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“It came
out of nowhere!” “There was nowhere we could turn!”
“It just uprooted everything!” “It left nothing but a
path of destruction in its wake!”
Storms…tornadoes…hurricanes…flash
floods…typhoons…blizzards. Each is creation’s chaotic
reminder that some things are simply beyond our control.
Storms! They blow in…rush in…move in. They disrupt the
flow of life and, for their duration, business as usual cannot
continue. Often we must just wait them out. Storms! They are
creation’s campaign of shock and awe.
“We just
haven’t been able to pull it together since Dad died.”
“We would have been fine if the plant hadn’t closed.”
“When our marriage started to struggle, everything just
seemed to fall apart.” “When I look in the mirror, I
can’t stand the person I see staring back at me.” “Life
as we knew it changed the day the towers fell.” Storms are
not only natural phenomena, storms are personal…they are
states of being. Storms not only go on around us, they rage
within us. We all have encountered stormy seasons in our
lives. Turbulent times…chaotic moments….when uncertain
futures loom large. We know these rough times all too well.
Divorce…depression… addiction…cancer…lay
offs…war…terrorism! Storms: life’s chaotic reminder that
some things are simply beyond our control. The storms of life
blow in…rush in…move in. They disrupt the flow of life
and, for their duration, business as usual simply cannot
continue. Life’s storms can shock us with their suddenness
and leave us standing in awe at their destructiveness.
Our reading
tonight has something to say about storms. It also has
something to say about Jesus’ campaign of shock and awe. Our
reading is familiar, one we have heard many times. The
disciples and Jesus are in a boat traveling across the Sea of
Galilee, a body of water too small to really be called a
sea—but considering the peoples it separated, it might as
well have been an ocean. While crossing, a squall blows up out
of nowhere. The suddenly-shifting wind makes ominous patterns
on the water. Trees heave on the hillsides, bending and then
snapping back. The
sky turns dark and before they know it, whitecaps are slapping
over the edge of their boat.
You can just imagine their frantic state as they try
and try to steady their little vessel against the gale force
winds. And although there was an experienced fisherman on
board who had faced many a storm in the past, this storm seems
to get the best of them. They are in a panic. Their fear is
now larger than the storm itself. They are ready to abandon
ship.
In their
frantic state, they look for their leader. Where do they find
him? They find Jesus in the front of the boat, asleep.
That’s right. While they are in the midst of a deadly storm,
struggling for their very lives, the one who got them into
this mess in the first place is asleep…lying there, all
snuggled up on a cushion as if he didn’t have a care in the
world. The disciples are shocked. In the middle of this all
commotion…in the center of utter chaos…when it seems that
the end is near and all is soon to be lost…Jesus is at rest.
He is at peace. Jesus appears to be in a different place,
connected to something bigger than the present circumstances
that surround him. In this scene, Jesus is the epitome of the
non-anxious presence. His connection with a source that
transcends the chaos of his surroundings simply leaves his
disciples standing in a state of shock.
Have you
ever met people like that? Those amazing people who seem to
have found serenity in the midst of life’s storms…persons
who are in touch with a peace that surpasses all
understanding…people who, even though they are unsure of
what the future holds, have no doubts about who holds the
future. These people are connected to God in deep and profound
ways. In their serenity, they send us all a message: God is
indeed alive and active in our world. Their assured presence
in the face of life’s tumultuous turmoil testifies that
Christ’s spirit is still in our midst. Whenever I encounter
someone like this, I leave the encounter saying, “I gotta
get me some of that.”
But
that’s not where it ends. Oh, no! That’s when it really
happens. Once awakened and in touch with the fright and panic
of those in the boat, Jesus moves the story from one of shock
to one of awe. Just like that! God’s peace intervenes into
the midst of life’s tumultuous times. The storm is calmed.
The seas of chaos are suddenly quieted. Now that’s awesome!
Jesus’ ability to quiet the storm leaves everyone in the
boat awestruck and amazed at the sudden change of events.
Don’t
you want to experience that kind of peace in your life?
Don’t you long for that feeling of stillness to wash over
you? Don’t you desire that kind of tranquil intervention to
come to all the troubled places of our world? I know I do. So
how do we get to taste that awesome peace…a peace that
surely surpasses all understanding?
Our
reading may help us. You see, in this story it is easy for us
to get caught up in all the drama…the waves, the winds, the
fear, the panic, not to mention the shocking peacefulness of
Jesus in the midst of it all. We get so caught up in the
excitement that we miss something very important. With all the
commotion, we forget why they were taking this trip in the
first place. Verse 35 tells us that Jesus was taking his
disciples to the “other side.” The other side of Galilee
which, to good Jews like Jesus and his disciples, meant they
were crossing over to the foreign land of the Gentiles…the
unclean…the outsiders…the “evil empire,” if you will.
“Why on earth would Jesus want us to go and be with them?”
the disciples must have wondered. “I mean, come on.
Everybody knows that the segregation of the races is simply
part of the created order! If he doesn’t turn this boat
around, we will abandon ship.”
With all of
this fear and trembling, it is little wonder that a storm,
symbolic of the raging panic inside the disciples, blows in
and threatens any attempt Jesus has at breakthrough and
reconciliation. This little boating trip is not to be
understood as a simple fishing excursion or some little
“three-hour tour.” This trip was about boundary crossing.
