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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
Job 38:1–11 2 |
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2 Corinthians 6:1-13 |
Mark 4:35-41 |
In the early Biblical writings, chaos was personified as a raging sea destroying the coastlines and sinking all ships, or as a river at flood stage boiling over its banks and obliterating the land. God was the one who calmed and controlled the chaos. In the creation story, God set the boundaries for the sea. In the exodus, the dividing of the waves of the Red Sea was seen as God providing a path through chaos, as well as a path of escape from slavery and death. In today’s lesson from Job, God reminds Job who it was who had shut the doors of the sea so as to establish its boundaries and prevent it from overwhelming the earth.
Today’s Gospel account of the calming of the storm on the lake of Galilee follows in this tradition. Jesus becomes an obvious sign of God restoring order out of chaos. The author of our Lenten discussion book even suggested that it wasn’t as much the storm that Jesus calmed as it was the hearts of the panicked disciples in the boat.1
There are times when in the church and also in our personal lives, things seem chaotic, as if God is sleeping and not paying attention. One of the ways we may minister to each other is to acknowledge both our occasional real fear of chaos overwhelming us and of the constant promise of God’s provision of a path out. People of faith sometimes play the role of lighted exit signs, pointing out a path that the world prefers one not to know about or, in its own fright, won’t notice. Parents also serve in this role with their children. Hence discipleship involves more than smiling at each other and making small talk at coffee hour. It also involves acknowledging that we are instruments of hope and compassion, and conduits of divine grace to one another. When we baptize young children it is because their family desires them to grow up in such a community with those values as paramount.
Today’s Gospel of deliverance from chaos reminded me of two movies. The first is the famous classic Casablanca, as you know, one of my all time favorites. It should be required viewing for everyone. In it, a very frightened, naive young couple proposes to bribe the chief of police in order to secure an escape from the Nazis. Obviously, the chief expects a special kind of favor from the beautiful young girl. The girl confides in Rick, the cynical all-knowing nightclub owner, played by Humphrey Bogart. “Will monsieur chief keep his word?” Rick answers, “He always has.” Later, Rick provides her and her husband with another way to obtain safe passage. Sometimes we need someone like a Humphrey Bogart to remind us that God may work through unlikely and ambivalent circumstances to reveal and open a way to a new beginning that we, in our confusion, hadn’t thought of. As the movie script develops, Rick the nightclub owner, while an unlikely candidate at first, becomes very much a savior and Christ-like figure.
The second movie, not in the same league as the first, is The Poseidon Adventure. In my opinion the older version is more superior than the two duds of later remakes, and yes, you can still rent the original from Hollywood Video. An ocean liner capsizes in a storm, completely flipping upside down. A small group of passengers find that the only way to possibly escape is by going up through the hull. However, everything is now reversed, what they knew as up is now down, and what is down is now up. The title song, originally sung by one of the ship’s entertainers in the grand ballroom is There’s got to be a morning after. The passengers encourage each other by whistling this tune to each other as they make their way through the wrecked liner. Deep in the ship’s hull the survivors come to a water filled passage that apparently blocks their way. The character played Shellie Winters who, up to this time is sort of a dork who threatens to hold the party back, volunteers to swim through the dark passage in hopes of finding an air pocket in the next compartment. While she is definitely a klutz most of the time, in the water she is quite a good swimmer. She becomes the person of the moment and like a new Moses, Winters helps lead the scared passengers through the watery chaos to safety.
Humphrey Bogart as a savior figure and Shellie Winters as Moses are probably quite enough for one morning. We will be baptizing this morning Benjamin Wagner at 8 o’clock and Bolton O’Meehan at 10:30. In one sense, we will symbolically pluck them out of the water, out of the stormy chaos, and welcome them on board the ship called the church. I can’t do a Humphrey Bogart impression. But Benjamin and Bolton, “here’s looking at you, kid.” In baptism people of faith are reminded that God delivers us from chaos and meaningless. May you and your parents always remember there is a morning after in God’s commonwealth and when you are scared and forget, may the Christian community remind you that God is faithful and offers us a path to a new life.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
1The Jesus Advantage: A New Approach to a Fuller Life by Paul J. Donoghue
