En el nombre del Dios, Padre, Hijo, y Espiritu Santo. Amen.
Abraham Maslow, founder of Humanistic Psychology, uttered in 1966 what has come to be known as the ‘Law of the Instrument.’ Maslow said, "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."
It is a temptation for us to live like that, claiming our right and power as hammers, and justifying our pounding of the nails in the world as “natural.” Everyone knows
that hammers pound, and nails get pounded. Euro-American history is rife with stories of hammer-people, wealthy, powerful aristocrats who owned property and people and justified it by counting themselves as benevolent, compassionate hammers. One of my favorite TV shows is Downton Abbey – which illustrates the hammer-ness of humans, although I will say that at least these hammer-people have very good manners. In this TV series, The Earl of Grantham, who is master of the mansion, considers his life’s work to be the maintenance of the status-quo. An imperfect, but truly likeable man, “his Lordship” as they call him, is compassionate about and toward his servants. He even dances with them at a Christmas ball he throws in their honor every year – a ball they have to prepare before they can enjoy it. Still – it’s a party in their honor!
But every once in a while, a hammer-person rebels against the hierarchy that privileges them, and raises up a nail-person to equality with them. In Downton Abbey, that person was the Earl’s youngest daughter, Lady Sybil, who ran off and married the chauffer. The beauty of this TV story is that love opens the way for this family, now made up of hammers and nails, to find peace and live together in unity, even in their diversity.
Hammer-people are not just part of our history, however. They are an all too tragic and much less genteel part of our present. According to an article by Tony Maddox, Executive VP and Managing Dir of CNN International, somewhere between 10 and 30 million of the most vulnerable people in our world are trapped in slavery right now. The United Nations estimates the total market value of human trafficking at 32 billion dollars. In Europe, criminals are pocketing around $2.5 billion per year from slave trading. (Source: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/04/modern-day-slavery-a-problem-that-cant-be-ignored/)
Yes, hammer-people remain among us today, using money, influence, drugs, and violence to pound their nails, make their fortunes, and preserve their status quo.
Jesus, on the other hand, was not a hammer-person. Jesus had no use for earthly power, and he made a particular point of caring for the vulnerable and the powerless and calling us to do the same.
Jesus did not enter into conflicts over power or money, nor did he try to gain or protect an earthly fortune. He refused to return violence with violence and he commanded us to “turn the other cheek” when we confront violence.
Jesus didn’t use earthly power because he didn’t need it, as we can see from our gospel reading today. In this story, Jesus is teaching huge crowds from his place on a fishing boat on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I’m told that this position would provide Jesus good acoustics for his preaching.
After a full day of teaching the crowds, plus time set aside to teach his disciples alone on the meaning of his messages, Jesus told the disciples to send the people on their way. Then he told them to set course for the other side of the Sea of Galilee – the Gentile side.
As they and several other boats began this journey, a windstorm rose up and began filling the boat with water. Throughout the crisis, Jesus remained asleep in the stern of the boat.
The disciples began to panic and woke Jesus up. “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”
Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind. To rebuke, surprisingly, is to give honor to (in the Greek). First Jesus honors the wind, then he calms it saying simply, “Peace, be still.”
Jesus doesn’t engage in a power struggle with the wind. This isn’t a battle of Jesus’ power over the wind’s power. Jesus simply uses the authority of his divinity to bring order to the chaos.
Jesus demonstrates what true power is. No hammer. No nail. All of creation is honored and all life is preserved. That’s how God does it.
God bless the disciples, however, who still don’t get it. I say bless them because they show us the way we too will go – slowly, but continually growing in our understanding and faith.
After calming the storm, Jesus looks at his disciples and sees the terror still on their faces. First they were terrorized by the storm that threatened their safety. Now they are terrified by their Teacher’s ability to control the weather.
“Why are you afraid?” he asks, “Have you still no faith?”
They’re working on it. So are we.
For too many people, you see, Jesus is magical not divine. They pray to Magic Jesus expecting him to see their needs, wave his magic God-wand, and fix all of their problems. They believe, however, that this can only happen if they’re really good, that is, well-behaved. According to this way of thinking and believing then, anyone who has problems or suffers the storms of life must not be good enough or well-behaved enough for Jesus’ love, right? Wrong.
Our gospel story shows us that Jesus didn’t bring magic to us (which is earthly, and a lie). Jesus brought salvation (with is eternal, and the truth).
This gospel story is about the presence of God who is now, always has been, and always will be our refuge and peace in the presence of any storm. As we prayed together in our Psalm: we believe that whenever we cry out, God delivers us from our distress, stills our storm to a whisper, and quiets the waves of our seas. Then we are glad because of the calm, and safe in the harbor of our Lord. (Ps 107: 28-30)
It is important, therefore, that we heed St. Paul’s advice, and not accept the grace of God in vain, that is, without the respect due to God and the response called for from God. That’s what obedience is, after all: hearing the voice of God and responding to it.
And that voice, the voice of God, is within us. I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s true and it’s simple: Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit who dwells in us as individuals and as a community. If we want to hear the voice of God, all we have to do is listen deeply and prayerfully.
How do we know that it’s God’s voice we hear, and not our own will tempting us to be hammer-people again? That’s simple too. First, we stay in community and listen together. What any one person hears will be affirmed in the community.
Then we strengthen ourselves by worshiping together and sharing in the Word and Sacraments.
We work together with Christ, making room for the Holy Spirit to work through the church’s ministry, putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, setting all captives we encounter free from whatever imprisons them.
And we commend ourselves without reservation to whatever storms the world offers in response to our work, remaining steadfast in our commitment to keep our hearts, our minds, our eyes, and our ears open to God who speaks peace to us all.
Amen.
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