Homily for Proper 7 B - June 24, 2012

My brothers & sisters, who is Jesus in your life?  It might sound like a silly question, but it's much more profound that one would think.  

In our first reading, David's fame grows and his rivalry with King Saul grows bitter.  Prior to this moment, David has stunned Goliath with a sling stone and killed him with his own sword.  Abner, the commander of the army, brings David to Saul.  As things progress Saul makes him commander of the army (because of his many military successes) but when the people sing that he is ten times superior to Saul in his accomplishments, Saul becomes very jealous.  In today’s passage, Saul attempts to kill David, but is unsuccessful.  

The side note that an evil spirit from God comes to Saul has a couple possible meanings.  One is the common belief of the day that nothing happened in the world without God’s permission.  It may also be a literary symbol for God removing his favor from King Saul and putting it on David.  

In our passage from 2 Corinthians we see Paul still defending himself against wild accusations.  Paul describes himself as authentic.  He accuses the Corinthians of being guarded or two faced in their relation with Paul.  In contrast, Paul states that he has been open and honest.  

In our selection form Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus calming the storm.  The disciples, as Mark often portrays them, don’t quite get it.  Mark frequently portrays Jesus as mysterious and the disciples as having trouble figuring him out.  Prior to this Jesus was teaching the crowds from a boat, with the crowds along the shore, he now suggests to the disciples that they “go across to the other side.”  That is, to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  A flotilla of boats follows, but they scatter before the storm.  As the storm builds, Jesus is “asleep”: he has complete confidence in God and in utterly unconcerned.  To ancients, the sea symbolized the powers of chaos and evil.  Jesus commands it to be still: only God can control nature.  The disciples are amazed and stunned by Jesus’ demonstration of power.  It’s all too much to believe and they simply cannot tag\ Jesus with a clear description.  

This all reminds me of a story, Nine year old Joey, was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday school.

"Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelite out of Egypt.  When he got to the Red Sea, he had his combat engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely.  Then he used his Com' Link and called for air support.  They sent bombers who blow up the bridge and all the Israelite were saved."

"Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?" his mother asked.  "Well, no, Mom.  But if I told it the way the teacher did, you'd never believe it!"

Many things that are real, are hard to believe because they are just too far out of our experience.  Other things truly are incredible.  The disciples were clearly overwhelmed by their experience in this story of Jesus calming the storm.  But, at one moment or another they had to come down with a personal decision about who Jesus is.  We in our spiritual lives can benefit from asking the same question even though we are already believers.  At different points in our lives we need different things from Christ to support and encourage or even challenge us.  Sometimes we need Jesus as our refuge and sanity in the craziness of this life.  Other times, he is the mentor and guide we most trust and love.  Yet other times, he is the one who boots us back into action.  

The more we are conscious about the ways we experience Jesus, the better we can focus our efforts to grow in the fullness of our Christian lives.  

So my friends, who do you, say Jesus is?