Keep Showing Up.

FUMC & Zion

Mark 4:35-41

Job 38:1-11

6.24.12

There is a source of suffering that has been with the human race since our beginning. An epidemic of sorts that inspires all forms of art; poetry, painting, music, the great novels of our time. I truly believe that this epidemic is on the rise – what with the rapid fire connectedness we are supposed to be experiencing through facebook and twitter, blogs and email, texts and the good 'ole rumor mill. We human beings, made in God's image, made for the glory of God, will forever be chasing after a cure for this epidemic – the epidemic of loneliness.

Loneliness: the fear and anxiety that we are alone in this world. I am not sure which is worse the loneliness that stems from being isolated – when life circumstances leaves you truly alone and without regular interaction with another human. Or the loneliness that comes when you find yourself smack in the middle of a room full of people and realize that you still feel utterly alone.

Loneliness is perhaps better defined by the words of Mother Teresa, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” And that kind of loneliness can strike when we are isolated and alone, or when we find ourselves trying to navigate a storm of troubled relationships or a seas of familiar faces that still seem distant to us.

There are a bunch of people struggling through different sorts of loneliness in the Bible, and in today's reading we heard from a few of them. Do you know the story of Job? Did you know that he was afflicted with great suffering and loss? His children, his workers, his livestock and property all taken from him and when that was not enough his health was taken and he suffered, and when that was not enough his so called “friends” came over to offer their support and advice and try to relieve his suffering a bit. Job's friends are infamously judgmental, preaching that childish theology that says bad things happen to bad people, so we deserve the evil we suffer. These friends blame Job for his own suffering and hand him hundreds of “if you had onlys...”. All that Job wants to be surrounded with is stolen away from him, and all that he is left with is a body wrought with pain and the company of friends who do not know him at all.

And in all this, Job is able to make a powerful statement of faith, Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, and then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side.” Even though Job is drowning in isolation and suffering and loneliness – he still believes that God lives and that God will be on Job's side. Isn't that what we all want...and the end of the day, someone to just be on our side. Job is not just the poster-boy of suffering in the Bible, Job is also one who speaks honestly and openly about what he needs as a human and what it is like to have a very real and intimate relationship with God, his Creator, his Rock, his Redeemer.

And finally, after 38 chapters of suffering and and bad friends...God shows up. That's where our reading came from today was the opening words of God in the book of Job, not until chapter 38! And God responds to Job out of the whirlwind – in the middle of a storm, God's voice falls on Job and anyone who is around to listen.

What would you like after 38 chapters of immense suffering? A little coddling and encouragement perhaps? God answers and is sarcastic, authoritative, patronizing and maybe even a little rude. God gives a “who do you think you are – where were you when I was busy creating heaven and earth” lecture. We heard just a few verses today, but it goes on and on as God lays out just how intimately the Divine hand is present and still working all through creation – in the animals, the systems, the storms, the sea – it is God and God alone who has authority to move the powers of creation.

How does that sound after 38 chapters of suffering? A little insensitive perhaps? Or is it liberating? Is there a sigh of relief to be heard that we do not control creation nor do we control the suffering and strife that so afflicts us? Is it reassuring to hear that our all powerful and creator God takes responsibility for the creation? Is it humbling to know that this all powerful and creator God comes close enough to us to catch our tears and hear our cries and be present with us in the storm?

God's voice comes to Job in the whirlwind – when the power of creation can be felt, when the storm that surrounding Job leaves him hurting all the more and lost besides...God shows up. God loves Job and has been with him through the suffering. God has caught all of Job's tears and heard all the cries and confusion...and so, God shows up.

But that is not the only storm we heard of today, that is not the only scene wrought with loneliness and fear and isolation and the unknown. It strikes in the Gospel reading, too.

The storm is maybe more obvious here, the men on the fishing boat out in the open seas where all you see are the crashing waves before you and the crashing waves behind you the seas are raging and rocking and death is certain. The loneliness that must have hit at knowing that there you are one among many in a boat, and a boat among boats out there in the middle of a terrible storm – the loneliness and helpless feeling of crashing around, for you are a plaything in the hands of creation.

And the Jesus shows up. There is the middle of the boat is Jesus – he is not helping to steer the boat, nor is he offering any sort of pastoral comfort and help...Jesus is sleeping through the storm, a picture of peace and solace. He is slow to act, the disciples have to panic and fret first – they even have to wake Jesus up. And Jesus shows up, speaking “peace”. Peace that is so strong and so sure that even the sea obeys – even the wind is still, even the creation comes to rest at his word.

Then Jesus' reaction turns on the men: he yells at them. Why are you afraid? Where is your faith? Those did not need to feel alone, that was their fear and anxiety taking hold, they never were really alone. The One who knows their faith, knows their fear, the One who knows their deepest need as human beings was right there all along. He was not on the shore, he was not in the stillness, Jesus was there in the middle of the storm responding to their fear and panic, Jesus was in the middle of the storm speaking peace.

I saw another storm yesterday. In the morning I stood in the middle of cold and harsh rains that poured down on a group of people fighting cancer. Cancer: a word that can invoke just isolation, just fear, such loneliness. But hundreds stood around the track for the Rely for Life event and has the cancer survivors lines up for their opening...the heavens opened. It was difficult, it was unpleasant, it was wet and cold and windy, but there they went...walking together to testify to the gift of life they had been given. (Rosengrens, Bill and Norm) It was stormy, it was kind of miserable...but I saw God show up. In the camaraderie of the survivors, in the support of the Relay for Life teams, in the words of the chair person who said “Cancer never stops, cancer doesn't care if it raining...So, we don't care if its raining and storming and we will never stop”. God showed up in the power of creation, in the middle of people who were joined by a common life experience of pain and suffering...God showed up yesterday on the Wahtonka track.

The storms of our life come in so many ways – maybe you've had a season of suffering like Job, maybe you've endured the storm in the boat, maybe you've faced the harsh reality of cancer or other diseases. Whatever your storm – you can be sure that loneliness, the great human epidemic was present. And whatever your storm – you can be sure that fear and anxiety was right there with you. Its painful and horrible to not be able to see over the raging seas surrounding you, and its devastating to feel as though you might be weathering the storm all by yourself.

Loneliness is the human epidemic and present in all our lives. So, hear the good news...the good news for Job, the good news for the fishermen and the good news for every single one of us is that God shows up. And not all of the sudden, but God has always been there, listening to you cries and catching your tears. God shows up sometimes sarcastic and authoritative, putting us in our place. God shows up to defend us in our time of suffering, when others pick and throw their anger around – God shows up to protect, love, guide, correct and gift us with grace and a relationship that is so real it is honest and present throughout every single season of suffering in our lives.

The good news is that Jesus shows up for us, Jesus asks us to get in the boat and cross to the other side and then Jesus stays with us, never, ever, ever leaving us alone. Jesus shows up in our lives and speaks Peace – strong and sure enough to calm the powers of darkness in us, strong and sure enough to help our faith grow and believe in the presence and power of this loving Redeemer.

The good news of Job, for the fishermen, for cancer survivors, for the sick, depressed, for the confused and lost, for the angry and hurt, for the grieving and poor, for the malnourished and war-torn places: the good news is that our all powerful and creator God who moves the creation and knows every creature and system and sea and storm is the same God who knows your every fear and fault...know you and love you with all the power that God can hold.

May God of the crashing waves show up in your lives – bringing chaos that creates, peace that restores and relationships so grounding you will know the “peace” Jesus speaks and you will feel the promise of an all powerful and all loving God that you will never be alone. Amen.