Who Then is This Part 2

I had the joy of preaching at a baptism this morning, the gospel reading was Luke's version of something I prepared a three minute homily on from Mark's gospel last summer. This sermon takes that and develops it more fully. The reading is Luke 8:22-25

Have you ever experienced a storm at sea? It really is something. If I take us back through the time vortex 18 years Mike and myself were sailing back from Hamburg in a force 8 gale. Now I say “sailing” and it sounds really rather quaint but we were in this great big ship which must have been worlds apart from what our disciples are experiencing in today’s gospel reading.

We’d been woken in the night due to the rather vigorous motion of the boat and throughout the morning it just got worse and worse. It was a horrible feeling of everything being beyond our control, but it never really felt unsafe, the worst thing we had to deal with was some extreme motion sickness, particularly the group of 6th form students who’d been enjoying the cocktail lounge the night before.

It never felt like we were in danger, it was a big sturdy ship and we trusted our crew to get us back to the harbour safely. Although I have to say that this is just who I remember the events, if I think back really hard I’m sure we must have encountered some of our fellow passengers who were really panicking and anxious, I’m saying I felt safe but I have no idea how anyone else interpreted the situation, how frightened or anxious they were.

The sea and water, as we all know, can be deadly. It’s a metaphor we see again and again in scripture, particularly in the psalms and it’s interesting to look at the Jewish people’s relationship with the sea as a chaos which can envelope us or a darkness to be overcome. Yet the imagery of water in both the Jewish and our own tradition is very different- our baptism service is full of imagery of water as a power to cleanse and renew us- but there’s also the image of water as life-giving and sustaining, and of rebirth as the newly baptised, as Lexi will be today, are reborn to life in Christ.

We see in the gospel reading today that Jesus’ companions are really panicking about the storm they’re encountering, whilst Jesus seems oblivious. Jesus may have known that everything would be ok but the disciples don’t, and there’s experienced fisherman amongst them, they know how serious this can be and unlike me in my state of the art steel cruise liner this is presumably a reasonably small wooden boat, filling with water and at serious risk of sinking. By the time they wake Jesus up blind panic has set in…

…And then with a few words from Jesus chaos reverts to calm, order is restored and those who’ve witnessed it are left asking “who then is this?” Jesus is rebuking the disciples too, which makes me feel really sorry for them. They know the water, they know they can be killed, but they don’t know, don’t really know, that this man can stop it with a word. Yes they’re amazed and yes they’re afraid. They’ve been confronted with the reality of who Jesus is and that is both wonderful and terrifying.

If we travel back to the beginning of the Old Testament and the beautiful creation poem we see order coming out of disorder, God creating a world with a natural, created order, with rules – scientific rules of physics, biology and chemistry, although in creation there’re reminders that it’s still an ongoing process. Sometimes this still evolving planet gives us glimpses that chaos isn’t that far away; earthquakes, volcanoes, storms; we have better understanding than our ancestors of why and when these things can occur, but nothing in these seemingly chaotic occurrences breaks the rules of the world God has created.

What does break the rules is Jesus. Any abstract ideas or beliefs, or any theories his followers had have now stopped being theoretical, they’re confronted with an overwhelming display of power that can’t be reasoned or rationalised.

This man who looks like them, has a background like theirs, has a family like theirs, just rebuked the wind and sea, and the wind and sea listened. I think that would cause the disciples to be afraid of Jesus, and even more than that- to fear what this means, to generate more questions, because as they try to fathom “who then is this” they also have to confront “who then am I?” and “what does this mean for my life?”

When any of us is confronted with the reality of who Jesus is, that he’s from God and is God, it has to change us. We can’t know and believe that and then be left unchanged; because if we believe Jesus is who he shows us he is, we have to believe in the things that he said and did, and if we believe in those things we have to start living them; and that’s not easy. It can involve a total deconstruction and reconstruction of our lives, motivations and principles.

