Against the Wind

This has been a windy winter.

While we have not had much snow, and the temperature has been on a roller coaster ride, it seems as though the wind has been our most frequent visitor, and it comes with fury.

A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' - Mark 4:37-38

I am sure the scene in today's Gospel reading from Mark is a familiar one.  Jesus is asleep in the boat during a windstorm.

What we may remember is that his disciples wake him up and he calms the wind and sea.  They are astounded.

We could talk about that and why they were so surprised that he had the power over nature, but I would rather focus on what happens just before.

The question they ask is almost nasty, isn't it?

Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

After he calms the wind he politely asks them why they were afraid.  I would have thought he would smack them in the heads.

Clearly they haven't been with him long enough to know him well.  And I think that is the point.  Mark wants us to see our own faith journey and understand where we are in our own maturity.  Do we get it yet?

It is still windy and confusion for us.  We don;t yet have a full understanding of our own place in this world, not as victims of its power and anger, but as participants in creation.

Oh, how I would like to tell the wind to stop knocking over my fence, which is now damaged beyond repair.

But I know it won't listen to me.  Does that mean my faith is not that strong?

Anyone would tell you that it is not possible to command nature.  We may be responsible in some way for the way it behaves, with global warming and all that, but we are not masters of it.

So what does having faith mean?

If the disciples understood that God was with them in the boat, would they have known they would not perish, or would they have been calm knowing it didn't matter?

The way it reads, Jesus is saying, "I am here.  Don't worry."

But he could also have been saying, "This is not the end.  Believe that more is yet to come."

We do have the power to still the wind in our troubled lives, and to face the storm with strength and confidence, if we believe, not that it will obey us, but that it cannot harm us.

That is the power of the body and blood that we are a part of in Christ.  For some, it is not much consolation.  They focus on this life and so do we most of the time.  But this one doesn't always reward us for our good deeds.

We have to grin and bear this life, and make the most of what we are dealt.

Does that mean we just lay down and take it?

I don;t think so.  In the stillness of our prayers and meditations, we will know that God is there, and through that confidence, we can stand against the wind.

I will rebuild my fence, and make it stronger.

More to come...