June 20, 2021
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Mark 4:35-41; Psalm 107:23-32; Job 38:1-11
In the Boat with Jesus
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
They’d crossed the sea hundreds of times. As seasoned fishermen, they’d seen Galilee in all kinds of weather: as smooth as a mirror, sparkling with thousands of dappled diamonds in the morning sunlight, gray and misty, choppy and difficult. They knew the lake with the familiarity of an old lover.
So when Jesus mentioned one evening that they should cross to the other side of the lake, it was no big deal. They got in the boat and started to sail for the eastern shore. Jesus moved to the stern and settled in on top of the gear. Once they started moving, the sailing motion rocked him to sleep.
But at some point, the winds picked up. A lot. Up their little boat climbed to the heaven, then down they tumbled to the depths. The waves spilled over the gunnels and started to fill the tiny craft. Several of them were put on bailing detail. Even so, they were swamping. The seasoned fishermen could feel their courage melting away.
They looked over in Jesus’ direction. He was sound asleep! One of them staggered and reeled like a drunk man over to Jesus. He shook Jesus by the shoulders and shouted in his ear.
“Teacher! Wake up! We’re about ready to die! Don’t you care?”
Jesus got up on his knees. He shouted at the storm: “Peace! Be still!” And just like that, the fury driving the winds ceased. The lake was perfectly calm.
Many years ago an old fishing boat was discovered in the muddy bottom of the Sea of Galilee. It carbon dates to the time of Jesus You can see from the photo that it’s relatively small, a little longer than 25 feet and about seven and a half feet wide. This is probably very similar to the boat that Jesus and the disciples were in.
Although we call it the “Sea” of Galilee, it’s really a freshwater lake. The lake is the main source of fresh water for Israel today. It’s about 8 miles at its widest and about 13 miles in length. Not so big, but big enough that you don’t want to be on it during a raging storm.
The lake plays a significant role in Mark’s gospel. Jesus crosses back and forth several times. The eastern side of the lake was mostly settled by Gentiles while the western side was Jewish. Jesus’ ministry takes him to both communities.
In a very real way, we’re still in the boat with Jesus. This sanctuary we’re situated in, the main area with the pews is known as The Nave. The word Nave is Latin for “Ship.” You’re seated in your rows just like persons aboard a galley ship. Very early on the church adopted the ship as an image for the church of Jesus Christ.
We’re all in this ministry together, moving forward in mission. We’re in the boat with Jesus, doing mission in the name of Christ. The spirit of Jesus goes with us still. He promised: “Lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
On one level, the storm at the sea presents a metaphor for our life together in Christ. The disciples’ response in that boat teaches us a thing or two about our life as disciples of Christ.
First of all, there’s no guarantee that we won’t face adversity. Being disciples of Christ doesn’t place a protective bubble around us. The disciples had Jesus right in the boat with them. Nevertheless, they were barraged by a severe storm threatening to drown them.
We may question why. Why do bad things happen, especially to good people? Job wondered exactly that. Here he had been devoted to God. He’d been a servant of God’s justice and peace in his community. Then disaster struck. His health was ruined, all of his children were killed in a freak accident, and his livestock was wiped out. Job raised his complaint to God.
This morning we heard God’s response. Who are you, Job, to question me? Were you there when I made the earth? Did you set the measurements for the earth and the heavens? Basically, God’s answer put Job in his place. We are not God. We see only in part. God’s wisdom and plan is so vast and so deep that we cannot comprehend it.
We will never be able to answer the question on the presence of evil and suffering in the world. But we can reflect on it. St. Paul came to recognize how he had actually grown through adversity. He grew in ways that would never have been possible without the hardship. He reasoned,
“Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
Adversity helps us to grow in compassion. The life story of the Buddha demonstrates this. Siddhartha Gautama was born into rich nobility. His family wanted to protect him from any kind of hardship and suffering. What parents don’t want that for their children?
They reared him in a sheltered environment where he was only exposed to good and beautiful things. But at the age of 29, he went on an outing. During that excursion, he saw three things that rocked his world. First, he saw a critically ill man. Then he passed by a feeble old man. Finally, he saw a dead person. It was this encounter with suffering that led to his enlightenment.
So the storms of life are there. Just because we’re in the boat with Jesus doesn’t mean that life will only be smooth sailing. There is a greater wisdom afoot around suffering. We’ll never completely understand it, but we can grow from it.
The disciples’ actions in the boat are telling, too. They come to Jesus only as a last resort. They trim sails, they row and they bail water. They’re furiously at work. But come to Jesus? They do that only when everything else has failed. And then they say to him, “Don’t you care?”
Here they are, in the boat with Jesus! But do they include Jesus in the situation? Do they come to him for help? Nope. Not until they’ve exhausted every other option. Then and only then do they call to him, and it’s with attitude. That’s why Jesus says, “Have you no faith?”
Do we act in a similar matter? Friends, we need to wake up in the morning, and the very first thing we do is speak a word in prayer! Jesus wants to be in the morning, noon and night of our days!
When we start a new project, let us begin it with prayer. We say, “Lord, here is this new thing. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but you do. Direct my steps, Lord. Steer my course! May my comings and my goings find their direction in you.”
Don’t come to Jesus as a last resort. Come to him right at the start, each and every day.
And finally, when Jesus stills the raging storm, the disciples realize they’ve witnessed the marvelous power of God. They’re overcome by a rare and inspirational emotion: awe.
Awe awakens us to the greatness of God. From the very ordinary to the things we cannot understand, awe presents us with the truth of the divine, a greater presence, a higher power. This eye of wonder helps us to recognize the presence of God at work in our world and in each circumstances of our life.
The disciples had experienced a really big God moment. They knew that Jesus was connected to something way beyond this earthly realm. It was an emotion they’d come to associate with Jesus.
During his ministry, Jesus crossed from shore to shore on the Sea of Galilee. At each spot, the disciples witnessed many awesome things. But nowhere else did they feel awe more significantly than at Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning.
In going to the cross, Jesus navigated a divide much greater than sailing from shore to shore on lake Galilee. In dying on the cross, he traversed the divide from life to death. And then on Easter Sunday, he crossed over once again – but this time from the shores of death to those of life.
Filled with awe, the disciples pondered, “Who is this? Who is this, that even the gates of hell obey him?” We still are in the boat with Jesus. Look to him at the start of every day, and consider all his works with awe.
