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Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time B Job 38:1, 811 Psalm: 107 2 Cor 5:1417 Mark 4:3541 1. We are finally in ordinary time, but no Sunday is ordinary. Each Sunday is special when we once again recall the extraordinary relationship we are
invited to, with God through our baptism. However, we call it Ordinary because it simply refers to “ordinal” - or the numbering of the Sundays. It started soon after the Christmas Season, then we took a
break for Lent-Easter-Pentecost, and the numbering starts again until the last Sunday which could be either 33rd or 34th Sunday. We finish up the year with the Celebration of Christ the King. 2. We start this second part of Sundays with a Bang ! God speaks to Job from the midst of a whirlwind and Jesus speaks to the Disciples in the middle of a Storm at Sea. The lull between these two chaotic and powerful scenes is the small positive passage of Paul in the Second reading. Paul is contrasting the motivation of his own ministry with that of the false teachers by whom the Corinthians are captivated. This impelling motivation is the love of Christ. Christ showed in a concrete way as he died on the cross. This second letter of Paul to the Corinthians is generally considered by scholars as being a tandem of two letters written by Paul. The first part is positive, the second part is somewhat harsh as Paul laments the wrong doings of the Corinthians. 3 Coming to the two Scenes of Chaos: God speaking to Job from a whirlwind and Jesus calming the storm, Liturgists agree that the passage from Job was chosen here as a backdrop to the Gospel story. Both are portraits of the Manifestation of God, the Presence of God even when the whole world seems to be falling apart. 3a. God speaks to Job and his companions. Job is seeking for a logical explanation. Job wants God to give him a reason for all the calamities he has experienced especially since Job is a god-fearing person. He speaks as if he has a right to blessings, harmony and good fortune. He speaks as if his righteous way of life must be rewarded. We too - and a long time from the time of Job demand an explanation from God. We have predetermined how God should act. We have created God in our image and likeness.
3b We wait patiently as Job and his Companions did so many millennia ago. But God’s word is hardly an answer. God does not dignify the questions with any attention. If we put God in a box, if we determine how God ought to act, then our questions will also be unworthy of any attention. Furthermore our questions of God with regard to Tsunamis, Hurricanes, sick children has an underlying presupposition that God is vicious, that God takes delight in our pain and suffering and misery. It is hardly fits in with a God who so loved the world that he sent his only son into the world. And this Son would show his love for us in a very concrete manner by dying for our salvation. If we took trouble to take time and reflect - we would find that most of the disasters are a result to our own lack of stewardship, our own lack of taking seriously the mandate given in the Garden of Eden, “be masters of the earth” 4. the purpose of this Encounter with Job is to tell us, that at first sight all might seem disaster and the end of the world, but God, Yahweh is still in charge. We see that in the Responsorial psalm which we rarely listen to. It is usually a time to make our selves more comfortable, to get a cookie for the baby, to turn the page and resettle ourselves for the second reading. But that Psalm tells us of a God who is in Charge.
If we ponder on these things, then like the Disciples we will be filled with Awe and Wonder, who is this powerful God that can cause a storm, whip the waves into a fury, and then calm it as easily as he lifted up the waves. 5. And so we come to Jesus as he stills the storm. Pictures have been drawn of Jesus standing on the prow of the boat, the waves nearly piling into the boat, but the clothes of Jesus are unruffled, not blowing in the wind. Jesus himself is looking calm and into the distant horizon. A more likely picture would be Jesus who is very tired is fast asleep. We know that from the Gospel Story. The apostles awaken him, Jesus opens one eye and wonders why these disciples are so worried. He waves the Sea - it calms down, and Jesus closes the open eye and falls asleep again. Meanwhile the Apostles gaze on him again - this time in Awe and Wonder. “Who is this One whom even the sea obeys.” It is the manifestation of Jesus who is in charge. 6. Jesus had said, “ I have not come to bring Peace. I have come to cause division, children against parents and parents against Children.” Jesus caused many a rift and a storm in his prophetic actions
Jesus was constantly causing storms so that we would be shaken from our complacency, so that we would think outside the box, so that we would rely not on our so called “rights”, on our demands for explanations as Job did. Jesus challenged us constantly. Your ways of thinking are not the ways of God. Story to end As a neonatal intensive care physician, Sister Ann Manganaro once took care of a fiveinch premature baby named Tamika. The girl was left in the hospital, fated to die, unable to thrive, bereft of possibility. She smiled once, cupped in Sister Ann’s hands, after weeks of being held, caressed and gazed upon. Then she died. After we two buried Tamika with the help of a generous funeral director, I protested to Sister Ann that it all felt so meaningless and bleak. "What on earth did Tamika ever have?" "Well," Ann said, "she had the power to evoke love from me." Conclusion. We are called to see God’s mighty power not only in Fireworks, Lightning and displays that are glorious, but even in the darkness, in despair and in death - all of which have been conquered by the Death and resurrection of Jesus. And all it requires from us is to be People even of little faith, Jesus supplies the rest.
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