Be Humble: Calm the Storm
“Be Humble: Calm the Storm”
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B June 24, 2018
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Mark 4:35-41
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Today is the third look at a larger series of messages called, Be(e) Keeping: A Journey Into Contemplative Faith. We read part of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, and Mark’s Gospel sharing Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat, then woken up by the disciples who are afraid, and Jesus calms the storm. The theme of journeying into contemplative faith comes to a critical focus in this third part. Calming the storm is a great metaphor, and there are several crucial aspects of inviting God to help with deepening faith in our lives, but this requires inner, experiential work.
We started out this series by looking at being honest, recognizing that there is a better way of living, but the contemplative journey is not as easy as it may seem. We also talked about being aware because waking up is the first step, noticing the noticer, that we have an inner life and levels of awareness. The third dynamic we look at now involves humility. Without humility, we get triggered and caught up in our own mental anguish, anger, struggle, and the tenacity of our egos, what some call our false self. Humility is one key to unlocking the control these have in our lives. Without a deep, genuine humility, we basically don’t grow up into the fullness of life, but are kept at a surface level of reacting, defending, identifying with positions; all aspects of dualistic, ego-centric thought patterns, of seeing the world as either/or, good/bad, black/white, true/false, in/out, and constantly judging using ourselves as the reference point. Ironically, our struggle to conserve any sense of security actually nurtures a perpetual fear.
Humility releases us from fear, opens us to perceive reality in non-dual ways as we invite God to quiet our mind, tame our ego, and honestly take ourselves off center stage. We find our True Self, centered in Christ, united with the source of Being itself. As this process unfolds through learning the art of letting go, of what’s called in Greek, kenosis, or dying to the self; rather than a diminishing, life actually opens up and our relational field expands as we notice beauty, complexity, and other gifts of life that permeate the world.
My bees taught me a couple of things this week, both of which reinforce the importance of humility. Last Friday I was in my driveway and heard a too familiar sound of bees buzzing. At it’s peak, a hive can have over 60,000 bees living in it and if the colony feels too crowded it goes into swarming mode, when the old queen and about half the bees leave. That’s the hum I heard as twenty or thirty thousand bees decided to leave my Langstroth, American style bee hive box and swarm over to the neighbors. But rather than cluster onto a tree branch, they seemed unsettled. I put on my bee keeping gear, white coveralls, boots, a hat with a protective veil, and even gloves. (Good beekeepers don’t use gloves, but I still use them). Just as I thought I was ready to catch this swarm and try and put them in a new box, they got loud again and that aerial cloud of bees circled it’s way back to my Apiary. The Queen Mother apparently decided to return, and thousands of bees went back into the original hive box. I guess the Queen just wanted to get some air. Thankfully, she came back.
I have no idea why she did that. I didn’t think they were going to swarm this year to begin with. I did split the hive once they returned, taking some of the population pressure off by moving some of the bees to another box, on purpose. Maybe it will help. It is humbling to know that my best efforts at bee keeping are limited, and much of this larger, natural process is out of my control and beyond my level of understanding.
The next day, I went to the apiary, the bee zone, and started pulling crab grass because it has grown so tall that it’s interfering with the bee flight path as they come and go from the hive. It’s nice to work on this in the cool of the morning before the bees get really active, and after Friday night’s rain the ground was soft which helped uproot some of the grass. Tall, thick stalks of grass clump together and are tied into an extensive root system. The vertical stalk is directly linked to a horizontal rhizome that specializes in spreading, choking out any competition. Pulling crab grass is a lot of work, especially when you try and get those roots. But once the grass is gone, the apiary is opened up and the bees can fly unrestricted from their home to the nectar source and back again, welcomed by spaciousness, openness, and unrestricted air.
