Riders on the Storm
Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Job 38:1-11, Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32, 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, Mark 4:35-41
The Lord speaks to Job out of the storm: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? It’s perhaps too easy in these days to think of those that ‘darken counsel by words without knowledge.’
The book of Job is the voice of someone wrestling with God over the justice of this life. His suffering is spread out over thirty chapters of sickness, infirmity and bereavement, for which he finds no reason, and demands of God an answer. God does not answer Job’s complaint. Instead, out of the storm, he details the vastness of the universe, the climactic movements of heavens and earth and ocean, And so the smallness of Job. The implication is that Job has lost perspective. His little troubles are a tiny erratic wheel in the great hurly-burly of the cosmos. Understandably, Job approaches life from the perspective of ‘do the good things in my life outweigh the bad things’ Is my life fair? Through overwhelming personal suffering, it’s the very reasonable, timeless question: “what’s the point?”
God speaks out of the whirlwind – the storm – a symbol of understanding and power beyond our own: What Job understands through the storm is that within all the complexity of life and the great conflicting forces of the natural and supernatural world; In the context of all time and space and eternity, his suffering is a small thing. Now it’s no-one’s place to say to another – ‘look mate, in the grand scheme of things you and your suffering are just not that important – But as Job encounters the wonder of creation and creator, he takes on humility and this is what gets him through.
But the central point of the story of Job is honesty. Job’s friends come up with reasons why Job is suffering – his failings, his sins, his fault. They’re determined to find a simple narrative: Bad things happen to bad people. Another universal human trait – when things are going well, we assume we deserve it. Job’s friends come off badly. Suffering is not always justified. Job maintains his integrity. He defends his character and maintains his faith, despite suffering; and in this finds righteousness.
But now consider St Paul in the letter to the Corinthians. He’s talking about suffering. This isn’t just a list: ‘in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger’ That’s Paul’s life – torn and under threat at every moment. St Paul lives in the storm. He is a rider on the storm. And how does he cope: ‘by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech and the power of God’ The calming of the storm. The resilience of the soul.
Remember, also St Paul: ‘we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint’ (Romans 5). By the time he’s got to the end of the list in today’s reading, he’s ecstatic, he’s on fire. This is the pep talk of the whole Bible: Rhetoric cranked up to 11. in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true; as unknown and yet are well known; as dying and see – we are alive; as punished and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing and yet possessing everything.
Paul turns suffering into victory. And we should not be surprised. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1Cor 1). St Paul is following the path of the cross, so he can glory in his weakness; The storm is his calling, and it’s telling that the Book of Acts finishes with Paul’s arrival in the holy city, the city of his martyrdom, Death and glory, through storm and shipwreck.
Job is shaken by suffering but because he hangs on to his sense of self and God, perseveres. Paul, who finds in the soul’s response to suffering the character that prepares us for the kingdom of God, and the path of discipleship, not only perseveres but is rapturous in suffering.
We must be careful not to judge another’s suffering or their response to it. But it strikes me if the highest values in your life are pleasure, security, possessions, sensuality; Suffering will be devastating. Suffering is a direct attack on your life’s meaning and worth. If your biggest asset is your pretty little nose, a punch in the face is an existential crisis. If your highest values in life are service, sacrifice, charity, the development of character, following Christ, suffering will be expected. And it will build you in your sense of self and meaning. Your higher purpose will keep you going.
We will all have known suffering that is destructive, and suffering through which we’ve grown. What doesn’t kill you won’t always make you stronger. But there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Neither death nor life (Romans 8).
The storm may, as for Job, remind us of the unknowable pathways of heaven and earth, and so create humility ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?’ Or, as the psalmist says, ‘At his word the stormy wind arose and lifted up the waves of the sea. They were carried up to the heavens and down again to the deep; their soul melted away in their peril.’ Against the divine storm our human splashing quickly finds its limits: ‘Thus far shall you come and no farther and here shall your proud waves be stopped’.
The storm may be the testing ground of the soul, as with St Paul. As with both, the storm will one day bring us directly before God.
Our storm here today seems to rage on indeterminately. We may well feel in our present situation that our prayers are unanswered. Those who were with Christ also lost patience with him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ Jesus’ response is: ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ He fulfils the words of the psalm: ‘He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were calmed.’ The storm mirrors the emotions of the disciples and fear and faith are set against each other as enemies. Jesus has within him the power of the whirlwind. He will face the full impact of life’s storms. But he has also overcome them – So while the disciples are emotionally incontinent, Jesus carries peace within himself.
In all this we can see the storm as the testing ground of faith, the vale of soul-making. And in this Jesus is the one who says: ‘come in, I will give you shelter’. The storm is not evil. On the contrary, it’s the meeting place of the soul and God, where you find your limitations, your mortality, your fear; we discover our boundary with the other world.
If we have set our hopes on the things of this world, we shall be blown about and overboard. ‘One deep calleth another… all thy waves and storms are gone over me (Psalm 42). But if we cling to Christ we will hear him say: ‘peace, peace, be still’. Amen.