Sermon 21st February 2010

Today our Curate, Gill Tayleur, preaches based on the reading from Luke 4:1-14

THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS

Pray: Lord may we have open minds and open hearts to hear what you want to say to us, through these words I’ve prepared.
In Jesus’ name, amen.

An Irishman moves into a tiny village in Ireland, walks into the pub & orders 3 beers.
The bartender raises his eyebrows, but serves the man 3 beers, which he drinks quietly at a table, alone. An hour later, the man has finished the 3 beers & orders 3 more. This happens yet again. The next evening the man again orders & drinks 3 beers at a time, several times. Soon the whole town is whispering about the Man Who Orders 3 Beers.
Finally, a week later, the bartender broaches the subject. "I don't mean to pry, but folks around here are wondering why you always order 3 beers?" 'Tis odd, isn't it?" the man replies, "You see, I have 2 brothers, and one went to America, and the other to Australia.
We promised each other that we would always order an extra 2 beers whenever we drank as a way of keeping the family bond."
The bartender and the whole town was pleased with this answer, & soon the Man Who Orders 3 Beers became a local celebrity.
Then, one day, the man comes in and orders only 2 beers. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues for the rest of the evening - he orders only 2 beers. The word flies around town. Prayers are offered for the man who has lost 1 of his brothers.
The next day, the bartender says to the man, "Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know-the 2 beers and all..."
The man ponders this for a moment, then replies, "You'll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well. It's just that I, meself, have decided to give up drinking for Lent."

It’s the first Sunday in Lent. And on this Sunday it’s traditional to have the gospel reading we have, about Jesus’ temptations. Thinking about temptation is a good way to start Lent, as during Lent Christians are called to think about temptation and sin, about repentance, self denial, prayer, and reading God’s word.

So we start Lent today with the story of Jesus’ temptations. It comes straight after he was baptised by John in the River Jordan. A few verses back in chapter 3, we read that when Jesus was baptised, a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” And then Jesus heads into the desert for 40 days. And there he is tempted by the devil.

Now before we go any further, I had better say that like Cameron and John have said from this pulpit, I too believe in the devil as a real being, a created but rebellious fallen angel who is constantly fighting against God and those who follow him. The existence of the devil is too big a subject to tackle this morning, but I hope that whatever your view on it, you can see the existence of evil in the world. We don’t have to look very far do we, just turn on the television, open the paper, or indeed see our own anger or pride let loose. And I hope you’ll recognise there is such a thing as temptation to do wrong.

Back to Jesus in the desert. As Tom Wright Bishop of Durham, says: After Jesus’ baptism, with the words “You are my own dear son” ringing in his ears, Jesus faced the double question: What does it mean to be God’s Son in this special unique way? And what will he do as Messiah?
The 3 temptations can be read as possible answers to these questions. We don’t know whether Jesus was tempted in an audible conversation, or in a string of ideas in his head. It doesn’t really matter, but either way the temptations were plausible, they were attractive and they made a lot of sense.

The first temptation, to turn stones into bread when Jesus hadn’t eaten for 40 days. Well, God wouldn’t want his “own dear Son” to be famished with hunger, would he?
The second temptation, to worship the devil in order to rule the kingdoms of the world. If God wanted Jesus to rule over all the world, as the angel Gabriel had told Mary, why not go for it?
And the third temptation, to get God to save Jesus spectacularly from harm. If Jesus was Israel’s messiah, why not prove it by a stunning display of power?

3 clever, plausible, attractive ideas. Make yourself something to eat. Get the world to fall at your feet, as God has promised. Prove who you are.

Jesus doesn’t attempt to argue – arguing with temptation is often a way of playing with the idea until it becomes impossible to resist. But instead he quotes Scripture. The passages of Scripture he quotes all come from the book of Deuteronomy, from the time when the Israelites were 40 years in the desert after escaping from Egypt and through the waters of the Red Sea.
The parallels with Jesus spending 40 days in the desert after his baptism in the waters of the river Jordan, are obvious. But during their 40 years, the Israelites grumbled against God, they worshipped idols, and continually put God to the test. In contrast, Jesus refuses to do those things. He is going to succeed where they failed.

