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June 25, 2006
Sermon, St. Edmund's, San Marino
The Rev. Rob Fisher3 Pentecost Texts: Job 38:1-11, 16-18; Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Mark 4:35-41
In the name of the true and living God, Amen.
I once saw a TV commercial that went like this.
You see the image of a man, his back to the camera, and the beautiful, blue ocean in front of him. He is on a deserted beach in the tropics. By the right armrest of his beach chair is a table, and on that table is a pager (next to an icy cold beverage.) The commercial begins with the pager beeping, an annoying sound that continues for some time with no action on the screen except for the gentle lapping of the water against the sand. Eventually, the man slowly reaches over to get his beeping pager. He picks it up, and then he bends his arm and throws it forward skipping it gracefully on the surface of the water. It makes beautiful ripples.
The commercial then offers the catchy tag line: "Change your latitude."
There is no way that this commercial had any theological meaning intended, but this phrase is apt for the message of this morning's text. Change your perspective. Change your latitude. Even better, I think, would be "change your altitude"!
Why "altitude"?
Because the texts are begging us to rise above our regular, often fearful, earthly perspective and to try, if we can, to see things from a God's-eye-view perspective.
***
The Book of Job makes the case in a very extreme way.
Poor Job has been a righteous man all his life, and then suddenly God brings upon him all kinds of disaster and hardship. Is it fair for Job? Not really. The entire book gives nothing but reasons why it is deeply unfair. Job doesn't question God at first, but we the reader want to question God on Job's behalf.
And then finally, even Job has had enough, and he questions God. He says, "Am I not a righteous man? I do not deserve these afflictions you are putting on me."
At this point we would expect to hear justification for why God has allowed Job to suffer. But no, that is not what we get. Instead, we get a response that is shocking, and that dares us to change our perspective radically.
God answers Job, speaking to him out of a whirlwind:
Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. 'Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements-surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?'
It goes on like this for many, many verses. This is obviously not the response Job was looking for. He concedes that he has lost the argument, but God does not stop.
The places where God has been and the things that God has done are astounding, and it doesn't just stop with the creation of the earth, the carving out of the seas or the ability to make water to ice. My favorite part is when God starts talking about the crazy animals that he has created!
The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage. For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them..Yet it has no fear; because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding. When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.
And more.
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose or piece its jaw with a hook? Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you?
If you have not read the book of Job in a long time, read it again. Even outside of Christian circles it is considered a masterpiece of literature. And it will challenge you.
The book comes from the Wisdom tradition, and out of this tradition the world is knowable, but it is known completely by God alone. There is a great appreciation for the vastness of the universe, and that we are foolish to think that our knowledge contains it all. Even with the Internet, even with Google the facts and knowledge that we can attain only scratch the surface of the knowledge of God.
Wisdom literature like Job challenges us to change our altitude, and glimpse what God sees so that we understand how much more there is than meets our mortal eyes. And so that we understand that there is a bigger picture.
***
Scripture is often challenging to us. Reading scripture can never be totally passive.
The disturbing elements of the Bible are significant. Job is one of many excellent examples. But even so, encountering the text can also be a healing experience.
Reading scripture can meet a troubled heart and still the waves that torment the soul.
***
There is a difference between the words of the text themselves, and the Word. When you are hearing the Word, you are hearing in your heart. It is a more difficult thing than to merely hear with your ears.
The Word does not function like a collection of facts that you can argue from and make systematic proofs. It functions in a different way. It works on you, and it molds you to be closer to God, to be less estranged from the holiness that cannot be contained by words, or books. The Word is a living thing. The Word can still a stormy ocean.
***
The Anglican Communion right now is like a turbulent sea. All of its churches I imagine to be like wooden boats, sailing along that sea.
There are some who are like wind surfers, and for these people the more wind and the more waves the better. A wind surfer uses giant waves like ramps to fly up high into the air. But even these ones who like the turbulence can only fly in the air so long before they have to get out of the water and recuperate.
There are also some who are on the sailboat and who see the turbulence, and it causes paralyzing fearfulness. They look at the waves, and they get butterflies in their stomachs with thoughts of drowning and death. This is not such an unusual thing. This is what the disciples surely felt. The waves made them afraid to carry on.
But Jesus slept through this storm. Jesus was not consumed by fear.
Jesus speaks to us today. To the threatening waves he says "Peace! Be still!" and to the rest of us, especially those who are afraid of turbulence, he says, "Where is your faith?"
The disciples are filled with awe. The Greek word means also fear. Perhaps there is a double meaning. Their fear is what paralyzed them in the first place. The other meaning would be that they are actually afraid to take this leap of faith and leave their fear-based lives and enter into a life of faith.
***
Many are worried that the rest of the world, especially the Anglican Churches in Africa, will want to push the Episcopal Church out of the Anglican Communion.
There may be a nasty fight brewing.
But the love of God is greater than these mortal fights that are being waged. We have to change our altitude and see the calling that God has placed before us, which is to love God and neighbor first. We are called to be people of reconciliation. We are all one flesh and blood in Christ. When we take that fact to heart, the storm will be put in its place and will cease to be a threat to us.
St. Edmund's is a community that does a relatively rare thing in the life of the Church today in that we can hold a loving community together where people of all different backgrounds and political convictions can honor and respect one another as fellow Christians.
We will not stand facing the stormy waters, paralyzed, and essentially rendered dead to the Spirit. We will continue to sail on, held up by our faith that God is greater than these threatening stormy waters before us.
As it says in the psalms: Be still, and know that I am God.
Amen.
© St. Edmund's Church