Sunday Homily - June 24th, 2018 - "Peace, be still."

Jesus Stilling the Storm

by Rembrandt

I.

One of my favorite warning labels that I’ve ever seen
was given to me in one of my chemistry classes
when I was in high school.

The label was on one of the beakers in the lab,
and it said the following:

“Warning: dangerous liquid contained within - DHMO.
This substance is known to cause suffocation,
is a major component in acid rain,
and the gaseous form of this compound
is known to cause severe burns.”
Needless to say
        I was quite curious as to what this substance was.
        What was this substance that was so dangerous
               that they were letting 9th graders play with it in a lab?

Then, of course, comes the punchline:
the substance in question was Dihydrogen Monoxide.
Which, chemically, is another name for H2O.
Water.

Water is that dangerous substance
         that burns your hand if put in front of a steam kettle.
         It is component of acid rain, for obvious reasons.
          It is indeed known to cause suffocation.

Yet, we know that water is also essential everyday to our lives
in equally important ways to the dangers.
It is the essential substance that our bodies need to survive.
The water cycle sustains our plants.
The presence of water is the essential element
necessary for life itself to continue.

Water.

It simultaneously dangerous and life-giving.
It can be still and peaceful,
like fishing on a lake or quiet creek.
And it can be ferocious and destructive,
as when cities are struck by hurricanes
                                        and floods.

I wonder what it was like
to be with Jesus in the middle of that storm
that we just heard about this morning.

 II.

In the Gospel we hear today,
Jesus and his disciples have had a busy day.

Jesus had been telling parables to the crowds.
He had just told of a crazy farmer
who, instead of sowing seed in the furrow lines,
threw the seed all over the darn place,
the seed being the Word of God.

He had just told about the pesky mustard seed,
a seed so small that it got mixed in with other crops,
and when it grew
you had a darn tree in the middle of your
                               wheat fields.

And now Jesus was tired of talking
and he needed some well-deserved rest.

So what do you do when you need to get out of town and relax?
Ya take the boats to the other side of the sea
and get out of town for a while.


This is, more or less, the setup
         for one of the most recognizable miracles
                of Jesus’s ministry:
      the stilling of the storm.

But, if you are like me,
the better I know a story,
I sometimes pay less attention
                         to the details that are present.
                                  And one of those details, I believe,
                                            is of vital importance
                                                     to this story.

Notice with me,
the often overlooked details
of the severity of this storm.

The phrase we have this morning in the NRSV translation
says the following:

“A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat,
so that the boat was already being swamped.”
Now, there are severe storms all the time at sea,
but the particular Greek words used to describe this storm,
the ones that translate “great windstorm”
can even more closely be translated,
“ferocious squall.”

Squalls are the type of storms that produce tornadoes,
waterspouts,
and to a greater magnitude,
hurricanes.

This is no ordinary storm.
This is a storm that is so strong,
so violent,
that the chances of survival are almost zero.

And Jesus is snoozing. 
Even though the storm is so terrible,
that the boat has begun to take water
and sink to the depths of the sea.

And as the disciples cry out to Jesus for help,
as they themselves are dying,
the words of the Creator of the wind and seas,
pierces the black sky with three words:
“Peace: be still.”

Jesus calms the storm, even as the disciples were literally perishing.
They were on the brink of death,
and yet He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
turns back the death in the waters
and brings the peace that passes all understanding
to the very nature that He had created.

That is the power of the Triune God, who is Love itself.
That is the power of Jesus Christ,
                 who is the eternal Word that created all things.

That ferocious squall was no ordinary storm;
but Jesus is its Master.

III.

As we reflect on this Scripture,
        we need to realize that we are not just going through
               something metaphorical.

This storm is real,
         it is deadly,
               and it could have claimed the lives
                         of some of the great saints of our Church:
                                 the Disciples.
This Scripture has no room for platitudes.
It is easy to say, “God calms the storms of your life.”
         or “Just trust Jesus: he will calm the wind and the waves”
when we are not near these kind of waters.

It is much harder to go into these waters,
into real danger,
and to maybe find our faith lacking as the waters rise.

The ferocious squalls of this life
         don’t just come in the form of a windstorm.
They take the forms of things
                          that are outside our realm of control.
Addiction.
Depression.
Families torn apart.
The death of a loved one.

IV.

Yet, in the midst of this terror,
in the midst of our crying out for help,
in the very time when it seems all hope is lost,
the very same Person who calmed
                               the hurricane,
      calls out,
                                            “Peace: be still.”

Because, you know what else is a ferocious squall?
What else is a hurricane?
It is your baptism.

You who have been baptized into Jesus Christ,
by the waters of Creation and the Holy Spirit,
have already been buried in Christ’s death
and have already been raised as a New Creation.

You are right now temples of the Holy Spirit,
The same Spirit that both stirs up the great Storm
                 in the story of Job
          and is the peaceful, still, small voice
                                    revealed to Elijah.
Jesus, in three words,
demonstrates the absolute power of our Loving God
over the forces outside of our control,
so that we may have faith
                                    that He will not let us perish.

Friends,
if you come today beset by the maelstrom of the world,
Know that the same God
                         who is present with us right now in worship
is the same God who is more ready
                                           to seek and save
  than we are to ask.

Know that you are never alone in this life.
You never have to go through this life alone.
That’s why Christ commissioned the Church:
We are his hands, his feet,
crucified, yet resurrected.

God is with you,
God is with you, as the prophet Isaiah says,
“When you pass through the waters,
          I will be with you;
                  and when you pass through the rivers,
                           they will not sweep over you.
                                    When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
                                               the flames will not set you ablaze.”
“Peace:
       Be still.”

The Name of the + Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.