Do You Not Care?

June 24, 2018

Helen Jacobi

Ordinary 12     Job 38:1-11     Psalm 107     2 Corinthians 6:1-13     Mark 4:35-41

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“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Jesus has suggested to the disciples that they travel across the Sea of Galilee to the other side by boat. Since a whole bunch of the disciples are fishermen that would have been easy enough. Jesus wants to go to the other side though – where the Gentiles live – foreigners, strangers; so as they leave the shore there is already a bit of anxiety rising. But they are leaving the crowds behind so at least that was good. And Jesus gets to have a rest and goes to sleep in the boat. But a storm whips up – apparently they are pretty unpredictable on the Sea of Galilee – which while it is actually a lake and not a sea, it is a pretty big lake so weather is a factor. The waves beat into the boat and the boat was being swamped. And Jesus is asleep.

Now Mark’s community when they hear this story will immediately think of the story of Jonah, from the Hebrew scriptures. God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and Jonah did not wish to go and went in the opposite direction and hopped on a ship, which proceeded to sail into a huge storm, while Jonah was asleep. The captain comes to Jonah and wakes him up and says – pray to your god, none of our gods are answering, we will perish. And then Jonah confesses that he is fleeing his god and so no doubt the storm is punishment. So they throw Jonah overboard and the storm stops and Jonah is swallowed up by a whale. 

So when the disciples wake Jesus and say “Teacher do you not care that we are perishing”, we are supposed to think of Jonah. And the disciples seem more concerned about Jesus’ indifference to their fate than they do about the storm. In waking him up they have no expectation that he will calm the storm. They just think he could care a bit more about what is happening with the storm!

Do you not care that we are perishing? 

Job from our OT reading has a similar cry – do you not care? Do you not care, God, that I have been suffering and have been afflicted by multiple calamities? Job dares to demand from God an answer; and demands that God be present to answer for the suffering of Job (13:3) as in a court room trial. God’s response is the passage we heard today – who are you Job to question me God says – where were you when I was creating the world? Where were you when I was controlling the seas? 

Mark’s community will think of Job as well as Jonah when they hear today’s story. The disciples do not expect Jesus to do anything about the storm, because they still do not understand who he is, but Mark’s community do know. And so the echoes here of Jonah, Job, and also of the creation story, all fit together in their growing picture of who Jesus is.

But back in the story in real time if you like, Jesus rebukes the wind (rebuke, the same word used to speak to “demons” in Mark), and says to the sea – peace, be still. This does not reassure the disciples at all! They are even more afraid now – “who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” They know that God alone can do this – from the stories of Jonah and Job and others; God alone can control the forces of nature – so who is Jesus?

And Jesus says – puzzled – why are you afraid? Why are you afraid of the storm? Why are you even more afraid now that the storm is gone?

This dialogue – do you not care that we are perishing? and why are you afraid? is also our dialogue with God. Do you not care God, that children are in prison, that millions starve; that violence reigns; do you not care? we say. And God answers – why are you afraid? or maybe, why do you always start from a place of fear? Which doesn’t seem to be an answer.

When I was in London at the international network meeting this month our group was privileged to meet with the brand new Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally. A woman appointed to follow Bishop Richard Chartres who always refused to ordain women (God has a sense of humour!). And Bishop Sarah said to us “if we operate out of a place of fear, we miss the creativity of the Holy Spirit”. She said that in the context of a discussion about the ongoing Church of England debate on the ordination of women and how that affected her, but her words apply to any situation. “If we operate out of a place of fear, we miss the creativity of the Holy Spirit.”

Why are you afraid? What are we afraid of in our daily lives?

Failure?

Being vulnerable?

Losing face?

losing a loved one?

being judged?

not having enough money?

being found wanting?

losing our home?

another person – a bully at work or home?

getting sick? dying?

Fear is used in our world too often by world leaders – fear of immigrants, fear of crime, fear of the other; fear of those who live on the other side of the lake, or the border.

Jesus says, why are you afraid? Do not be dominated and driven by fear; cast out that fear and receive instead peace and stillness. The peace and stillness of the becalmed lake.

There is an amazing documentary on Netflix at the moment called “Attack on Paris” which recounts the terrible series of attacks including the Bataclan nightclub in November 2015. The documentary is a series of interviews with people recalling the night’s terrible events and their fear, their terror and trauma. 

But at the end of the series you are not left at all with a sense of fear but a sense of the amazing dignity and strength of the survivors. You witness their ability to process and reflect with some eloquence what happened to them that night. They are not afraid. They are strong. There is a stillness and a peace about them which is quite remarkable. In the midst of it all they certainly cried to God or to anyone – do you not care that we are perishing? But they are no longer afraid.

In our boats, and our storms, we cry out to God – do you not care that we are perishing? And Jesus says, be still, receive peace, do not be afraid.