Clinging on

 

Luke 8.22-25, Genesis 2.4b-9, 15-end

Do you enjoy getting out on the water in some sort of craft? If nothing else it can be a great way to get away from people. On different occasions Jesus certainly used boats to create some space away from the crowds when he needed it.

When I was young I used to enjoy racing race dinghies and you have to expect some rough weather days, in fact without any significant wind it can all seem a bit tame.

But I don’t often think of boats as places to sleep even though I used to try, usually unsuccessfully, propped against my backpack on the overnight ferries from Athens which took us out to holiday on the Greek Islands. So it makes me wonder what sort of boat this was that Jesus fell asleep on. Most artistic interpretations don’t show anything nearing a modern day fishing boat, with Rembrandt’s image of an open wooden vessel not looking like anything offering much space to have a decent kip.

The original painting was stolen from a Boston gallery in 1990 and has never been recovered but take a look at it and you can almost feel the spray of the crashing waves and hear the sails tearing. Rembrandt chose to include himself in the painting, staring back at us, it feels like he’s humanity’s representative, inviting us to find ourselves on the boat and contemplate what it means to us.

You will also see Jesus who looks distinctly unimpressed to have just been woken up, as well as one of the disciples throwing up over the side of the boat!

There’s a real sense of both humanity and divinity in Luke’s account today. Jesus’ exhaustion is wholly human and easily relatable yet the same man calms raging waves.

Here’s a question for you. As a passenger on a long car journey do you find that you are happy to fall asleep when certain people are driving but feel the need to stay awake for others?

Substitute a boat for the car and it’s clear that Jesus is complimenting the disciples in charge of the vessel. It’s obvious that the disciple’s trust in God is in focus but perhaps less obvious is the issue of Jesus’ trust in the disciples. Surely he wouldn’t have fallen asleep so easily if he thought those in charge were a bunch of novice sailors unable to navigate whatever the weather threw at them. He trusted their skill and experience and felt safe in the fact that he was among people who loved him. It’s a cause for reflection about how we respond to the things that God has entrusted to us.

As I sat in my office by the Thames on Friday the winds were gusting straight up the river to create a new alfresco experience at the O2 arena and white crested waves appeared, what a contrast with the early morning stillness as the sunlight glistened off the calm waters.

The lectionary readings are neatly timed this week as we all have recent experience of stormy weather and strong winds in particular. But then any experienced mountain walker or sailor knows how quickly conditions can change for the worse.

It seems that the conditions Luke describes are bad enough for experienced fishermen to think there was a real chance of them all drowning, water is coming on board yet Jesus carries on snoozing away. ‘Master, Master we are perishing!’ they say to him.

Have you ever had the feeling that the most important, the most calamitous thing is about to happen and yet it seems that others don’t care? People fleeing their own perilous situation whether it be a war-torn city or domestic violence can often have a real sense of being on their own. The indifference of others that can make it even harder to bear

Yet there is a need to carry on with life which need not mean that we are oblivious to all the problems and suffering around us. For most there is a balance to be struck around living lives which are joyful and rewarding against making time and space to care for others.

Planned commitments to benefit others, whilst valuable, can be scheduled and form a routine part of our lives but when a violent storm strikes out of nowhere it often challenges our resourcefulness and our faith in ways we haven’t been able to prepare for.

There are external storms, literally the weather we’ve just experienced or the shock of someone dying as well as internal emotional storms that may rear up from time to time causing great anxiety and stress in ways not always apparent to those on the outside.

The way we react to these often shows who we really are as people, we have to find resources and courage from deep within.

The other question people of faith are left asking themselves is where is God in all this? It can sometimes feel like you’ve called the emergency services because your house is flooding on a Friday evening, the water is getting higher and higher, yet all you get is a recorded message, ‘our offices are now closed please try again on Monday morning after 9.00 am, in the meantime you may wish to visit our website which has useful information including how to build a canoe out of your household furniture.’

Don’t you care God? I’m desperate, overwhelmed, frightened are you asleep on the job?

When we meet here in church we praise God with music and try to engage through thoughtful prayer and times of silence.

But for each of us there will also be a time to communicate urgently, desperately, maybe even angrily. This can’t wait, I need you now we may feel as we cry out ‘Lord help me’.

Bear in mind that the disciples had seen Jesus perform healing miracles and yet maybe this still wasn’t enough for them to truly know him as the son of God.

Our Genesis reading reinforces the fact that God really doesn’t care what labels we use for ourselves but wants us to know and celebrate our common humanity, not looking for differences, but understanding our role in relation to the rest of creation. He wants us to live in relationship with the ultimate creator, secure in his love for us.

In calmer times should the disciples have been learning more from Jesus and building resources strong enough to cope when a storm hits? There’s no easy answer to this but it is certain that we should use time wisely when we are not in crisis to reflect and get to know God and all the good things he wants us to enjoy. It may ground us in his love in ways that will be enough to get us through life’s storms.

I recall Keith Blackburn, former Vicar here, telling me that ‘there may be times when you’ll have to cling onto your faith by your finger nails’, what a bit like the disciples desperately reaching out to grab tearing sails and over stressed guy ropes?

It should make us think that if we are the body of Christ how do we make it known to others that God is always there, God always cares.

Words of reassurance are rarely enough when disaster strikes yet a sign of care through the smallest piece of help or enquiring communication can make a world of difference.

It could also make us question ‘what difference does prayer make’? God already knows when disaster strikes, he doesn’t hear us pray and think ‘Oh thanks I hadn’t spotted that one yet.’ Yet prayer can help us  to join with God in care for his creation rather than just ask him to solve everything for us. Prayer can help us to live in a healthy relationship with God where we want to be part of his plan, not just helpless observers.

Perhaps a more faithful reaction for the disciples would have been to have stayed calm, to show that they now truly knew that whatever happened to them, whether they perished or not that they would be in God’s care forever. Yet how many of us have faith as strong as this? I’ve met one or two but it’s not most of us. It’s really hard when we’re desperate for relief from physical or emotional pain.

Perhaps we are able to draw comfort from the fact that even though some storms in our lives are unavoidable, and reaching the limit of our own resources is inevitable, we are left to decide whether we have greater fear of what we must face or greater trust in God and his ultimate plan for our salvation. Even though our faith may sometimes waiver we can be sure that Gods love for us never will.

Amen

Kevin Bright

19^th February 2022