KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 22 January
admin | 23 January 2018Who is this?
Yearning for miracles is not the same thing as learning from miracles. The readings in Chapel of late have been about what is learned about God and about his will for our humanity. The miracles are not something accidental to that interest but belong fundamentally to it. The miracles teach. They do so, in part, by way of questions.
“Who is this?” A great question wonderfully explored in the hymn sung in Chapel on Monday and Tuesday where the first phrase of each four verses is the question, “who is this?” and which is repeated in the third verse. Thus, five times the question is raised “who is this?” in relation to the Christian story of the significant moments in the life of Christ. In each of the four verses of the hymn, there is a response, an answer given at the beginning of the second quatrain of every verse: “‘Tis our God.”
The question is at once an Advent and an Epiphany question albeit in different ways. In Advent, the whole city of Jerusalem was moved at the spectacle of Christ’s triumphant entry into the city to ask this question, “Who is this?” It is raised in the context of the one who comes to our world. In the Epiphany we have the same question, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” It is in the context of a story, a remarkable story about Christ rebuking the wind and calming the sea in the midst of a ship in a storm. The difference between the Advent question and the Epiphany question is that the latter is about an awakening that happens from within the conditions of our natural world, a world, too, of tempests and storms. There are not only the storms of nature but also the storms and tempests of the human heart and mind. What is so amazing about this story is the idea that God cares.
The common complaint about miracles is that they seem to contravene the laws of nature. But really what the miracles do, seen most fully in this reading from Matthew’s Gospel, is to recall us to the God of all nature, the God of all reality who by definition is not simply constrained to the laws of his creation. In this way, the miracles serve for our culture as a corrective to the deadly and destructive nature of an instrumental reason which dominates and manipulates nature and us. The miracles are precisely about awakening us to the idea and the truth of God and to his presence with us. This Gospel speaks to the fears and anxieties of our world and day. They offer the only corrective: our openness to the will and purpose of God for our humanity. As this Gospel story suggests, God cares for us. The story of Jesus shows us the nature and the extent of that care.
In this reading awe and wonder are awakened in us by virtue of the Christ who rebukes the wind and bids the sea, be still. Even more, he calms our troubled hearts and minds. It is a manifestation of the divinity of Christ, to be sure, but it speaks profoundly to the care of God towards us. In him and only in him can we find peace and joy, comfort and gladness. His words to the those in the ship with him are his words to us. “Why are ye so fearful?” As he suggests, our fearfulness implies a lack of faith, ultimately a lack of faith in the God who cares. He cares because he is the good in everything. In the storms and tempests of our lives we easily forget the goodness of things and even more we forget the essential goodness of God. To be awakened to the goodness of God is to discover his care for his creation and his care for us. His love of the good which he is himself is the ground of his love and care for us.
His care awakens our care for one another and, indeed, self-care which is not about our self-indulgence and self-pity. It is more about prayer and quiet meditation. Something which is altogether missing in our busy, fragmented, distracted, and confused lives.
We need to be awakened to awe and wonder at the God who in Christ enters into the storms and tempests of our lives and who alone can bring us peace. It will mean being awakened to the presence of his truth. Such is his epiphany in us even in the weekly miracle of Chapel itself, a miracle in the face of the fearfulness and the arrogance of our world and day.
(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, English & ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy