Psalm 107,24.28-31; Psalm 93,4. 4. Sunday after Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 107,24.28-31; Psalm 93,4 1117

4. Sonntag nach Epiphanias  017 

Valerius, Bishop of Trier, Germany. Disciple of Peter.
Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, ✠ 1622 

29. Januar 2017 

1. О Blessed Lord, You are worthy to be praised by all the nations; pour out upon us Your great steadfast love, so that we may enter into Your courts with thanksgiving.  Amen. (Gradual) 

2. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty! They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of men!

  3. Since the ancient times, the seas have evoked images of monstrous sea creatures threatening sailors and sinking their ships. Homer wrote about the choice Odysseus had to make between Scylla and Charybdis, as he sailed between them in the Straight of Messina. Medieval and Renaissance maps depicted monstrous sea creatures waiting to devour the hapless sailors who sailed too far west upon the Atlantic. The Writings and Prophets mention Leviathan. Job described him with dragon-like imagery and concluded: »Leviathan makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear« (Job 41,31-33). The Holy Scriptures tell us that the Lord is »Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty!« 

4. The Introit continues: »They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep.« The Psalmist also tells us: »Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which the Lord formed to play in it. These all look to you, to give them their food in due season« (Psalm 104,25-27). 

5. »Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.« This very verse is played out in the story of Jonah. »The sailors were exceedingly afraid and said to Jonah: „What is this that you have done!“ For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said to him: „What shall we do to you so that the sea may quiet down for us?“ For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them: „Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.“ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. And the Lord appointed a great sea creature to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of Leviathan three days and three nights« (Jonah 1,10-12.15.17). When the scribes and Pharisees wanted a sign from Him, Jesus responded: »For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth« (Matthew 12,38.40). This sign was more than one of Jesus’ resurrection. The sailors threw Jonah into the sea to appease an angry God and to quell the tempest. Jesus went to the cross to appease His Father’s anger at sinful humanity; His vicarious sacrifice quieted the Divine storm of vengeance. Leviathan swallowed Jonah and kept him in the deep for three days. Jesus was swallowed up by death and the grave for three days. After three days, Leviathan spat Jonah out upon the beach. After three days in the grave, Jesus emerged forth alive for death and the grave could not hold Him. 

6. »He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.« Our Gospel Reading tells us another time when Jesus quieted the raging seas. »And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. And Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: „Peace! Be still!“ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And the disciples were filled with great fear and said to one another: „Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him?“« (Mark 4,37.39.41). Their question was rhetorical, for His disciples knew that Psalm 107 ascribed such power and authority over the winds and the waves to God alone. Jesus had proven Himself to be the Lord before their eyes.

7. »Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and He brought them to their desired haven.« This is how our Gospel Reading ends today. Jesus calmed the tempest and they safely arrived on the opposite shore of the Sea of Galilee. This also has cosmic implications. Haven is a Middle English word that means harbor, port, a place of safety. By conquering death and overcoming the grave, Jesus brings us to the haven of eternal paradise. Just as the ark safely took Noah and his family through the raging Flood and safely returned them to dry ground once more, so the Church is the ship of faith that Jesus pilots to the Port of Heaven where we disembark to live a life of eternal peace and fellowship with God and all Christians. 

8. »Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of men!« Thus the Psalmist concludes today’s Introit. God the Father desires to save us from the perils of sin, death and hades. He promised to do this in both the Palms and the Prophets where they use the images of storms and sea monsters to represent danger and destruction, but assuring us that God Himself is Master of both the sea and its Leviathan. God’s love is manifested in His Son Jesus who died to pay for our sins and rose to conquer death itself. He is the Firstborn from the dead and He will raise all of us up on the last day too.  Amen. 

  9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who perfectly does Your Father’s will; help us to see and trust in Your mighty deeds as He who rescues us and brings us safely to eternal life.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.