I have never crossed the ocean except in an airliner at 35,000 feet, and so I have no idea what it feels like to be on a ship far from land and over blue water thousands of feet deep. But from the testimony of those who have sailed the open seas, that experience stands as an apt metaphor for the human condition in so many ways, not least in the revelation of our powerlessness before the majesty of nature.
The Book of Genesis tells us that when God made man in his own image and likeness, he gave us dominion over this earth and every living thing on it and said “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28)
But our capacity to subdue the earth is that of a steward, not a master, and so our dominion over nature is never absolute. We, too, are part of the created order, and the Providence of God places limits on us as much as on the boundaries of the natural world, boundaries such as the laws of physics and mathematics and the operation of the elemental forces that shape the universe and make it orderly and intelligible rather than random and irrational.
But the same restlessness that led our first parents to reject the limits of their nature and thereby fall from God’s grace is a constant part of human life, especially when we are reminded of our finitude by disaster. The Book of Job is a meditation on just such limits, and Job is sharply tested by his sudden loss of everything. Through terrible tragedy Job was reduced from health and prosperity to privation and affliction, and in the search to find meaning in his suffering, Job put God in the dock to question him about the whys and wherefores of the cosmos.
Our first lesson today is taken from chapter thirty-eight of the Book of Job, in which God, who has listened patiently to all of Job’s complaints and questions about the design of creation, finally gives a reply:
“The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands? When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said, Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”
In other words, the Lord answers the questions of Job with questions of his own, all of which come to this: Since I, the Lord, made the universe and everything in it, including you, who are you to question me? The Lord thus reminded Job that no mortal can know the mind of God unless the divine plan is revealed to him. And at the center of this gentle rebuke of his creature Job, God places the sea as the sign of his majesty and power.
The sea also filled the Psalmist with wonder as we sang today: “They who sailed the sea in ships, trading on the deep waters, these saw the works of the Lord and his wonders in the abyss. His command raised up a storm wind which tossed its waves on high. They mounted up to heaven; they sank to the depths; their hearts melted away in their plight.”
I imagine that the fishermen of Galilee knew Psalm 107 by heart and could sing it both to praise God and to find comfort when they were tossed in their boats by the waves of a sudden tempest. Even the strongest and bravest men are no match for the power of the sea and the ferocious might of a storm, and experienced sailors know when they are truly in peril. And that is precisely what happened one evening as Jesus and the Twelve were crossing the Sea of Galilee.
Saint Mark tells us that “A violent squall came up, and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ The wind ceased, and there was great calm.” (Mark 4:37-39)
Let's linger with these words a moment. Most of the Twelve had lived by the Sea of Galilee all their lives, and four of them earned their living on the water, catching fish. They would have known intimately the risks of a sudden storm, and they may have seen friends and colleagues die in just these circumstances. The storm was sudden and violent and whipped the Sea of Galilee into roiling whitecap waves capable of sinking their boat.
In the midst of this pounding deluge, their boat was already taking on water, but the Lord Jesus was still sound asleep. I love this detail. He is a man like us in all things but sin, and so at the end of a long day of hard work, he was worn out and feel asleep on their journey. But he could also remain calm in the storm because he is not just the Son of Mary; he is God the Son, the designer and maker of all things. So the dangers of the storm did not alarm the Nazorean rabbi, and he was able to remain peacefully asleep through the gale not just because he was tired but because he is himself the peace beyond all understanding.
Once roused from his rest, however, the Lord Jesus then revealed his divine glory by his absolute mastery over nature: “Quiet! Be still! And the wind ceased and there was great calm.” What Job learned from the living God and what the Psalmist celebrated in verse was then confirmed for the Twelve by the command of Christ over the waters: God alone has complete dominion over the created world, and the Lord Jesus is God made man.
Listen again to Psalm 107: “They cried to the Lord in their distress; from their straits he rescued them; he hushed the storm to a gentle breeze, and the billows of the sea were stilled.”
But at this point in Mark’s Gospel, still early in the public ministry of Christ, the Twelve could not yet grasp the full implications of what they had just witnessed. The Lord Jesus “asked them, ‘Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?’” Mark tells us that after seeing this sign the Twelve “were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?’” (Mark 4:40-41)
So, who is he? Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of the living God, the eternal and omnipotent Word of the Father, by whom and for whom all things were made. When we live in Christ Jesus by grace through faith, hope, and love then no tempest in our lives can finally harm us or separate us from him, and even when we die, we are alive in Christ and destined to share his divine glory by the grace of adoption unto everlasting life.
And that is why Saint Paul could write to the Corinthians in today’s second lesson that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” Being a new creation in Christ means that we live no longer for ourselves but for him who for our sake died and was raised, and the love of Christ then impels us to share this Gospel with others.
The Gospel teaches us that whatever storms we must endure in our lives, Christ is in control, even if he seems to us to be sleeping. Despite the dangers and uncertainties of life, this universe is not an accident, the cosmos is not random, and our existence is not without meaning or purpose, even when we suffer.
Friends, because the universe was designed and made by the divine Logos, there is a logical and eternal moral law woven into the fabric of existence, and by right reason and divine revelation we can know that law. And more than that: by grace through faith, hope, and love we can shape our lives by the law and love of God and find true freedom by abiding in the Word of God.
Each one of us is brought into being for a reason as an individual person, and each of us is known and loved by God intimately and personally. There is a divine and eternal plan in and for the world which no storm of this world can overcome, and that plan has been finally and fully revealed to the whole human race by the life, death, and Resurrection of the one alone who rules the seas and all creation because he is the Word made flesh: the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the text of my homily for 23 June 2024, the 12th Sunday of the Year.
Fr Jay Scott Newman