Audio version here
Mark
4.35-41, 2 Corinthians 6.1-13, Psalm 107.1-3,23-32
You probably know
that the Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake, about 13 miles
long and 8 miles wide. So when Jesus said ‘let us go across to the other side’
it’s not like nipping across a lake at Chipstead in a sailing dinghy.Talking of which I used to race sailing dinghies and my lasting memory is being pleased when the wind picked up as this meant that you could really get moving, but having done so on one occasion I was leaning with an arched back to counter balance the craft when the toe straps snapped and an involuntary backward somersault launched me into the ocean giving me an unnerving view of passing rudders overhead. Luckily I managed to avoid them as I surfaced.
Clearly any open water poses dangers. Weather often changes quickly so if the disciples who fished for a living thought that they were in mortal danger it must have been a pretty serious storm.
Initially it seems odd that Jesus would sleep through this but some people seem to be able to relax in conditions intolerable to others. I can recall a time on a small open passenger boat when the sea was so rough ninety per cent of people were being sick and my son Luke just got his sandwiches out and eat lunch like we were on a mill pond.
We could consider
that the disciples may have been happy for Jesus to sleep, to not engage with
him when all was calm and well, all blue skies and sunshine, in the same way
that many of us may do. Of course the power of God in Jesus doesn’t change
whether things are calm or stormy and the symbolism of Christ being unchanged
when the storm comes should actually offer us reassurance.
But of course when crisis strikes Jesus’ sleeping appears crazy to the disciples, doesn’t he care what is about to happen to them all? But his apparent indifference is due to his knowledge of God’s power. Contrast this with the time shortly before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, when despite his request to do so, the disciples can’t stay awake in Gethsemane, their sleep doesn’t come from peace of mind but physical weakness. ‘Could you not keep awake one hour?’ he asked them.
It’s understandable that the disciples should be anxious if they thought that they were about to perish on the lake but when Jesus scolds them we have to ask ourselves whether it was for their natural fear of the conditions or because they fear God’s power manifested in him. ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
They have answered Jesus’ call to follow him, seen him perform miracles and healing, and heard his teaching so when Jesus asks the disciples ‘why are you afraid’ is he saying why are you afraid of me? Why do you not trust me and the love I have for you?
Despite the assurances that we have of God’s love for us in Jesus I suspect that most of us can relate to the disciples reactions. As their fear became a point to be challenged by Jesus so we should think what we fear and why. It’s a God given emotion which will protect us at times, we would be right to fear putting our hand in a fire for example. But we can also examine our less rational fears and hold them in prayer before God and explore them with him.
In fact we would do well to take all our emotional extremes good or bad and consider them in the light of our faith, they are important to us and God and an essential element of our relationship with him. They are what make us who we are and above all because we can’t falsify them or control them they are an honest representation of what is real in our hearts.
Paul tells the Corinthians ‘open wide your hearts’. It’s a message we would do well to embrace to offer our thanks, hopes and fears but also be open to God to hear his message of love, to know him more deeply and grow in faith.
All our texts today give us good reason to trust God in the midst of life’s difficulties. Yet this is still not always an easy thing to do because life sometimes feels unjust, draining or we feel overcome by grief and anger to the point that we don’t leave ourselves time, space and energy to consider how God is still involved.
It’s likely that Psalm 107 which we said today comes from the period when Israel had returned home following her long exile in Babylon. The Psalmist invites the worshippers to give thanks to God for bringing them together again after having been dispersed in all directions.
The Psalmist goes on to describe the challenges that people had overcome in order to return home. We heard that ‘some went down to the sea in ships and plied their trade in deep waters’, likely to be merchants. We heard how they faced winds and storms until they ‘were at their wits end’. When they cried to the Lord he stilled the storm and brought them safely to the harbour. Ah, so it’s not such a new thing then, a generous God answering prayer when we realise we are not in control. It seems that he’s been doing it rather a long time and I strongly suspect that if we were to ask each other of our own experiences we would find that he is still doing it today.
The notion of ‘going across to the other side’, setting out on a journey with God is still very much relevant to us .
Every one of us will have things in our life we need to change but it’s so much easier to put them off or ignore them rather than to accept Jesus invitation to journey with him. We may ‘stay on the shore’ and do nothing because we fear the transition, the journey and the gospel reading today assures us that it will not always be smooth or comfortable, fear, danger and pain may be unavoidable.
But of course when crisis strikes Jesus’ sleeping appears crazy to the disciples, doesn’t he care what is about to happen to them all? But his apparent indifference is due to his knowledge of God’s power. Contrast this with the time shortly before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, when despite his request to do so, the disciples can’t stay awake in Gethsemane, their sleep doesn’t come from peace of mind but physical weakness. ‘Could you not keep awake one hour?’ he asked them.
It’s understandable that the disciples should be anxious if they thought that they were about to perish on the lake but when Jesus scolds them we have to ask ourselves whether it was for their natural fear of the conditions or because they fear God’s power manifested in him. ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
They have answered Jesus’ call to follow him, seen him perform miracles and healing, and heard his teaching so when Jesus asks the disciples ‘why are you afraid’ is he saying why are you afraid of me? Why do you not trust me and the love I have for you?
Despite the assurances that we have of God’s love for us in Jesus I suspect that most of us can relate to the disciples reactions. As their fear became a point to be challenged by Jesus so we should think what we fear and why. It’s a God given emotion which will protect us at times, we would be right to fear putting our hand in a fire for example. But we can also examine our less rational fears and hold them in prayer before God and explore them with him.
In fact we would do well to take all our emotional extremes good or bad and consider them in the light of our faith, they are important to us and God and an essential element of our relationship with him. They are what make us who we are and above all because we can’t falsify them or control them they are an honest representation of what is real in our hearts.
