Church fathers

Athanasius, “For when he arose and rebuked the sea and silenced the storm, he plainly disclosed two things: That the storm of the sea was not simply from winds but from fear of the Lord who walked upon it; and that the Lord who rebuked it was not a creature but rather its creator.”

“ They awakened the Word, who was sailing with them, and immediately the sea became smooth at the command of its Lord, and they were saved.”

Gregory Nazianzen, “He was tired – yet he is the ‘rest’ of the weary and the burdened. He was overcome by heavy sleep – yet he goes lightly over the sea, rebukes the winds and relieves the drowning Peter.”

Ephraim the Syrian, “The ship carried his humanity, but the power of his Godhead carried the ship and all that was in it. In order that he might show that even his humanity did not require the ship, instead of the planks which a shipwright puts together and fastens, he, like the architect of creation, made the waters firm and joined them together solidly under his feet.”

Markan distinctives:

• “just as he was. And other boats were with him.”
• Reference of place peculiar to the Markan Context. 4.1 Jesus had already entered a boat to teach so now they just set off.
• Apparently other disciples follow, but they don’t enter into the rest of the story.
• In the stern on a cushion
• Hooker – “The cushion on which he slept seems to refer to the helmsman’s seat which, being in the stern, would be comparatively dry.”
• Sleeping shows his humanity
• “Do you not care if we perish?”
• Characteristically Mark, raw and emotional. Assuming Markan priority, the statement is cleaned up by the other evangelists.
• The fear of hardened fishermen may be a testament to the severity of the storm, Though they had weathered many in the past, this one was about to claim their lives.
• “Peace! Be Still”
• Commands used in exorcism 1.25
• “Why are you afraid?”
• Again a reference to the raw emotions of the disciples.
• Contrasting Jesus’ implicit trust in their seamanship and above all God.
• “Filled with Awe”
  
• terrified. Similar to Luke’s “And they were afraid”
• Fear is more tangible than the panic; it is fear of the authority of Jesus. Who is this man? Enter Job.

Sacred Violence?

But decapitation—and this takes us back to David and Goliath—is also a "public sacrament," a "way of making the violence holy," and, write Benjamin and Simon, "an act redolent with the sense of sacrifice and the literal execution of God's law, which to the jihadist means death for infidels and apostates."

Wow. How do we connect with this? At the moment let us take the scripture at face value and believe that God really used the acts of David to demonstrate his power in the face of unsurmountable odds. How do we take what surly that day was a sacrament of violence with our world. We surely cannot respond with violence when Jesus told us to love.

I can't recall anyone who made this point better than the German pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892–1984), who protested Hitler's anti-semite measures in person to the fuehrer, was eventually arrested, and then imprisoned for eight years at Sachsenhausen and Dachau (1937–1945). He once confessed, "It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. He is not even the enemy of his enemies." When God hates all the same people that you hate, you can be absolutely certain that you have created him in your own image (Lamott).

As much as I like to identify with Don Quixote, one thing I can't jive is his vocation. He claims his holy profession of arms. Is there such a thing? Can prophet, priest, or king excercise the sacrement of violence?

Deliverance

Paul has faced his Goliaths. “As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.”

His weapons are not sling and stone, but “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.”

The psalmist sings “The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”

The second 1 Samuel reading also relates to Paul’s message, he earnestly desires the kind of soul-to-soul love from the Corinthians that David and Jonathan shared.

The psalmist joins his prayer. “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!”

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Jesus too brings deliverance to a scared band of disciples in a tossed boat. He stands and rebukes the sea itself. The sea who claims souls and ships. The psalmist says of her,

Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters; they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their calamity; they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

“Peace, Be Still” He asks the disciples why they were afraid. They think it pretty reasonable to be afraid, to doubt their survival. They ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

God’s answer to Job in his doubt answers the disciples as well.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding…Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?-- when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”

Ours is a God of deliverance, in him we have no fear.

Resources for Sunday

Here are some links to resources I found helpful for Sunday's sermon.


Life in the Light of the Judgement Seat of Christ

Walking with God

We Do Not Preach Ourselves!

God Chooses a King

Trees

God tells Ezekiel that he will take a cutting from the top of a cedar and plant it on the top of a tall mountain – a high tree will grow in the heights. It will become fruitful and a haven for animals. He does this so the trees of the field will know His power. In apocalyptic inversion, he will “ bring low the high tree ” and “make high the low tree.” He will “dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.”
The Psalmist says “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.”

For you O Lord have made me glad by the your works
At the works of your hands I sing for joy.
The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is like a tree. It grows of its own divine power until the harvest. Although it may be only a tiny seed that the farmer casts, “it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Walking by faith

Samuel is grieving the condition of Saul’s soul. He is disappointed and so is God. God directs Samuel to pick a new king in the face of his grief and danger to his life. The king God picks is not the one that seems reasonable or likely. “For the Lord does not see a s mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Through out this narrative, Samuel is invited to trust God and not his own eyes.

The psalmist prays for us in Psalm 20 a benediction that invites us to trust that God protects us.

Paul speaks of the confidence we have in God, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” The power of God is extended to us as the psalmist has prayed. We are “a new creation.”

Do we trust him? This God who we have been celebrating as Father, Son and Spirit?