Sermons
“Calm Seas” based on 1 Samuel 17:32-49 and Mark 4:35-41
In
seminary, I learned that the calming of the sea narrative was one of
many that was meant to one-up a story about the Greco-Roman gods and
goddesses. Specifically, in Aeneid,
the god Neptune calms the waters that had been raised in a wind
storm. I thought
that was really interesting. I also thought it was sort of
irrelevant to faith.
As
the years have gone on, I’ve revised my opinion. I still think a
competition of “my God is better than your god” is silly, but I
have come to suspect that significantly more is going on. There were
a whole lot of Greco-Roman gods and goddess, and they were said to do
a lot of things. Thus, I suspect there was intentionality in the
choices of which stories of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses were
one-upped. It is similar to when stories in the Hebrew Bible are
adaptations of stories told by their Ancient Near East neighbors.
Both the choice of the which stories to adapt AND the adaptions made
tell a lot about how our ancestors in faith understood God!
In
Aeneid, as the protagonists ships sail from Troy to Italy, the
goddess queen tells the god of wind to send a storm to capsize their
ships and prevent them from their task. The god Neptune feels
infringed upon, as he is the god of the sea, and decides to calm the
storm. The story in Aeneid sounds like this:
[Neptune]
spoke, and swiftlier than his word subdued
the
swelling of the floods; dispersed afar
th’
assembled clouds, and brought back light to heaven.
Cymothoe
then and Triton, with huge toil,
thrust
down the vessels from the sharp-edged reef;
while,
with the trident, the great god’s own hand
assists
the task; then, from the sand-strewn shore
out-ebbing
far, he calms the whole wide sea,
and
glides light-wheeled along the crested foam.
As
when, with not unwonted tumult, roars
in
some vast city a rebellious mob,
and
base-born passions in its bosom burn,
till
rocks and blazing torches fill the air
(rage
never lacks for arms)—if haply then
some
wise man comes, whose reverend looks attest
a
life to duty given, swift silence falls;
all
ears are turned attentive; and he sways
with
clear and soothing speech the people’s will.
So
ceased the sea’s uproar, when its grave Sire
looked
o’er th’ expanse, and, riding on in light,
flung
free rein to his winged obedient car. (Aeneid
book 1:142-156)
So
what does it mean that the early Christian community chose to adapt
stories about gods calming storms into a story about Jesus calming
the storm? And what else does our particular story seem to be
communicating to us?
There
are some similarities – Neptune spoke and the result was immediate.
The wind started the storm. There were multiple boats involved.
Overall, it is a similar enough story to be clear that there is a
connection. There are some differences too, there are helpers for
Neptune, and Neptune’s own life wasn’t threatened by the storm. I
find it potentially notable that Neptune’s actions were motivated by
a sense of being infringed upon. The ancient Greek and Roman gods
and goddesses had their own spheres of influence. Perhaps part of
the point is that YHWH, and thus Jesus, had no need for such jealousy
about spheres of influence because there is no competition and there
is no end to their spheres.
This
also fits with the many ways that stories are adaptations of the
stories of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses- the point is not that
Jesus was better than ONE of them, but rather that he was better than
ALL of them. In the Gospel narrative, the storm was simply a part of
nature (not the work of another deity). Furthermore, in this story
Jesus is leaving Galilee and thus leaving the lands of the people who
knew YHWH, and yet his influence remains. Jesus is not just powerful
in one small region of the world – his sphere of influence is not
limited. Thus, in adapting this story the Gospel writer is able to
claim that Jesus is more powerful than the forces of nature itself.
Thus, a theological turn on an older and well known story.
It
turns out this story is especially interesting because it seems to
both adapt and retell Hebrew Bible stories and Greco-Roman ones. We
remember the story of Moses leading the people out of Egypt, and
controlling the waters. One scholar explains the similarities:
Paralleling
Mark 4:35-41, with darkness looming on the horizon Jesus and his
disciples set sail. Later that night, they encounter a furious
storm on the Sea of Galilee.
At this critical moment Jesus is
found sleeping on a cushion and his disciples are in a state of
terror as the waves begin to break over their boats. They
awaken Jesus and cry out, “Teacher, don’t you care if we perish?”
(Mk 4:36). There is harmony here in all the Synoptic
narratives, but the next detail sets Mark apart from the others when
he tells us specifically what Jesus said to the wind and waves,
“Peace! Be still!” (Mk 4:39).
