The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

I wonder if Mark included the question at the end of our gospel reading for the benefit of us gentiles: “what manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (KJV) The Jewish apostles would have sung Psalm 107 over and over. They would have heard many times about Job and God’s indictment of him. It would have been woven into the fabric of their identity that the god of Israel, the god of creation, makes the winds to blow, the waves to rise up, and the seas to be calm again. The real question for the apostles was whether they were ready to accept Jesus for what his actions showed him to be.

A similar question comes up in our epistle passage. Paul has been trying in his Second Letter to the Corinthians to mend a rift that has developed between himself and the church he founded. Paul assures the Corinthians in the passage for this week that throughout the difficulties between them, and through all of his personal hardships, his love for them has never wavered. The challenge he poses to the church is for them to accept his love and the love of Christ that motivates it.

The church today is facing a world that is separated from God. We can do no better to bring about reconciliation than to keep our arms and our hearts wide open. 

— Charles Fehrenbach