By Traci Hubbard
It was a typical day in San Francisco. The water was calm, the air was humid, the sky was blue. A young mother and her baby girl had enjoyed a walk on the pier and feeding the birds. Now the groceries were in bags hanging on her shoulders and this time she remembered to pick up the grape jelly for her daughter’s peanut butter sandwiches. Then it happened, the pavement trembled beneath her feet. It had happened before, nothing to worry about. The city sat on a fault line… they knew that when they decided to move there and start a family. There it goes again. The trembling. But this time it was stronger. This time it didn’t stop. She began to run, pushing the stroller up the hill, passing the trolley going in the opposite direction. She grabbed her daughter out of the stroller, it was slowing her down. Was she dizzy or were the buildings beginning to move like balloons fighting to float in the sky? Swoosh – everything and everyone came crashing down in the storm of an earthquake.
A mother and her baby girl, doing what they always did. They were exactly where they were supposed to be. Happy and tired, then the earthquake stormed in.
Jesus and his disciples were happy and tired. They have been at it all day, the listening, the healing, the teaching, and the learning. The sun was setting, and Jesus needed to leave the crowd and go to the other side of the lake. Of course, some of the crowd got into their own boats and followed him with their polaroid cameras, Jesus, look over here, trying to get the perfect shot to frame. But Jesus was tired and had already fallen asleep in the stern before they were halfway across the little sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee was actually a shallow lake settled between a valley and a mountain. It wasn’t unusual for the cold mountain air to sweep down in the evenings and stir up the warm desert air into a squall, and this day was no exception. The text says the storm was furious – creating waves that swept over the boat in a matter of seconds.
(Slides on screen are from “The Work” by Byron Katie)
Slide 1 Peter has a thought: IS IT A TRUE THOUGHT?
Peter turns to John and says, “Can you believe this guy? After all we did for him today, and he’s snoring over there. He doesn’t care about us; he only cares about the crowds and the spotlight. We’re going to drown while he sleeps. And look, he even found a cushion for his head, how nice for him.”
Slide 2 Peter: How do you know your thought is absolutely true?
James jumps over their luggage floating in the boat and shakes Jesus, screaming at him to wake up and care about the situation. After all, he owes them a safe journey, he’s their security guard – he’s their lifeguard, and he is asleep when he should be on duty. They didn’t ask him to get into the boat, he asked them.
Peter is screaming over the waves, “Since when does Jesus want to go all the way to the other side by water? I’ve fished this little body of water a thousand times, and she becomes temperamental in the evening. I’ve told him that a zillion times, but does he listen to me? NO! I’m just a loudmouth fisherman, taller and bigger than all of you…people probably think I’m HIS bodyguard. Damn it Jesus, you never listen to me!”
Slide 3 How do you know it’s true?
James yells back, “Shut up Peter! Hell, he’s exhausted. Jesus, please wake up! Listen to me! Wake up!”
Peter laughs sarcastically while trying to steer the sails against the winds. “I told you James! He never listens to us, he only listens to the crowd, and we are going to drown.”
Slide 4 Who would you be, how would you respond, without that thought?
Now soaking wet and afraid for their lives, their stomachs in their throats while the Nazarene carpenter turned Israel's new Ted X phenomenon, sleeps like a baby in the storm he drew them into – their deaths will be his fault and their families will be on CBC telling the real truth about who Jesus is before morning breaks.
The guys are arguing, some understand that Jesus is exhausted because he had poured himself out like water all day and he is never able to get to every person that needs him. Miracles and feeling like a failure in the same moment. It’s an impossible job, being called to this ministry with the religious leaders constantly criticizing how and when he helped people. They would have preached a different way, a shorter sermon for sure, and they certainly wouldn’t have wasted their time going out to the margins where the people rarely paid their taxes and vaccinations were hard to come by. Jesus had a lot on his shoulders all the time.
Matthew shouts, “This guy never gets a break! No one knows what it’s like to be in his shoes. He didn’t plan on this to happen guys; he wanted to get away from the unending demands and he fell asleep. He had nothing left – he needed to recharge – hell, we all needed to recharge – that’s why we didn’t walk around to the other side. The crowds are relentless, they would have hung onto us like mosquitoes and he knew that – he knew we needed some rest.”
Peter chimes in, “Well, he certainly got what he wanted. James wake him up now!”
And just like that – the water was still.
The guys are soaking wet, their hands blistered from holding onto the ropes, trying to direct the sails – trying not to drown – trying to get Jesus to the other side when …silence…the wind was gone. The water was glass – what happened? And then they all turn their gaze as if directed in a movie scene to the sleeping one who was now standing with his palms up, his hair matted to the sides of his face, his tunic twisted, full of sand, his face calm, his eyes closed.
“Quiet” is all he had said.
“Quiet”…
And all Peter could hear was their breathing…all he could feel was the fear that had filled his body and the abandonment he felt – Jesus never listens to him…
Then, in the deafening quiet, Jesus opens his eyes and calmly says, “Why are you so afraid? After everything you have seen, after everything we have been through, where is your faith?”
5th slide The Turn Around
The text says they were terrified. I’ve read this text a thousand times and finally, and this morning, like a storm out of nowhere, it hit me. The storm was threatening for sure. The waves had taken over the boat, taken over their skills, and their faith. Then Jesus stands and speaks, “Quiet” and their story is instantly edited to calm. It wasn’t the storm that terrified them. It was the power of trust, Love, and Calm that Jesus had during and over the storm. They were terrified by the way Jesus WAS.
Jesus may had been sleeping but his soul heard their cries. Folks, Jesus was human and dog tired. He needed a minute, a moment away from the needs and cries for help. His bucket was empty, and we all know what comes out of an empty bucket. We need to remember that the Spirit – the Energy – the Love of God – the Eternal Presence is in and around us; all of THAT – who the Sacred is– all of those intangible sails are constantly with us, listening to us, being with us through every single moment of our lives.
Where is our faith when life begins to rock our dreams? Where is our faith when things do not look like what we imagined? Where is our gratitude when illness comes? When someone we love disappoints us, hurts us, or even betrays us? Why do we blame and shame the one who is with us in everything, understanding everything we feel? The truth is when we surrender to fear, we become its servant, and our faith falls asleep at the wheel of our choices. The Sacred is never asleep. The Spirit is always aware. The problem is our perception, our thoughts around what is true.
Byron Katie’s The Work - share the exercise.
Return to all four questions and the turnaround on one slide
What is Peter had turned his thought around and said, “I never listen to Jesus.” He knows that isn’t true. He hangs on Jesus’ every word. So maybe, just maybe, Jesus listens to him too.
What if we practiced these four questions and the turn around when we are in conversations, especially, stormy conversations with others, and especially those who matter most to us. I imagine we would experience more “Quiet” than we could imagine.
Six days after the earthquake in San Francisco, emergency responders found the mother and daughter beneath some concrete and rubble. The mother’s right hand was covered in grape jelly – her fingers cut open by the glass. She was dead. But her daughter was alive because her mother heard her crying – her hunger- her need to be fed, needing her touch. The little baby had survived on grape jelly and the blood from her mother’s fingers. And the mother’s spirit continues to live in and around her daughter every minute of her life.
Peace be still.
Quiet.
Next time an expected or unexpected wave rolls in, and you assume the other person isn’t listening, ask yourself, “Who would I be without this thought?”
The next time you wonder where God is inside of all of the mess, inside your loss, inside your fear, turn your perception upside down and you’ll be able to see clearly, whether the rain is gone or not, and from this perspective, you can co-create with the Sacred a new bright, a different life giving kind of bright and sun shiny day. May it be so, amen.