Word to the Wise
Sunday, June 21, 2009 - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41]Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
I can't speak for anyone else but myself, but I don't think I would have been asleep in that boat! I would most likely have been alternately sea sick, terrified and bailing with all my might! Maybe all three at the same time! I've been on that lake and saw how quickly it could get nasty! I'm glad we had a skilled captain on the tour boat! In the gospel today, we are not told who was in charge of the boat or guiding it. We just know that one of the passengers was asleep on a cushion in the stern! It's frustrating when your world is in chaos and the one person you look to for help is snoring away! Don't we almost automatically feel that the sleeping hope just doesn't care that we are about to lose it all? And, truth be known, what can one say to the Teacher when we manage to wake him (it must have taken some effort if the storm hadn't already done it) and he says, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" Of course, he says this calmly after telling the storm: "Quiet! Be still!" (I'm sure lots of us would like to know how he said it!) Do we just sheepishly say: "Yeah, well.........." The story is told as part of a series of demonstrations of Jesus' power over such things as illness, demons, opponents and now over the powers of nature!!!! The disciples make a small step forward in faith by simply asking: "Who is this whom even wind and sea obey?" Indeed, who IS this? Pastorally, I'm reminded of the saying: "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes the Lord lets the storm rage and calms his child!" I think that might be a first answer to their question. AMEN
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