July 28th, 2024 When the Winds Are Against Us Mark 6:45-56
Having grown up along the New Jersey shore, I’ve always been fond of the story of the two men in a boat in the midst of a severe storm. As the waves rose and the boat threatened to capsize, the men knew that they needed help. They were not religious men, but they decided that prayer was all that was left, so there in the teeth of the gale, one of them shouted the only prayer he could muster, “O God, you know that I haven’t bothered you for the past 15 years, and if you’ll just get us out of this mess, I promise you that I won’t bother you again for 15 more.” Unfortunately, that says too much about our prayer life. Most of us call upon the Lord only in desperation. But that’s not what this sermon is about. It is about a storm at sea — in fact, it’s about two storms at sea.
Earlier in Mark’s Gospel — Chapter 4 — Mark tells the story another incident at sea. In order to get away from the crowd, Jesus got into the boat with his disciples and started across the Sea of Galilee, settled down in the back for a much needed rest. A great storm arose and the frail boat was beat almost to destruction. It was filling with water and all the disciples were near despair. But Jesus continued to sleep. The disciples became frantic. “Teacher, don’t you care that we perish?” Very calmly, Jesus rebuked the wind and said, “Peace! Be still!” And the scripture says, “The winds ceased, and there was a great calm.” Then Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” We are talking about that today – faith.
There is a difference between believing in Jesus and having faith in him. Belief is what you have in fair weather; faith is what you need when the storms come. There is a difference!
You can believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son, our Lord. You can give intellectual assent to that that’s pretty easy — that’s belief. Belief is something that you recite in a creed; faith is staking your life on what you believe. He wasn’t asking them, “What do you believe?” He was asking them, “Why don’t you trust what you believe?”
And isn’t that our desperate need - to trust what we believe - to exercise faith. To lay our life on the line, believing that who Jesus says He is, He is; and what He says He will do, He will do.
Our scripture lesson, the Sea Story from Mark 6, closes with these words, verses 51—52:
“And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not under stand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
It’s a sort of puzzling word, even when we register the fact that this experience comes immediately after Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish and feed the 5,000. Why were the disciples astonished that Jesus would come to them and deal with their fears? Mark says, “They did not understand about the loaves.” Mark is telling us that they could not put two things together in their minds. They could not join the breaking of the loaves and Jesus’ capacity to come to them in their need. The disciples had seen Jesus’ power at work - just that afternoon - they had seen Him multiply loaves and fishes and feed the multitude. But their belief had not yet become faith, it had not gotten to the point of their own need to trust. So register this first truth clearly: There’s a difference between belief and faith. Faith is staking your life on what you believe.
Now, let’s move to the second major focus of our reflection is there in verse 48: “And he saw that they were distressing in rowing, for the wind was against them.”
Not much time passes in any of our lives when we don’t feel that the winds are against us. We know about rowing the sea of life when the winds are against us. There are some harsh realities we need to come to grips with. We need to realize everybody hurts. Now I’m not being trite, nor would I seek to evade the depth of suffering so many know. But I think it is important, for perspectives sake to begin at this point, Everybody hurts.
There is a myth promoted by many Pastors and teachers of the faith, that if we were just Christian enough, or disciplined enough, or spiritual enough, or religious enough — that life’s troubles would pass us by This just isn’t so, and certainly scripture refutes it. The witness of the scripture over and over again, is that the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust. None of us promised deliverance from the pain and problems of life. So, everybody hurts.
That leads to a second suggestion. It helps, from the beginning, to remember that we are human, not super-human. To be human, by definition, means to have limits on our life. Let it be a part of the way you approach life. We’re human, thus limited.
Now a third suggestion. Having admitted your weakness that you’re not in control remember God is. God is in control, and God is not going to abandon us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffeur was a German Lutheran pastor, arrested by the Gestapo, put in prison, later executed for his part in the conspiracy against Hitler. While in prison he wrote letters and notes to his family and his friends, especially to Eberhard Bethge, his closest friend. His sisters and sympathetic guards smuggled these notes out of prison, and Bethge collected them, buried them in the back yard, for safe keeping until the end of the war, and then published them as Letters and Notes From Prison. One of those notes read, “I believe that God will give us all the strength that we need to help resist in times of distress, but he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not Him alone.”
We all need to remember that. God is in control, and God is not going to abandon us. But God has a time-table that may not be ours. Mark wants us to know that. He and the other Gospel writers record the story of Jesus and the storm at sea to reveal who Jesus really is. He is “the only son of God the Father Almighty, the maker of Heaven and Earth.” In other words, He owns the place. He’s in charge, and we need to believe that.
And that leads me to the final suggestion that I want to make. Hang on to the word of Jesus in our scripture, “Take heart, it is I have no fear.”
Don’t hold on to your emotion; hold on to Jesus. An educated person is not one who knows the answer, but where the answers can be found. A Christian is not one who can make it on her own, but who knows the One in whom we can do all things, because He gives us strength.
Earlier I noted the fact that for the disciples, the miracle of the afternoon of feeding 5000 did not last as the basis of confidence for the dark hours on the stormy sea. How true for all of us. We forget what has gone on before, the deliverance we have known, how we have been literally saved from that which would undo us, how we’ve been comforted. We forget.
Augustine was writing about this incident, he said, “He came treading the waves; and so he puts all the swelling tumults of life under his feet. Christians —— why afraid?” It is the simple fact of life, a fact which has been prove by countless thousands of men and women in every generation, that when Christ is there, the storm becomes a calm, the tumult becomes a peace, the undoable become doable. The unbearable becomes bearable, and persons pass through the breaking point and do not break.
So hang on to Jesus, as with the disciples. He sees when the winds are against us. He comes and speaks his unyielding word. “The heart, it is I; have no fear.”
I have heard people say time and time again and again that when they are in the midst of an awful family crisis, they said, “We couldn’t make it without Jesus.” Nor can any of us. And, oh friends, aren’t you glad you don’t have to!
July 28th, 2024 When the Winds Are Against Us Mark 6:45-56
Having grown up along the New Jersey shore, I’ve always been fond of the story of the two men in a boat in the midst of a severe storm. As the waves rose and the boat threatened to capsize, the men knew that they needed help. They were not religious men, but they decided that prayer was all that was left, so there in the teeth of the gale, one of them shouted the only prayer he could muster, “O God, you know that I haven’t bothered you for the past 15 years, and if you’ll just get us out of this mess, I promise you that I won’t bother you again for 15 more.” Unfortunately, that says too much about our prayer life. Most of us call upon the Lord only in desperation. But that’s not what this sermon is about. It is about a storm at sea — in fact, it’s about two storms at sea.
Earlier in Mark’s Gospel — Chapter 4 — Mark tells the story another incident at sea. In order to get away from the crowd, Jesus got into the boat with his disciples and started across the Sea of Galilee, settled down in the back for a much needed rest. A great storm arose and the frail boat was beat almost to destruction. It was filling with water and all the disciples were near despair. But Jesus continued to sleep. The disciples became frantic. “Teacher, don’t you care that we perish?” Very calmly, Jesus rebuked the wind and said, “Peace! Be still!” And the scripture says, “The winds ceased, and there was a great calm.” Then Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” We are talking about that today – faith.
There is a difference between believing in Jesus and having faith in him. Belief is what you have in fair weather; faith is what you need when the storms come. There is a difference!
You can believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son, our Lord. You can give intellectual assent to that that’s pretty easy — that’s belief. Belief is something that you recite in a creed; faith is staking your life on what you believe. He wasn’t asking them, “What do you believe?” He was asking them, “Why don’t you trust what you believe?”
And isn’t that our desperate need - to trust what we believe - to exercise faith. To lay our life on the line, believing that who Jesus says He is, He is; and what He says He will do, He will do.
Our scripture lesson, the Sea Story from Mark 6, closes with these words, verses 51—52:
“And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not under stand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
It’s a sort of puzzling word, even when we register the fact that this experience comes immediately after Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish and feed the 5,000. Why were the disciples astonished that Jesus would come to them and deal with their fears? Mark says, “They did not understand about the loaves.” Mark is telling us that they could not put two things together in their minds. They could not join the breaking of the loaves and Jesus’ capacity to come to them in their need. The disciples had seen Jesus’ power at work - just that afternoon - they had seen Him multiply loaves and fishes and feed the multitude. But their belief had not yet become faith, it had not gotten to the point of their own need to trust. So register this first truth clearly: There’s a difference between belief and faith. Faith is staking your life on what you believe.
Now, let’s move to the second major focus of our reflection is there in verse 48: “And he saw that they were distressing in rowing, for the wind was against them.”
Not much time passes in any of our lives when we don’t feel that the winds are against us. We know about rowing the sea of life when the winds are against us. There are some harsh realities we need to come to grips with. We need to realize everybody hurts. Now I’m not being trite, nor would I seek to evade the depth of suffering so many know. But I think it is important, for perspectives sake to begin at this point, Everybody hurts.
There is a myth promoted by many Pastors and teachers of the faith, that if we were just Christian enough, or disciplined enough, or spiritual enough, or religious enough — that life’s troubles would pass us by This just isn’t so, and certainly scripture refutes it. The witness of the scripture over and over again, is that the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust. None of us promised deliverance from the pain and problems of life. So, everybody hurts.
That leads to a second suggestion. It helps, from the beginning, to remember that we are human, not super-human. To be human, by definition, means to have limits on our life. Let it be a part of the way you approach life. We’re human, thus limited.
Now a third suggestion. Having admitted your weakness that you’re not in control remember God is. God is in control, and God is not going to abandon us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffeur was a German Lutheran pastor, arrested by the Gestapo, put in prison, later executed for his part in the conspiracy against Hitler. While in prison he wrote letters and notes to his family and his friends, especially to Eberhard Bethge, his closest friend. His sisters and sympathetic guards smuggled these notes out of prison, and Bethge collected them, buried them in the back yard, for safe keeping until the end of the war, and then published them as Letters and Notes From Prison. One of those notes read, “I believe that God will give us all the strength that we need to help resist in times of distress, but he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not Him alone.”
We all need to remember that. God is in control, and God is not going to abandon us. But God has a time-table that may not be ours. Mark wants us to know that. He and the other Gospel writers record the story of Jesus and the storm at sea to reveal who Jesus really is. He is “the only son of God the Father Almighty, the maker of Heaven and Earth.” In other words, He owns the place. He’s in charge, and we need to believe that.
And that leads me to the final suggestion that I want to make. Hang on to the word of Jesus in our scripture, “Take heart, it is I have no fear.”
Don’t hold on to your emotion; hold on to Jesus. An educated person is not one who knows the answer, but where the answers can be found. A Christian is not one who can make it on her own, but who knows the One in whom we can do all things, because He gives us strength.
Earlier I noted the fact that for the disciples, the miracle of the afternoon of feeding 5000 did not last as the basis of confidence for the dark hours on the stormy sea. How true for all of us. We forget what has gone on before, the deliverance we have known, how we have been literally saved from that which would undo us, how we’ve been comforted. We forget.
Augustine was writing about this incident, he said, “He came treading the waves; and so he puts all the swelling tumults of life under his feet. Christians —— why afraid?” It is the simple fact of life, a fact which has been prove by countless thousands of men and women in every generation, that when Christ is there, the storm becomes a calm, the tumult becomes a peace, the undoable become doable. The unbearable becomes bearable, and persons pass through the breaking point and do not break.
So hang on to Jesus, as with the disciples. He sees when the winds are against us. He comes and speaks his unyielding word. “The heart, it is I; have no fear.”
I have heard people say time and time again and again that when they are in the midst of an awful family crisis, they said, “We couldn’t make it without Jesus.” Nor can any of us. And, oh friends, aren’t you glad you don’t have to!