Paul tells the Corinthians ‘open wide your hearts’. It’s a message we would do well to embrace to offer our thanks, hopes and fears but also be open to God to hear his message of love, to know him more deeply and grow in faith.
All our texts today give us good reason to trust God in the midst of life’s difficulties. Yet this is still not always an easy thing to do because life sometimes feels unjust, draining or we feel overcome by grief and anger to the point that we don’t leave ourselves time, space and energy to consider how God is still involved.
It’s likely that Psalm 107 which we said today comes from the period when Israel had returned home following her long exile in Babylon. The Psalmist invites the worshippers to give thanks to God for bringing them together again after having been dispersed in all directions.
The Psalmist goes on to describe the challenges that people had overcome in order to return home. We heard that ‘some went down to the sea in ships and plied their trade in deep waters’, likely to be merchants. We heard how they faced winds and storms until they ‘were at their wits end’. When they cried to the Lord he stilled the storm and brought them safely to the harbour. Ah, so it’s not such a new thing then, a generous God answering prayer when we realise we are not in control. It seems that he’s been doing it rather a long time and I strongly suspect that if we were to ask each other of our own experiences we would find that he is still doing it today.
The notion of ‘going across to the other side’, setting out on a journey with God is still very much relevant to us .
Every one of us will have things in our life we need to change but it’s so much easier to put them off or ignore them rather than to accept Jesus invitation to journey with him. We may ‘stay on the shore’ and do nothing because we fear the transition, the journey and the gospel reading today assures us that it will not always be smooth or comfortable, fear, danger and pain may be unavoidable.
In his letter to the Corinthians Paul talks of the
power of God at work as he and other Christians suffer beatings, imprisonments,
hunger, sleeplessness and ridicule just to name a few perks of the job! Paul
trusts God to define what power looks like rather than insisting on his own
earthly definition and it’s something really worth us pondering for our own
lives. Being crucified on a cross didn’t look very powerful at the time either.
‘Let us go across to the other side’ beckons Jesus, what and leave my comfort zone, who knows what we may have to face on the journey. Sometimes we are forced to set off on a journey that we wouldn’t choose. Forced to leave home to find work, forced to face up to a health issue, forced to show leadership because no one else will, not knowing what each journey will entail. We need only the tiniest bit of faith to be sure that Jesus will be there with us. As a forgiving, loving father God only wants us to turn to him in our time of need and trust in his unfathomable generosity.
When all in life is calm and tranquil is easy to delude ourselves that we are in control, even that we understand God. But the disciples had to learn, as we do, that we have to trust a loving God that we can’t fully know or understand, but it is a God that has shown us enough that when our trust grows we draw closer and are safer despite the storms we may have to endure.
As we consider people ‘trying to cross to the other side’ we think of the fear of the settled population which often results in closed borders to people fleeing war and persecution, leaving them in fear on unfit boats, sent to sea by traffickers who don’t give a damn whether they complete their journey or end up drowning. They want to cross over to peace and security, prosperity and stable family life but find themselves caught up in international arguments as to which country, if any, should accept them. They are stuck in a storm of neglect and political argument which at times must leave them feeling that God is asleep and doesn’t care.
There are no easy answers, but to ignore those in dire need of help would mean that we are still stuck on the shore ourselves, unwilling to step out with Christ in seeking just solutions for God’s family.
In one of his books, Cardinal Hume the former monk and Roman Catholic Archbishop wrote of how his understanding of God changed over time. For years he thought of God as being like a strict school teacher or policeman who would know if you sneaked into the larder and took an apple and would make sure you paid for it. As an older man he wrote ‘now, many years later I have an idea that God would have said to the small boy, take two’.
It sounds like the words of a man who has truly come to know God’s grace.
Is it something that we can open our hearts to so that we can grow in faith and share this with others?
‘Let us go across to the other side’ beckons Jesus, what and leave my comfort zone, who knows what we may have to face on the journey. Sometimes we are forced to set off on a journey that we wouldn’t choose. Forced to leave home to find work, forced to face up to a health issue, forced to show leadership because no one else will, not knowing what each journey will entail. We need only the tiniest bit of faith to be sure that Jesus will be there with us. As a forgiving, loving father God only wants us to turn to him in our time of need and trust in his unfathomable generosity.
When all in life is calm and tranquil is easy to delude ourselves that we are in control, even that we understand God. But the disciples had to learn, as we do, that we have to trust a loving God that we can’t fully know or understand, but it is a God that has shown us enough that when our trust grows we draw closer and are safer despite the storms we may have to endure.
As we consider people ‘trying to cross to the other side’ we think of the fear of the settled population which often results in closed borders to people fleeing war and persecution, leaving them in fear on unfit boats, sent to sea by traffickers who don’t give a damn whether they complete their journey or end up drowning. They want to cross over to peace and security, prosperity and stable family life but find themselves caught up in international arguments as to which country, if any, should accept them. They are stuck in a storm of neglect and political argument which at times must leave them feeling that God is asleep and doesn’t care.
There are no easy answers, but to ignore those in dire need of help would mean that we are still stuck on the shore ourselves, unwilling to step out with Christ in seeking just solutions for God’s family.
In one of his books, Cardinal Hume the former monk and Roman Catholic Archbishop wrote of how his understanding of God changed over time. For years he thought of God as being like a strict school teacher or policeman who would know if you sneaked into the larder and took an apple and would make sure you paid for it. As an older man he wrote ‘now, many years later I have an idea that God would have said to the small boy, take two’.
It sounds like the words of a man who has truly come to know God’s grace.
Is it something that we can open our hearts to so that we can grow in faith and share this with others?
Kevin Bright
23 June 2018
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