Under stress and aiming for safe havens

‘… Peace: Be still!’. (Mark 4:39)

Mark 4:35-41 (Year B: Trinity+3)

                                     pic: http://deanroberts.net

Peace is our quest..

Peace is God’s first gift and His last. In the life of Jesus we hear about ‘peace on earth’ at this birth. We meet the message of peace throughout his ministry including this Sunday’s story of the storm on the lake and on to the various appearances after the resurrection when Jesus declared ‘My peace I give you’. We are familiar with the popular hymn taken from Isaiah 52:17:

‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation’

And we have heard the prayer of St Francis ‘Lord me an instrument of your peace …. etc.’

The community for which Mark wrote this Gospel in the 70s (A.D.) was the subject of persecution. The captain of the little boat in this story seemed unaware and not bothered.  Today, we are buffeted and tossed on the stormy seas of our world just as on Lake Galilee when the small band of friends of Jesus in a little boat were in a place of great fear. We are in that boat today and we, also, experience moments of anxiety – possibly acute anxiety about all sorts of things that happen at some stage to many people – a precarious job contract, no job contract, no business, illness, a broken down relationship, a loss of health, ageing. The list could go on. For many of us we have the fortune of living and working in a world where human rights and freedoms are better respected than in other parts of the world. The vast majority of us have the freedom (for example) to worship (or not) in our own place without fear of physical attack or social exclusion. Yet, millions live in a state of intense fear and anxiety. You, who read this blog, may be such a Christian in some part of the globe.

Stormy places..

Then there are times when a period of extreme difficulty arises suddenly out of nowhere like a storm sweeping in without notice across Lake Galilee. It is useful to note the geography of the location to which this story relates. The lake (it is called a sea) is the lowest freshwater lake on earth. It is 21X13 Kilometres in dimension. Due to its low-lying position in a rift valley and surrounded by hills it is liable to sudden and violent storms (source: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Galilee).  It can happen today in Israel and it happens on the Western seaboard of Ireland where fishing workers know all about the weather. In our lives we can be a little like low-lying lakes closed in by many mountains of responsibility, expectation and obligation. Storms arise from time to time and frequently without warning.

The initial response of the disciples was not one of trust. For this Mark tells us that Jesus upbraided them for lack of faith (trust).  Still, Jesus proceeded to calm the storm and ‘there was a dead calm’.  Whatever the circumstances of our lives we, too, can find places of ‘dead calm’ in our souls if we take the time and patience to go there.  The calming of the storm all around is about what happens within me, you, the next person. We can only be responsible for our part of the situation but our response to the storms can facilitate a point of calm in the ‘eye of the storm’. Finding those daily ‘still points’ is important but we can be sure of one thing – there will be storms and very often sudden and unexpected storms that defy the best meteorological forecasts and analysis.

Later in the Gospel of Mark we will encounter, once again, Jesus walking on water (Mark 8:45-52). However, in the later story it is Jesus who walks towards the troubled disciples. Still later, in the story of Jesus’ struggle in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14) roles are reversed. It is the disciples who are asleep as Jesus sweats and struggles in great fear. In the boat of today’s story (Mark 4) Jesus is on the one who sleeps while those around him are in turmoil.

When you pass through the waters..

The prophet Isaiah whose writings were so beloved by Jesus said: ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;     and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.’ Isaiah 43:2:

Note that Isaiah did not say ‘if you pass through the waters’. Neither did he say ‘The Lord will not have you pass through the waters’ nor did he say ‘The Lord will not have you walk through fire’. Rather, he said ‘When you pass through the waters’ and ‘when you walk through fire’. But, this is what Isaiah said: ‘I will be with you’. And that makes all the difference to you and me today as to Peter and the other disciples 2,000 years ago as well as to those who, as we speak, read, listen and worship’ live in great fear and danger this Sunday in dark corners of the world.

A famous English mystic, Julian of Norwich, writing in the 14th century reported Divine love in this way:

"He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted’

Rather, he said:

“Thou shalt not be overcome”

(chapter 68 of Revelations of Divine Love)

And so as we pass through storms, fires and tribulations of one sort or another we walk not alone but with countless millions now and in times past and in times to come. To conclude, here is a very striking set of verses from Psalm 106(107):23-32 which runs parallel to the story of this Sunday’s gospel:

Some sailed to the sea in ships to trade on the mighty waters.
These men have seen the Lord's deeds, the wonders he does in the deep.
For he spoke; he summoned the gale, tossing the waves of the sea up to heaven and back into the deep; their souls melted away in their distress.
They staggered, reeled like drunken men, for all their skill was gone.
Then they cried to the Lord in their need and he rescued them from their distress.
He stilled the storm to a whisper: all the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced because of the calm and he led them to the haven they desired.
Let them thank the Lord for his love, for the wonders he does for men.
Let them exalt him in the gathering of the people and praise him in the meeting of the elders.

May we find a safe haven in Jesus at the beginning, the middle and the end of all our storms.