In the Page Turn

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good!  God’s mercy endures forever!  We’re back!  We’re back from the storm! We’re back from being tossed high on the waves of the Covid chaos!  Waves that mounted up to the heavens and descended to the depths as the Psalmist said. We’re back from having those waves beat into us trying to swamp our boat.  Back from the depths of grief where our souls melted away in peril… where we wondered if the Teacher even cared that we were perishing by hundreds of thousands… while God seemed to be asleep… in the stern… oblivious… on a cushion!  

So here we are.  The storm has finally calmed… but just like in this Gospel lesson… we’re not quite all the way back to shore yet, are we?  I think we had all imagined in this last year and a half that when this day finally came we’d be right back on shore in the same place we left.  But now that the day is here…  a lot of us… I know me for sure!… a lot of us find ourselves still a bit out to sea.  The sea is calm, and that’s certainly much better than things were last Spring with the storm fully raging… but we really aren’t fully back to shore yet either.  We’re like those disciples… we’re here… after the storm… in a sailboat… with no wind… bobbing around and a bit disoriented.

We’re no longer in the heart of the storm, for which I am eternally thankful, but we're also not back at the dock either.  This spot has left me sort of stunned and a little anxious to be honest.  Will actual people really come back?  Will they come back more than just today?  What will it be like preaching in a church to actual people again?   Will people who followed us online come and see what we’re like in person?  Will they still like us in person?  Do people want me to come and visit them?  Is that okay or does that idea make them anxious?  What if some variant pops up and we have to do this all over again?  Could we bear it?  Could I bear it? 

The raging - we’re pretty sure we’re all going to die - part of the storm really is over AND… at the same time the honest truth is that we’re not yet back to where we started this little boat ride either.  So we really ARE like those disciples in their sailboat, stuck in between the deadly raging storm that has just passed and an unknown shore in an unexpected windless calm, looking all around and wondering, “Now what?” 

I think our answer to that deeply theological question of “Now what?” will be found in the same place those original disciples found their answer.  For those disciples, the question of “Now What?” was the end of Fourth Chapter in Mark.  The answer came only when they turned the page, and began the next chapter…“They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes.”  There at the beginning of the new chapter, Jesus stepped out of the boat, the disciples followed, and together they began to do all the things they had done before… cast out the demons that separated people from one another… care for the least and the lost and the last… love God and love neighbor… walk in the footsteps of Jesus and nudge the world one little bit at a time ever closer toward the Kingdom of God.  The new chapter began when they began doing all of the old love and healing and compassion, with a new twist for a new time and a new place.  

I am sure that before we know it, we too will find ourselves climbing out of the boat, following on the coattails of Jesus and joining him in nudging the world toward the dream God has for the world once again in this new chapter that is a new beginning for all of us!  But for today… we’re not quite there just yet.  For today we’re still in the middle of the page turn.  Done with chapter four but not yet quite focused on the first word of chapter five.  And that’s okay.  After all, the disciples and Jesus himself were once in the middle of this exact sort of page turn themselves!

We’ll turn our page soon enough.  I suspect sooner than we could ever imagine!  We’ll be back to work soon enough out in the open and out of our masks, instead of having to work behind closed doors and masks like we have for so long.  We’ve already climbed over the boat seats and done a concert.  Next week we'll be clambering over the gunnels to host Pride and soon we’ll be in full stride, walking in Jesus’ footsteps out in the world once again!  But for today… it’s good to linger for a moment in this page turn and follow the lead of the Psalmist.  To take a moment and give thanks for the calm after the storm.  Sing alleluia… together… in person… in doors… in the assembly today!  Because before you know it, we’ll all be off with Jesus into our next chapter.  Amen.