10/16/24

I saw a great quote the other day: “I want to be so anchored in Christ that chaos around me doesn’t produce chaos within me.” 

Speaking of chaos, with all the extreme weather over the last several weeks I thought it’d be good to take a look at a story of Jesus and his disciples from Mark 4:35-41. 

While crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat, Jesus and his disciples are caught in a storm that threatens to drown them all. The disciples are terrified, but Jesus sleeps calmly through it. They wake him up, crying out, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Mark tells us, “He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” 

“Who then is this?” Mark doesn’t answer the question — I believe he purposely left it unanswered for the reader to decide for him or herself. 

For those who grew up singing the psalms, who grew up with the story of Israel as their foundation story, there could be only one possible answer: it is the Lord God of Israel who has the power to command wind and sea  — He alone is the God who hears and who acts. 

And this is one reason I encourage you to read the Bible. We want to build up our own private encyclopedia of Biblical knowledge so that when we read and meditate on the stories of Jesus in the gospel, we can hear echoes from Israel’s history that lead us deeper into the story and strengthen our faith. More about that at the end. 

When we read the Old Testament, we see over and over how God delivered his people. In Genesis 8:1, in the middle of the story of the flood (in fact the EXACT middle of the story) we read: “And God remembered Noah.” Not that God had forgotten Noah! The word “remember” is used about God some 78 times in the Old Testament, and most of the time it refers to God’s action directed toward someone. Events have gone on and now God is acting on behalf of someone. It’s not God saying, “Oops! Oh, yeah! I almost forgot Noah.” It’s not a flashback kind of a thing.  God doesn’t do that. 

Jumping ahead to the next book of the Old Testament, in Exodus 2:23-25 we read “The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.”

Israel cried out and God heard - and God did something about it! That’s a repeated pattern throughout the Old Testament (it’s part of a cycle that repeats 7 times in the book of Judges) and is celebrated often in the book of Psalms, especially in the psalms of thanksgiving..

One of the psalms that really celebrates God’s answers to the people’s cries is Psalm 107, which was part of our reading this past Sunday.  

Depending on your translation, you should see the word “steadfast love” or maybe just “love” or “devoted love” or “mercy” repeated 6 times. The Hebrew word is chesed, and means loyal love. Back on Mt. Sinai, God promised to show this kind of love to His people . . . and we see several examples of God’s loyal, steadfast love in Psalm 107. Notice, as you read, 4 times this refrain is repeated: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress” [followed by a statement of what God has done for them], then a call to thanksgiving: “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wonderful works to humankind.” 

Let’s take a look at verses 23-32 in light of the story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:

Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters;
they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; 
their courage melted away in their calamity;
they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress;
he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
Did you catch the connections? “He made the storm be still, and the waves were hushed.” Who is he in Psalm 107? God. God commands the stormy wind and lifts up the waves of the sea.

Now in Mark 4, the storm is calmed, and listen again to the question of the disciples:  “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” The one who says, “Peace! Be still!” 

Once the wind and the waves calmed down, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them a good question we should ask ourselves when troubles come our way, when we find ourselves on the rollicking waves of the sea and begin to panic: “Why are you afraid?” The same God who remembered Noah, who heard the cries of Israel in Egypt is the same Jesus who calmed the seas when the disciples cried out and is the same God who will hear when we cry out. 

I said we read the Bible to build up our own personal Bible encyclopedia, yes, but there’s more to it than that. By immersing ourselves in the scriptures, we build up our foundation of faith so that when challenges come along we can know on whom our faith is fixed, and know what to expect. Remember the saying I quoted at the top: “I want to be so anchored in Christ that chaos around me doesn’t produce chaos within me.” 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry