READING Mark Chapter 4 v 35 – 41
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
SERMON
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. They set up their tent and fell asleep. Some hours later, Holmes woke his faithful friend up.
“Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.” Watson replied, “I see millions of stars.” “What does that tell you?” asked Holmes.
Watson pondered for a minute. “Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning. Theologically, it’s evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. “
The after a pause, Watson said: “Well, Holmes, what does it tell you?”
Holmes was silent for a moment and then he said. “Watson, you fool, can’t you see that someone has stolen our tent.”
There is a danger, when we come to scripture, that we look for the complicated and overlook the obvious. We can be like Watson, searching for the depth in everything and yet missing the blatantly obvious which Holmes recognised.
And it seems to me that there are three obvious points that come out of our Gospel reading this morning.
For instance by using the letter C to accompany some closely connected words we see that
- Christ converts Chaos into Calm
- Christ Comforts His Companions in their Concern
- Christ is in Control
Let’s look at these in more detail. My first point:
- Christ converts the Chaos of the storm into Calm
Can you remember the last time you were scared?
I don’t know how many of you have been in a real storm. I have not been in what you would describe as a real storm but I can remember when I was flying abroad a number of years ago. The pilot had to take a longer route due to a storm. You could look out off the window and the flashes of lightening see in the distance. You still suffered turbulence, which certainly improved one’s prayer life.
The only other storms I have seen have been those covered on nature programmes. Programmes such as storm chaser that show how people in America chase after the tornados and to be able to drive through the centre of such a storm and record what they see and or find!
So can you imagine how the disciples must have felt in our Gospel reading today. Peter, James and John were experienced fisherman. They were used to storms yet this was no ordinary storm.
Mark describes it as “a furious squall” that came up and “the waves broke over the boat.” They were on the Sea of Galilee (as we can deduce from the first verse of the next Chapter). The Sea of Galilee is actually quite famous for the speed that these squalls spring up – coming down from the Mount Hermon range.
And, in all of that, there was Jesus asleep at the stern.
I find this a picture of wonder as to what Jesus can do in our lives. There are times, when furious storms just spring up in our lives and we are at a loss what to do. We cannot easily still them. And the message of our reading today is that we should take all our cares and concerns to Jesus. That’s what prayer is all about.
In Matthew’s Gospel Ch11:28 Jesus said: Come to me all you who are wearied and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls.
This leads me onto my second point from this morning’s reading.
- Christ Comforts His Companions in their Concern
We often think of the great power and strength of God. Many of our hymns portray the glorious majesty of God. So much so – that there is a danger of forgetting that we have a God who cares for each one of us.
At funerals, people often share with me their feeling of a great sense of sorrow and loss. When I suggest that they take their feelings to God in prayer, many find it hard to believe that God “can be bothered”. Indeed they seem surprised that they have any right to “bother God”. But our Gospel passage today shows us clearly that God cares. He is the one who can be bothered with our problems.
We can read: how Jesus “got up, rebuked the winds and said to the waves “Quiet, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”
Which brings me on to my final point.
- Christ is in control
Sometimes our first reaction when we come across a storm in our lives is to try and sort it out our self. There is always a temptation to give God a hand.
In our Gospel reading, contrast the disciples and Jesus. The disciples were panicking but Jesus was asleep at the back of the boat because he knew that the storm was under control. I challenged myself by asking – do I really live as if God is in control?
I always think that Jesus is being hard on the disciples when he said to them, after calming the storm: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Mark doesn’t record how the disciples woke Jesus up – and what they said. I wonder if they woke him up saying “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown. Come on, help us to bail out the boat.”
Yet there’s no point bailing the boat out – when the next wave simply fills the boat again. Jesus got to the centre of the problem – he still’s the storm. And was that why he rebuked them.
Perhaps they should have said: Teacher, please still the storm for us”.
But then they didn’t know he could do it – because stilling storms was outside their experience. They had to learn that God is in control – however bleak things look around them. And so do we.
I was wondering if we sometimes live as if we don’t believe that God is in control?
So in conclusion, I want to leave you with these thoughts for you to ponder on your way home, in life we will come across storms and the question is how will we handle them?
Do we automatically start bailing like the disciples did ? Do we bring our concerns to Christ in prayer and ask him to help us with the bailing?
Or do we bring our concerns to Christ in prayer; asking and believing that he can ACTUALLY still the storm, raging around us? Amen
PRAYERS
God of mercy and grace, nothing is hidden from you. You know that our lives are often not as they seem on the surface and that underneath there is to be found lots of complexity and compromise where we struggle with the mess and battle with our demons of anxiety. In fact our lives are often deep in the weeds and we stumble our way through as best we can. Lord, bless this mess, and assure us that what matters is good intent and not just a happy shiny surface. And that what matters above all is your love for us and your belief in us.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
God of mercy and grace, the society we live in is messy too. We don’t know how to deal with the perennial problems of growing inequality, social care for the elderly, overcrowded prisons, an underachieving poorly funded educational system who are already under huge demands to catch up educating our children, a truly wonderful NHS running on empty but with committed staff. Recall us, Lord, to fundamental values, to a love of God and neighbour. Remind us that “in quietness and in trust in you we shall find our strength’, not in noisy empty filled promises made by others. Draw us into a deeper unity of purpose across our troubled social landscape.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
God of mercy and grace, our whole world should be declared unsafe. The threats to human flourishing multiply with the random brutality of terrorism, the warnings of climate catastrophe, the misery of refugees, the threat of cyber attacks and the growth of the nuclear ambition of rogue states. Help us Lord to hold out a clearer vision of a world living in conformity with the values of your kingdom and which offers human dignity, a political and cultural system which cares for the equal worth and care of all, both rich and poor. Keep offering us the vision that politicians and institutions will work for the same equality.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
God of mercy and grace, we recognise that the mess and storms of our world starts in the corkscrew of the human heart, our heart, and we alone are responsible for what happens there. Give is grace to clean out the dark corners and restore a sense of order and purpose. We know that this side of death we will always live with a degree of mess, but we ask for your continuing blessing as we attempt to love both our neighbours and ourselves, despite the problems and mess. Bless us as we offer you now the week ahead.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen
Revd Kevin. Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas
