Clayton Presbyterian Church
October 8, 2006
Have you ever been in a situation that was so severe that you thought your life was in danger? Maybe it was a situation, where as you look back at it you think that you can’t figure out how you didn’t die? How did you feel? That is the situation that the disciples find themselves in the Bible story today. They are in the middle of a storm and God met them there.
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"(NRSV)
The disciples were going across the Sea of Galilee in a boat with Jesus. They were traveling to the other side so that Jesus could continue his ministry there. As they were crossing, a major storm came up. The wind pushed the water into huge waves that were cresting over the boat. And the disciples were scared.
This must have been an incredible storm to scare the disciples. Remember, many of the disciples were fishermen, who had spent their working lives on the water. They had seen so many storms come and go, but this one had them scared. They were fearing that this was going to be it. They weren’t even fishing, and they were going to go down into the water, and their families and friends would never hear from them again.
Can you relate? Have you been in the midst of a storm in your life where you felt completely overwhelmed? Where you just didn’t know how you were going to get yourself out of it? You might be in one now. You might have even prayed to God, begging that he would get you out of it. Often he doesn’t. And it might have felt like he was punishing you, or maybe it just felt like God was absent.
David, in the Old Testament who is described as having a heart like God’s, prayed these words in Psalm 22:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, form the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.(NRSV)
He felt like God has neglected him or forsaken him. He cries out but all that he hears in return is silence. Remember this is the writer of so many of the Psalms and he is saying that he feel like God has abandoned him. He is asking whether God even cares.
This is very close to what the disciples said to Jesus: “Teacher, do you not care if we are perishing?” They said this because in the midst of the violent wind and cresting waves Jesus is asleep. Asleep! Can you imagine? The disciples can’t. They can’t believe what they’re seeing. The boat is taking on water and Jesus is sleeping! They wake him, asking, “Don’t you care that we are going to die here?”
Have you ever said anything like this to God? So many people wouldn’t even think of it because they don’t feel that such prayers would be appropriate. This is unfortunate because there is clear precedent in the Bible. David prays like this. The disciples say this. God wants us to cry out to him in our need. He encourages us to call out to him in our trouble. We don’t have to edit our prayer. We don’t have to censor them, or run a virus detection program on them. God wants us to call out to him from our hearts, expressing how we feel.
When the disciples wake Jesus, he stands and rebukes the wind and tells the sea to “be still.” “Peace,” he commands. And it was still. In fact, the Bible says that there was a dead calm. Then, he turns to them and asks them how it is that they are so afraid? Where is there faith?
Jesus is putting his finger on the fact that they have lost sight of God. They have become so consumed by the magnitude of the storm that they are only left with fear. They have lost all confidence that God will take care of them. Jesus is not going to let them drown.
Everyone faces storms. They are not God’s punishment on you. Rather, the Bible says exactly the opposite. Storms and trials can be used by God to make us more holy, more like him. But if they are going to have their greatest effect in our lives, we have to respond in the right way. Let me give you an example.
What do you think of when you hear the name of Benedict Arnold? You probably think of “traitor,” since during the Revolutionary War he went over from the American side to the British side. But did you know that he could have been the greatest American war hero?
In 1775 he led an attack on Fort Ticonderoga, which he captured from a superior British force. The cannons that were taken from that fort were key in the Battle of Bunker Hill when the Americans drove the British from Boston. Arnold later led a force into Canada, but the British forces were too strong to make any significant impact. In fact, the British forces presented a threat to American forts further south. But it was Arnold who built boats that held off much more powerful ships filled with cannon until it was too late in the winter for them to make a push southward. That action gave the American forts the time they needed to fortify themselves against attack.
Then in 1777 the British were pushing south from Canada in an effort to split the colonies, with a divide and conquer strategy. There was a key battle at Saratoga, where the battle started to go badly until Benedict Arnold rallied the Americans to what was one of the major victories of the war. During the battle, Arnold’s horse was shot out from him and he was wounded badly. An officer went over to him and asked where he was hit. Arnold responded, “It’s my leg. I wish it were my heart.” If it had been his heart, Arnold would have been known to us as the greatest of war heroes.
As it turned out, having been wounded, he was made the military governor of Philadelphia. He was a threat to the governor of Pennsylvania, who wanted to govern the city and so he made accusations against Arnold, even to George Washington, who needed Pennsylvania’s supplies so badly that he sent a rebuke to Benedict Arnold. For Arnold, this was the last straw. He always felt that he had never received the recognition that he deserved—at Ticonderoga, in Quebec, or at Saratoga. It was the last straw. It was what made him turn traitor and agree to give up West Point to the British.
Benedict Arnold faced many storms and he weathered so many of them, but then he let his pride get the best of him. He had this image in his head of what life should be like—You perform valiantly and the world awards you with honors. But it didn’t work out like this. He had superiors who took the glory for themselves and shut him out, probably because they saw him as a threat.
I am sure that many of you can relate to Benedict Arnold. You have worked for people who aren’t ethical. They don’t do the right thing. They take credit for the work that you have done. They cut corners and they are don’t treat people fairly.
Arnold’s treason is also quite tragic. Because if he had just waited a while longer, he would have received a letter from George Washington which contained the words that his heart longed for: a field command. Washington wanted him to command one of the armies in a time of great need. If Arnold had waited, his true bravery and heroism would have been made manifest to the entire nation. But he didn’t weather the storm.
I don’t know about the faith of Benedict Arnold, but each one of those incidents could have been as a test. How would he respond when he didn’t get the recognition that he was sure that he deserved?
How will we respond? We have an opportunity to demonstrate our faith, to live out what we say that we believe. We can pout. We can stomp our feet. We can make everyone around us miserable. We can plot revenge on our enemies. We can commit treason. Or we can ask that God might use these hard times in our lives. We can pray that he might teach us humility and patience, and understanding.
What is it for you? Do you look at your life with great frustration because it doesn’t fit the picture that you have for what life is like? You just can seem to get to the happily ever after. We want our lives to follow a fairy tale script. But we need to remember that we are Christians, that means we are like Christ. Jesus was crucified. That means that the Christian life is really cross-shaped, or cruciform. God promises us joy in the struggles, not the lack of all struggles. But the wonderful promise that God gives us is that he will always be with us in our struggles. He will not give us more than we can bear. He will not let us drown in the storm.
We have been looking at the topic of storms in our lives over these past four weeks. There are some things that we can do to prepare for storms. We can make our lives more like a house built on rock, rather then one built on sand, by getting to know Jesus better, by reading the Bible, and by acting on what we read there.
We also talked about avoiding some of the storms, those storms of temptation. When we face temptation, we should follow the example of Joseph and flee from temptation. For giving in to sin, only wrecks havoc on our lives. We find ourselves with less options, less satisfaction in life. When we face temptation, we should flee. If we do, we will have less storms in our lives.
Today, we have talked about what to do when you are in the middle of a storm. What do you do?
1. Focus on God, and not the storm. Just as Jesus had the power over the wind and the waves, so he is stronger than any storm that you will face in your life. Don’t be so overwhelmed by the sight of the storm that you forget that God, your God, the God who loves you and who died for you because he loves you so much, is strong still.
2. Call out to God to help you. Don’t worry about how you sound. Don’t worry about how much faith you have or don’t have. God wants you to cry out to him. Pour your heart out to him. Let him know of your distress and doubt and fear and even your anger. He can handle it. And once you do, I suspect that you just might hear the words, “Peace, be still.” To the inner turmoil in your heart and mind, as you try to reconcile how you think life is supposed to be, with how it really is.
3. Don’t get bitter. Accept the storm and trials. Ask that God might use them to prune you, to make you more like him, more like you are supposed to be. Don’t be a curse to all of those around you. God might be trying to teach you humility or patience or just to trust him.
4. Persevere. Don’t give up. Don’t throw in the towel. Don’t be like Benedict Arnold. It is only by staying the course and drawing closer to God, that you will get all of the good out of it that God has for you. Remember the lesson of Arnold. If he wasn’t so wrapped up in his own injustice, he would have finally received the reward that his heart desired.
This is what God wants for you too. In the Old Testament it says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” That is the reward for those who persevere.