It was about coming face to face with what they feared most.
It was about leaving the shorelines of life as they knew it to
go over to “the other side.” Tonight’s story suggests
that Jesus stills the storm. He calms the fears of the
disciples so they will stay in the boat…so they can get to
“the other side.”
I think
that is the secret to finding peace in the midst of life’s
storms…our willingness to stay in the boat…our trust in a
God who wants us to get to “the other side,” to the places
in our lives and in our world that frighten us the most. Face
to face with our brokenness. Face to face with our prejudices.
Face to face with ourselves. To experience that peace we must
be willing stay the course. We must be willing to do the
work…the often hard, painstaking, even fearful work required
to get to “the other side,” to move from addiction to
wholeness…emptiness to fulfillment. To find that peace in
our stormy world, we must be willing to go to “the other
side”…to cross all the Eight Mile Roads that separate
communities…to journey to the Dearborns to meet our
neighbors of different faiths. To really bring calmness to
these turbulent times we have to go to places we never thought
of going…we have to reach out to persons we have never
known. One way or another, we’ll have to get to the other
side.
I
know what some of you are probably thinking: “That’s great
theology, preacher…but do you believe it?” I do not just
believe it…I’ve seen it.
I
saw it in a man whose name is Bud. Bud is a pretty regular
guy, as I think most guys named Bud are. However, Bud had
definitely been touched by Christ’s shocking mercy and his
awesome grace. He grew up on a farm and now owns and operates
a gas station. Bud was the proud father of one daughter,
Julie. Julie was the light of Bud’s life, his best friend
and confidant. Julie had just graduated from college, fallen
in love and was planning to announce her engagement in the
spring. She had the world at her feet. Every Wednesday, they
met for lunch at a Greek restaurant across the street from the
federal building where she worked. Their lunch date on
Wednesday, April 19, 1995 was never to be. That was the
day Americans stood transfixed to their televisions and
watched the horrifying aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.
That was the day Bud got a call telling him that Julie was
killed in the explosion.
When
Bud tells his story, he highlights his rage, his hatred and
his anger surrounding the loss of his daughter. He confesses
his desire to kill the accused killers himself every time he
saw their faces in the media. He says he would have done it
with his bare hands. As far as he was concerned, there
didn’t need to be trial. Just fry ‘em. Talk about being
plunged into a stormy abyss.
Nine
months after the bombing, Bud was still stuck on April 19. He
was drinking heavily and smoking three packs of cigarettes a
day. And then it happened. In the midst of the stormiest time
of his life, it happened. One day Bud saw Bill McVeigh,
Timothy McVeigh’s father, on television. And when Mr.
McVeigh looked into the television camera for a few seconds,
Bud saw a deep pain in another father’s eyes that most
people could not have recognized. But Bud recognized it
because he, too, was living that pain. And Bud knew that some
day he had to go tell that man, that father, that he truly
cared about how he felt. Bud was being moved to “the other
side.”
That
summer, Bud found himself in Bill McVeigh’s kitchen. After
an hour of sitting at the table with Bill and his daughter,
Jennifer…only a few feet below some family photos, one of
which was Tim McVeigh’s high school picture…Bud was able
to conjure up the words, “...what a good looking kid.” At
that moment, as Bud tells it, a large tear rolled down the
cheek of Bill McVeigh. It was an incredible display of a
father’s love. Jennifer rose to hug Bud and she began to
sob. And like he would do to his own daughter, Bud held her,
he sobbed with her, he cradled her face in his hands and
reassured her that they were all in this terrible reality
together. He told her he didn’t want her brother to die, and
he would do whatever it took to prevent it! After leaving, Bud
sat in his car for over an hour and just cried. He says he
never felt closer to God than he did at that moment. Bud says,
“It felt like a load had been taken completely off my
shoulders.” There it was…that sudden peace in the midst of
the storm. Bud’s willingness to cross over…to move from
contempt to mercy, from hatred to compassion…put him in
touch with the peace that truly surpasses all understanding.
On
the day Timothy McVeigh was put to death, Bud stood with and
comforted the family of his only daughter’s accused killer.
Every time I tell Bud’s story, I am still caught in shock
and awe. Our God
is truly an awesome God!
What
storms are you facing in life this day? Where are the raging
winds of our times leaving you shivering on the shoreline,
anxious and afraid? What are the turbulent places in your life
that seem ready to capsize your family, job or friendships?
Those are the places that God is telling us right now to get
into a little boat called faith and take that journey to other
side…to the other side of our pain, our addictions and
hatred…to the other side of our brokenness, our anxieties,
our anger. Take the plunge tonight, won’t you? Give it over
to God. Keep clinging to the boat of faith…continue the
journey…expect to break through the storm and find the other
side. Because if you stay in the boat…if you keep the
faith…if you are willing to face that which scares you the
most…you will hear the Spirit’s quiet whisper transcend
the storms of our world: “It is by faith that you have been
saved.” And you will get the assurance that you do not
journey alone, because you will be reminded: “Lo, I am with
you always, even until the end of the age.” And when the
healing comes…when the peace comes…when reconciliation
finally comes…we will look back in both shock and awe.
Shocked by God’s mercy and awed by God’s grace. Don’t
you want to get’cha some of that?
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