I generally like storms. There is beauty in the strength of the winds as they push tree branches and other growing things around. In my Midwest childhood, there was plenty of thunder and lightning, so it doesn’t worry me to hear powerful sounds from the sky or see the bright flashes of light. A torrent of rain can be soothing or even healing as it refreshes the earth. Of course, I feel quite differently when I am driving through a powerful storm. The winds will push the car around as I work to stay in my lane, and the sheets of rain make it hard to see the road and obstacles around me. Sometimes it is easy for me to face storms without fear, and other times it is much harder.
In the gospel reading this week, Jesus has been teaching about God’s reign while healing people from illnesses and demon possession. He’s been pushing the boundaries of religious observance, including people who were typically outsiders, and arguing with religious leaders. After a day of teaching with parables, Jesus and his disciples head across the Sea of Galilee, encountering an unexpected storm. As gusts and waves and water come into the boat, threatening to swamp it, Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat, on a cushion (I love that detail!). The disciples cry out to Jesus, “Don’t you care that we’re going to die?!” Jesus wakes and calms the storm with just a couple words: “Quiet! Shut up!” then asks the disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Amazed and with a new kind of awe and fear, the disciples ask each other, “Who is this that even the winds and sea obey him?”
I understand the disciples’ fear. They are truly at risk in the boat during the storm, and since this is early in Jesus’ story, they are just beginning to realize who Jesus is. They are just beginning to see the kind of power and transformation he has for them and the whole world. The storm on the sea is too much for them to look beyond their fear and see the wider picture in which Jesus could and would bring them safely to shore. They are still coming to faith and only beginning to see that God’s Reign that Jesus keeps talking about is actually unfolding before their eyes and in their own lives.
The disciples (and we) are in the midst of a life-long process of discovering who God is, what God is capable of, and what God intends to do in our lives and the world. We are in the midst of the life-long process of growing in faith. Again and again in scripture, we hear that God is with us, God is faithful and steadfast, that God will never let us go. As we encounter summer storms and all the other frightening challenges of life, may we realize that God is with us and cry out for God’s help. Of course, even when we cannot recognize it, God is here, moving, changing, healing and transforming the world and its challenges . . . and us.
Peace,