are not alone. Faith sends the comforter, faith asks for healing, faith is a mystery that gives us courage, strength, and hope. Hold tight to the railing.