Looking Forward to June 20, 2021 -- 4th After Pentecost Year B, Proper 7, Indigneous Peoples Sunday

 The Scripture Reading this week is: Mark 4:35-41

The Sermon title is Facing the Storm!

Picture Source

Early Thoughts: When in the middle of the storm it is natural to want it to calm down. But maybe sometimes what we need is to ride it out.

Jesus tells his friends to go to the other side of the lake/sea of Galilee. They don't take the safe route skirting the shore, they go straight across the center. Along the way a storm blows up. The disciples are frightened. Jesus is having a nap. Convinced that they are about to sink and drown, the disciples wake Jesus up. Jesus calms the storm. The disciples are amazed. As the song says "put your hand in the hand of the man who stills the water".

But pay attention to what Jesus says. "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" Is Jesus saying that the better thing to do was ride through the storm? Is Jesus challenging the (very natural) terror and desire for safety? 

What storms are we trying to avoid when we should be facing them head on and riding them out?

This Sunday is the day before National Indigenous Peoples Day. As I reflect on the work that has been done and is being done on the goals of Truth-telling and Reconciliation that was started by the TRC I find myself wondering if we as a nation have been busy trying to seek the safe and calm path rather than braving the storm. And in order to move forward we need to brave the storm.

Intentionally stepping out into a fierce storm makes no sense. The sensible thing to do is seek shelter. Jesus does not always call us to be sensible. Jesus calls us to be faithful. Jesus calls us to serve truth and love. The Prince of Peace knows that sometimes the way to true peace is a path of danger that has to be walked. And while Jesus may call us to brave the storms that frighten or disturb us Jesus promises that we do not do it alone.

In the musical Carousel we find a song with these words;

When you walk through a storm

Hold your head up high

And don't be afraid of the dark.

At the end of the storm

Is a golden sky

And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,

Walk on through the rain,

Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.

Walk on, walk on

With hope in your heart

And you'll never walk alone,

You'll never walk alone.

 I think this is where Jesus is when the storms of life threaten to upset our comfortable boats. And I think Jesus wants us to risk getting the boat upset. Maybe the stuff that gets washed out is, we will find, stuff we needed to get rid of anyway.
--Gord