God Transforms Chaos into Peace

Speaker 0: The modern world is full of noise and chaos. And as humans, we love to find ways to relax, and there's many ways we do this. We might head to the beach or the pool, where water feels like pure relaxation, a place to unwind and soak up the sun. We see water as calm and fun. But today, we're gonna flip that idea in this devotion and talk about the biblical imagery of water.

The Bible actually uses water in a totally different way, full of chaos and very deep spiritual meaning. Right at the start of the book of Genesis in creation, we see water as chaos. The spirit of god hovering over primordial waters, full of darkness and emptiness. Interesting that this water is there before the creation account. But then God's spirit hovers over the primordial waters, and he turns all that chaos into order and life.

And this pretty much sets the stage for what water means throughout the whole bible. It's like God takes messy stuff and makes something very amazing. We see this pattern over and over and over in scripture. Now God didn't need this primordial water to create everything from nothing. It's there for a reason to teach us something about God transforming chaos.

Now Noah's Ark is the next story from the Bible where we see waters as chaos. The primordial waters return, flooding back, covering the earth, bringing chaos and death all over again. The early church fathers saw the ark as a symbol of the church or as Jesus himself, the only way anyone survives this disaster. God took chaos and made order out of it. The ark rode the stormy waters to keep life going.

There's an image there for our own lives about how God takes us through when life feels like it's falling apart. Moses. The whole story of Moses is wrapped up in water. There's a back and forth between chaos and God's saving power in so many ways as we read about Moses. As a baby, Moses is thrown into the Nile River.

That should have been the end of Moses. We should have never heard of him, but god saves him in that little basket. Think about the basket that Moses was in as a little mini Noah's Ark. The name Moses means drawn forth, keeping this water connection alive. God pulls him out for salvation.

Then there's the Red Sea where Israel walks through on dry ground, while the Egyptians who didn't trust God get swallowed up. God turns what could have been death into a way out. And at the Jordan River, the ark leads the way, parting the waters so Israel can walk through, showing again how God turns roadblocks into paths for freedom. And when we read the book of Job in scripture, towards the end, god is conversing with Job, and he asks him, can you pull a leviathan with a fish hook or tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?

And the narrative goes on as god emphasizes that the leviathan cannot be tamed or subdued, even by the most powerful humans. It represents the raw, untamed power of nature and the forces of chaos. And god uses the Leviathan to highlight Job's own insignificance in comparison to god's immense power. And in Job, we see this as a symbolic representation of chaos, and the Leviathan will return later in scripture. Let's talk about now Jonah.

We all know the story of Jonah. Very clearly, water is chaos is part of this story. Right? He runs from God. He ends up on a ship.

He gets tossed into the sea, goes straight into trouble. He's swallowed by a huge fish. Now some early church fathers think that as he talked about being in Sheol after being swallowed by the fish that he actually physically died. But he turns back to God. The fish spits him out.

He's back to life and ready to go preach in Nineveh. Prefiguring of the death and resurrection of Christ being in the ground for three days. Water, in the story of Jonah, is the messy place where God works out salvation. God uses chaotic waters to bring people back to him. Now as we turn the page from the Old Testament to the New Testament, the first encounter of Christ with water is at his baptism, and it pulls together all these Old Testament water stories.

Water is chaos. Remember? Christ steps into the chaotic and deadly waters and comes out, making the water holy for us. Now unlike us, we do need baptism to wash away sin. Jesus did not need that.

Saint Ambrose says he went in to make the water a way to save us. Those baptismal waters are like the waters at the start of creation, the wild waters. Right? God makes new people, brings new life out of water. God turns something chaotic into something life changing.

The first miracle that we read about in the story of Jesus is at the wedding of Cana. The miracle at Cana, what does Jesus do? What does he take? Water. K.

We're talking about water as chaos and death. And he turns it into wine, pointing to the Eucharistic blood that gives eternal life. It's just like all the old testament moments we're talking about, where god makes something beautiful out of disorder, giving water a totally new meaning. Choosing water for this miracle is not random. It shows us that Jesus's power to take chaotic things and make them part of God's saving plan.