Pulling crab grass is humbling work. It puts you on your knees, it gets you covered in dirt. The bugs bite you, the bees tolerate you, and the muscles remind you that it is a struggle to wrestle roots that go deep and stretch out in all sorts of directions. Things get in your eyes and your bucket fills up fast with the broken stalks of grass. But the end result is worth the work as the apiary gets cleaned up and the bees can do their thing unhindered.
Chasing swarms and pulling crab grass are metaphors, of course, in the humbling process of inner work. The complexities of our lives need weeded and cleared, and as soon as we think we’ve got things all figured out or settled, something happens and we discover there is more to the story.
The Apostle Paul helps us here as he reminds the Corinthians of the importance and life changing power of inviting God to change our hearts. Paul calls them little children because they just don’t seem to get it; they haven’t grasped the mystical journey Paul is describing. “I speak as to children” Paul says as he implores them to “open wide your hearts.” He gives some theological reminders that it’s the “love of Christ that urges” them on, that “one has died for all; therefore all have died,” and that “those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” This is language that calls us to kenosis, to dying before we die, to shedding our false self to discover our True Self, and our center, in Christ. Then we hear familiar words as Paul says, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away, see everything has become new.” Then Paul starts playing with time, as in chapter six he points out that “now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation” As Paul shares with the Corinthians in every way, he says his “heart is wide open,” with no restrictions. If only they would open their hearts too!
The story from Mark is also powerful, and both Jesus and this gospel writer are masters at metaphors as we see storms and boats and wind and pillows. Jesus sleeps on the pillow in the stern of the boat as the wind comes up and the waves crash against them and the disciples are afraid because they are bailing water and yet seem to be sinking. They wake up Jesus and he calms the storm. Many a Sunday school has used felt board, crayons, drama, or other means to act out the action of this scene. The story is the same, and no matter how many times you read it in your life it’s always the same: Jesus is sleeping on a pillow, the disciples get scared in the storm, wake him up, and he calms the storm. It seems very standard, almost static despite the drama. To see it in new ways, to gain new understandings means it’s us that must change. Our perceptions need to be engaged and actively growing, otherwise we are like children, stuck in a felt-board-Jesus level of understanding. Moving beyond a literal look to dive deep into those waters as metaphor, to humbly recognize that in opening our heart we are inviting God to teach us things we may have missed before, to allow the Spirit to make us into “new creations”; this is the contemplative journey of inner awakening, of experiential prayer and connecting to the Source of Being.
Eckhart Tolle in his book, The Power of Now, talks about past, present, and future, and relates these to our lives in ways that help us approach this Gospel story in a new way. We’ll explore some of his perspectives as we mingle our way through this story. (Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, New World Library, Novato CA, 1999).
Notice, for example, that after Jesus and the disciples spent a very busy day teaching parables to crowds of people, “when evening had come,” Jesus says, “Let us go to the other side.” Mark mentions, “And leaving the crowd behind, they (the disciples) took Jesus with them in the boat, just as he was.” What if, as a metaphor, we look at this symbolically, through a contemplative stance, in the Wisdom tradition of Jesus teaching us the Way of life, of salvation not projected out, but in the Now? “Let us go to the other side” becomes a reference to the future. “And leaving the crowd behind” refers to the past. The disciples, along with other boats, are with Jesus, suspended over the depths of the sea, which represents deep mystery, even death, and yet they bring Jesus with them. Being with Jesus in the boat involves the fullness of the present moment. Along with this is that loaded image of Jesus sleeping on a pillow in the stern. This, classically understood, symbolizes oneness with God, that Jesus is at peace, in full unity with God, even as the storm rages and the waves “beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped” by the time the disciples wake him up.
Calming the storm is a metaphor for the peace of the Present moment, living in full and complete unity with Divine Being, and there is no separation between God and human, and all are in this together as love defines reality. Love’s embrace even includes the storms, but challenges the fear. Jesus says, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” The disciples were filled with fear. They ask, “who is this that even the wind and sea obey him?” They have not experienced the level of peace, unity, and love that Jesus has, just as he is. They have Jesus in the boat with them, but they have not found their center in him, In Christ.
