Sam Bush, “Master and Commander”
Happy Father’s Day to all of you. I think it’s fitting that the Gospel reading for Father’s Day entails a group of men in a boat. The comedian John Mulaney jokes that Jesus’ real miracle was that he was a 33-year old man who had twelve best friends. At one point, he says, “Remember when your dad went fishing once? These guys went fishing every day!” Anyway, for all of you dad’s, I hope you can find some time today to do what Jesus apparently spent a lot of his life doing.
It’s fitting, too, that this passage from Mark comes on the first day of summer when storms often come out of nowhere. This is the time of year when you’ll walk out of your office to find that it’s pouring down rain and, if you’re like me, you didn’t bring an umbrella and you have to hightail it to your car. Summer storms in the South are usually not worrisome, but, in the disciples’ case, the stakes are high. They’re out on a boat and a storm catches them when it’s too late to go back and they’re still too far from the other side. Some of them might be seasoned fishermen, but it’s likely that most of them don’t know how to swim, and they could very easily die. I think, in land-locked Charlottesville, a more relatable example for us is air turbulence. One minute you’re flying high in the friendly sky and the next minute you’re almost thrown out of your seat.
These are the kinds of situations where people often imagine how they will react but they really don’t have a clue how they will actually react. They might think they’ll be measured and assertive, but that’s discounting the real nature of fear and panic. It is in these moments when people are likely to say something from the depths of their subconscious when they get to the heart of the matter. And what do the disciples say? What’s the heart of the matter for them? “Do you not care that we are perishing?”
Of course, they’re probably implying it, but it’s interesting that the disciples don’t ask Jesus to help. The fact that the passage says that Jesus was “in the stern, asleep on the cushion” shows that Jesus was not exactly first mate material at this time. To the disciples’ credit, you’re not going to pray "Jesus take the wheel,” when Jesus is passed out in the back seat. It’s possible that it doesn’t even cross the disciples’ minds that Jesus can do anything to help. Their primary concern is whether or not he cares. "Do you not care that we are perishing?"
Have you ever felt this way about God? Maybe you’re experiencing something that is leading to your perishing and you feel abandoned and you wonder if God cares. That’s often where hopelessness takes shape because if nobody cares about you then what’s the point? Jesus’ apparent indifference is the even greater problem that these men are facing. The root of their despair is that Jesus doesn't care that they’re about to die. That’s the heart of the matter.
And then what happens? It says, “He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.” This is a perfect illustration of how God completely defies our expectations. A typical hero in this story would be someone who would brave the high seas and navigate through the storm, someone who could encourage everyone to paddle harder. That’s not what happens. Instead, Jesus addresses the ultimate problem. He doesn’t ask for the disciples to steer while he repairs the sails. He addresses the storm itself. Here, we see that Jesus is not only Master and Commander of a ship, but Master and Commander of all creation. He rebuked the wind. Have you ever thought of rebuking the wind? It’s a ludicrous thought. And yet, the wind is his to rebuke because he created it in the beginning and it obeys his command: “The wind ceased, and there was a dead calm....And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'” Clearly, God’s ways are not our ways. Where we think the solution is to paddle harder, God goes right to the source of the problem and extinguishes it.
So what does this mean for you? Chances are, you are navigating through several storms right now and, my guess is that there is probably one storm in particular that is simply too great for you to handle. How does this passage meet you in that place?
First off, it means that it doesn’t matter how you turn to God for help. The disciples don’t turn to Jesus in faith. They turn to him in fear. They even sound resentful toward Jesus for seeming so checked out. If anything, this passage gives you permission to question God, to say "Teacher, do you not care that I am perishing?" I’ve been doing a chaplaincy internship at the UVA hospital and that is a common question. Where is God in this? The very question is the cry of humanity. If you’ve ever read a history book, if you’ve ever watched the news, if you have noticed your own aging or noticed certain things in your life falling apart, it’s an appropriate question to ask whether or not God cares that you are perishing. And the disciples did nothing to convince Jesus to calm the storm. They didn’t even think that was possible. All they did was complain. So one of the morals of this story is that complaining to God might actually get you somewhere! It will at least get you to a place of honesty; it will at least get you to the heart of the matter which is where God can always be found.
What else does this passage mean for you? It means that God is not worried about you. Jesus is not worried about the storms that you are facing right now. In fact, he sees this as a great time to catch a few winks. That’s how at peace Jesus is right now. How can this be? Because Jesus is Master and Commander over all Creation which means that he is Master and Commander of your life. His sleeping signifies a level of trust in his heavenly Father that, while the world may look like it's going down the tubes, God is in control. This is one of the countercultural golden nuggets of Christianity, that even while the storms are raging, we can trust that God is sovereign. To quote Bob Dylan, “The storms are raging on the rolling sea and on the highway of regret. The winds of change are blowing wild and free, You ain't seen nothing like me yet.” That’s what Jesus says to you.
Lastly, this passage tells us that, while God is not worried about you, He does actually care about you. It may very well feel like He is distant. But if you’ve ever doubted whether or not God cares about you perishing, look no further than the Cross where Jesus cared so much, in fact, that he perished on your behalf. On the Cross, he went right to the heart of the matter. Human history’s two unstoppable storms of sin and death - which will inevitably capsize every ship, no matter how well-rigged - were calmed. When we thought the solution was to paddle harder, Christ alone had the authority and audacity to do such an unthinkable thing as calm the storm. And it was not a collaboration. Jesus didn’t give us a map to circumvent the storm; he didn’t show the disciples how to read the winds right. He rebuked the wind and calmed the seas. The disciples just stood there and watched in awe.
The same goes for you. You may be navigating through storms right now but Jesus is with you. Wherever you are exhausted from paddling harder, God is capable of calming the storm. There is nothing to fear. As the Book of Hebrews says, “We who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”
I’ll close with an old prayer from the Book of Common Prayer to be used in all ships in storms at sea. The language itself is a little dated, but it speaks to the heart of the matter. Let us pray. “Most powerful and glorious Lord God, at whose command the winds blow, and lift up the waves of the sea, and who stillest the rage thereof; We, thy creatures, but miserable sinners, do in this our great distress cry unto thee for help; Save, Lord, or else we perish. Send thy word of command to rebuke the raging winds and the roaring sea; that we, being delivered from this distress, may live to serve thee, and to glorify thy Name all the days of our life.”
