Jesus, Don't You Care?

Mark 4: 35-41 
June 20, 2021

Can we just say that

we have been through a lot this past year?

Individually, in our churches, in our businesses,

in our country, and in the whole world.

We have been through a lot.

 

I know there’s a new sense of optimism

now that COVID doesn’t seem to be

such a threat with the vaccine being so effective.

But we’ve been through a lot.

 

Almost 4 million people in the world have died

and more than 600 thousand people in America alone

and many more have long term effects.

And we have been isolated, anxious, frightened.

 

And that is just our COVID mess.

This church went through a conflict not too long ago.

Friendships and relationships were broken.

You’ve lost leaders and ministries and

parts of your organizational underpinnings.

People are still grieving.

 

And there other usual messes that are ongoing.

Economic disparity, racism, climate change,

there is a potential environmental disaster happening

in California and the west coast with the drought

not seen in a thousand years.

 

And each of these things come down to real people,

they are not just statistics.

-Melinda who lost her husband to COVID

-Six people in the Ortega family who died because they

went to a family BBQ together last year.

-William, a black man who was shot in his home by police

while he was watching a movie because someone said

he was dealing drugs, and now he’s paralyzed.

-The Swansons, a couple in California,

who lost their house and everything they owned in a wild fire.

-You don’t worship with your friend any more.

 

The writer Salmon Rushdie wrote rightly

that individuals are drawn into the

“annihilating whirlpool of history”.

 

Each of these historical events has millions

of real-life stories attached to them.

Each statistic is an actual human being.

 

The world is not just a mess in general,

it’s a mess specifically for so many people individually.

 

And even without these whirlpools of history,

there are the normal every day waves that crash on us:

The problems of work and families

children, grandchildren, co-workers

We have arguments, disagreements, misunderstandings,

The regular aches and pains of life

and the serious illnesses.

People are in abusive relationships,

broken relationships, addictions, depression

 

It’s overwhelming sometimes

Like the storms will never end.

Like the wind is too rough.

Like the waves are getting too high.

Like we are in over our head and the undertow will take us away

Like at any moment, we could be drowning.

 

We can easily feel like life is just one big storm

and we are being hopelessly thrashed around in our little boat.

Like the disciples on that short trip across the lake with Jesus.

 

The disciples are veteran fishermen.

They know what they’re doing,

they’ve no doubt encountered storms before

but this is a big storm.

This looks like it might be too much

for their capabilities and their little boat.

This is a storm that would call for some extraordinary event.

What Kind of Man is This?
Keith Clark

Some sort of miracle maybe.

 

And as they get up on their feet

and as they work to stabilize the boat to no avail.

They look over and Jesus is lying on the cushion

at the end of the boat. Sleeping.

 

When our waves come up over our head

one too many times, we might very well

be like those disciples who yell at Jesus.

“Jesus, don’t you care that we’re drowning?!”

 

You know, in Matthew and Luke’s Gospel,

they tone the disciples down.

Matthew and Luke both have the disciples saying

“Save us, we’re perishing.”

But the disciples in Mark are a little more biting.

I think a little more realistic.
Why are you sleeping? Don’t you care?

When our little boats are being sucked into that whirlpool

and we look for a sign of hope, and we get silence,
and just more and more water.  it can easily seem like Jesus is asleep on the job, like God just doesn’t care about us, or humanity or this world. “God, don’t you care that we’re drowning?”

 I don’t know whether we expect a miracle

each time we make that plea.

I don’t know whether those disciples expected Jesus

to get up and control those waves.

I think that they just expected a bit of help.

“At least get up, help us bail out the ship.”

“At least show us that you are panicking like us.”

Don’t just sleep.

 

There are many images of Jesus,

the good shepherd, praying in Gethsemane,

Jesus with the little children.

But the Jesus that naps in the crisis

is not one that we usually see etched into stained glass

or embroidered on a pillow.

But it is one that many people have experienced first-hand.

The feeling like God isn’t watching.
Like Jesus is asleep at the cushion in the back of the boat.

Like nobody cares.

God’s silence can be deafening sometimes.

 

But here we are in this boat.

The word nave, which is another

word for a worship space,

has it’s root meaning in the word ship.

We are in this boat, this nave.

 

We have come together baptized in water --
something that can be both life-giving and dangerous.

Together we live in this boat.

No one promised that it would be a cruise ship,

with an easy and enjoyable ride.

or a battleship, with steel protection from the outside.

 

We are a little fishing boat, whipped from side.

We are blown by the winds of change,

and the winds of sin and sadness like anyone else

We are sucked, like everyone else, into that

Annihilating Whirlpool of History.

 

We have no promise of smooth sailing.

We have no promise that we won’t feel

overwhelmed, panicked, forgotten

Sadly enough, we don’t even get a guarantee

that Jesus will calm the storms each time that we ask.

And, despite our cries, sometimes we do perish,
we die, we don't make it.

Freedom from storms is not a promise that Jesus ever made.

 

But the promise in this gospel story, is at the beginning:

“Let us go across to the other side.”

That is the promise.

 

The world, our lives, and the Spirit in them are not static.

The promise is that there is another side.

The promise for us is that sooner or later

we will all get to the other side together.

And that Jesus would be there with us.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. Said,

“I’m convinced that we shall overcome

because the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Meaning that we may not see the end of this mess in our life-time,

but we know that justice, good, and love will prevail over chaos.

 

We have put our trust in the one who created all

who has power over the devil,

who can control the waves and the wind

who can bring life out of death.

And we know that chaos will not win out.

The world, or our lives and all the rest might seem a mess,

but we know that the mess is not the end of the story.

We might not personally see the end of every mess.

But Jesus will be with us in the mess.

The power of God will see us to the other side.

 

And that is what gives us peace and stillness in the storm.