Bible Text: Mark 4:35-41 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Mark | “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  I can imagine there are a lot of people around the world asking that question these days.  400,000 COVID deaths in the United States.  More than two million COVID deaths around the world.  And we’re not out of the woods yet.  Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Of course, we know the answer to that question is yes.  Jesus cares about all the suffering in the world.  There is great truth in that old Sunday school song, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world.”  Which is why Jesus and the disciples were in the boat in the first place.  Mark tells us that, after spending the day teaching a large crowd of people on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee, that evening Jesus said, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.”  Maybe Jesus wanted to go to the Gentile side of the lake so he could get away from the crowds and be anonymous for a bit.  Clearly he was tired and needed a rest.  But in the short time Jesus has been in public ministry, what have we noticed?  That everywhere he went, his healing touch was needed.  His divinity was recognized.  Everywhere he went, Jesus got called into compassionate action.  And we know that Jesus welcomes the touch of unclean, unwell, suffering people.  Jesus and the disciples were going to the other side of the lake so Jesus could take the Good News there.

In order to get a better picture of what’s going on here, let’s talk geography for a second.  Jesus and the disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, also know as Lake Gennesaret, and sometimes Lake Kinneret.  Lots of names for the same body of water.  It’s a fresh water lake in northern Israel.  On calm days, the surface of the lake is as still as glass, but sudden storms are common, and the water gets very choppy, with big waves like a sea.  When Phil and I visited Israel a couple years ago, our group was scheduled to take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, but the waves were too dangerous.  So our guide arranged to postpone it.  The next day the lake was as calm as could be.  What an amazing contrast!

Most of Jesus’ teaching was done on the western side of the lake.  That is the region we know as Galilee, and is home to villages such as Capernaum and Tiberias.  But the eastern side of the lake is what we call today the Golan Heights.  In Jesus’ day, most of the people who lived there were not Jewish.  The southeastern region around the lake was a very different culture than the northwestern Galilee region.  For Jesus to go to the other side of the lake to teach and heal was unexpected to say the least.

But this fits with the pattern Mark is laying out for us.  Step-by-step, Jesus is expanding his reach.  First he teaches in a synagogue.  Then he teaches crowds of Jewish people.  Then, as we pointed out last week, he starts including “sinners and tax collectors”, people who had either aligned themselves with the Romans, or who were not making any effort to keep the Jewish law.  That was a tough pill to swallow, but at least they were Jewish by birth.  But now?  Heading to the other side of the lake?   We can imagine this made the disciples pretty upset.

As we’ve been saying this month, there is the call, and then there is always the anti-call.  It is wonderful when people hear a call from God, and they decide to say yes.  But whenever people say yes to God, something gets triggered in the universe.  There always seems to be an anti-call, a backlash, a struggle of sorts, after people say yes to God.  Jesus says, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake.”  That sounds like a simple, directional statement to us.  But it was really a call to take the Good News to new people in a new place.  And although the disciples said yes, they were anxious.  It’s no surprise that what comes next is a storm.  Of course!  It’s the anti-call.  And the storm makes the already anxious disciples really scared.  Can you picture that happening?

Jesus called the disciples to do something new.  To go with him as he brought healing and hope to non-Jewish people.  It wasn’t until we visited Israel a few years ago that I learned of this.  I assumed Jesus only ministered to Jews, with a few notable exceptions like the Roman centurion.  But that is not true.  In fact, in Israel, there are monuments at the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee celebrating that Jesus performed one of his miracle feedings on the Jewish side of the lake, and one on the Gentile side.  We are only in Mark chapter 4, and already Jesus is making an effort to take the good news of the gospel beyond the Jewish family.  For God so loved THE WORLD, the whole world, not just a certain kind of people, that is why Jesus came to earth!

But this would have been terribly difficult for Jesus’ disciples to wrap their heads around.  All their lives they had been taught that to be Jewish meant you were part of the chosen people of God.  That you were special. That you were the apple of God’s eye.  And here comes Jesus, after a long day and tiring day of teaching, suggesting they expand their reach and include even Gentiles into the salvation the Jews had been waiting ages for.

Honestly, I think this was what they were really afraid of.  Many of the disciples were fishermen.  They were very experienced boatsmen!  They knew how to handle themselves in the wind and the rain.  But they didn’t know how to handle themselves in the midst of their Lord, who it turns out, didn’t just come to call them.  When they ask Jesus, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”, on one level they are talking about the wind and the waves.  But I think there is a deeper meaning to their question.  “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”, as in, you haven’t done all there is to do to bring healing to the Jewish people of Israel.  Now you’re going to go help the Gentiles?  Don’t you care that WE are perishing?

