BRAVE LITTLE BOAT

2 BEFORE LENT
Sunday 24 February 2019
Parish Mass
www.ssaviours.org

This morning’s gospel reading is very brief, but incredibly vivid.  The story of the Stilling of the Storm comes in Mark and Luke’s Gospels – and the indication is that it is among the earliest of stories to have been passed on as part of the growing Christian tradition.  It is short, it is to the point, it is uncomplicated, and it answers the all important question ‘Who is this Jesus?’

There are, of course, a number of levels on which we might approach this story which will have been painted large in our collective Sunday School memory!  First: What happened and how?  Second: Why did the Gospel writers tell the story?  And Third: What do we do with it today?  I’m going to shut up for a moment so you can think about how you’d answer.  What happened and how?  Second: Why did the Gospel writers tell the story?  And Third: What do we do with it today?

You’ll be relieved to know that I’m not going to ask you to put your hands up and report back!  But let me suggest a few things which may go someway to answering the three questions which may or may not compare with your own musings….

 First – What happened and how?  Well Jesus, the land-lubber carpenter is out in a boat with his disciples, many of whom are experienced fishermen.  A storm suddenly whips up and the disciples (despite their knowledge of the waters – or perhaps because they knew what could happen), his disciples become fearful. 

Jesus however sleeps soundly throughout the turmoil until in sheer panic they wake him.  Jesus first rebukes the wind and waves.  Then he rebukes his disciples.  Then the disciples are amazed at his authority and question who he is. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times before, the scenario was not incredible – at least not to the extent that a storm could suddenly be whipped up and then die down as quickly as it arrived. The ‘sea’ of Galilee is really a Lake, which sits 180 metres below sea-level.  In such a hot climate the heat causes the hot air to rise very quickly, and it is replaced by cold air underneath which does all sorts of things to the atmospheric pressure and leads to sudden and erratic storms.  So what we have here in essence, is a natural phenomenon, but one in which Jesus appears to have an authoritative role. It could have been co-incidence, but clearly the gospel writers saw the end of the storm as a direct result of Christ’s intervention.  So that’s what happened, and a little bit of how it could have happened.

 Second – Why did the gospel writers tell the story?  Well, as I said earlier, it was in response to the all important question ‘Who is this Jesus?’.  In fact that was the one question which compelled them to write the gospels in the first place – ‘Who is this Jesus?’

 Luke lifts the story from Mark’s gospel, where it is included in a collection of parables in Mark 4 all about the Kingdom of God – including the parable of the sower.  Luke places the story after the rather awkward scene where Jesus’ mother and brothers come to him and want some time with him.  Jesus words just before the passage we heard this morning begins, are a rather curt dismissal of Mary and the boys: My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

It would be easy to get tied up in those words and what Jesus might have meant.  Was Jesus putting his family lower down the pegging order of his priorities?  Well that puts the emphasis in the wrong place.  The point is, he’s not putting his family down but elevating those who both heard the word of God and acted on it.  Both Mark and Luke use the story as an illustration of what it means to have faith.  A faith that may well begin as a small seed which despite the perils of weeds, birds and baking sun, grows and flourishes – and as Luke’s version make abundantly clear, it is a faith centred on who Jesus is. For the first hearers of the story the symbolism would have been incredibly forceful.  Throughout the Hebrew tradition, the sea was identified with chaos – the unruly waters which were home to monsters of all kinds, and from which the Lord God brought order and creation. The sea was the home of evil spirits – and so its not surprising that in the next story which Luke tells immediately after this one, Jesus deals with a man’s demons by sending them into a herd of pigs who then leap off the edge of the cliff into the murky waters of evil below. Psalm 89 includes the following verses:

O Lord God of hosts, who is like you? Your power and your faithfulness are all about you. You rule the raging of the sea, when its waves surge-  you still them.

For the gospel writers, this story represents not just an incident in the ministry of Jesus, but the cosmic struggle between good and evil – a struggle over which ultimately only God has mastery.

The third question is arguably the most important.  What do we do with this story today?  Well wewouldn’t be far wrong if we concentrate on the traditional interpretation of the passage which takes the boat to be the Church, the people of God, thrown about on the waves of the world and at the mercy of pernicious forces. As a local congregation we may not be so rocked, but nationally the Church of England (and internationally, the Anglican Communion) continues to be thrown around in fairly tempestuous wind…and more and more, when it seems that our little boat is likely to break up, our attention ought to be concentrated not on the wind and waves, but on Christ.  Not on the panic and disarray of those with whom we share our boat, but on Christ.

Yesterday, members of the PCC and other members of the congregation spent some time thinking about how our mission and ministry might develop here in this parish. We spent quite a lot of time considering a number of quotes from the Bishop of Texas, Andrew Doyle, and two in particular sit well with this morning’s gospel, as it happens.

 We need to remind ourselves that God is a God of chaos and disorder and is always playing and moulding and making.

And…

If we wish to follow Jesus, to be disciples, we must abandon the security of the current structures of our church and walk bravely, courageously into the future.    To cling tightly to our structures will keep us rooted in the swiftly fading past. 

 

The theme that ran through our thinking was that we needed to remain grounded in our tradition, but find new ways of reaching out and helping people connect with Christ; that we needed to be bold and try things out and not worry if we fail. And that in itself is at times going to feel like launching out onto choppy waters – but we have to put out in our little boat none the less, and keep our eyes, and our hearts, and our minds fixed on Jesus.  

So by God’s grace, may we know the reality of Christ’s presence with us, and may we have the vision and courage to place our faith solely in him.  Amen