Sunday, June 20, 2021
There are some people—some of them quite well-known—who preach a message of conflict and fear under the guise of the Christian gospel. It seems as though studying the Scriptures is no defense against missing the message. It’s as though their preaching comes exclusively from this passage from the first letter of Saint Peter [1 Peter 5:8]: “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” They talk as if they think the devil is a boogeyman hiding under the bed just waiting for you to step out so that he can grab you by the ankle and drag you down to hell. Some go even further than that, suggesting that there’s an ongoing battle raging throughout the universe between good and evil, between God and Satan, and it’s unclear who the winner will be.
This isn’t the Christian message. It isn’t even the Judeo-Christian message. This story goes back at least four thousand years to the Babylonian creation story found in their scriptures: the Enuma Elish. It tells the story of the primordial deity of the seas, a goddess named Tiamat. She embodied the waters of chaos out of which all creation arose. Consider the creation story in Genesis. Here’s what the second verse of that story says [Genesis 1:2]: “the earth was a formless void (in Hebrew tohu wa bohu) and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.” This image is borrowed from the Enuma Elish. Even the word for “abyss”—tehom—is related to the goddess’s name, Tiamat.
Another aspect of the Babylonian creation story describes Tiamat as an enormous dragon of chaos and evil. Here, the powerful god Marduk conquers Tiamat, kills her and cuts her in two to form the earth and the sky. As Tiamat was cut in two, so in Genesis God divides the waters above the firmament from the waters below. Even though in this Hebrew creation story the abyss of the sea is no longer personified as a goddess, the message is the same: God overcomes chaos.
Now, let’s look at today’s gospel story. Jesus and his disciples are together in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. The story takes place there because everyone at that time knew that the Sea of Galilee was famous for its sudden and violent storms. The location is actually only incidental to the meaning of the story, which is an historical event reinterpreted through the eyes of faith. Like all Scripture, this story has multiple levels of interpretation and understanding.
The first and most profound level serves as a profession of faith in the divinity of Christ. “Who is this?” the disciples ask. We see him calming the chaos of the stormy sea, and we can’t help think of God’s overcoming the waters of chaos in the creation story. Symbolically, Jesus slays the dragon Tiamat by his word. “Peace! Be still!” are the exact words Jesus used in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel [Mark 1:25] to expel a demon. Jesus Christ is Lord, who conquers chaos and evil.
There is a second level to our understanding of this gospel passage. Jesus and his disciples are in a boat. Traditionally, the boat has been a symbol of the community of the church. We work together to move forward into the reign of God, or we perish together. From its beginnings, the church has been rocked by opposition and persecution: first, from the Jewish people, then from unfriendly Greeks, then from the Roman Emperors themselves, and on it goes. The boat of Peter always seems to be foundering in the storm, and we, the disciples of Jesus, are always afraid that he is asleep in the stern, unconcerned about our peril. The story reminds us that all we need is prayer—calling on the Lord—because even today the forces of chaos, the wind and the sea, still obey him.
Finally, this story is a lesson for each one of us individually. What is our usual reaction when we encounter the forces of chaos in our own lives? Like the disciples, don’t we sometimes get overwhelmed with fear, even to the point of terror? Yet, the words of Jesus are not only effective at calming the waters of the Sea of Galilee, or the chaos of creation, or even the trials of the church. “Peace! Be still!” applies to the chaos within each one of us, as well.
Maybe Tiamat, the evil dragon lady of chaos is still hiding under our beds. It may be true that our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, roams about seeking someone to devour. It doesn’t matter. In the very next chapter of Mark’s gospel [Mark 5:36], Jesus gives the final answer: “Fear is useless. What is needed is faith.” So, next time you’re terrified that you may be perishing, next time Tiamat is knocking at your door, awaken your faith and hear Jesus’s words, “Peace! Be still!”