© Rev Rex A E Hunt, MSc(Hons)
18 September 2022

NO BLUE. NO GREEN! THE CALL OF THE ‘SEA’ AND ‘STORMS’…

The sea is beautiful. Everybody knows that.
That’s why many of us have chosen to live on the Peninsular.
Just a hop, step, and jump away from the beach.
        Surf’s up!
        Great day!
        Stunning colours!
        This is the life!

Indeed, as Second Peoples, we mostly live within 200 kms of the sea.
On a large island. Where the sea draws us to itself.
        The colour.
        The sound.
        The beauty.

One of the reasons we flock to the beach is that we find there
a beauty that seems primal and life-enhancing.

“To stand by the sea,” reflects cauthor Jan Morgan, "with the sun’s light spearing the waves, salt spray shimmering above deep blue, the roar of the surf in our ears, is to feel instinctively - and probably say so out loud - ‘isn’t it beautiful?’” (Morgan & Garrett 2018:33)

But there is an unpredictable side to the ocean.
It always surprises.

Sometimes it is calm.
Other times “a sinister storm is secretly building and about to explode.”

Those who go down to the sea in ships…’ (Psalm 107: 23a)
need to be exceptionally vigilant.
“Their vigilance can be the difference between life and death.” (O’Donohue 2010: 46)

So in line with today’s Season of Creation theme of ‘Storm’
and the story of Jesus in a boat on the Sea of Galilee,
I want to share some thoughts on oceans and seas
and then offer a few comments on the specific ‘about Jesus’ storm story.

Because whether Jesus in on the sea or by the sea,
the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret), the area where his brief public activity was mostly concentrated,
was critical to the physical and social dynamics of this region.

So I hope you feel we are spending important time today.

oo0oo

Over forty years ago, now world famous oceanographer and marine biologist, Sylvia Earle,
visited Melbourne (Vic)  for a conference about ocean exploration.

She recalls standing on the shore of Port Phillip Bay with a young reporter
who thrust a microphone under her chin
and fired a series of questions.

‘Suppose the oceans dried up tomorrow. Why should I care?
I don’t swim. I hate boats. I get seasick! I don’t even like to eat fish.
Why should I object if some of them—or all of them—go extinct?
Who needs the ocean?’

Groaning silently Earle says, I thought, 'Good grief! Can she be serious?'
‘Right, dry up the oceans.
Think of all the good stuff lost at sea that you could just scoop up.
The trouble is, there wouldn't be anybody around to do that.
Without the ocean, there would be no life - no people, anyway...

‘Well, how so?’ the journalist prodded. ‘People don't drink saltwater?

‘Okay… Get rid of the ocean, and Earth would be a lot like Mars.
Cold, barren, inhospitable.
Ask those who are trying to figure out how astronauts can live there.

'Or, how about the moon. There's a place with no bothersome ocean. And no life.
Or Venus. Yes, the beautiful—and lifeless—hot planet with no ocean.

'It doesn’t matter where on Earth you live,
everyone is utterly dependent on the existence of that lovely, living saltwater soup.
but nowhere is there life without water…'
        ‘No blue, no green.’

In our daily lives we need water all the time.
We need it to cook and to clean.
In the morning fresh water on the face washes away sleep
and wakens us to the new dawn.

Indeed, the human body is composed of over 90 percent water.

Science informs us that approximately 71% of the earth’s surface
is covered by water , by ocean - a continuous body of water that is
customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.

All of life has come out of the sea.
Scientists claim that life within the ocean evolved some
three (3) billion years prior to life on land.
“The matrix of life began in the primal soup that stirred in the beginning. Here life was spawned. Life crawled out of this water onto land.” (O’Donohue 2010: 50)

Those same scientists also estimate that 230,000 marine life-forms of all types
are currently known, but the total could be
up to 10 times that number.

We also know that the ocean has a significant effect on the biosphere….
The atmosphere sucks approximately one hundred thousand cubic miles of moisture every year.

Oceanic evaporation as a phase of the water cycle,
is the source of most rainfall, and ocean temperatures determine
both climate and wind patterns that affect life on land.

Leonardo de Vinci says in his Notebooks:
“When a drop of water falls into the sea the whole surface of the sea is raised imperceptibly.”

But… the oceans, the sea, that 71% of the earth’s surface
is changing due to global warming.

Just short of two years ago, a Report called ‘The Oceans are Warming’
prepared by an international team of 14 scientists
and published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, was released.

In part the Report said:
“The world’s oceans are now heating at the same rate as if five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped into the water every second. [It] showed that 2019 was yet another year of record-setting ocean warming, with water temperatures reaching the highest temperature ever recorded.”

The authors also concluded that as the upward trend is relentless,
“we can say with confidence that most of the warming is man-made climate change.”

The changes could hardly be more fundamental!

oo0oo

Now to the story.
The earliest sources known to biblical scholars suggest a plausible Jesus
is an impoverished Palestinian situated in his historical circumstances,
in the north-west corner of the Galilee,
in the early Roman Empire sometime between the years 26–36 CE,
        who did things and said things that a real person
        could have reasonably believed or done at that time.