Jesus’ answer to that question was to get up and tell the wind and the waves to be quiet and calm down.  He answered their question, not with words, but with a display of his divine power.  To me, the message behind this miracle, is, “Yes, I care that you are perishing.  That’s why I’ve come here!”  Once the wind and waves were quiet, then he spoke to them.  “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  Jesus is basically asking them to trust that he has enough love and power to not only save them, but to save others as well.

“Let us go across to the other side.”  The call from Jesus.  A sudden storm and great fear amongst the disciples.  The anti-call.  There is the call, and there is always the anti-call, but there is also the Good News.  And the Good News is, God’s love is not finite. God’s love is not limited.  There is more than enough to go around to save all the perishing people in the whole world.

In the short time I have been at Lima, only two and a half years, we have heard Jesus’ call to “go across to the other side” several times.  Each time, the call came because of the Good News:  the knowledge that God’s love is so great and so vast, that God desires everyone have the chance to experience and respond to God’s love.  That is why we worked on becoming a Reconciling Congregation.  We heard a call from God to go to a new place, make it official, and clearly articulate the values this church has been living out for many years.  Our Statement of Inclusion is an example of God doing a new thing, God inspiring us to reach new people with the Good News.  We heard the call, and you can be sure, that led to a sudden storm that made some people angry, some afraid, and in the end, sadly some decided to leave the boat.

Another example is how the pandemic prompted a call to go across to the other side of the lake, to go to a new place with new ways of worshipping together, meeting together, and staying connected.  As we’ve made our way to the other side, there’s been a lot of anxiety, some anger, some confusion, and for some people, flat out overload and disengaging.  Much of this is resistance, a way of saying, “Don’t you care that WE are perishing?”

And then there’s the issue of racism.  About a year ago, I asked two of our United Methodist Women to start thinking about how we might celebrate Black History Month this year.  I felt a call from God to help Lima “go to the other side”, and begin working on ways we can address racial injustice in our country.  The events of 2020 only heightened our sense that this work is important.  But as soon as I started talking more openly about addressing racism, a sudden storm erupted.  Some people got agitated.  Some got defensive.  There is the call, and there is always the anti-call.

In November, we got a phone call out of the blue asking if we wanted to apply for a $15,000 grant from our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s Congregational Development Team.  The money was intended to help Lima start an all virtual church plant.  Church council talked about it, we submitted our application, but we were not approved for the grant because, in the end, we do not feel called to start an all virtual congregation.  What we feel called to do is to expand our virtual offerings so that Lima has, essentially, three integrated campuses:  Lima Center, the brick and mortar building at 209 N. Middletown Road; Lima at Riddle Village, where until the pandemic we had been holding a worship service every Sunday evening; and Lima Online.  We’re in the boat going to the other side on this!  We have never been to this “place”, Lima Online campus before, because it didn’t exist.  But, step by step, it is being built.  And we feel a call from God to continue building it and expand what we offer in order to reach new people with the Good News.

I have to tell you, it was disappointing, not receiving that $15,000 grant.  It felt like an anti-call.  But in early January, to my surprise, we received a check for $4,000 from the Congregational Development Team.  They felt we were on to something and wanted to support us. On Monday night at Church Council, Pastor Karen, our new Director of Digital Ministries Sabrina Daluisio, and I submitted ideas to grow our Lima Online campus, and shared how we are especially feeling a call to offer more in the way of Faith Formation for families and children. We don’t know yet exactly what we will do with the $4,000, but we know for sure it will be used for something we are not currently doing.  We are going to ask God to show us the new thing God has in mind for us!  What a privilege it is, to be in the boat with Jesus, and have the opportunity to introduce people to the love of God.  But even as I share the good news of this $4,000 grant with you, I wouldn’t be surprised if this new venture causes some friction amongst us.  This is not personal.  It’s a pattern.  And it’s a pattern we do well to examine and surrender to God.

Our scripture lesson today is so rich in symbolism, and I hope you are feeling a call to explore how God might be calling you to go to a new place, to do a new thing, to adopt a new perspective, or cultivate new habits.  I hope you feel a call to examine any resistance you might be experiencing, the anti-call, and ask Jesus to calm the wind and the waves of the spiritual storm inside of you.  I hope you will also remember that even Jesus rested.  Not even Jesus could do the work God was calling him to do unless he took time to rest.  Friends, this has been a very tiring season.  There is much to grieve.  We are carrying heavy burdens.  And we may feel like the world around us is out of control.  So I hope you will use the camera in your mind to take a snapshot of Jesus, asleep in the boat.  Resting peacefully in the midst of a great storm.  Use that picture to give yourself permission to rest and recover and heal.  Our Divine Physician has come to make us well and give us the strength to stand gracefully in the truth, carry the Good News to new places, and be assured and convinced that God has enough love and power to save us all from perishing.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.