We can often feel like the disciples in the storm, overwhelmed by chaos, waiting for God’s intervention. Sometimes it feels like everything is out of control around us, and we look to see where God can possibly be in any of it and hope that God will calm the storm. Sometimes this passage is called the gospel for the overwhelmed, but there’s also a message there that God’s presence and intervention can be unnerving, as can the times when it feels God is napping during our own storms and crises.

Right now, the world on many levels feels like it’s in a time of flux, a time of chaos, whether that's politically, environmentally or spiritually. It’s a time that we more than ever need to set ourselves apart as being a part of something different, of belonging to Jesus, living out the truths he’s demonstrated to us. More than ever we need to honour the truth of who Jesus is; by standing with the marginalised, stewarding creation, loving and welcoming radically and with our entire lives. So much is beyond our control, but this isn’t, and when we bring a child to be baptised into the faith of Christ, as Abby and Alicia have today, this is the faith we’re offering, which we offer Lexi today.

Jesus asks “Where is your faith?” after the disciples witness his power. When we’re waiting out our own storms sometimes faith is all we have, and the knowledge that the gospel stories don’t end with “my God, why have you forsaken me?” but with God overcoming the very worst that humanity could do, and the disciples finally knowing, really knowing “who then is this”, and as we must be when we come to that truth, forever being changed by it.

Celtic Lent Day 21

Never Mock
Never mock what others say.
Perhaps their words are full of nonsense.
Perhaps they are trying to puff themselves up.
Perhaps they like hearing the sound of their voices.
Perhaps they are trying to deceive their hearers.
Perhaps they are foolish and dim.
Perhaps they are more clever than wise.
Yet amidst the useless clay
You may find jewels beyond price.
The word of God is in every heart,
And can speak through every voice.
Robert Van De Weyer

I think the easiest words to mock are our own, to think we're the foolish one whose words are full of nonsense. I constantly doubt myself, replaying conversations I've had, things I wish I had or hadn't said. Today is no exception.
Today's scripture reading offers us the example of Peter, Peter the bumbler who always gets things wrong, and yet he's the one who sees who Jesus really is. We have to trust, as I do, that God is using us despite the stuff we get wrong.

Scripture
He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.
Matthew 16.15-17

Advent word - trust

Trust terrifies me - not trusting others, I do that quite readily, sometimes to my detriment. It's having the trust of others that scares me, worried that as an imperfect being I'll let them down. My family trusts me, my patients, my colleagues and parishioners. That's a huge responsibility. What helps is having permission to be vulnerable, permission to make mistakes. Scripture is littered with people messing up and God uses them anyway. That's really reassuring!

God’s love, like any love, involves real trust. And in relationships, trust requires mutuality. Sometimes it may require a part of myself that I don’t necessarily want others to see. This same vulnerability, intimacy, and mutuality should characterize our love for and trust in God.

-Br. Robert L'Esperance

Advent word - Rely

I'm not the sort of person who's good at letting stuff go- even if I'm trusting someone else to do something I'm really not letting go of it. This means, preferring to do things myself, I end up with too much on my plate and get overwhelmed.
When I've got a big task or difficult day ahead, or I'm feeling overwhelmed, I try to remember one of the most important things we were told (in a self-care session at vicar school): we're not doing any of this in our own strength. We can't.
If I were to look back at the events of the last three years and the last twelve months especially I know I could not have done it on my own. Learning reliance on God is a difficult but necessary skill.

When we are inconvenienced, we have to rely on God. When we have to rely on God, the impossible becomes possible, and we find that we are able to do and achieve that which we never could do or achieve on our own power. We have to have God’s help.

-Br. John Braugh

7th December

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. -Luke 1:38

In other words "thy will be done". I'm a bit of a control freak, I'm not good at just letting things happen. I want to control, contrive and mastermind. I don't like waiting either- seeing how something unfolds. I want to know how things are going to work out...and yet I'm comfortable with the concept of "holy mystery" and not needing to understand everything about God. That's where faith comes in I guess. I'm learning a lot at the moment about not being in control of some things, of not knowing some things and learning to accept and trust the mysteries of this life as much as I trust God.