July 31 From Home to the Undiscovered Country

July 31 From Home to the Undiscovered Country

Luke 8:22-25

One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples, and said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

Hamlet, a little further along in his famous soliloquy says:

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have	88
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,	92
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action

A lot of us know the phrase, “the undiscovered country” from the title of a Star Trek movie. In truth, the phrase comes from Shakespeare and is spoken by Hamlet in that same speech that begins: “To be or not to be…” For Hamlet the undiscovered country is death and what may or may not come after. It is the name he gives to the fear that locks us into inaction, choosing the devil we know for the one we don’t. Or better put for our circumstance, better the state of being we know for an unknown way of living. The undiscovered country in the Star Trek movie is the path of peace with the Klingon Empire. Kirk has to give up the hatred he knows (a Klingon killed his son) for the possibility of peace and prosperity for the Federation and the galaxy.

One of my favorite saints is Saint Brendan of Clonfert, aka Brendan the Navigator. I love his wild devotion to his calling. We are inculcated with ideas like “look before you leap” and “know the outcome before the outset.” Brendan, on the other hand, heard God calling him to seek paradise out on the wild western sea (the Atlantic ocean). None of that territory was charted yet, but Brendan recruits a bunch of monks crazy enough to go with him and out upon the waves they go. At one point Brendan even lets go of the tiller to allow the boat to go where the winds will take it. For Brendan, the “where” was less important than the “going.” He was following God into the undiscovered country.

The other side of the Galilean lake was undiscovered country for people like Jesus’ followers. It was Gentile territory, unknown forbidden, fraught with rumor and prejudice. But Jesus says, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” The storm they encounter on the way is not a meteorological event, it is an emotional one. It is the storm of their own fears and hatreds as they sail toward the land of their enemies. Jesus did not prepare them by holding a seminar on tolerance. He did not hold a rap session where they could talk out their misgivings. He never held a council meeting to lay out a three year plan for them so that they would know where they were going or why. He simply said, “Let’s go” and then was quite astonished at the grip of fear that made their faith dwindle.

Jesus is out there in front of us saying, “Let’s go.” Like Brendan, I hear the voice but do not see the destination. I know the voyage entails vibrant worship, creativity, and justice. There is a vast portion of the map that is undiscovered country. Going there may in fact ask us to let die some of the things we know, to leave comfortable Jewish shores for Gentile beaches. Being Christian, I believe that on the other side of death is resurrection. I don’t need to know either what that death is or what resurrection looks like.

A recent prayer attributed to the spirit of Brendan says:

Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?

Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?

O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?

O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?

We can either hear “Yes” upon the winds, or we can leave the boat tied up at the dock.

Good News: Christ sails with us in storms of fear and change.

Subject: It is time for SCUCC to cast off and follow Christ into a new future.

Experiential Field: We experience fear and enlivening when we follow Christ into newness.

Desire Ignited: a desire for freedom from the old ties, a wonder of the undiscovered country