Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church
Worship Focus for June 24
Rocking The Boat
Rev. Dr. Jim Bennett, preaching
Greetings!

The calendar says we’ve settled into summer, and our liturgical calendar says we are well into “Ordinary Time”—that long stretch between Pentecost and Advent. But around church things are hardly slow or ordinary. The week has been busy with Vacation Bible School and on Saturday our high school youth head to Arizona on CARAVAN.

In worship as well, our text is hardly ordinary. Ferocious waves and wind toss the disciples about as Jesus sleeps soundly. I suspect that our lives often feel the same way, tossed to and fro by things beyond our control and we wonder if God is asleep or even notices.

This Sunday I invite you to join us in worship as children from Vacation Bible School sing (at 10 a.m.), as we pray for the youth and advisors on Caravan, and as we consider how Jesus’ perplexing response to the disciples in the midst of a frightful storm at sea might speak to our lives today. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday. 

Blessings,
Jim
Theme for Sunday

Christ sleeps in the deepest selves of all of us…. May we call on him as the fishermen did in their boat to come awake within us and to give us courage, to give us hope, to show us, each one, our way. May he be with us especially when the winds go mad and the waves run wild…so that even in their midst we may find peace...we may find Christ.
—Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark
Questions for Reflection

  • When have you felt like the disciples, tossed by events around you and feeling like God is asleep? What helped you get through that time?

  • Think about a time when faith—perhaps an awareness of God’s presence, considering creation, or remembering a passage of scripture—has helped calm a fear.
Scripture Reading : Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.

Read more
bible.oremus.org
Website | June Newsletter   |   Events   |   News