Eckhart Tolle helps put in perspective the importance of this inner work in dealing with past, and future, and claiming the power of Now. Jesus asleep on the pillow shows us the type of unity and calm being fully present in the moment can bring. Tolle says most of our mental energy is spent not in the present moment. The past and the future are actually mental abstractions; the present moment is the only time we ever really have, right now. He uses the term, “psychological time” to describe our obsession with past and future, and how this obscures the power of the Present. We get wrapped up in trying to use the past to define our identity. We also use the future as a false hope, holding out for real salvation from something external, later on, but this only creates fear and a lack of faith, much like the disciples trying to frantically bail the boat and finding it useless in their focus on the far shore. Clinging to the past and fretting over the future helps us create suffering and pain. He says,
The old patterns of thought, emotion, behavior, reaction, and desire are acted out in endless repeat performances, a script in your mind that gives you and identity of sorts but distorts or covers up the reality of the Now. The mind then creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present. Usually, the future is a replica of the past. Superficial changes are possible, but real transformation is rare and depends upon whether you can become present enough to dissolve the past by accessing the power of the Now.
Do you see these scriptures lighting up in other ways? In Christ, we are new Creations, finding our center and claiming unity and love not only in divine Presence, but in the power of the Present, of the here and now that Jesus resting on the boat offers as new and abundant life free from the traps of our own mind. “Open wide your hearts” is the call because heart perception is the level at which this transformation takes place. Our minds cannot grasp it. Humility is the key that unlocks this mystery, letting go of our own delusions trapped in psychological time, inviting God to open us up to something larger, deeper, and beyond our control or understanding.
The dialogue is revealing. The disciples wake Jesus up and say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” They call him teacher. He is a rabbi in the wisdom tradition, showing them by example a better to live. Do you not care that we are perishing is a statement that’s filled with fearful, ego-centric, past and future aspects that show an uneasiness in the present. Jesus says, “Peace! Be still!” He is showing awareness in the present moment of his unity with God and all things, and a comfort in his spirit and mind and heart. Whether they are perishing or not, whether the storm is raging or not, like Paul’s extensive list to the Corinthians about all sorts of situations and experiences, the point is that we are reconciled, the point is atonement, which is
at-One-ment. In Christ, there is only love. Jesus is not concerned about perishing, because whether you are alive or dead, nothing separates us from the love of God, the experience of unity, the holiness of whatever present moment in God’s eternity we happen to be in.
Here are a couple questions as we let Jesus’ words, “Peace! Be still!" echo in our hearts. Questions that help us let go of past and how we use it to reinforce our pain, to let go of the future as the source of “fulfillment and satisfaction,” (Tolle, pg. 57) a salvation from our own unease and lack of faith in the present. Questions that help us open our hearts wide to grace, peace, and love, so that we can face the storms that come from a stance of unity, connection, perspective, and Christ-centered joy. Here are some questions for self-observation, as we humbly ask,
Am I at ease at this moment?
What’s going on inside me at this moment?
What kind of thoughts is my mind producing?
What do you feel?
Is there any tension in the body?
(Tolle, pg. 64)
These types of questions help us monitor our mental-emotional state. They help us on the inside, with inner work, to plumb the depths of spirit and help us shed things that sap our energy and focus from anything other than the Christ consciousness.
It takes humility to ask questions. Like those disciples, in asking questions it exposes our ignorance. They call him Teacher because they have much to learn, just as we do. As we grow in the Way of Christ and follow on the Jesus path, may God continue to teach us who we really are, in Christ. May God help us each moment to claim the source of our Being and the power of Now. Through the contemplative stance, may scripture stories reveal untold lessons that open our heart space even wider as we learn to be like Jesus, at One with God and all things. And may God be glorified, NOW, even as forever. Amen.