Stormy Waters (Sermon 6-21-15)
Job 38: 1-11
Mark 4: 35-41
Stormy Waters
Pisgah 7-21-15
On September 18th, 1963, a crowd gathered into the 16th Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama for the funeral service of the girls killed in the bombing of that church.
Girls killed while in Sunday school…learning about love.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the eulogy for those little girls,
and it is important to note that while Dr. King was a pacifist,
while he did call from abstinence from violence…
he did not call for the perpetuation of the status quo,
he did not call for calm,
but rather he proclaimed that those little girls, in their dying, had something to say to the world. He said,
“They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.”
Those words seem appropriate for this morning as ministers all across this country are seeking to put words to the anger and the fear and the sadness that we feel following the horrific massacre of 9 innocent people in Charleston, SC…
while they were praying…
while they were studying God’s Word.
It was a terrorist attack,
perpetuated by a member of a terrorist organization known as racism…
both individual and institutional.
There is tendency among decent, peace loving people in the aftermath of such an event to pray for peace, and rightfully so…
for violence only begets violence.
But the lack of violence is not the only kind of peace,
and as long as this gaping wound of racism resides in the heart of our nation, there can be no true peace.
The words that Anissa read from Job this morning are some of my favorite Scriptures.
You’ll remember that in the book of Job,
God chooses to allow the devil to afflict Job with all sorts of calamities in an effort to get him to curse God.
The Devil takes everything from Job…health, family, money, land, reputation.
The great Job is brought to his knees in a series of events that would break any of us…
and in the midst of all of that chaos,
Job turns to God and begins to question…
not the existence of God, but rather Job wants answers…
he wants to know why,
he wants to be able to control the chaos that has become his life…
and in chapter 38, God responds from out of the chaos of a whirlwind:
“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up your loins like a man,
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.”
Job was tired of the chaos of his life,
he was tired on not knowing what would happen next,
what calamity would befall him,
and so he went to God for answers and God rebuked him…
because it seems that Job had forgotten that he was not in control.
After all, who was Job to question God?
In the same way, in the gospel of Mark,
the disciples had been ministering to the people and when evening came, Jesus said, “Let us get into the boats and go to the other side.”
The other side was where the Gentiles were.
The other side was in and of itself chaos for these disciples, but they obeyed, they risked themselves to be obedient,
but on the way, when a storm arose,
when the winds blew and the waves crashed, they became afraid.
They lost their courage. They were ready to follow, but at the first sign of resistance,
they came to where Jesus was sleeping and woke him up and cried out,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
What a question for this morning….
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Jesus said, “Peace! Be Still!”
And then he said, “Why were you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
I want you to notice the parallel between Jesus control over the waves in Mark and the waves in Job.
In Job 38:11, God said to the waters of creation: ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
And in Mark 4, he said to the waves, “Peace! Be Still!”
Jesus has the same powers that God the Father had in creation and yet he lives so much of his life in the midst of chaos…even unto the cross.
You see, too often we think of God being present only in the times of peace and quiet…
in times when our heads are bowed…
and our Bibles are open.
But, God resides in the chaos as well.
God was there with those little girls in 1963 when their young lives were cut short,
and God was there with those 9 disciples as they were mercilessly killed on Wednesday night.
On Wednesday night, that group was gathered together for the purpose of study and prayer,
and when a young man who looked different from them,
who was obviously disturbed entered into their space,
they welcomed him with open arms,
they showed him hospitality and they loved him.
They entered into the chaos of that young man’s life…
and while it cost them their lives,
they spent that last hour on this earth ministering to the lost…
I can’t think of a better example of the presence of God.
In what I read earlier, Dr. King said, “we must substitute courage for caution”.
In all of our conversations and actions,
we must substitute courage for caution,
because God resides just as much in the chaos as in the calm.
We must be willing to enter the fray on difficult issues of equality and safety and justice,
because while it might place us at risk,
it is the call of the disciples…
the enter into stormy waters…
to feel the wind and the waves…
and to have faith nonetheless.
Each of us, as individuals,
have a part to play in this great drama of life,
perhaps even just a moment that matters above all the rest…
a moment to speak…a moment to act…a moment of courage.
In 1963, the myth of white supremacy led to the murder of 4 little girls in a church in Birmingham, Al. and just the other day,
that same evil led to the murder of 9 more children of God.
This was not the isolated act of a madman,
this was the byproduct of a culture of hate and division…
a culture that perpetually endorses an “us” and “them” mentality.
Black vs. White,
Gay vs. Straight,
Rich vs. Poor…
Calls for peace are not enough.
empathy is not enough.
We are all victims. And, we are all guilty.
We live in a time of stormy waters.
To remain silent is to succumb to the fear of the wind and the waves.
It may be the case that, as we speak on issues of justice,
stormy waters will begin to lapse at the walls of Pisgah Presbyterian Church,
but we will not be afraid…
for the God who gave us his only begotten Son,
the Christ who gave of himself that each of us might know that we are loved,
the God of all that is,
and all that was,
and all that ever will be…
demands our lives, our souls, our all.
May those 9 beautiful children of God rest in peace,
for their deeds do indeed follow them.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
