Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends,

The lessons today seem made for the moment don’t they? There’s Jesus, seemingly ignoring the plight of his disciples in the midst of the storm. They’re being tossed around and wondering why he won’t worry with them or be afraid with them or, well, do something!

Of course he does do something. He rests.

He trusts in the work he has been given to do. He trusts in his father’s will. He trusts and so he rests.

Finally they have to wake him up. They don’t just wake him up and ask him to do something — they take it a slightly more emotional direction. They ask that question we might all have asked at some point.

“Do you not care that we are perishing?”

I wonder how many prayers during this pandemic have been some form of this question? How many people, communities, or nations have looked toward a God, seemingly asleep in the storm, and asked, “Do you not care?”

But there Jesus was, in the boat with them, showing them what trust looked like in a moment when all seemed lost. He knew better. His mastery reminded them that they could, indeed, dare to sail far from the shore. His command of the sea showed them that it would not be a storm of water and wind that would sink them — it would be failing to trust in God.

If God didn’t care, Jesus would not have been in the boat. If God did not care, Jesus would not have been in the crèche. If God did not care, Jesus would not have been on the cross. If God did not care, the tomb would have stayed shut.

The God who walks with us and lives with us and moves in us and in whom we have our being is not simply going to do magic tricks to sooth the elements. The greater miracle is not the calm sea but the calm heart. That is what God calls us to in the midst of the storm.

To peace.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert