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
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
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