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Morning Meditation
November 12, 2025
Reading: Luke 8:22-25
One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he 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 windstorm 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 waking up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. Then he said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were terrified and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”
Meditation by Jeremy O’Neill
This past Monday was the 50th Anniversary of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald. On November 10th, 1975, the ship transporting iron ore and its 29 crewmembers sank in lake superior. The tragedy remains the largest shipwreck on the Great Lakes, and memorials have taken place all week, especially in the upper Midwest.
I confess that I came to my knowledge of the event through Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” which has become very popular in certain musical circles. (Links to the original and one of many interesting covers) The song – and as a result the historical event – have developed a bit of a cult following. Part of this is because of how fitting it feels to listen to on a chilly autumn day as the spooky music and references a storm known as the “witch of November” feel seasonally appropriate.
I also think a large part of this has to do with our fascination for the unexplainable, especially when it comes to nature. There are a variety of theories as to what brought the ship down, but the reality is we will never know exactly what the crew members faced. We do know that everyone who perished was somebody’s loved one who never made it home, which leads us with grief as well as with questions.
Lightfoot was commendable for his respect for the crew members and their families, updating verses in live performances to avoid blaming anyone for the tragedy. His work with the families of crewmembers led the Mariners Church of Detroit to ring its bell 31 times on anniversaries of the sinking since his death: 29 for each crew member, 1 for all those lost at sea, and 1 for Lightfoot himself.
There is a verse from the song that I keep thinking about, especially in conversation with this passage from Luke’s Gospel. Lightfoot sings:
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put 15 more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
The verse lives into the mystery of the event but also asks where God is in moments of tragedy. Unfortunately, that is a question we are still asking. It certainly would be nice if the Jesus of Luke’s Gospel came around a little more often, and so we lament, cry, and ask God why.
“Jesus calming the waters” is a story that appears in the three Synoptic Gospels and is frequently depicted in art, very strikingly so stained glass at the Chapel of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, M.D.. What is striking about reading the story today is that even all of these years later with all of the money spent on maritime equipment, we still cannot find a way to calm the waters. And even as we pollute our oceans and watch as sea levels rise, there are still moments where humans realize their powerlessness against nature.
In those moments of uncertainty, danger, and peril, we turn to God. For it is in those moments that we recognize our humanity and the humanity of our neighbor. Both our humility and our need for community become especially present in these moments, as well as our reliance on prayer. May we continue to pray for those in peril in all conditions, and may the God of peace be with all those who need God’s presence this day and always.
Prayer
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea.
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