Dear Cathedral Family,
My computer will sometimes ask me if I “trust” a source or website and if I will allow it to be opened on my device. I appreciate its caution! The internet is crowded with bad actors, motivated by greed and desire for power and control. So much so that most of us have little faith in the messages and sources we encounter online.
Unfortunately, that absence of trust—and the fear that accompanies it—spills over into the rest of the life we live in the real world among both strangers and friends in our community and beyond. And it can also lead to the feeling that God is absent from life in the world and that Jesus has nothing to do with it.
This Sunday’s gospel reading from Mark addresses that fear and lack of trust directly. Jesus—asleep in the stern of the boat being battered by a sudden storm—is the embodiment of peaceful trust in God’s power over the chaos. His faith is unwavering and constant. The disciples live in fear of the storm, and they see the sleeping Jesus as uncaring. When they wake him with their accusation, Jesus swiftly rebukes the sea, and calm prevails. And then he rebukes the disciples for their fear and continuing lack of faith. They are filled with awe, asking each other, “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”
It can be so hard to open our hearts enough to trust that Jesus is the Lord—and that he is really present and able to prevail against all the storms of our time. If he seems to you to be asleep on the job, that really means that he trusts completely God’s power to accomplish all God’s loving promises. Can you trust him with that?
Faithfully,
Beverly+
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