In the Storm — May 12, 2024
May 12, 2024
Matthew 8:18-27
In the Storm
During my renewal leave, I spent part of my time down in Pensacola Florida. While we were there, my mom and my aunt, my mom‘s youngest sister, came down to spend some time with us. One of the things we did while they were there was to take the Pensacola water taxi from downtown Pensacola out to Fort Pickens and then on to Pensacola Beach and back to downtown Pensacola. It was a picturesque, beautiful calm trip on the water. We got on the boat. It was a very peaceful day. We were not at all afraid. The sea was lovely and calm. We saw no reason to worry or fret at all.
Now I have been out on boats when that was not the case. I have been out on the water when everything seemed just different shades of gray; when the boat I was on spun around, and around and the whole world started spinning around. I’ll stop there with my description and spare you the details but I know a little bit of what it’s like to be out on the water when things get rough
Well, in our text today, the disciples climb on board their little boat. They seemed very confident. They seemed not at all afraid; the sea looked lovely and calm. They had probably been in that boat, or one like it, many times. They saw no reason to worry, but as the wind and the waves increased in force, those disciples lost their calm and their sense of peace and well-being vanished.
A visitor came to them. They were face to face with a presence in the boat that was not there before. Keep in mind, the boat they were in was small. As that wind really whipped up, and the sky grew dark, that little boat would’ve been like a toy tossed about on top of the water.
I can almost see the waves crashing all around them and as their strength failed them and that presence visited placing cold hands on their arms and whispering things to them…. like what will become of your family if you perish in this storm? It caused them to think back over their lives, to things they had done long ago and maybe even things they had done or said the day before, an angry unkind word to a stranger a rude response to a loved one, things that they regretted saying and doing ….
The stranger on their boat caused them to be almost paralyzed by its presence and the name of that stranger that came on the boat when things got rough, of course, is fear.
Now, obviously fear has its place and its function to keep us safe.
That same trip down to Florida I went on a hike down to a lagoon and a bay. As I sat on the shore, I noticed something out in the water about 100 yards away. I got my binoculars out of my backpack and started tracking it. I wasn’t sure what it was, but then it became clear that what I was seeing was a big alligator and the instant that I realized that what I was seeing was a big alligator, in that same instant, my telephone in my back pack rang. I just about jumped out of my skin.
Now ordinarily I don’t have to be afraid of my telephone ringing, but fear does have its place in our lives….
It is OK for us to be afraid of some things because it might keep us alive. Fear can be a good thing, but fear can also paralyze us so that we don’t experience life as fully as is possible
If you look at the current political situation in our country and frankly the political situation facing our church as United Methodists, things that have happened and are happening may have not made you at least a little bit afraid, I would almost wonder if you are paying attention at all.
I will say that if you are not battling with fear right now then one of two things are likely going on in your life.
One is that you’re not paying attention and the other is you are so full of faith in God that you have risen above the chaos and disorder that threatens to undo us.
If you do have that kind of faith, and I know that some of you do, I would encourage you to share it with those of us who struggle a little bit or maybe a lot with the threat of fear. I hope that you will teach us how to be calm and overcome fear in the storm.
As you may know, I love history. I am kind of a history nerd. I also love preaching and I love the church.
I have a book with the sermon Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached just before the rise of the Nazis in Germany
His country was struggling to survive. It was a time of incredible tension in Germany, still reeling from the fall out of WWI. There was fear of communism. There was fear of other extreme movements. There was open, fighting in the streets. Bonhoeffer seemed to sense that what was coming was not going to be good.
Yet he called for his church to embrace the peace the world can’t give, and the world can’t take away. Bonhoeffer called for the church, not to be paralyzed by fear, but to find courage in God’s presence with us, just as those disciples in that boat found courage in Christ’s presence with them who overcame that storm on the Sea of Galilee.
God may not get us out of every storm but God will be with us through every storm – and that’s enough.
Jesus got those disciples out of that storm and through that storm and that’s awesome, that’s great but the most important thing is that he was with them in the storm. The most important thing is that Jesus did not abandon them in that storm. God did not abandon them in that storm
I do not know what is gonna happen in November. I don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t know where our country is headed. I’m not really afraid that the kind of thing that happened in Germany is going to happen here, but I don’t know but what I do know is that no matter what happens God will be with us. I know that no matter what happens that in the worst that can happen to us, God will not abandon us and I know that because I am standing in the shadow of the cross.
If ever there was a time for the abandonment of all hope it is when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross.
God did not abandon Jesus on that cross, and God will not abandon us not ever not ever not ever and if there’s any reason not to be paralyzed by fear, it is in knowing that our God will be with us in every storm and never ever abandon us.
You might think that I sound a little overdramatic this morning if so, I wanna encourage you to think back over history and take a look at our current political environment. No, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do know that whether Republicans are Democrats or somebody else is in power in our country and no matter what the general church decides to do God will not abandon us.