Storms of Life

Around 20 years ago my parents were in a car wreck.    They were travelling on Interstate 81 in West Virginia one weekend when one of their tires blew out.  They spun around in one direction, slammed into the 18 wheeler on one side of them, then bounced off that and hit the guard rail on the other side of them.   And that’s about when all the movement stopped.   This all took around 10 seconds or so.  And just as the tire blew and they started that first spin, my mother told me she said a very short prayer – “Lord Jesus” or something like that.   After the investigation and the insurance issues got all settled out, the car was so damaged the insurance company wrote it off as a total loss, but my parents had almost no physical injuries at all.   

There’s the Gospel Story of Jesus being in a boat – asleep in the back – when a storm hits that lake they’re on, and the boat evidently is tossed around, and water starts coming into it.   But Jesus evidently is still asleep.  So in anger they wake Jesus up – “Wake up, can’t you see we’re about to die!”   He wakes up and “rebukes” the storm – “Silence!   Be still!” he says.  And the wind stops, the waves get calm.   The picture you get is almost like the clouds break up and the sun comes out again.   Then he says to them – “You still have no faith?” 

In my parents case, the storm was stilled not long after my mother’s prayer.  Did her prayer save them?   Sure could have been worse!   Did her faith have something to do with all this?   She certainly was a person of very strong faith!

Have you ever had a time in your life where – even for a brief moment (like the short but scary accident my parents had), or a longer “season” of storms?   What am I saying – if you’re older than 10, you’ve probably had at least a few “storms” in your life.

Life has probably knocked you around a little; maybe car issues, or medical issues, or health, or family.  There are storms where things seem to be going south; maybe your job, or a friendship, or money.  Maybe things felt more and more like they were getting out of control.  Sometimes we can handle one thing, maybe even a few things – but once these “storms” get past a threshold we have, they seem like they’re more than we can handle.  Sometimes they feel like these storms pile up one after the other.   I’m talking about the personal ones, not the ones that happen to other people, but the ones that happen to you and/or your family- people you care for.     

Sometimes it feels like you have your hands full – a life full – of stuff and there’s just too much going on.  In your mind, heart, psyche, it just feels like a storm!   It feels like you want to tell Jesus or God… ”Can’t you see, Jesus… we need your help!   WAKE UP!  Do Something!”     Have you ever said a prayer like that?   “God, WAKE UP!”

   Or “Where are you?”     Basically “Are you there?”

It’s not uncommon for people of faith to bump up against this question somewhere along the way – “Why?”    “Why did          (fill in)       happen?”   Boy, prayers don’t get any more real than that!    “In this storm of life… why didn’t you do anything?   Why didn’t you do more?”      Sometimes it feels like God didn’t do anything.  Like Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat the whole time.   Like God wasn’t even there in the boat at all!

The shooting in Charleston SC this past week came to mind a lot .   Nine people were murdered by a mentally disturbed person in Emanuel AME church last Wednesday.  The shooter came to their Wed night bible study, and was there for an hour before he started shooting.   Where was God?  You’d think of all places, God would be in a church filled with people there for bible study, in a place where the people of God had gathered.

Here’s the thing – as more and more changes occur in our world, in our country, in our society and economy… some people, who fear the changes, will react out of fear.   More and more fear can mean they become more and more reactionary.   This fear can bring out the negative –isms that are already there within:  Racism, Anti-semitism, sexism, and intolerance of all kinds!    This fear can cause entrenchment; of our ideology, of our mindsets, of our beliefs.    If we think a particular groups might be bad, or might be to blame, then in fear, these “might be’s” can easily become “are’s”.   and they make us want to fight back, to defend injustice done to us, to lash out in retribution. 

This was an act of terrorism!   It wasn’t al-Qaida, or ISIS, or even any organized group.   But it was still terrorism in the classic definition; and act of violence used to instill fear in a population, and act of violence used to change a populations thoughts and behaviors.   An act of violence used to control a population.   

Was Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat?   When would have it been the right time to wake up?  After the first person had been shot?  After the second?  Or the fifth? 

I can’t tell you why some storms of life end abruptly after yelling the name of Jesus  (like the storm is rebuked by just one word from Jesus himself)  while some storms of life continue on and on – even with prayer – until the storms get tired of all the damage they do and just move on of their own accord.  

So what do we do?    We do what we’ve always done, we make sense of the aftermath of the storms as best as we can and as honestly as we can.    Sometimes we say things like “God always has a reason for things.”      Which sort of means God allows the storms to happen or even makes them happen.   But in the Gospel story, remember Jesus didn’t start the storm!  

Sometimes we ask, “God, where were you?”  sort of like questioning God.    Remember the story of Job (the reading this past Sunday) where God tells Job, “Where were you when I created the universe?”    “Were you there when I created the seas and mountains – when I made the go to a certain point, and no more?  Do you know everything?    No!”     

There’s a story of God having been put on trial in the Auschwitz Concentration camp in Poland during World War II.    In 2008 some scholars and rabbi’s questioned whether this actually happened.   Elie Wiesel – the Nobel Laureate and writer – and survivor of Auschwitz Camp -  confirmed the truth of this story:  “I was there when God was put on trial.”   When he was told of the doubts some had of this, he said, “Why should they know what happened?  I was the only one there.  It happened at night, there were just three people.  At the end of the trial they used the word ‘chayav’ rather than guilty.  It means ‘He owes us something’…   Then we went to pray.”     

… Then they went to pray.

I don’t know why some storms are more violent than others.   I don’t know why some life-storms are quieted so quickly with just one word from Jesus – “STOP!”     while others require God to repeat the command over and over again.   And still other storms pretty much ignore God all together and only stop when they get tired of their own violence.   

I don’t know what made the shooter stop when he did.

But I do know this – I’m in awe of the faith of the people of Emanuel AME church!   They pulled together instead of pulling apart.  They responded with faith instead of with fear.

I don’t think everything happens for a reason.   Sometimes terrible things happen, things we just can’t imagine God doing – even if it’s to do something good later.  I just can’t see a loving God sacrificing people in order to give us the “opportunity” to do good work or show our faith.    But I do believe that in spite of terrible things happening – we have the choice to allow God to work in them and through them to make a blessing come out of it in some way.   And this is what Emanuel AME church has done!  

In spite of such a violent storm we have the choice to move forward in a healthy way, in a way of faith… rather than fear, and make God’s presence known in spite of violence.    Some of the people of Emanuel have already forgiven the shooter.   Yesterday on NPR as I was listening to the news as I was going to church I heard a pastor in Charleston say something like, “Evil needs to understand… we will not be moved!”      Yesterday Emanuel AME church opened  - they gathered for worship.  Bells rang all across Charleston – not so much as a somber reminder of the dead, as much as a loud sign of defiance in the face of violence..   “Our bells will ring to gather the community of faith once again!”

Wow!  They gathered – they prayed – they mourned.  And they remembered again who they are and what they’re about!    In the midst of the holocaust, they went to pray.  

I have no answers for why this happened.     I don’t think anyone has all the answers.  But we have a choice!    We have a choice to react out of fear.. or act out of faith!  

Pay attention to what Emanuel AME church does over these next few days, weeks, and months.  I think they will be such examples of faith for us all!