Mark 4:35-41 (4:40) – June 20, 2021
Have you ever slept in a tent while a huge thunderstorm crackled and poured overhead? The blustery wind, rain and loud thunder seem right next to you. I know firsthand; I spent several summers in high school at a Girl Scout camp, sleeping in a platform tent every night.
Except, in our Gospel reading, Jesus and the disciples did not even have the cover of a tent. They were out in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, in the middle of a fierce storm.
Our Gospel writer Mark tells us “Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water.”
This storm on the Sea of Galilee blew in, all of a sudden. How many of us can relate? How many of us have had real storms suddenly come upon us? Without warning? We can be thinking of a real storm, where the skies turn black, and the heavens open up with pelting rain. Or, it may be a figurative storm, where something catastrophic suddenly comes upon you or some member of your family. Perhaps a car accident, or house fire, or sudden hospitalization, out of the blue. These are serious storms, too, and they can overwhelm us with their intense effects.
I spent the last three months of 2020 and first three months of 2021 enrolled in a unit of chaplain internship. This was a community-based internship, and I had the opportunity to have this church, St. Luke’s Church, as my clinical site. I needed to do a final project. My chaplain supervisor asked me to make up a church timeline for our church. This fascinating project that took me a long time! And, it provided many rich and valuable insights into our church life.
This 20-year timeline informed me that this church has been through some real storms, and repeated choppy water. And, not just one little storm, either. Repeated cloudbursts, in fact.
Have you encountered churches that have weathered big storms? Either a church you attended, or that one of your family or friends went to? This kind of tumultuous happening can be utterly paralyzing! Plus, this stormy weather in the congregation can give an absolute chill to any viable ministry or church work going on, inside or outside the church walls.
I hold an Illinois certificate in Alcohol and Drug Counseling. I know from experience that a tried and true saying from the program of recovery is “you are as sick as your secrets.” St. Luke’s Church had some big secrets, indeed. Not completely hidden, but certainly wallpapered over so that I needed to dig further to find out about some of them.
Stories about storms from your local church history can be damaging, to be sure. However, stories about storms from church history can be helpful, and empowering, too. Take, for example, the true story about Anna B. About 100 years ago, Anna B. was a faithful member of a dying church. The building was run-down, the congregation could not afford to pay a minister. Without a minister, people stopped attending Sunday services. Except – Anna B. kept coming to the church. She opened the doors on Sunday morning, week after week. She lit the candles and provided a place for prayer. She filed the necessary papers to maintain the church as a legal entity. These simple acts of faithfulness and diligence kept the congregation going for several years. Eventually, rebirth happened, and it was in great part because of Anna B. [1]
That is the basic story of Anna B., who was instrumental in faith and revitalization when that church was going through a series of storms in the life of that struggling congregation. Yet, what does Mark’s Gospel reading have to say? “Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” With all of the strong tumult, wild waves and whistling wind, we can be tempted to shake our Lord Jesus awake, too. We can say, “Don’t you care that we are about to die?” Can you relate to the disciples? They knew what to do – they asked Jesus for help!
Each church, each denomination here in the United States has been dealing with significant storms over the past year and a half. With the pandemic and all of the related shutdown, isolation, sickness, deaths, and general tumult of all kinds, this COVID-time certainly has been a whole series of storms we have all had to weather.
39 Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, “Be quiet!” and he said to the waves, “Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm. 40 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?”
Jesus calls on us to have faith, even in the midst of the raging storm. We can believe, we can have faith that Jesus will be right by our sides. Even through the darkest storm, though the wild waves and choppy water threatens to flood our little boat, Jesus will be with us. Through the storm, and even calming the wind and waves.
A good way for us to weather storms that come through our churches is to remember the faithful and trusting stories from our own congregations. Just as Susan’s former congregation lifted up the true story of Anna B. to encourage their corporate faith, so we can find stories in our own churches. Where were people faithful to God? Where did God’s grace break through?
We can tell stories about this past year of COVID-tide, too! Where has God been faithful to us? Where has God’s grace shown through, like the sun behind the dark clouds? Let us be expectant, persistent, on the look-out for these true stories of faith. We all can tell how this church made a difference for each of us, in this past year, and write our own hopeful, faithful stories. Are you ready? Write your own story of faith! And, Jesus will be right by your side, all your life long. Alleluia, amen.
(Thanks to Illustrated Ministries for their lesson for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost from Mark 4, from their 2020 Summer Children’s series.)
(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!
[1] Beaumont, Susan, How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), 99.
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