There’s a storm brewing…

It was my turn to do the reflection/sermon at church today and I thought I’d share it here for anyone who wishes to read it. Particularly for those who feel like they are living through a storm at the moment.

The reading spanned from the creation story in Genesis to a glimpse of Heaven in Revelation, from Alpha to Omega, from dust to Glory.

The whole Bible story flows like living water and as a writer I love a good story.

In the beginning we are told there is no water until God makes it bubble up. The psalm we read mentions water a lot, from raging seas to soft rain, that makes things grow – hold onto that image.

And our gospel reading was the well-known passage where Jesus calms the storm. It’s such a well-known story we can all too easily gloss over it, but that’s the story I decided to concentrate on.

The sea of Galilee is really a lake and we don’t think of lakes being stormy. So I did a bit of research.

The Sea of Galilee experiences frequent storms due to its unique geographical features. The combination of being situated about 680 feet below sea level and surrounded by hills creates a perfect setting for storm formation. The warm air rising from the water meets the cold air rushing down from the sharply rising hills, resulting in sudden and violent storms.

During particularly bad storms, waves as high as 10 feet (3 meters) have been reported on the Sea of Galilee.

But hang on a minute – these are not tourists in the boat, unused to a bit of turbulence but hardened fisherman who would know this, with maybe a tax collector thrown in for good measure. And yet they are scared!

Was this an exceptionally violent storm unlike anything they had witnessed before?

We often call these type of events acts of God – or at least that’s what the insurance companies tell us.

Why? Why are acts of God always the calamitous events – surely it is just as much an act of God to see the spring flowers appear and blossom, bringing colour to a grey and miserable winter. Why do we focus on the negative? It seems to be a very human thing to do. Bad news sells – the papers delight in telling us the worst, we so often miss the good news stories. They are tacked on the end of a news broadcast … and finally, the soft rain fell and the flowers bloomed.

But let’s get back in the boat, Jesus is sleeping, unperturbed by all that is going on. They wake him and He simply rebukes the waves and tells the disciples they lack faith. All is calm and right with the world once again. And they all lived happily ever after like in a fairytale – well maybe NOT!

And it doesn’t say they are frightened by the waves, they were afraid and amazed after the waves ceased and all was calm. They were afraid and amazed by Jesus’s power! Is this actually awe?

Awe = great fear mingled with respect.

Fear = trembling and awful reverence felt toward authority (or God in this context)

There were some children in church today but not activities for them, so here I told them about watching Veggie Tales with my boys when they were small. Explaining one story called Where is God when I am Scared?

Junior Asparagus has been watching scary movies and cannot sleep, so Bob the Tomato tells him a story and sings a song…

God is bigger than the boogie man
He's bigger than Godzilla, or the monsters on TV
Oh, God is bigger than the boogie man
And He's watching out for you and me

We all get scared sometimes, you don’t have to be a child to be frightened, and it begs the question where is Jesus now? Is he asleep?

There seems to be a tremendous number of BAD things happening in the world at the moment. Especially across the pond, which is actually even more than a lake or a sea, it’s a vast ocean – and yet the ripples of what is happening in the US are felt around the globe.

We should be worried, the ripples are increasing into larger waves, democracy is being shaken, just like the disciples we are in a rocking boat and a perilous storm is brewing.

Jesus says simply “Where is your faith?”

It’s hard to hold on, it might not even be global events but our day to day worries can so easily overwhelm us – cancer, death, debt, loneliness, divorce – our faith doesn’t protect us from going through them – none of our lives travel on a straight line, we all have ups and downs but be assured Jesus is there with us, in the midst.

We just need to acknowledge that and put everything in perspective and it not always easy.

The reading from Revelation puts God on his throne in the heavens, worthy of all our praise.

I was reminded of another song the other week at our church homegroup, not a Veggie Tales one but a chorus we don’t sing at the church I go to now.

You Are Beautiful Beyond Description
Too Marvellous For Words
Too Wonderful For Comprehension
Like Nothing Ever Seen Or Heard

Who Can Grasp Your Infinite Wisdom
Who Can Fathom The Depth Of Your Love
You Are Beautiful Beyond Description
Majesty Enthroned Above

And I Stand I Stand In Awe Of You
Holy God To Whom All Praise Is Due
I Stand In Awe Of You

Let us turn our fear into awe, that God can command even the waves to do his bidding - Amen