Silence!

A wonderful James Spann meme.

Storms have always fascinated me. When I was a kid I used to sit in my maternal grandfather’s lap to look at his digital weather gauge. It was fancy for the early 1990s. We could see the temperature, the rainfall, the windspeed, the barometric pressure, and the dew point. The only channel he ever seemed to watch was the weather channel. While most Southerners love talking about the weather, my “Bubba” really knew what he was talking about. Perhaps he is the reason I love storms. 

As I grew older, I kept this fascination. When big storm systems would roll through the Birmingham area I would flip back-and-forth between James Spann and the Weather Channel. My friend Jon and I would even interpret the radar ourselves as we talked into a tape recorder pretending to be meteorologists. All of this was cute until one day I realized that storms aren’t just a fun diversion or a polite conversation topic. 

Storms harm. Storms destroy. Storms kill. 

We do not have to go back very far to recall disastrous tornadoes and hurricanes. We remember them simply by a date or a name of the storm, such as April 27, 2011, or Harvey. It is no wonder then, that we will often use the word storm not only literally, but also figuratively to describe an upheaval in our lives. With this in mind let us turn to this coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson in which Jesus calms a terrifying sea storm, and there we can explore storms from more than the literal level.

Jesus has just finished his parable of the mustard seed. He had spoken of the expansive nature of faith. A tiny mustard seed grows into the largest bush and birds can come and nest there. In other words, he taught that from a small genesis the action of trusting God blossoms into an immense ecosystem in which others can come to receive life themselves. It is quite a beautiful analogy for life with God. However, the disciples did not immediately get this. 

Right after that teaching unfolded the disciples decided to make a journey across the sea. They took Jesus along for the ride, just as he was. And, by just as he was I mean he was tired. So he lay down in the stern. Although the order of events appears a bit odd here. Mark pointed out that a storm swelled and water began to fill the boat, then he depicted Jesus already lying on the cushion asleep. The terrified disciples did what any of us would do in a state of emergency: seek someone wise—whether that be a meteorologist or a community leader or in this case the Son of God. Jesus’ reaction to this literal storm is layered, as in it is literal and beyond literal. 

The disciples awakened Jesus from his nap. On the one hand it is surprising that Jesus was napping during all the commotion and on the other hand I know I love sleeping in the midst of a downpour, but I digress. After Jesus woke up, the disciples said to him, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” What a wakeup call? Set against the story of the mustard seed we see a stark contrast. Jesus urged those with ears to hear to have faith, to trust God, to believe even in the face of adversity and yes, storms! The disciples immediately do not get it and they doubt. How did Jesus respond?

Well, first Jesus stilled the wind and the waves. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translates his first word as “Peace!” which I love. I especially love it set against the story of David pegging Goliath in the noggin with a stone. Still, the actual word that Jesus speaks is unique. This is the only time in the whole New Testament we hear it. While it can be rendered as peace, it can also mean silence. 

“Silence!”

Jesus created silence by speaking the word. And, I wonder if we would be wise to withhold our use of peace at least for now. For in this moment the wind and the waves may have died down, but the disciples were far from a peaceful state. Jesus emphasized here that the disciples’ fear prevented their faith. It is hard to be peaceful when one lives in a state of fear. Whether during a literal or figurative storm fear only exacerbates how we continue onward. The last sentence in the original language of this section doubles down on this by almost overstating the disciples’ state: “And, [the disciples] feared with great fear and said to each other, ‘Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” 

We are much like these disciples. Even though Jesus tells us to have faith when the storms roll through our lives causing devastation and pain, we are all too quick to seek our own methods of fixing everything. Instead, we may do well to first seek the silence that Jesus provides us. Then, once we inhabit that place of quiet prayer, we might just find a peace that passes all understanding.