Two different questions

My cousin liked speed anyway, and here was a perfect reason for using it...and so we went across the lake hitting the top of every wave...hard...like cement.

Why do we get ourselves in such dangerous situations? Why?

I remember one June day 45 years ago when I was a teenager in a hospital ward of old men.

I was dealing with an appendectomy.

One man was dealing cards, and taught me solitaire.

Another was dealing with the very painful effects of hemorrhoid surgery.

And another was very audibly gasping his last breaths until there was silence.

Why are we involved with such pain, anguish, sorrow, and confusion?

Why?

I remember that man Job, whose wealth and riches, home and possessions, family, friends, and even his heath were taken from him.

His so-called good friends urged him to curse God and die.

He did not curse God, but he did complain, at length, and bitterly, “Why is this happening to me?” Why?

It happened to a group of frightened disciples on a small boat in the Sea of Galilee when a storm sprang up suddenly.

It is not a large body of water; one can easily see across its length and width, but still, a small sailboat can easily be caught out on the water when a storm comes up quickly.

Chaos nearly engulfs the disciples.

“Don't you care? They said to Jesus.

Why is this happening when we have the Lord with us?

It happens not only to individuals but to the whole ship of the church when we are tossed about by the troubles of society which then bring us to disagreement about how best to proceed in our work in the church.

Why, oh, why are we thus afflicted?

We who are of the company of Jesus, why should there be so much turmoil for us?

It happened to a black Methodist bishop reflected on his experiences of a century and a half ago:

Sometimes it seemed as though a wild beast had plunged his fangs into my heart.

Then I began to question the existence of God...

Does he exist? If so, is he just?

Why does he allow one race to enslave another, to deprive them of their rights?

It happened just the other day to a group of people in Texas when tornadoes set down without particular warning, killing, maiming, destroying. Why, Lord, why?

On an on we can go with our unhappy recital of woes personal, communal, and churchly also.

All of theme variations on the one question WHY?

---Why me, us, anyone?

---Why suffering, separation, or death?

---Why?

But as we reflect on our lessons this day, it is clear that we will get nowhere if that is the question that we continue to ask.

Job's complaints, even though we can say that they are quite understandable and justified, are silence by God.

In the middle of the majestic passage which is our first lesson,

God thunders from the whirlwind:

“Shut up, Job!”

Were you around at the beginning?

Did you create things?

So also are the disciples silenced in the middle of their complaint:

“Don't you care, Lord?”

“Peace, be still,” says Jesus to the storm...and to the protesting disciples.

Then comes the change, the key to a beginning of understanding.

Instead of “Why me, Lord?”, the question is changed now to “Who is this Jesus? What is he to me?”

And Mark says: “They were filled with awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?

This is the proper question for us to continue asking.

It is the proper question for all of the miracle stories.

Not, “How are they done?”

Nor “Why is there the suffering that prompts them?”

But rather, “Who is this that accomplishes these things?”

We will hear the question again and again as we read through Mark this summer and fall until September when we will hear Peter blurt out the confession “You are the Christ!”

although he still misunderstands.

Not until the end of the Gospel do we hear the full truth of the matter when the soldier at the cross says,

“Truly, this was the Son of God!”

The gospel writer is bidding us to lay aside our questions of the first type, no matter how many different ways we can find to express it,

and to turn instead to the question which God has chosen to answer.

To the WHY questions, he says for us to be quiet and wait.

To the WHO questions

he points to Christ Jesus,

and says “There am I.”

As C.W. Cone has observed:

When Christians encounter God, they are totally overwhelmed by him. And being overwhelmed by him, they take up their cross and follow where he leads.

This is faith,

that we are not overwhelmed by our great worries, pains, and griefs,

but that we are overwhelmed by the recognition of God's presence among and his gift to us.

In our silence before God, we are trusting that he will at length turn our reasons for complaint,

[valid though we think them to be,]

into seasons of praise.

The miracle is not so much that a storm ceases...[there will always be those who strive to come up with alternate explanations of the end of the storm]

...but the miracle is that the Lord God of heaven and earth cares about little, insignificant, tired folks like you and me

and loves us so much that he is willing to take all of the complaints, bitterness, and anger of all of our WHY questions upon himself, and to replace it with the promise of new life for you and me.

What an incredibly wonderful exchange: our WHYs are taken and replaced with his broken yet resurrected body!

Are we not driven to exclaim in wonder, “Who is this that can do such things for you and me?

Who is this that cares about me, both now and ultimately?

Who is this that will patiently pursue us ...even when we fall into the hedonist trap of saying Do whatever feels good and call it love, and God will be OK with that....

Who is it that that doesn't give up on us even then, and instead keeps beckoning us to the cross.

Who is this that keeps beckoning us to give up ourselves to the praise of God and the mutual up-building of one another?

Who is it that keeps doing this?

Who is this, Jesus, priceless treasure?

Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.