5th Sunday after Pentecost
Job 38:1-11; Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41
The nature of God’s relationship with us is at full display in the texts for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, and it is especially encompassed in the 107th Psalm. The Psalm starts and ends with the fundamental character of God spelled out to Moses by God himself (Exodus 34:6). God is good, and God’s steadfast love for us remains (Psalm 107:1, 43). Again, God freed the people (10-14), gathering them from the tragedy of the exile (3). Again, God provided life in the desert (4-9). Again, God forgave and restored (17-21). Again, God blessed the land (33-38). Again, God delivered the people from the hands of oppressors (39-42). And God did something else. God calmed the storms (23-28). The wise would then no longer distrust God (43) because ” … they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and [the Lord] brought them out from their distress (vs. 6, 13, 19, and 28).”
The blameless and upright Job (Job 1:1) thought his faith and dedication to God would shield him from this world’s calamities. When Job undergoes great suffering over a period in his life, he becomes angry and defiant of God. God answers Job out of the whirlwind (38:1) and reminds him that the God who set the foundations of the earth (v.4) has the power to “shut down the sea with doors (v.8).”
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus chooses to cross Lake Tiberias—a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee—after dusk (4:35). Even experienced sailors would find that odd. A rare storm hits their vessel, shaking the boat and making the moon and the stars invisible. Pounding waves and darkness make for a dreadful scenario. Death was more than a possibility. Yet, the one asleep during this chaos is way more than just their teacher; he possesses the power to make the storms cease.
The faith and courage the first disciples lack in the storm scene seem abundant in Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthians. The apostle is sure of his mission. Despite the kitchen sink of evil thrown at him from the forces opposing his proclamation of the gospel of love and reconciliation(vs. 4-5), Paul is confident in God’s power to see him through.
Bridging Faith 