In response to the first temptation, to turn stones into bread when he hadn’t eaten for 40 days, Jesus says physical needs and wants are important, but loyalty to God is more important.

To the second temptation, to worship the devil in order to rule the kingdoms of the world, Jesus knows he is to become the world’s true ruler, but the path to it is by humble service, not by seeking status and power.
And to the third temptation, to get God to save Jesus spectacularly from harm. Jesus knows that trusting God doesn’t mean acting stupidly to force God into doing a stunning rescue. The power Jesus already has and will soon be displayed in healings, is to be used for restoring others to life and strength. It’s not for cheap stunts. Jesus’ status as God’s Son leads him not to showy prestige, but to humility, service and finally death.

In each case, Jesus sees through the temptation. He sees it for what it is. He sees the wrong in going along with it. And he refuses to; he resists temptation.
So what about us? We’re unlikely to be tempted in the same ways Jesus was,
but whether or not we go along with it depends on whether we see temptation for what it is. Do we see the wrong in what we may be tempted to do? We all know how subtle and incremental temptation can be. This little bit is alright, and a bit more, and a bit more...

I think we often try - and succeed – in fooling ourselves that there’s nothing wrong in what we’re about to do, and what we’ve done before. We say, it’s OK. We make excuses.
Excuses like, It’s not my fault! I was provoked!
With apologies to anyone who heard me say this last Weds at the Ash Weds service, if I lose my temper and am rude to the person who has kept me waiting on the phone for 15 minutes, I think “well they treated me badly”. But the truth is simply, I’ve been rude & angry. They may have treated me badly but that doesn’t mean it’s OK for me to treat them badly back.
I’ve heard it illustrated like this: If I’m holding a cup of something, and you bump into me and it spills all over the place, it may be your fault that it has spilled, but I’m responsible for what was in the cup that has spilled. I’m responsible for whether it’s clean water, or filthy gunk, that spilled out. So if you wrong me and I react with anger and rudeness, I must take responsibility for the anger and hatred in my heart. It shouldn’t have been there in the first place, then it wouldn’t have spilt out.

There are other excuses we use, like, it’s very understandable, it’s only human, and other people do much worse than I do!

And here’s another way of excusing what we’re being tempted to do: we say, I’m entitled to it, it’s my right.

Jesus could have said, I’m God’s own son; I’m entitled to some bread after 40 days fasting! He could have said: I’m entitled to rule the world; it’s what God has promised me! And said, I’m entitled to a dramatic rescue by angels to show everyone who I am, I’m the Messiah!
This same way of thinking, thinking in terms of entitlements, plays out in our lives, in my life. I’ve recently been seeing how deeply rooted is my thinking, and feeling, that I have an entitlement, or a right, to all sorts of things, when I don’t. Like, I’ve the ‘right’ to be treated well, and fairly, and if not well I’ve the ‘right’ to make a fuss. But I don’t have that right!
Like I have the right to be critical, if someone has done something in a way I don’t like.
Like the right to be understood. But I don’t have that right!
Like, the ‘right’ to a certain standard of living, and I’ll not accept a job at a lower level of pay. But I don’t have that right!
Like I’ve the ‘right’ to express our emotions, or to be handled carefully.
Like the right to be recognised and appreciated for my hard work.
Like the right to know what’s going on, whenever I want. I don’t have those rights!
Like, I have the ‘right’ to complain and vent, to let off steam, when I’ve had a difficult day.
And so on and on. I find these so called rights pop up all over the place! But we don’t have these ‘rights’!

