Sermon Reflections and More!
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The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost                                       June 24, 2018


This Weekend's Readings (click each reading to view the passage)
Job 38:1-11Psalm 107:1-3,23-32; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41
 
Pr. Steve's Sermon -
Pr. Steve's Sermon - "Calming the Storm"


Children's Sermon -
Children's Sermon - "Life Vest"










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Sermons Notes from Pastor Steve ...  

Today's Gospel reading begins as Jesus and his disciples get into a boat and head out to cross the Sea of Galilee. On both of my trips to Israel, I've also had the opportunity to get into a boat (although a MUCH larger boat than Jesus and his disciples would have been in) and spend some time on the Sea of Galilee.
 
And at first glance, it doesn't seem like this would be a very perilous adventure. What's called a "sea" is really just a large lake. It's about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. Unless it's really foggy, it's pretty easy to see the other side of the lake (which is why, in some stories, people can tell where the boat with Jesus is going and run along the lakeshore to get where Jesus is going before the boat reaches land...)
 
But although the "sea" is pretty small, and often seems really calm and serene, it has a couple of geographic features that can make it really dangerous. First, it's surrounded by mountains, with a pass near the northern end that often funnels violent winds down on the "sea" without any warning. It's also about 200 meters below sea level, so the temperature on the surface of the lake is often much warmer than the winds coming from the north, which can create thunderstorms that make ours around here look calm.
 
And so going out on the lake really can be dangerous, as a sudden storm can come up out of nowhere. And even with today's larger boats and better forecasts, people still frequently need to be rescued in the midst of these sudden storms.
 
It was no different in Jesus' day, and many of Jesus' disciples were fisherman who made a living fishing in the Sea of Galilee. They knew these storms would come up out of nowhere. They wouldn't have been surprised that a storm was happening. And frankly, they knew what to do when they got caught in a storm.
 
Yet sometimes, we read this story and we think that the disciples were surprised that the storm had come upon them. Or that they were panicking and didn't know what to do. But they were mostly experienced fisherman. They knew what was happening, and they knew what they needed to do.
 
What bothers them isn't the windstorm, but that Jesus is seemingly able to sleep through it! They wonder how Jesus could be so oblivious, and so seemingly disconnected to the crisis of the moment.
 
And so they wake Jesus up and ask, "don't you care that we're perishing?"
 
"Don't you care that we're perishing?" Now, I think it's a mistake to read that question as a cry of desperation that they need Jesus to perform some kind of miracle. They clearly don't expect that at all. What they want is simply for Jesus to wake up, to pay attention, and to help them bail out the boat. They know if they do that, they'll probably be fine. But this is an "all hands on deck" operation, and Jesus seems absent from the struggle.
 
And that's the storm that's really bothering the disciples. They can basically handle the wind and the waves. But the storm inside of them is the storm that wonders "does Jesus notice?" Does Jesus care? Is Jesus going to do anything to help us survive the mess that we're in?
 
And THAT is the storm that Jesus is really interested in calming when the disciples wake him up. We often focus on how Jesus "rebuked" the wind and the waves and made the weather calm down. But the disciples really didn't expect Jesus to do that. They just wanted him to wake up and help bail. And so when Jesus stills the storm, they're absolutely dumb-struck. They hadn't expected that at all.
 
And then Jesus asks them about their faith. That is, "is the storm still going on in your hearts and minds?" Because after all, "faith" isn't the belief that nothing bad will happen if you have Jesus in your life, or that Jesus will magically make the storms disappear. I don't think that was what the disciples thought either, or they wouldn't have been so amazed.
 
Instead, the kind of faith Jesus wanted the disciples to have - the kind of faith that would at least partially calm the storm in their hearts and minds - was the confidence that:
  • They were never alone and abandoned in their storm, even if it seemed like Jesus was sleeping at the moment ... 
  • Jesus really did care about them, even though he wasn't reacting in the ways they wanted him to react ...
  • Jesus was going to help them, even if that help ended up coming in unexpected ways ...
What Jesus wanted his first disciples to learn from this experience wasn't that no "storm" in their life would ever happen if he was with them. Clearly, it did. And Jesus also wasn't promising to miraculously stop the storms whenever they happened. Stopping the storm happened just that one time, and it was remembered and written down because it was so unique.
 
Instead, what Jesus wanted his disciples to learn and appreciate - and what Jesus wants all of us to know and appreciate - is that even when storms appear in our lives, Jesus really:
  • Is with us, and aware of what's going on, even when it may seem to us like he's sleeping through the chaos of our lives ... (sometimes, when I'm going through a crisis, and somebody doesn't seem to notice, I wonder if they actually understand, and it makes me crazy(er!); but the disciples learned that Jesus did know and he did understand, even when it looked like he was just sleeping. And it's easier to endure the storms when you're confident that you're not the only one who sees the storm going on around you... 
  • Does care, even if he isn't reacting in the ways that we want him to; it's sometimes easy to feel that if somebody isn't reacting the way I want them to do that they don't care; that's what the disciples first thought about Jesus, too. But he did care; and he does care. And what they learned as they followed Jesus was that even a storm that killed Jesus wouldn't win out in the end...
  • Will help us, even if the way that Jesus helps us isn't in ways we expected. The disciples really didn't expect Jesus to tell the wind and waves to calm down and have that actually work! They probably just expected Jesus to help bail. But sometimes, the way God is going to help us and give us strength isn't clear to us except in retrospect, as it was for those disciples. And sometimes the help comes in unexpected ways and through unexpected people. But God's help is always there.
The windstorm that the disciples faced that day on the lake was certainly not the first storm they'd encountered in their lives, and it wouldn't be the last. But in midst of that particular storm, they realized that Jesus really did know what was going on, even when he seemed to be just sleeping. They realized Jesus cared about them, even when he wasn't frantically bailing alongside them. And they found out that Jesus really would help them, even if the help came in unexpected ways.
 
And that knowledge and confidence helped calm the storm in their hearts and minds. It helped them endure the next storm, and storm after that. And it's that knowledge and confidence and peace that Jesus seeks to give us each day, no matter what storm we may be facing.
 
Amen.