You and I use memories every day. We humans tend to refer to our
stored memories when we experience something new. We test what’s
happening now with what has happened in the past.
When we heard Mark’s
Gospel story we may have imagined what the water was like the last time we saw
a body of water. We were seeing, or feeling, or imagining the memory of our
experiences with water and storms and perhaps a boat or two.
We might not
have seen actual pictures in our heads of boats and storms and water, but we
have memories or feelings, or even smells or sensations that help us remember.
It is memory that can help us transition from one experience to another. It is
memory that helps us relate the new to the old when we experience something for
the first time. Our memories help us understand and recognize when we
experience something similar, and we are able to process and assimilate our new
experience.
Jesus, in Mark’s
gospel, has given the disciples plenty of memories about himself. He has spoken
in parables. He has told stories. He has done things they will remember.
The
disciples have seen miracle after miracle. The disciples have memories, experiences
and feelings about Jesus. Those memories, experiences and feelings all tell the
story of who God is.
After
all these experiences, Jesus and the disciples go out in the boat. Fear makes
the disciples unable to retrieve those memories and experiences and feelings of
being with Jesus. The waves come up, the boat is about to be swamped and the
disciples are convinced drowning is imminent. Any memories, any experiences,
any feelings or knowledge of the One who is more powerful than any other
prophet is lost in the pounding of the waves. Their memories are lost in fear.
The
disciples awaken Jesus. He calms the sea. And then he asks, “Why are you
afraid? Have you still no faith?” It is as though Jesus is saying: Where are
your memories? Where are your experiences, feelings and memories of our time
together? Could you not draw on those when you were fearful?
Jesus is guiding
his disciples by asking them to lose their fear. He is asking them to draw on
their memories of him, and their experiences of whom he is to move from fear to
faith.
Jesus wants the
disciples to remember his power and grace and glory. He wants the disciples to fill
themselves with his power, grace, and glory until even in the midst of a storm they
will know and see the Lord Jesus Christ.
This
is easy to say and hard to do for most of us. One day we believe we might know
at least in part who Jesus is, other days we are sure we know nothing. This is
when those memories of God are helpful. Just as Jesus wanted the healings and
casting out of demons and other miracles to provide memories for the disciples,
our images or feelings or memories of God working in our lives through Jesus
Christ is what we draw on in the storms of life.
Let
me tell you a story of how those images might be helpful. I’m shamelessly
stealing a story from a sermon I heard from a priest in another Diocese. She told
a wonderful story in a sermon about being in the midst of a storm, a crisis in
her life, and seeing a poster on a friend’s office wall. The poster was of a
beautiful serene and calm lake. The caption on the poster read, “Sometimes God
calms the storm. Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child.”
In the midst of
her own storm, the priest had been unable to call on her memories of God
calming her storms. Seeing that photograph reminded her of all the other storms
in which she had found God in the midst, calming if not the storm, calming her
instead.
She
said to us in her sermon, “I’ve looked for that poster for years. I’ve always
wanted one so I could remember that same thing when I am in the midst of a
storm.”
After hearing
her sermon, I decided to look for the poster. Before I could start looking, only
two or three days after her sermon, a young woman came to my office at church.
Her wedding was that weekend. We were taking care of some last-minute details.
The young woman told me she had been pretty calm up until that week, but her
plans for her wedding were complicated by a huge event undertaken by the
not-for-profit agency where she worked. As she was helping her developmentally disabled
clients deal with the event, she came across a little ceramic plaque someone
donated. She turned it over and read, “Sometimes God calms the storm. Sometimes
he lets the storm rage and calms his child.”
The
young woman told me seeing the plaque brought home to her the words of the priest’s
sermon and the serenity of the lake and the peace of Christ in the midst of all
that chaos. And she brought me the plaque to give her.
This
is how God in Christ Jesus works in us and through us. The memories we have
stored of God working in our lives help us recognize the power and grace and
glory of Christ in ourselves and in others. Even in the midst of the storm, we
can call upon that healing power, abundant grace, and bright glory. We can move
from fear to faith. Even if the storm continues to rage, we will be held in the
loving arms of our Lord and he will calm us as his child. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2018
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