Water right here at the kickoff to his public ministry, water is at the front and center, sets up everything else he's gonna do. I love this picture of from Rembrandt, calming of the storm. In the calming of the storm, Jesus is chilling out, totally relaxed, not a care in the world. He's asleep. There's these huge waves that are crashing against the boat.

The boat is rocking up and down. The disciples are freaked out. Jesus is totally at peace with chaos. The disciples wake him up. They think it's curtains.

What does Jesus do? He tells the storm to be still. He takes authority. You almost can see there it's like he takes authority over an evil spirit, like there's something dark in the waves. Think about the story of Christ where he sends demons into pigs.

What happens? Those pigs drown in the sea. Again, this painting water is a place where evil hangs out. Death, chaos. But Jesus has it all under control.

When Jesus tells the water to be still, it's almost like he's speaking to the first waters of Genesis. Jesus goes even further in another account of his life that we read about in scripture when he walks on water. There's no bigger way to show who's in charge of the chaotic sea than this. Now it's a lot like in the Old Testament where god makes a way through water, like the Red Sea or the Jordan River. By walking on it, Jesus shows he's got power over what scares us.

Again, this whole pattern of water. And it pushes the disciples, especially Peter. It inspires faith. Even though Peter walks on the water for a few moments, he stumbles when he takes his eyes off of God. This locks in this idea that water is chaotic, that Jesus can totally handle it, but we can't handle it on our own.

Now the calling of the disciples is interesting. Jesus picks fishermen, Peter and Andrew to be fishers of men by the Sea Of Galilee. No accident. It's all about water. Fishermen deal with rough waters every day, pulling the fish out.

Just like disciples are supposed to pull people out of chaos into the church. This connection of water running through the Bible continues. From creation to Jonah, constantly chaos is turned into salvation. Sort of paints the picture of the life of a Christian, that we have to be out in the mess, in the chaos, just like Jesus was. We're called to be in the world's chaos to pull people out to God, into the church.

In Revelation, the great Leviathan returns. The sea beast rises from the ocean. The world worships it. But the slain lamb of God defeats the Leviathan. Just like God handled Leviathan in Job.

Jesus is in charge of all of the chaotic stuff. When the apostle John sees a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation, what's missing? The sea. There's no more chaos, death, or darkness, just pure order. The opposite of the wild waters of Genesis.

God's plan ends with everything set right. For us, we can think about facing the chaos in our own lives, to trust that God has the final victory, and that while we're on the journey, we're called to pull others out of the chaos into hope. In the Catholic church, there's a beautiful symbolism in the rite of baptism. You're actually asked, do you reject Satan? There's a mini exorcism that takes place before entering the holy water.

At the Easter vigil, the priest lifts the large Easter candle into the baptismal font three times, Jesus making the water ready to bring new life. The font, and this doesn't get talked about very often, the baptismal font is compared to the womb of a church, the womb of the church where Christians are birthed. Right? This ties creation to the idea of spiritual rebirth. We also when we come into Catholic churches, sometimes the baptismal font will be near the church's entrance.

And this reminds us, you go through baptism to join God's family. And a lot of baptismal fonts are eight sided, pointing to the eighth day of creation. Wait a minute. I thought there was seven days of creation in Genesis. There are in Revelation, there's the eighth day of new creation.

The perfect world in revelation with no sea. Also, when you come into a Catholic church, you're invited to dip your finger into holy water and make the sign of the cross, reminding us the power of baptism. Even at funerals, there's a sprinkling of water on the coffin or the grave, a sign of living through death to eternal life, tying it all together. From Genesis to Revelation, from the baptism of a new baby to a person's funeral at the church, water is always present. From chaos to life.

God has everything under control. So the next time you're at the beach or the pool, use it as an opportunity to think about this biblical imagery of water and how God takes things that are chaotic and brings new life.