Peace! Be still!
Mark 4:35-41
When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Σιώπα πεφίμωσο (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?”
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Σιώπα πεφίμωσο “Silence! Peace! Be still!” and it was so. I shall speak of it. You may be seated.
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and RUACH, the Spirit of God moved over churning chaos. And God SAID “Let there be light,” and there was light. And all that God SAID, it was so.
1. Five weeks ago my life descended into darkness and chaos when my grandson Ray and I found my First Daughter, his mother, unconscious, comatose, from a ruptured brain aneurysm that by then had been bleeding almost 24 hours.
Diagnosis at the ER in Panama City, and Malinda was loaded into an ambulance for emergency transport to Sacred Heart Hospital, Pensacola. As the ambulance sped away, siren screaming, I was sure I would never see her alive again. But, Peace! Be still!, by God and the angels, she had endovascular surgery to stop the bleeding, then ten days later brain surgery to clip the aneurysm.
“Peace! Be still!” And it was so: Friday, day before yesterday, she went home to continue rest and recuperation. A month from now we return to Sacred Heart because the neurologists found a second aneurysm demanding more brain surgery. But for us, for now, the wind has died down, and the sea is calm, - - Jesus present in the prayers and lovingkindness of loved ones, friends and strangers who brought light into our darkness. “Peace! Be still!” And it was so.
2. Two weeks ago tomorrow, my 16-year-old nephew, my sister’s grandson Joseph, was hit by lightning. We were terrified we had lost him, the greatest nightmare to strike our family in a hundred years*, but with near-immediate treatment Joseph has come back, recovering his motor skills, and is in Atlanta for treatment that, we pray, will help overcome our bright young man’s neurological damage.
Again, the response, lovingkindness of family, friends, and strangers all across the land, calming our chaos, Joseph alive and healing]. “Peace! Be still!” God’s angels again, the wind ceases, and the sea is calm.
3. In our nation, cries of outrage as people rise up in horror against the chaos, the horrendously shocking moral reality, of children taken from their mothers and fathers, little brown children concentrated - - in camps across the country, apparently some of them, the littlest, unidentified, without records, and no system in place for reconciliation as chaos darkens in savage lack of godly compassion, cruel, hateful and mean: a mother separated from her children with no idea how to get them back said, “I feel like I’m going to die. I feel powerless.” Have we lost our humanity, lost our soul as a nation to be proud of and to love?
From the Book of Common Prayer:
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord.
That it may please thee to preserve, and provide for, young children and those who love them, and all whose families are broken or torn by strife,
For those in loneliness, fear, and anguish: gracious God, the comfort of all who sorrow, the strength of all who suffer: Let the cry of those in misery and need come to you, that through us they may find your loving mercy present with them in their darkness,
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being: white, black, yellow, red or brown?
We have NOT loved you with our whole heart; we have NOT loved our neighbors as ourselves.
Almighty God, you have given us this good land for our heritage. May we prove ourselves a people worthy of thy love and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with pure manners. Save us from violence, discord and chaos, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Endue with wisdom and compassion those to whom we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that we may show the heart and mind of Jesus to other nations of the world.
4. Finally chaos of our family storm at sea. Last year during our two-week vacation that Linda and I eagerly anticipated for months, my sister Gina had a heart attack, coded cardiac arrest during emergency surgery, but resuscitated; because of Gina and an approaching hurricane we rushed home; then on the Sunday morning between services I had a telephone call that my brother Walt had just gone upstairs to wake his wife for church, only to find her dead. “Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Again, “Peace! Be still!” My sister has recovered, sold her home, and is enjoying life traveling.
For us, the hurricane was just a few days with electricity off and a bit of ruined food in the freezer.
And,“Peace! Be still!”, through mercy and lovingkindness, after sixty years apart, my brother reconnected with his old high school sweetheart, also widowed, and in a period of reacquaintance and finding their love again, they have bought rings and asked me to officiate the wedding they wanted decades ago when they were so young and before life intervened. “Peace! Be still!” and all that Jesus said, it was so.
Every life is different and nothing in Time is permanent: there was more chaos, more storms on the Sea of Galilee after that gospel day when Jesus shouted “Siopa! Pephimoso!” “Peace! Be still!” And I know that more storms and chaos lie ahead in my life and yours. But my witness to you this morning is that even at this age (I will be 83 in September), Jesus is present in my life and in the lives of those I love. If you let Jesus find you, you will see that he is present in your life also.
Jesus present in the reading and hearing of the gospel, Jesus present in the Bread & Wine, is present as well in the prayers and lovingkindness of family, friends and strangers. My beloved friend Father Mike DIckey told me of your concern and prayers for us in our chaotic storms with Malinda and Joseph; and I have found that you are an answer to a challenge in my baptismal vow, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons?” because today, serving as your priest, I see Jesus in you.
People of St. Matthew’s Chipley, Jesus in you: Peace! Be still! and because of you, your prayers and lovingkindness, peace comes, the wind has died down, and our sea is calm. God bless you.
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Homily in St Matthew's Episcopal Church, Chipley, Florida on Sunday, June 24, 2018. Proper 7B. The Rev. Tom Weller
* In January 1918 my uncle, my father's 18-year-old brother Alfred Daniel Weller, Jr. drowned when the twin-masted schooner Annie & Jennie, a fishing smack belonging to their father and Bay Fisheries, wrecked in a violent squall as she transited the Old Pass headed for Carrabelle for repairs. My grandparents never recovered from this, and I remember my grandfather, whom we called Pop, choking up and unable to talk while talking to me the last time I saw him, in June 1963.
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Homily in St Matthew's Episcopal Church, Chipley, Florida on Sunday, June 24, 2018. Proper 7B. The Rev. Tom Weller
* In January 1918 my uncle, my father's 18-year-old brother Alfred Daniel Weller, Jr. drowned when the twin-masted schooner Annie & Jennie, a fishing smack belonging to their father and Bay Fisheries, wrecked in a violent squall as she transited the Old Pass headed for Carrabelle for repairs. My grandparents never recovered from this, and I remember my grandfather, whom we called Pop, choking up and unable to talk while talking to me the last time I saw him, in June 1963.