Before God, we don’t have any rights at all. Yes, he loves to give us good things, he is gracious and kind and generous to us, and blesses us in many ways. But all we have been given are gifts from God, none of them earned, or deserved. We don’t have the right to those gifts and kindnesses, to insist and stomp our foot and be angry when we don’t get them.

Let’s look at Jesus again. He didn’t hold on to any so called rights or entitlements. He surrendered what he wanted to what God the father wanted. He submitted to God’s way of being the Son of God, to being God’s sort of Messiah. Which meant humility, suffering and death. We read in Philippians chapter 2 that we should have the same attitude as Jesus Christ, who, although he was in very nature God, he did not make himself equal with God but made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant. He humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross.

And as followers of Jesus, we’re to have the same attitude that he had. We’re to lay down our so called entitlements, as Jesus did. We’re to be the person God has designed and made us to be. We’re to fulfil the role and tasks God has called us to do.
And that’s the way to what Jesus calls fullness of life!
Living God’s way and resisting temptation is not about denying ourselves anything that’s good for us. It’s not about self hatred or fighting aspects of our God given personality. It is about living our lives to the full by living as God made us to be. It’s about becoming the person that our loving Father God designed us to be and living His design for our life – what could be more glorious?!

Tom Wright again, says fighting temptation and living God’s way is like someone learning a musical instrument, discovering how to tune it and play it to its best possibility.

I want to end with a practical suggestion from a book by Andy Flannagan. It’s something you might like to think about and do later today or during the week. It’s this.
Put yourself in the devil’s shoes and draw up a master plan on his behalf for how best to tempt you towards or away from certain things or situations. As Andy says, you’re probably an expert on this subject, so you won’t get it far wrong. The idea of this is to bring some honesty and reality to our thinking about temptation.
The best generals or sports coaches study their opponent’s strategy at length. Andy Flannagan suggests that when you’ve thought about this, share this plan with a friend, someone you’re prepared to talk honestly with about what tempts you and how you deal with it. Someone who won’t just go along with your excuses but will help you watch out for the subtle, plausible, attractive temptations. If like me, the idea of being this honest with yourself and with someone else, makes you wince, well doesn’t that just go to show how clever temptation is?! As Andy says, this is something we need to talk about a lot, rather than pretend that we are immune from temptation. That’s total nonsense, bearing in mind that even Jesus was tempted.

So this Lent, let’s choose the path that Jesus chose, to resist temptation and choose instead to grow into the person God has called each one of us to be. “This is my beloved son”? We are his beloved children. So let’s live like it. And let’s pray...

Heavenly Father, thank you that we can learn from how Jesus responded to temptation. Please help each of us to be really honest with ourselves, and with you, about what tempts us. And to resist, that we might grow into the people you’ve designed us to be. Amen.

Ash Wedenesday Sermon 17th February

Our Curate, Gill Tayleur, preaches on Ash Wednesday

What do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news? People often have a preference, for good news first or bad, and you may too. But when it comes to The Good News, the Best news, of God’s love & forgiveness & acceptance, we have to hear and face up to the bad news first. The bad news, the worst news, that we have all sinned and need God’s forgiveness and grace. That goes for every single one of us.
Yes it’s fabulous, wonderful news that God’s saving love & forgiveness are indeed on offer, but in order to receive them
we have to acknowledge our need of them, have to recognise our sin.
I’ve heard sin explained as having I in the middle, the letter I in the middle of the word sin; I at the centre of my life.
My life being all about me. What I want.
When we’re made to live best with God at the centre, to live His way, as He wants.
God centred rather than me centred.
Facing up to our self centredness, to our sin, is part of what Lent is all about.

We have just been called “to observe a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance”.
After this sermon, there will be what is called the “liturgy of penitence, an examination of conscience”, the long section of prayer on page 3, with a period of silence that the instructions say “should not be omitted or reduced to a mere pause”. In other words, there must be time for that self examination.
And then in a little while, we will be invited to receive the mark of the cross in ash, on our foreheads, as a sign of our repentance.

The bad news of self examination leading to repentance, making way for the good news of God’s forgiveness, acceptance & love. That’s what this service is about, and an important part of what Lent is about.

Self examination and repentance is what Psalm 51 is all about too. It was written by King David after Nathan had confronted him about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. You may be familiar with the story: one day King David was on the roof of his palace and he saw the beautiful Bathsheba taking a bath. He knew she was married to Uriah, who was away at war. David wanted Bathsheba, so he sent for her and slept with her. She became pregnant. David panicked, got Uriah back from war hoping he would sleep with Bathsheba so it would look like the baby was his. But this didn’t work, and David in desperation sent Uriah back to war and told the army commander to put Uriah in a place where he would be killed. And that’s what happened. And David didn’t appear to see the sin in it, or take it seriously, until God sent a prophet called Nathan, to confront David with his sin.
And finally David sees his sin for what it is – and is heartily and painfully sorry. We see just how deeply sorry he is, in these words of Psalm 51.

“Have mercy on me O God, blot out my transgressions, cleanse me from my sin” and so on. This is heartfelt repentance! David recognises that he has done wrong. He has taken what was not his, Bathsheba. He has committed adultery and murder. And he recognises that these wrong actions, the wrong he has done outwardly, comes from the wrong in his heart. And he recognises that his heart needs dealing with. In this Psalm he cries out: “create in me a pure heart O God”, “renew a steadfast spirit within me.” “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” He’s saying his sinful deeds have their roots in the sinfulness of his heart.

In the gospel reading we have just heard, we see the same importance given to the inward, heart attitude and not just the outward actions. In the first few verses of the chapter, Matthew 6, Jesus teaches about giving money to the needy, in full view of everyone else and for their approval.
Jesus says don’t do that, do it in secret, for only God to see. Jesus then goes on to say the same sort of thing about prayer: don’t do it where other people can see you, to impress them, but do it in private, where God alone sees. Our reading skipped on to verse 16, where Jesus makes the same point again, about fasting. Don’t make sure everyone can see that you’re fasting and think well of you, but rather keep it as something between you and God. And finally, those last verses we heard read, about storing up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In other words, Jesus is saying the heart is as important as the actions, maybe even more so. We’re to make sure our hearts are right: our motives, our attitudes and our posture before God.

So do we examine our hearts, our motives and our attitudes really humbly and honestly before God? As we’ve heard, Lent is a time for such self examination. It’s tough, it’s hard and painful and I think we naturally avoid doing so. I avoid doing so.

We’d much rather tell ourselves we’re not that bad a person really. I’m not as bad as David, I’ve never committed adultery or murder! Comparing ourselves to others we consider ‘worse’ than we are, is one way we avoid being honest about our sin.

Another is by blaming someone else! For provoking us. If I lose my temper and am rude to the person who has kept me waiting on the phone for 15 minutes, I think “well they treated me badly”. But the truth is simply, I’ve been rude & angry. They may have treated me badly but that doesn’t mean it’s OK for me to treat them badly back.
I’ve heard it illustrated like this: If I’m holding a cup of something, and you bump into me and it spills all over the place, it may be your fault that it has spilled, but I’m responsible for what was in the cup that has spilled. I’m responsible for whether it’s clean water, or filthy gunk, that spilled out. So if you wrong me and I react with anger and rudeness, I must take responsibility for the anger and hatred in my heart. It shouldn’t have been there in the first place, then it wouldn’t have spilt out.
We behave as if we had the right to be treated well and fairly at all times, and if we’re not then watch out! But we have no such right.

If I get really het up and jealous that someone else is given something I’ve been wanting, be it something concrete or something like attention or appreciation,
my annoyance and jealousy is not their fault, it’s mine. I am responsible for my reaction.
We so easily blame someone else!

Then another way we try to excuse ourselves is to say “everyone does it!” For example, when I tell a white lie to cover up a mistake I’ve made, it’s easy to say to myself, everyone does it. And yes a lot of us do things like that – but it’s a lie, spoken to save my face, to puff myself up, to make me look good. That’s not a pure heart, not a Godly motivation.

A similar way we avoid acknowledging our sin for what it is, is by making the excuse, “it’s only human!” It’s much easier to say “it’s only human”, or “it’s very understandable”,
than to own up to recognising our sin for what it is. We try to fool ourselves that our sin isn’t really bad, it’s just human. Of course our sin is “only human” – but Jesus had to die on the cross for us humans!

Jesus didn’t soft pedal this; he said sin had a broader definition than we might want to give it, not a narrower one. He said even to think an angry thought is like committing murder. He certainly didn’t excuse sin in any way. Every single time we fail to live up to the Godly way of living that Jesus came to show us, we sin.
So, with various excuses on the tip of our tongues, we have to be determined to recognise our sin for what it is. But if we are willing, it doesn’t take much digging to see what’s going on in our hearts. And if we ask God to show us the attitude of our hearts, then it really doesn’t take long!

So will we, this Lent, this evening even, ask God to help us see the sin in our hearts? Will we be willing to cut through the excuses to see our sin for what it is? And will we be willing to repent of it? To actually say to God, humbly, I have sinned, I have done wrong. To say, it’s part of what you had to die on the cross for, and I deeply regret it.
To say, I want to change & live differently.

The point of acknowledging our sin is not so we can beat ourselves up about it, is not self hatred or to be burdened with guilt. It’s exactly the opposite: so we can know we’re loved & forgiven & accepted & set free to live differently. It’s about freedom! About being changed! About becoming more the people God has designed us to be; how glorious is that?!

So we choose to search out the sin in our hearts to repent of it, and be freed from it.
And that’s when the bad news makes way for the Good News! The wonderful news is, that God loves us so much, that He does indeed forgive us completely.

We read in Psalm 51, “have mercy on me according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion... wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy & gladness, restore to me the joy of your salvation” The Psalm speaks of God’s compassion and mercy and being filled with joy & gladness!

Our sin can be forgiven, thanks to Jesus’ death on the cross, as we’ll be celebrating in Communion shortly. When Jesus died, he took the sin of the whole world, and that includes yours and mine, on to himself, and took our place so that you and I might be free from the punishment we deserve.
So that we can be forgiven. How wonderful to know we are deeply loved by God and to receive His forgiveness! We don’t have to earn it, we simply have to receive it. That really is the best news ever.

So, let us, this Lent, grapple with the bad news of our sin, to know the very Best news of God’s love and forgiveness. Let’s heed the call to self examination and repentance, so that we can know the assurance of forgiveness, and its joy. The joy of Easter, at the end of this season of self examination and repentance.

Now let’s pray...
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time of Lent, and for the opportunity to think carefully about our lives, our sin and your wonderful love and forgiveness. Help us to do just that, this evening and in the weeks ahead, this Lent. In Jesus name, Amen.

Sermon 7th February 2010

Today, our trainee Lay Reader, Simon Brindley, preaches based on the reading from Luke 8, 22-25

Jesus calms a storm


I wonder what you think of when someone mentions the word “storm” to you. Do you think of a storm on land, perhaps like the one - in 1986 or 1987 was it? - that blew down all the oak trees in Sevenoaks and flattened forests and homes across the south of England including here in London? Do you remember that one? I remember cycling from here to work in Tooting and seeing whole chimney stacks blown down into rooftops by the force of the wind!

Or do you think of a storm in the air like the one that may have caused the tragic loss of the Ethiopian airliner flying from Beirut that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea just a week or two ago?

Or do you think of a storm at sea with the waves higher than the ship, the wind gusting to Force 7, 8 or even 9 in a full force gale, Force 10 in a hurricane and the ship itself tossed about like a cork with the occupants desperately hanging on, unsure where the sea ends and the sky begins? Some of the most dramatic accounts I have ever read have been of storms at sea. There are accounts of sailing ships battling for weeks against the wind, the sailors constantly freezing cold and soaked to the skin, trying to get round Cape Horn at the bottom of South America and make their passage to the Pacific Ocean, literally to the peaceful ocean. There are accounts of sailing ships completely battered by the wind, their masts broken and the crews taking the last desperate measures of lashing themselves with rope to the remaining stumps of the masts, hoping against hope that when the storm dies down the ship will still be afloat and they might somehow survive. And there are stories of tiny sailing boats in the middle of the ocean’s worst storms, surviving when even huge ships are lost with all hands not too many miles away. One of those is Sir Ernest Shackleton’s small boat The James Caird which is still on display over at Dulwich College if you want to go and see it some time.

I wonder what it is that makes the prospect of a storm at sea so particularly fearful? Perhaps it is because there is nothing at all that is not in turmoil. The wind and rain in the air above can make it very difficult to see, difficult to breathe and impossible to stand up. The sea below can be in complete chaos with the wind or tides or both turning the water into a nightmare of breaking waves. As a result the boat itself, built by men to float and carry them safely, and caught between the air above and the sea below is thrown around, rolling and pitching wildly, perhaps suffering severe structural damage as sails are shredded, anything loose is ripped away and the masts and other fittings can fall, perhaps in danger of filling with water as the waves come over the side or in danger of being driven on to the shore and holed on a rock. And the occupants have to either hang on literally for fear of their lives or are similarly thrown around and at risk of injury or drowning or both. If they are lucky they will not be violently ill in the process. If unlucky they will also be miserably sick and even, as a result of that, wish they might die. In a severe storm at sea absolutely nothing is steady and certain and even the boats, the things we build to withstand the weather and carry us safely through are at risk of being inadequate and failing to do so.

No wonder then that the idea of a storm is often used to describe not just a weather storm, on land, in the air or at sea but also the storms of life, when everything around us is uncertain or being thrown into chaos and the things that we would normally rely upon to carry us through are in danger of proving completely inadequate…

- like a storm in family life when the relationships we normally rely on are not proving strong enough to withstand the pressures;
- or a storm in our working lives where there are redundancies because there is not enough work to do or even enormous pressure because there is too much work to do and the steady income, job satisfaction and knowledge that we can look after ourselves and our dependents that we often rely on for our self esteem and our place in society is undermined or even destroyed;
- or the storms of ill health when our sense of physical well being can no longer be relied upon to enable us to do everything we want and must do. I heard a young man say a couple of months ago after an illness, “For the first time I don’t feel invincible”;
- or the storms of old age when our bones and joints, our eyes and ears begin to fail and we sense the end may be near.

I am sure we can all think of examples from our own lives, in the past, right now or in something we are worried or concerned about for the future where the world around is in this sort of turmoil and uncertainty and we are forced to ask ourselves the questions whether what we are and what we build up to carry us through really is going to do it, to be enough?

And no wonder that a storm at sea is often the image we think about when life itself is in turmoil in these real life situations where everything is tested to its limits and the bigger questions have to begin to be asked.

At one time I used to think of the Mediterranean and the Middle East as places where storms would be relatively mild, easy affairs, with the really severe weather reserved for the Southern Ocean or the North Atlantic, but visiting the Greek islands a couple of years ago and seeing high winds that blew for a week and prevented any sailing ships leaving the island and watching, from a hilltop, a large modern ferry swaying dramatically as it turned to enter the safety of the harbour at the island of Naxos, I realised just how life threatening it could be to be afloat in a storm even in those middle eastern waters.

And that is certainly where the disciples found themselves in what was probably an ordinary fishing boat – although a boat big enough to carry quite a few people – a boat that they themselves may well have helped to build a few years before – on the lake that was almost certainly the Sea of Galilee. As Luke describes it, a “strong wind” hit the lake and the boat “was in danger of sinking”. So severe was this storm that these highly experienced fishermen actually thought they were about to die.

Sometimes we read these stories lightly as they’re so familiar but let’s just imagine ourselves in the position of these hardy fishermen. So far, I reckon, these men were riding high. These were the same men who had seen Jesus for some months now, preaching with more authority than they had ever heard from their teachers before, healing people so effectively and consistently that on more than one occasion whole towns or whole regions had brought their sick people to him and he had healed them. These were the same men who, when Jesus had first called them after a long night with no catch, had put down their nets in the morning light, normally the worst time for fish, and found the nets so full that they were in danger of breaking and the boats in danger of sinking under the weight of fish. And he had called them to follow him. It is not difficult to imagine them walking down the paths of Galilee with a bit of a swagger. “Have you heard of this new Teacher?” “Yeah, actually, I am one of the Twelve…” “Have you seen that new Healer?” “Well I was there when he healed hundreds actually…..and he just called me his Brother..!” And now one day he says to them, “Let’s get in the bigger boat and go across the lake”, as if, they might think, he wants them to show him how good they are… They’d seen everything on these waters these fishermen and……for many years. They knew the weather, their boats and the conditions better than anyone. In boats at least, they were self-reliant, the experts, the survivors....they were in their element, where they felt most comfortable….so no problem, let’s go! You can just sense their self-confidence at the start of the journey. Everything is going really well! So they started out…and things were going so smoothly that Jesus even fell asleep! What could be better… …so far? They probably had no idea of the testing that was about to come, because suddenly the storm blew up and even they, with all their experience and self-reliance, in the boats they or their families had built and in the waters they knew so well, were convinced they were about to drown.

It is easy to ask why they did not at that point have more faith. Having seen all they had seen in the previous few months, why did they not have more faith as the wind and the waves rose around them? But isn’t that a familiar feeling to us? We thank God for bringing us safely through one thing after another in our lives, we might even praise Him when we sense His glory, but we doubt Him, we do struggle, our faith is tested… when the next big thing hits or when what hits us really is enough to shake all that we normally rely on to get us through…..or when it hits us instead of someone else…..

And somehow, I have never quite understood how, it seems that Jesus is still asleep in the middle of the storm, but when they, presumably, shake him and wake him he gets up and He commands the wind and the stormy water, which die down and what follows is described as “a great calm”.

Then there are those two big questions…..the question to the disciples, “Where is your faith?” and the question from the disciples, “Who is this man?” the one who gives orders to the wind and the waves and they obey him.

I suspect if you are like me you can really feel for and understand the first one….because we are often like the disciples when the storms hit and our faith is tested.

And I wonder whether, like me, you are fascinated by the second question….Who is this man?”

For these disciples and for the people who they must have gone on to tell about what had happened, and for the first, Jewish, readers of these gospel accounts at least, it is almost certain that what would have been echoing in their minds as they asked that question would have been words and ideas from their own scriptures, what we now call the Old Testament. Just two examples which I am sure would have occurred to some at that time. In Genesis chapter 1, right back at the beginning of their understanding and belief about God, the writer describes how “the raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness and the power of God was moving over the water..and God commanded…!” In that case, he commanded there to be light and light appeared but here, as he commanded the raging ocean to be calm and it was, surely there would be echoes in the minds of many that this man in some way had access to the power of the same Creator God.

Then in the psalms, the songs and hymns of their daily worship, in Psalm 107, there is an account that is so remarkably similar to the situation these men found themselves in that I would find it very difficult to believe they did not ask whether this Jesus was the same Lord who is described in these words (they’re in Psalm 107, from verse 23 if you want to look them up):

“Some sailed over the ocean in ships, earning their living on the seas. They saw what the Lord can do, his wonderful acts on the seas. He commanded and a mighty wind began to blow and stirred up the waves. The ships were lifted high in the air and plunged down into the depths. In such danger the men lost their courage; they stumbled and staggered like drunken men and all their skill was useless. Then in their trouble they called to the Lord and he saved them from their distress. He calmed the raging storm and the waves became quiet.”

