Stilling the Strom Edited by John Vincent

This collection of reflections on Mark's telling of the Stilling of the Storm, when Jesus is woken from sleep by the disciples fearful that the Storm will sink their boat, is full of intriguing ideas. This is a slim volume, but packed with such a range to ideas it is hard to do justice to it. Instead I will just share a few of the ideas that particular caught my attention.

Ian Wallis paints a picture, that is perhaps a little too familiar “Every church community inherits Jesus sleeping in the stern. How he got there no-one quiet remembers. In fact, the existence of the boat is equally inexplicable. As is the crew among whom we find ourselves numbered and the voyage on which we're set. We trust all this once made sense and was persuasive. That, awake, Jesus demanded attention and attracted supporters willing to venture beyond familiar waters in pursuit of God's kingdom causes. But none of the original recruits survives, not even their successors. And the vessel has been en route for so many generations that the Galilean shoreline from which in embarked is barely visible, a distant speck on history's horizon. Speculation over where the boast is heading and the purpose of the journey fills the airwaves. And the only person able to supply an answer remains dead to the world.”

One of the features of Mark's telling is that the boat in which Jesus and the disciples are crossing the lake is not alone, there is mention of “other boats” also making the journey, and this allows a number of expansive readings of the story.

Christopher Burdon explores this, recalling working with a group who are asked to imagine their role in the story and there reactions. One reflected “I wasn't in that boat with Jesus and the disciples. I was one of the crowd who got into one of those other boats. I don't know what's happened to us.” Jesus stilled the storm and provided safety to those in his boat – but what of the others? Maybe they were left sinking? How often is our concern, when we are really honest about it, limited by the boundaries of our Church?

Meanwhile, Neil Richardson cautions to over playing the story, “It does not mean that God underwrites all our ways of being church. But the story does mean that a church, which even in its unbelief, cries out to God, will not be overcome.” Here, as so often, the disciples weren't “getting it right” but Jesus still responds to their need.

We can build on that when David Blather Wick notes that “Running through the conversation in 4.38-40 is the question “Who is in charge of the boat?” Clearly the disciples think Jesus is, just as we tend to think God is in our lives. Jesus says they are.” this is a profound reversal, we want someone else to sort our lives out for us, but Jesus reminds us that we have free will, accountability, therefore it is down to our initiative to make the difference.

Perhaps thinking about the story in another way, Louise J. Lawrence wrote that “Over the last couple of decades as a result of these social trends, there has been a marked interest in “places” which are defined as having a shared community story... [while there has been a rise in “non-places”] … People can operate within them alone and anonymously. Supermarkets, airport lounges, chain-dominated high streets... When communities don't communicate, not only is a rich vein of experience left un-mined (an old saying in Africa goes “when a person dies a library burns down”) they also literally forget who they collectively are. The world is increasingly suffering from this corporate amnesia and does so at its peril.”

Lawrence quotes Lane that Jesus knows “that places on the edge, those considered God-forsaken by many, are where his identity as Messiah has to be revealed … ever dragging his disciples away from the familiarity of home, he declares present the power of the kingdom in the alien landscapes of another land”

Lawrence goes on that “This was echoed in responses from a rural community in Dartmoor who, while bemoaning that fact that their rector was no longer resident in the village, nevertheless saw that this had led to the empowerment of others to take on ministry in all its forms within their context. Due to the changing nature of “place” the “crew” really does need to be envisaged in a much wider sense than just stipendiary priests. Lay led initiatives need to be encouraged and developed. Likewise any collective movements in the locality which support or regenerate community also need to be supported by the church.... If the “all hands on deck” ethos is not promoted, the church becomes less a missionary-led fishing trawler with a proactive crew and more a passenger ferry with passive travellers. Such ships are heavy and hard to handle, difficult to get on board, and ill equipped to reach those at sea-level within a storm.”