Pentecost 2

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 2
PROPER: 7B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: June 22, 2003


TEXT: Calming the Storm & Restoration of the Demoniac
Mark 4:35-5:20 – He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

ISSUE: Mark’s gospel account intends to offer the Good News of Jesus Christ as Son of God who has come to His people. As a Son of Man and Son of God, He brings calm and restoration to the human spirit. In the midst of human uncertainty and anxiety, the presence of Christ brings peace, healing, and restoration over the evil and unclean spirits of the world. Jesus ministry in including the ostracized, like the demoniac. He is overcoming the powers of evil that are stumbling blocks to the coming Empire of God.
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The Gospel reading from Mark gives us two wonderful and playful passages about Jesus dealing with evil spirits. Theses stories are full of symbols and meaning how the world and its people can be effected by spiritual powers from the outside in terms of the roaring sea and storm, as well as in the inside, in terms of the evil spirits inside the demoniac. Mark wants his readers to see the greater power of God revealed in Jesus Christ in the midst of human anxiety.
In this first story, the Hebrew people who first heard this story would have been learning that Jesus is likened to a great prophet. The entire story of the Jesus in the boat with the disciples is very similar to the 1st Chapter of the prophetic book of Jonah. Remember the story of Jonah and the Big Fish. Jonah seeks to escape the call of God to preach to the people of Ninevah by sailing away. While at sea a great storm arises, and the captain after dumping cargo overboard finds Jonah asleep on the lower deck. Jonah gets thrown overboard to save the ship, is swallowed by the fish, repents, and goes and does what God tells him to do. Mark is telling us that Jesus is different from just a prophet. Jesus is not only a prophet that immediately does what God commands, but also has the power of God over the wind and the waves to immediately save his community. Let me also add that the story is a fulfillment like story of the Psalm we read this morning: “He stilled the storm to a whisper and quieted the waves of the sea.”
In Mark’s story of Jesus, Jesus is in the boat crossing the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. A mighty story comes up. Let’s try to get the pictures. Quick and brutal storms were common on Lake Galilee. Those of you who have seen the movie, “The Perfect Storm,” or who watched TV news this week and saw the “Fed Ex” truck bobbing and floating away in an horrendous storm have the idea of what was happening to Jesus and the disciples. Water is a powerful, damaging, and raging natural force over which we sometimes have very little control. We are at the mercy of the elements, and sometimes our lives are out of control.
At this time, the wind and wave that came up on the Sea of Galilee was believed caused by evil spirits. The spirits in the world could be extraordinarily powerful, and evil spirits, unclean spirits, demonic forces were realized as very powerful forces. It is helpful to understand the hierarchy of things in the first century: First there is God. Second, there are Archangels and sons of God. Third, spirits both evil and good; Fourth, human beings; and finally, creatures below humans.
Mark tells us that Jesus is in the boat with his disciples when the great storm comes up. The disciples find themselves in a very precarious and dangerous position. They are out of control. Their lives are threatened. There is no peace, and they are about to die. Where is Jesus? He is in the back of the boat asleep. They wake him up and raise the question of whether or not he cares about what’s going on. They want him to join them in their terrible fear. “Teacher,” they say, “Don’t you care that we are all perishing?” Jesus then addresses the evil spirits, “Peace! Be still!” And then there was a dead calm.
Mark is telling his community that Jesus is above the spirits. He comes from the realm of Archangels and Sons of God with power over the evil spirits. In the world of the time, people who were hearing this story, were themselves people whose lives were often out of control. They could control very little. Greater powers ruled them, taxed them to death, oppressed them, frightened them, terrified them, and considered them expendable, and if they drowned in the terrorization it didn’t matter. But the great hope of the story is being revealed that in Christ Jesus it is as if a New Empire, a New Kingdom is coming that shall bring about a reign of peace and hope that shall have power over the evil spiritedness of the powers of the world.
Similarly, the coupled story to the Calm of the Sea, is the story of the Mad Crazy Demoniac. When they arrive on the other side of the Lake in Hellenistic territory, a mad man confronts Jesus and the disciples. This guy has all the symptoms of madness according to the definition of the time. He lives among tombs, walks at night, tears his clothes, and is destructive. You cannot miss from the story just how crazy this man is, breaking chains, and there is no strength to subdue this man. He howls and bruises himself. He lives among the tombs, an evil and unclean place. He is out of control, possessed by evil spirits or unclean spirits from within. (Jews called evil spirits unclean spirits; Greeks called them demons. They meant the same thing.) He is considered dangerous, out of control, and ostracized by the community.
The demoniac runs to Jesus, bows down before him, acknowledging his superiority, and says, “What have you come to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” Jesus commands the unclean evil spirits to come out. “What is your name?” he asks. “My name is Legion for there are so many of us.” At this particular time, the name Legion immediately conjured up Roman occupation by their Legions, and the atrocities carried out upon local peoples by bands of unruly out of control soldiers, raping and bullying the local populations. The demonic man is something of a symbol of humankind of the time being possessed with an inner evil that they again could not control. But all along the way Jesus has been preaching and proclaiming a new Empire, the Kingdom of God and his Love will come, a great gift of grace. He demands all that possesses the man to set him free so that he can be restored to his community in peace. The demons take flight at the presence of God in Jesus Christ; they attach themselves to unclean animals, the pigs, and jump into the sea. Get it? The disciples thought that they were going to drown in the storm. They don’t. It is the evil spirits that drown in the presence of Jesus Christ.
The restored man wants to go with Jesus, but rather he is commissioned to go to his community to proclaim the restoration and hope that is found in God.
What do these stories say to our own world today? Obviously there are things that are out of our control: earthquakes, fires, and floods. We are at the mercy of the elements. There are also evil spirits or evil spiritedness that affect the whole of our existence. We in our time are plagued by a culture of violence. We live in a culture of violence that seems to ultimately try to solve everything with war and terrorism. Vengeance spins out of control like a might power that is just unstoppable. The honor and respect of human life is minimized by the use of handguns, and many of their victims are innocent kids sitting on the stoops of their homes. People surrender to the culture by accepting drug and alcohol addiction as a way out, but is really surrender to a subtle violence that drowns their very life and existence.
All of us at one time or another go through personal difficulties where it seems that our lives have gone out of control. The darkness of the situations of the loss of loved ones, the resignation of the pastor when he retires or moves, divorce, loss of jobs, financial difficulties, depression, illnesses can make us feel like we are overpowered by the forces of evil that are out of our control. We succumb to feelings of great anxiety. We feel like we’re going down. It is as if God is asleep on the cushion at the stern. We feel like we have to cry out and shake God if there is a God, “Wake up Jesus don’t you care?”
[Pause]

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying:
Yea though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death itself, I will fear no evil.
Come to me all of you who are burdened, heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
Peace be with you.
Lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth.
I heard the voice (of St. Paul) saying: Who then can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below – there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying: When you pray say:
Our Father, who is in heaven.
Holy and above all is your name.
Your Kingdom, Your Reign, Your Empire will come.
Your Will is what will eventually be done on this very earth as it is in your Kingdom.
All we ask is that you give us daily spiritual nourishment, faith, loyalty, and trust.
Forgive us our faithless fears,
And we’ll forgive our brothers and sister of the world in your name.
Let us no longer be possessed by the controls and evil spirits of the world. Raise us above all that.
For this is your Kingdom, your Reign, your Empire, and all the power is yours from this time forth and forever more.

Jesus said to them, “Why are your afraid? Have you still no faith