Who is this man? Is He in some way the same as the God who is the Creator and the one who is in control of the elements?
And this biggest of the big questions, the question that is suggested by this account, the question whether there is a God who created all this, is very much a live question today, still being furiously debated and considered. This is perhaps not the opportunity to go into this in too much detail but I have followed enough of the debate to urge you please do not believe the hype of what are called the “new atheists”, represented by people like Richard Dawkins in his books and tv programmes, who claim that hardly any serious thinkers believe any more in the idea of a creator God. It is simply not true. I heard a talk a few days ago by Professor Keith Ward, a philosopher, fellow of the British Academy and recently retired as the senior professor of Divinity at Oxford University who said that the reason that Richard Dawkins claims that many of the UK’s most eminent thinkers do not acknowledge at least the possibility of a creator God is that a lot of them did not bother to reply to his email.

This big question is far too big to be lightly thrown away…is this universe created or did it really just happen….
And the astonishing suggestion from the gospel of Luke today is that this Jesus of Nazareth in some way is where we find the answer…….who was he? Was He the creator God…but in human form? That is clearly what the gospels, in these familiar stories, urge us to accept…….”Have faith!” Jesus seems to want to say to these men at the time and to us now, “that is who I am”.

And if that is the case, when we find ourselves in the middle of our own storms, when we have nothing much left to hold on to, when the best we can manage in our own strength and from our own resources to carry us through is not enough or is in danger of failing, where is this Creator God? When we reach out, at the end of our own strength, is there just nothing there at all to support us? The answer clearly suggested by the gospel story today is that he is in the boat with us, not remote, or out of sight, but there with us, right in the middle of the storm.

I could not resist buying this book recently, a follow up to a TV series on the History of Christianity by Diarmid McCulloch, 1000 pages – a holiday read perhaps - and was struck by these words in the introduction,

“The central message of Christianity is the story of a person, Jesus, who Christians believe is also the Christ (from a Greek word meaning “Anointed One”): an aspect of the God who was, is and ever shall be, yet who is at the same time a human being, set in historic time. Christians believe that they can still meet this human being in a fashion comparable to the experience of the disciples who walked with him in Galilee and saw him die on the cross (you could easily add here, “and who saw him calm the storm on the lake”). They are convinced that this meeting transforms lives….as has been evident in the experience of other Christians across the centuries.”

With an introduction like that I think the book should be a good read! Who is this man who gives orders to the wind and the waves and they obey him? He is with us when our lives are in turmoil, the storms hit and the testing comes. He does help to carry us through….

But before I finish there is one, more difficult, thought that I think I have to mention because it is so relevant at the moment and that is to ask why, if God the creator in his son Jesus, could calm this storm, does he not calm the earthquake….. or the tsunami…….or stop the wars? I can’t possibly hope to give a complete answer but I just want to suggest a few thoughts in case this question is very much in your minds at the moment. First I would say that even for Jesus himself there was not remotely any sort of complete insulation from suffering…………..one look forward to his crucifixion is enough to remind us of that, but the good news as we know is that the crucifixion was not the end and that points powerfully to a hope beyond human suffering. It does seem to be the case that however much we are carried through difficult times and I certainly believe we are, we also do live in a suffering world…..

And secondly, at the end of the day I would have to come down with the Christians in Haiti who, in response recently to these sorts of questions and in the middle of their own turmoil, were reported to say “Don’t ask where God was in the earthquake…He was with us in our suffering”………

Why not use the opportunities in the rest of this service this morning [or the prayer time afterwards] just to reach out and shake God’s shoulder and tell him about your own fears if you have brought any with you this morning.

Amen