Calming of the Storm

Share bad boat experiences

…Or even some memory of a fool pretending to capsize your boat on a lake, at a time when you weren’t a very strong swimmer.

Those of you with such memories will best appreciate the terror that the disciples experienced in our gospel story today…

Setting the scene,

i.e. squalls, boat full, Jesus at the stern of boat asleep

Terrifying suddenness

…winds from the heights of the mountains there caught and compressed, rush through ravines, which open out near the water.

Jesus, is where any boat owner would have placed a distinguished guest. ..in the stern of the ship, where a carpet and cushion would have been arranged.

Perhaps they thought, this is the moment where our lives end. All this was for nothing! Our hopes and dreams at an end.

No wonder they woke Jesus up in a most unceremonious way.’

“Wake up master do you not care that we are perishing? ”

Times in life when we feel exactly like those disciples in the boat

Redundancy; bereavement; family splits

And we become fearful…caught up all of a sudden, in the midst of trauma….and we tell ourselves God is not there!

Dead! Asleep in the boat!

1)      Wake up, DO SOMETHING! Be there for me!

(Jesus slept~he was human~ exhausted.

But Psalm 121 tell us

…that He that keepeth Thee shall neither slumber nor sleep… the Lord God is thy keeper, thy shade upon thy right hand…..God is not asleep! He is with us: The Holy Spirit!

To comfort, to help us through, to come alongside us, to guide us, to move us on.

2)     Why have you let this happen, You could have prevented it.

(We’re not exempt from tragedy and upsets just because we’re Christian.

We’re just as vulnerable as the next person in the face of idiots who drive too fast, people who choose to be aggressive, and industrial oversights and negligence)

Not a contradiction to say we’re vulnerable, but God is our keeper and watches over us

SAVIOUR: JESUS HAS SAVED US:

What does it mean?

HE HAS RESCUED US FROM DARKNESS, DEATH, SIN,

We’re in the boat: through believing we have been saved….and the Spirit of Jesus is with us!

How we actually handle difficult situations, and come to terms with our loss and our fears, is what should really set us apart from those who do not have faith.

3)We’re good people we don’t deserve this!

My dad, he didn’t deserve the death he suffered through industrial disease. My faith was deeply challenged.

Death of a loved one …the biggest challenge to our faith!

There’s a lovely story about an old gardener who loved his garden, and in it was a very special flower that he  loved more than any other flower. One day he went to see it , and it was missing

He was really angry, vexed and full of complaints. In the midst of his resentment and his fury,  he met  the master of  the garden and he hurled his complaints at him.

‘Hush, be still, he said, ‘I picked that one for myself!’

The flower was his in the first place, not his, and he needed to take courage and let it  go!

When sorrow comes, as come it must, God tells us of the glory of the life to come. He turns the darkness of death into the sunshine of life eternal.

God’s love and care does not cease because of death.

We have his eternal promise that all will be well!

There is a saying in the bible

‘Draw near to God and he will draw close to you!

Saul in our OT reading allowed the sin of jealousy to cripple his spirit. He drew further away from God

David was pure of heart, admired by the people he drew close and God blessed him.

Our relationship with God must be one; rather like that beautiful relationship between David and Jonathan.}

FINALLY as we read this story today we, like the disciples, come to an awakening of the implications of who Jesus really was and is.

There was the storm and the mighty wind; they had seen their master heal the sick and perform some miracles, but with one command he silenced the storm.

What kind of authority was that? Even the weather is doing as it is told!

Who then is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?

Sometimes, at the times of our greatest traumas in life, not in the mundane routines, we begin to actually discover more about the God who loves us, revealed in Jesus, than at any other time.

We still need to listen for that voice today which whispers to us,

“Peace be still. I’m here, trust me!”