A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
A few years ago, our daughter Sarah was living in New Orleans. She had just graduated from college and had her very first job, working for Tulane University. One day, she called me up and said, "Dad, there's a hurricane coming this way and I don't want to ride it out here. I'm thinking that I should go visit my friends who live inland for a couple of days." Yes, the hurricane was Katrina. And yes, she got out of the city. It took her fourteen hours to make a 5 hour trip, but she was out of harm's way. But when it became clear that she couldn't go back to New Orleans, we realized that she had to come home. You might recall that it was the aftermath of Katrina that was the most dangerous, because after the storm people were all over the place trying to find shelter. Stores were closed, power was gone, gasoline was in short supply, and people were doing crazy things. And in the middle of all this, our daughter was traveling alone. Rindy and I were terrified.
You don't have to be a bible scholar to see the storm as a metaphor for the times in our lives when trouble strikes. And I imagine that we can all identify with the disciples in today's Gospel lesson. After a long day of preaching, Jesus asked his disciples to take him out on the lake, and while they were sailing, a storm comes up. It must have been a pretty violent storm, because even though several of the disciples were experienced fisherman, they were all in fear for their lives. All except Jesus, that is; he is asleep. In fact, according today's version of this story, Jesus is sleeping... on a cushion!
This story is told in 3 of the 4 Gospels, and they all agree on the main points: the huge storm, the boat being pitched all about, the disciples in an absolute panic, and Jesus sleeping. But only in Mark do we learn that he is sleeping on a cushion. What a remarkable detail! We can only wonder why Mark thought to include it in his story; or, more accurately, why the others decided to omit it. Perhaps they thought that it reflected our Lord in an unflattering light; that he was more concerned with his own comfort than the plight of the disciples. After all, lots of poor people didn't have cushions to sleep on even on land, much less on a boat. Perhaps they wanted to portray Jesus as a man of the people, and they were afraid that the thought of Jesus on a cushion would be too hard for their readers to accept. But I believe that the cushion is an important detail in this story, because it gives us a glimpse into just how calm and peaceful Jesus was. In the face of total chaos and life-threatening destruction, Jesus is literally sleeping like a baby.
For the disciples, of course, it was a different story. They are terrified. They're afraid for their lives, and they're afraid for the life of Jesus. And so they wake Jesus up asking, "don't you care that we're about to die?" The question they ask is one we've all asked from time to time. Where are you Lord? Are you listening to me? Why are you sleeping when I need you the most? Our lives are effected by lots of different events, and sometimes we are caught in a storm not of our own making. Things start out calmly and quietly enough – the family's doing fine, there's money in the bank, everybody's healthy – when suddenly something goes wrong. Someone loses a job. Or the company we work for begins to falter. Or our doctor sees a spot on an X-ray. Sometimes, bad things happen that are beyond our control, and it feels like we're suddenly thrown in the middle of a hurricane.
It is when things are the darkest that we cry out to God. That's when we find Jesus is asleep on a cushion. In the midst of all the chaos of the storm, in the midst of all the fear and panic in our lives, Jesus is remains with us in the boat, sleeping. His peace and calm is our assurance that everything will be alright. He slept because his faith is great enough to see us all through. "Peace, be still," he says not just to the storm, but also to us, his panicked followers in the boat. When we are tossing and turning in the storms of our lives, he rests and waits and offers us his peace.
You know, the latin word for boat is navis. It is where we get our words for navy and navigation from. It is also where the word nave comes from, which is the room we are sitting in. The Church is a boat intended to carry us through the roughest times in our lives. I know that was true in our case – many of you called us and asked after Sarah. She finally made it home after Katrina and she stayed with us for 3 months. And then she went back to New Orleans and to her job, in spite of her father's fear. But God was with her, and my fears began to subside. And before too long, she continued her journey in graduate school.
Jesus never leaves us. He sleeps in our hearts until we cry out to him. "Peace, be still," he says. And we find peace.
Thanks be to God.
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