Returning
to Exodus 14, Moses is pressed for answers as the tension mounts and
the future of the children of Israel hangs in the balance. With the
crowds pressing him, he exclaims, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and
you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring
you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see
again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still”
(Ex 14:13-14).
With
both Jesus calming the storm and Moses calming the Israelites, we
have two nearly identical moments involving imminent doom that is
tranquilized by the words “Quiet, be still” or “Peace be
still.”1
We
start in this story on the seashore,
and the crowds have gathered to hear Jesus teach. Crowds were a
little bit dangerous to Jesus. They put a target on his back in the
Roman Empire, and yet they seemed to emerge anywhere he went. Jesus
was always trying to satisfy the people AND get away from the crowds.
So, in characteristic style, he decided to leave the crowd that had
gathered. To me it sounds a bit desperate, especially when getting
in the boats and going to the other side meant leaving Galilee and
thus leaving the Jewish homeland. Perhaps that’s part of the
metaphor. Maybe the disciples were stormy about where they were
headed, but Jesus was calm. Perhaps they were all stormy, because of
Jesus being worried about the crowds.
Now,
I’m not sure what to make of the idea that Jesus can sleep through a
ranging windstorm, of the sort that would sink boats with crashing
waves, but then again he had taught all day, and after just once
worship service I take a nap I call the pastor’s-coma. So maybe it
was just that? Or maybe it is just that Jesus can keep calm and
focused when no one else can? Or perhaps their panic was not his, as
he trusted all would be well? I’m not sure.
They
wake him up saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are
perishing?” Do you hear how human this is? It doesn’t sound like
Neptune, it doesn’t even sound like Moses. Jesus, the human, was
sleeping, and had to be roused. His followers were terrified and he
hadn’t even noticed! They were horrified he wasn’t helping – I
suspect they might have expected him to participate in bailing!
Now,
when you hear this story, do you imagine it like a movie in your
mind? If so, how does it sound when Jesus “rebukes the wind”?
Does he actually yell at the wind? Does he just motion? Is he
annoyed? Or parental? Is the wind touching him until he rebukes it,
or is he excluded from it the whole time? Is he standing, sitting,
or still reclined on that cushion? Are the words “Peace! Be
still!” repeated for the wind and the sea, or just the sea, or are
his words for the wind not recorded?
I
don’t know what it means to rebuke the wind. But the wind and the
sea are said to go from roiling and threatening death to a “dead
calm.” Similarly though, both the storm and the people are settled
by the action! The storm isn’t just raging on the waters, the storm
has entered the hearts of the people and they are terrified.
The
people are not calmed as easily as the storm though. While the fear
of death from drowning has passed, their shock at what had happened
seemed to replace it. In this story at least, calming the sea with
words is not considered normal, and the supernatural isn’t considered
the way of the world. They were awed, which has a tinge of “scared”
to it. They were attentive to him and terrified by him. Jesus,
meanwhile seems not to understand why they were scared in the first
place, nor afterward. It is not the most empathetic story told about
Jesus.
So
why did they choose to tell a story about Jesus calming the storm?
One option is because he did so, but even if he did it raises the
question of why this story made the cut to be in the gospels while
others did not. As always with the Bible, my suspicion is that the
stories that kept being told and retold were the ones with great
metaphorical value and insight. In this case, the story tells us
that the storms of life will come, but God is more powerful than they
are. It is a story that encourages us to trust God, and trust in
Jesus’s power as well. Since human life comes with a lot of
metaphorical storms, there is a lot of value in a narrative that
tells us they won’t overcome us.
This
explanation also makes sense of the story of David and Goliath that
is presented to us in the Hebrew Bible lesson offered us today. In
many ways, it is a very similar story. Death, which was the
reasonably assumed outcome from facing a gigantic and successful
warrior, was avoided and even overcome with God on David’s side.
Both stories are told to remind us that God can overcome adversity,
and what looks doomed to humans may not be to God.
With
Jesus, with God, calm seas are possible. We aren’t doomed to live in
fear. We can even be freed from fear, to live in trust. Its pretty
good news, this adaption of an ancient story. Thanks be to God.
Amen
1Exodus
Muses: Jesus as a Type of Moses Calming
Storms & Drowning Legions First
Published JCF Newsletter April 2012 By Jon “Yoni” Gerrish
http://www.jerusalemcornerstone.org/resources/articles_main-page/calming-storms-drowning-legions
Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers