Sermon 20th June 2021
Based on today’s Gospel: Mark 4:35-41 JESUS STILLS THE STORM
On 5th Avenue in New York City, outside the Rockefeller building there's a gigantic statue of Atlas. He's a great muscular man but those phenomenal muscles are straining under the weight of the world he's carrying on his shoulders. His knees are buckling under the strain.
Most of us can relate at least a little bit, to how he's feeling. We've had 15 months of pandemic and lockdown restrictions. Many folks, even with the more recent easing of the rules, still haven't seen members of their families or friends for months, things are happening to loved ones we can't do anything about. There's tremendous anxiety as to whether people will still have jobs and businesses at the end of all this.
Folks haven't been able to grieve as normal, funerals still aren't normal and couples are on tenterhooks as to whether or not their wedding plans are going to happen. The list goes on and on and even though some things have eased, as time goes on, the weight on folks' shoulders gets heavier and more difficult to bear. To say nothing of the enormous problems facing other parts of the world.
You could say that the storm of the pandemic blew up 15 months ago and it's still raging. It's taken many lives and has threatened, and is still threatening, the lives of everybody. We sometimes feel as though we're being tossed around in
an uncertain world and that we're in danger of “going under” with all the stresses and strains both of the pandemic itself and the confused, protracted plans for the coming out of lockdown. Sometimes we're tempted to ask, like the disciples in the storm, where is God in all this, doesn't He care?
This is where we go back for a minute to 5th Avenue, New York. On the one side of the street is the Rockerfeller building and that huge statue of the struggling Atlas, but on the other side of the street, in the Cathedral of St. Patrick, there is a small statue of “The Infant Jesus of Prague” who, with ease, is holding the whole world in one hand, his other hand raised in blessing.
“Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy ladened” says Jesus, “” and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)
“Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)
Most, if not all of us, have been hearing or reading todays Gospel since we were knee high to grasshoppers. After the Feeding of the Five Thousand, it was Jesus who suggested to his disciples that they should all get in the boat with Him and sail over to the other side of the lake, other boats went with them. He knew that Galilee was renowned for really bad storms whipping up from nowhere, but, totally confident in His Heavenly Father, he went to sleep in the boat and stayed
asleep even as the storm raged around Him.
The disciples had been with Jesus a fair while, they'd witnessed his miracles, heard his teaching but they still didn't know him well enough to trust him there in the middle of the storm. Even when he'd calmed the storm they were perturbed and asked, “What manner of man is this that even the wind and waves obey him?” They still had more to learn that would strengthen their faith and trust.
We have the opportunity of knowing Jesus much better than those disciples did at that point on Galilee. For a start, we know that he did still the storm! We know of all the recorded miracles, of his death and resurrection, of the Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Gospel writers recorded his teaching for us. We have the Epistles and the witness of thousands and thousands of Christians throughout the centuries. We read his word every week if not more, and we know Jesus as our risen Lord.
The question is, do we know him well enough to trust into his hands all that's happening to us, all our anxieties, cares, concerns and frustrations that are weighing us down? It was for good reason that St. Paul told the Ephesians that they, and we, need to put on “the whole armour of God”, (Eph:10- 18), every day to protect us from our doubts, fears, weaknesses, omissions and forgetfulness.
Last week I felt the pressures rising, short of time I skipped my Bible readings and quiet time, just hurtled on. Our daughter, Helen, is isolating because someone in the nursery where she works tested positive, so she asked me
to do some shopping. Fine, no problem except that, dashing off to Buxton, I left two 6 pinters of milk in our fridge! Unpacking in Buxton, realising what I'd done, and how necessary the milk was, I proceeded to have a melt-down. What had happened to the “Peace, perfect peace” I sing about being “the gift of Christ our Lord”? I'd forgotten about it just because of milk I could get elsewhere! I'd left that peace in the fridge with the milk. A storm in a teacup you could say!
It's so easy to forget or not even realise His promises, yet, spending time with Him when it's calm, in prayer, reading, listening to music, remembering the times He has helped us, or being reminded of them, or simply relaxing in His presence, perhaps accompanied by some music, reminds and instills in us, the reality of those promises, His presence and power with and within us.
Some of us have been sharing a Celtic prayer / poem each evening on WhatsApp; if you'd like to receive those just give me a ring and I'll add you to the group. You don't have to do anything but receive the prayer/ poem. Faith is a journey, sometimes one step forward and two steps back! It's a journey that will only end when we're in Heaven, where “We will know even as we are known”. We need that time with Him in one way or another. Very reassuring is the fact that He knows us better than we know ourselves and He loves us, in spite of ourselves!
Someone once said to Corrie Ten Boon, the Christian writer and concentration camp survivor, “What a great faith you have.” She responded “No, it's what a great God we have!”
Having Jesus in the boat didn't stop the storm from tossing the disciples about and terrifying them. Having Jesus in our lives doesn't stop us experiencing all kinds of storms in our lives. Storms hit believers and unbelievers alike, but as Hebrews 13v 5 says, ”God has said, “I will never leave you or desert you”. And goes on to say, ”The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.” Though fear can be a positive when it directs us away from danger. The fear God protects us from is the paralysing fear of panic.
We know too that sometimes the storm does end in tragedy, things we pray for don't go as we planned or hoped for, but God is still with us, helping us through those difficult, sometimes tragic times. Many martyrs have died; people we pray for do die, but that is not the end for them, or us, it is a new beginning in Eternity with our Lord.
We have these wonderful words from Romans 8v 38:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I found two pictures, one of a man bent double by the weight of the world he was carrying on his shoulders and one of Jesus, again carrying the same world, easily, in one hand, the Holy Spirit in his other hand. Which do we choose to hold in our minds eye? Which picture do we trust? The choice is ours!
Acknowledgement: On reading around todays Gospel I read a sermon by Stephen J. Cole from which I got the “Atlas and The Infant Jesus of Prague” reference and whose thoughts influenced mine.