Who Can Silence Leviathan?
Year B: Proper 7
The reign (or kingdom) of God does not consist of a place, a form of government, or even of the rule of God over our actions and interior life. It is not an organization into which we are supposed to fit. It generally introduces itself by an event (or a series of events) that changes our lives. Many of the parables describe situations in which someone’s life is suddenly turned upside-down. In these parables Jesus seems to say that this intrusion into one’s life is how the reign of God manifests itself. To allow one’s life to be turned upside-down requires a change of heart. And a change of heart presupposes a certain disenchantment with what we have been considering happiness.1 —Thomas Keating
Year B, Proper 7, June 23, 2024
First Reading: Job 38:1-11
Psalm: Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Gospel: Mark 4:45-41
Sermon - Who Can Silence Leviathan?
The ancient world was an enchanted world. In our post-enlightenment world, we have a hard time with anything magical or spiritual. Fairy tales make for interesting bedtime stories and animated movies, but they don’t strike us as being true. By “true” here I mean something that exists in the “real world.”
So when we read in the Bible about talking snakes, Leviathan, and man-swallowing fish, we don’t wander into our gardens expecting to encounter a talking serpent or swim at Lake Guntersville State Park while watching out for sea monsters that breath fire and can break tall trees with their tails.
But for those living in the ancient world, there were other-worldly dangers lurking in the sea and in the wilderness. In fact, many of the ancient creation stories depicted some kind of cosmic battle in which these mythological beasts were tamed or perhaps destroyed, such as in the book of Revelation.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, Leviathan is depicted as an enemy of Israel and humanity in general. In Job, it is depicted as a beast only God can tame. In Psalms, God is pictured as destroying Leviathan when the earth was made (Psalm 74:14). And in Isaiah 27, Leviathan, which is all but equated with the serpent in Genesis 3, is finally crushed in the Messianic kingdom.
When we read the New Testament, we do not find any mention of Leviathan by name, but remembering this prevalent character from the Hebrew Bible might shape how we read some familiar stories. One in particular is found in Mark 4.
When Jesus and his disciple escaped the crowds on a small fleet of boats, "a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Be silent! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’” (Mark 4:37–40).
To the modern reader, Jesus simply calms a storm, which is impressive, but to Mark’s audience, Jesus is casting out the forces of darkness (Mark 3:27). In calming the sea, Jesus is demonstrating his power over the forces of chaos and evil. Unlike the story found in Jonah 1:5-6, this story doesn’t end with a troublemaker being cast overboard to be swallowed by the great sea creature, but it ends with Jesus exhibiting power over creation itself.
Jesus’s disciples’ response is appropriate and should call the same question to our attention: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
While many of us live in a disenchanted world where all of these supernatural things only happened “back there” or, to some, not at all, these kinds of stories within scripture may seem strange to us, and some may even doubt their relevance. Personally, I believe that Jesus really did have the power to calm a storm, but I think there is more to this story than that.
Neil Gaiman, paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton, once said, “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” That is not to say that I see these stories as simply fairy tales, but it is to say that I think their importance and relevance to us today rises above their ability to be reproduced in our own time.
This story, for instance, is true because just as Jesus calmed the forces of chaos upon the sea, he can bring stillness to our lives, even when our faith seems to falter and fear seems to triumph over peace.
Second Reading: Now is the Day of Salvation!
For Paul, the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah, the kingdom of David, and the reconciliation of God’s people were fulfilled in Jesus and through the ministry of the apostles. In 2 Corinthians 6, he cites a passage from Isaiah 49 to make his point:
“For he says, ‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
In the context of Isaiah 49:8, the passage the apostle cited above, Isaiah envisions a time when the children of Israel would be brought home from exile, when prisoners would be released, when those in darkness would be shown a great light, when the people of God would no longer hunger or thirst, and when God would have compassion on Israel.
What event could have possibly happened to convince Paul that this passage had been fulfilled? Jerusalem was under Roman occupation. Many of his people lived in poverty, debt, and indentured servitude. Yet, for Paul it was the Cross of Christ and the glorious good news of Jesus, the message of reconciliation we talked about last week, that was not just the means through which these promises were realized, but the substance of the promises themselves.
That is, Jesus is the restoration of Israel. Jesus is the light that shines in a dark place. Jesus is the compassion of God. Jesus is the day of salvation.
You and I, as members of the body of Christ, have the sacred calling as ministers of the good news of Jesus. We are to “speak frankly” (2 Corinthians 5:11) and “open wide our hearts” (2 Corinthians 5:13) so that all will come to experience the life we have in Christ.
Now is the day of salvation!
Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.
Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.