While the disciples and Jesus were in a boat, a “violent storm came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up.” Jesus was asleep. “They woke him… ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They… said to one another, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?”
To those in our care, we give care. We care for our family, and all families, as all families are in our care. We care for our neighbors, and all neighbors, as all neighbors are in our care. We care for strangers, as all people are friends in our care. We parent, are a good neighbor, a kind human being because we are in touch with the goodness of our character and that of others and we express that goodness, especially during the storms of life. Sometimes we give direct care. Other times we give care in the form of guidance, wisdom for the person to enact in future storms. We give Presence to help with future feelings of abandonment, hope to help with future hopelessness, encouragement to help with future feelings of despair. What is the care we give to stop and to heal the person who is the storm, who will not be family, will not be neighbor, will not be friend and has decided instead to be bully, abuser, enemymaker. What is the help we give to those caught up with people who are the violent storms in life. The innocent may believe they have not the resilience to survive the storm people without us. The innocent are so terrified they call on us and so we come back to help. All well and good, needful. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations in which external forces are so strong we need the help of others. Let us consider what is the help we are giving in such situations? What is the help we are getting? Is it help to bail out the boat? Is it help to assist with the sail? Is it help to support navigating through the trouble? Have we given to the innocent the wherewithal to be the help and to get the help to directly stop and heal the storm? We are sometimes, by arrangement, degrees removed from those who cause the storms. We are also sometimes face to face with them or with supporters of the storm people who in their support are thus also causing the storms. Let us not be made knowingly ignorant by the storm people. They know exactly what storms they are causing – as they wave Nazi and Confederate flags, repeat lie after lie while rejecting obvious facts, and do violence with the guns they wield. They know too that they can deceive us into believing they too are the innocent offering help; a caring parent, a working-class neighbor, a friend – all the while they are selective in their help offered; dependent upon skin color, reading choices, sexual preference, immigrant status, and so forth. In each and in all they are the storm because care does not deny communion as they do but strengthens it, care does not deny love as they do but encourages it, care does not deny healing as they do but makes healing happen. We are in a storm of supremacist dictators who are telling us they can free us. What can I do to directly stop and heal that storm and those causing it? We are in a storm of MAGA abusers devaluing human beings while telling us they are Christian/Christ-like. What can I do to directly stop and heal that storm and those causing it? We are in a storm of violence in rhetoric and in behavior. What can I do to directly stop and heal that storm and those causing it?
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” (Reinhold Niebuhr)
God, grant me the serenity to accept things need to change; courage to change them, and the wisdom to do so peacefully.
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, enliven our power.
Question: How can I join with others to help change forces that are not beyond our control?
June 23, 2024 Gospel Mark 4:35-41 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time