Meditations/Sermons that didn't get away

Do you not care if we perish?

Jan 19, 2007

Mark 4:35-41 (NRSV) 38 They woke him up and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?'

When my son was learning to walk, he fell and hit his head against the radiator. The small cut at his temple bled profusely. It was his first accident, and I was very alarmed. His dad, who had been away in the Air Force until the boy was nearly ten months old, came running. I held the screaming child and waited for my husband to take control of the situation, to make it okay. New to this job of parenting, he came through like a champ. He called the base hospital, and they told us to come right in.
I, however, who’d held things together alone for ten months, was panicked. My husband’s calm tone in his slow, Southern voice, instead of comforting me, made me angry. The thought that went through my head was, How can you be calm? Can’t you see he’s hurt?

The disciples’ frantic plea to Jesus held the same fear and lack of trust. Not only did Jesus care about them, but he knew what to do to save them. Instead of rebuking them, he rebuked the wind.

How often our fears envelope us and and lead us to anger and reproach. When we listen to the feelings inside us, we can choose not to act on them. Instead, we can trust Jesus to help us arrive at a place of peace, so that, with his help, we can think clearly and do what needs to be done.

Afterthought: were they sailing or rowing? If sailing, then a dead calm would have presented its own difficulties. Maybe we can have too much peace?