And where the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret),
the area where his brief public activity was mostly concentrated,
was critical to the physical and social dynamics of this region.

Australian biblical scholar Greg Jenks writes:
“As a result of ancient geological factors, the Galilee basin is around 200 metres below sea level, creating a unique set of climatic conditions.”

He continues,
“It is a large freshwater lake, about 20 kilometres long and up to 13 kilometres wide. It is narrower towards the south, which flows into the Jordan River. The lake provides fresh water for villages and farms on the fertile northwest corner, as well as supporting a lucrative fishing industry.” (Jenks 2014: 17)

Galileans were peasants, were poor, were nobodies.
The vast majority–roughly 90%–were living at subsistence levels
in villages and towns.

Most had lost any ancestral land they may have had control over,
and had sunk to the level of landless labourers,
vulnerable to wealthy absentee landlords.

In 1986 an ancient Galilee flat-bottomed fishing boat from the 1st century CE,
was discovered on the north-west shore of the Lake,
when the waters receded following a drought.

While there is no evidence of it being connected to Jesus or his followers,
it has been dated to around 40 BCE based on pottery shards, nails, and timber used.

However, the boat is made from ten different wood types,
such as pine, jujube, and willow,
that no Mediterranean boat-wright would have considered using.

This suggests either a wood shortage, or, as probably the more likely case,
it was made from scrap wood or the remains of other boats.
The evidence of repeated repairs also shows the boat was used
for several decades, perhaps nearly a century.

Its owners were among the poor, the nobodies…
lacking proper materials they worked hard to keep their vessels afloat,
replacing rotting planks and eking out a living
by casting or dragging their nets along the shoreline. (Reed & Crossan)

Its owners frequently battled storms — ‘the terrifying and awesome forces of nature’.

In the biblical story by our anonymous storyteller,
the chaotic and threatening power of the sea and the storm
is manifest and frightening to the three or four disciples in the boat.

But the storyteller also talks about another power.
The power, or better, the wisdom in the word spoken by Jesus.
        A wisdom that works not over but in harmony with, nature.
        To feel a kinship with all life.

It would do us well if we remembered that
in Jewish mysticism then and now, God is not ‘above’/vertical, but ‘around’/horizontal…
        The beauty, rhythm, and wisdom of Jewish tradition
        arose in an encounter with the majesty and awe of the physical world around.

oo0oo

Now from our perspective, storms are a natural and necessary consequence
of physical forces acting on the earth.
        They are not judgements from a distant, angry god.

But storms are often destructive to human life and property.
We know some of that from our own experiences in recent months.
And we are learning, even if rather slowly, that
changes in weather and climate is serious business.

Which brings up the topic of global warming and climate change.

Global warming is not just another important issue that human beings need to deal with.
Rather, it is the demand that we live differently now.
        And it demands a paradigm shift in who we think we are. (McFague 2008:44)

But unfortunately most political statements and scientific reports are just that. Reports.
They may offer information but they are not attention grabbers
offering little, if any, ‘feeling’.

Poet Mary Oliver was asked about ‘attention’ in a rare radio interview back in 2015.
She said:
“…You need empathy… rather than just reporting. Reporting is for field guides. And they’re great. But they’re not thought provokers… Attention is the beginning of devotion.” (Tippett 2019)

To ‘live differently now’ needs our attention—with feeling.
And one way I reckon we can respond
is to turn from a laissez faire attitude to see life in synthesis.

See the world synthesised in a flower, a sea, or in a human being.
Catch glimpses of the whole of reality.

Then, instead of hearing or reading about the effects of global warming,

we would notice them in our daily experience…
changes in the seasonal breeding of birds - pelicans and red-tailed black cockatoos;
notice if the mosquito population had doubled or tripled;
if more and more trees had dead limbs.
“…unless we re-situate ourselves by becoming more aware of the world around us, we will remain oblivious even to striking climate changes.” (Hill 2008: 68)

What 10 or 20 or a hundred of us began doing this?
What might happen?
That would be the getting of wisdom.
A wisdom that works not over but in harmony with, nature.

Bibliography:
Hill, J. A. Ethics in the Global Village. Moral Insights for the Post 9-11 USA. Santa Rosa. Polebridge Press, 2008
Horsley, R. A. Jesus in Context. Power, People, & Performance. Minneapolis. Fortress Press, 2008
Jenks, G. C. Jesus Then and Jesus Now. Looking for Jesus, finding Ourselves. Preston. Mosaic Press, 2014
McFague, S. A New Climate for Theology. God, the World, and Global Warming. Minneapolis. Fortress Press, 2008.
Morgan, J. & G. Garrett. On The Edge: A-Way with the Ocean. Reservoir. Morning Star Publishing, 2018
O’Donohue, J. Four Elements. Reflections on Nature. New York. Harmony Books, 2010
Reed, J. & J. D. Crossan. “The First-Century Galilee Boat” in Bible Odyssey. (nd)
“Sea of Galilee Boat”. Wikipedia. 9 April 2022
Tippett, K. “Listening to the World: Mary Oliver”. Radio ‘On Being’ Interview, 5 February 2015. Updated 17 January 2019