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June 25th, 2006, Pentecost 3, All Souls' Episcopal Church
What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Mark 4:41
In Psalm 107 the Psalmist writes these words:
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth,
and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up
to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of
trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their
wits' end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them
out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof
are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto
their desired haven.
My boys know something
of the meaning of this psalm from their experiences sailing in Nova Scotia,
however, a person who deeply understood the psalm’s meaning was their
great-grandfather. The home which we call our summer home is known by the
locally as “Captain Wilkie’s house”. Captain Wilkie was Rhea’s grandfather and
he was a schooner captain who sailed his ships carrying freight mostly along the
east coast of North America, but he also had a few trips to Bermuda, England,
and one to South Africa. On the return trip from South Africa after months away
at sea in the midst of very thick fog and just outside the mouth of the La Have
River (which Captain Wilkie’s house overlooks) his ship was struck by another
schooner causing his to sink and the loss of half his crew, including his wife.
Captain Wilkie stopped sailing, took a job on land, and eventually remarried.
But the lure of the sea still called and later he bought another schooner and
went back to sea and at times continued to travel with his wife and children on
board. Further tragedy struck when his eldest son sailing on a different
freighter off the coast of Bermuda was swept overboard during a violent storm
and drowned. Maritime people see the “works of the Lord and his wonders in the
deep”.
In his Epistle to the Colossians, St. Paul, writing of our Lord Jesus, calls
Him the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature: For by him
were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible. All things were created by him and for him. He is before all
things, and by him all things consist. (Col. 1:15-17)
The Gospels
demonstrate over and over again our Lord’s dominion over his creation. His
casting out demons shows us his power over the spiritual realm. His miracles of
healing and his raising of the dead demonstrate his power over life and death.
His calming of the storm in today’s Gospel reading illustrates His power over
the natural realm.
Our Gospel reading tells us that our Lord directed His disciples to take
their boat to the other shore at evening, after a long and tiring day. The
disciples probably thought that their work was done for the day. They were
looking forward to having a rest. Our Lord had other plans. As His disciples,
we must always remember that our journey in faith is one which ends only in
Heaven, which shall never end. We must never allow ourselves to become overly
content or complacent. In an episode of The Simpsons, which my boys watch
thanks to Father Petley, Homer Simpson, having found his dream job at a bowling
alley, prays to God asking that everything remain exactly as it is right now.
Well, that’s not a prayer any of us are likely to have answered in the
affirmative. You see, such a prayer imposes our understanding – our view of the
way things should be – upon God. We simply cannot do that. There used to be a
bumper sticker which read: “Jesus is my co-pilot.” Well, if Jesus is your
co-pilot, you are sitting in the wrong seat. When it comes to our lives, Jesus
must be in charge of the controls. He chooses the destination. He chooses the
route we will take.
If you look at our parish banner you will see in the center a ship. For
centuries, Christian artists depicted the church as a boat on a stormy sea with
our Lord Jesus in the midst of his disciples. As the boat represented the
church, the stormy sea was an image of the world – a world full of trials and
tribulations. Then again, throughout the history of the church, and certainly
today, it seems as if the storm is not just taking place in the world but within
the church itself. And yet, it is all the same storm. The church’s history is
certainly not a calm and steady procession. It never has been. The church’s
history is full of violent storms, reformations, inquisitions, schisms, and
outright wars. The first great Council of the church, the Council of Jerusalem,
took place around 50 AD because St. Paul and St. James could not agree about
what was required of Christian converts. The church is always being challenged
by stormy weather from within as well as from without. And yet, it is all the
same storm.
Our reading tells us that in the midst of the storm, while the disciples were
frantic and in fear for their lives, our Lord was sleeping peacefully. This
shocked the disciples. They woke Him up, asking if He didn’t care that they were
about to perish. Our Lord then rebuked the storm and ordered it to cease. And
then, all was calm. The disciples were fearful and awestruck by our Lord’s
ability to calm the stormy sea. And yet, what was also awe inspiring was the
fact that our Lord was able to sleep through that storm. Our Lord’s inner calm;
his inner peace and quiet in the midst of such violent upheaval might well be
the lesson we most need to learn from this Gospel reading. In St. Luke’s
Gospel, our Lord tells his disciples of the coming persecutions in which
families will turn on each other and Christians would be put to death. He says:
“In your patience, possess ye your souls.” Isaiah, Chapter 30, says: “In
returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be
your strength.”
Sometimes, instead of attacking us from outside, the
stormy sea can be found within our souls. Fear and worry and anxiety can
overwhelm us at times. Anger also causes its share of storms in the soul. Some
people are simply unhappy and insist that others be unhappy with them. We allow
our own inner turmoil to cause turmoil in those around us. We generate our own
bad moods and find excuses for them later. And yet, whatever the cause of our
inner storm might be, we must still seek the same calming influence; the same
confident Savior.
If you have visited our Parish web site, you might have read the following.
"All Souls' is a traditional Episcopal Church whose very aim is to direct
people, not to ourselves, nor to our church, but to Jesus Christ. He is the
center of our vision. He is the object of our Worship." In the midst of every
storm and all upheaval, our mission must not change. We shall continue to
direct one another to the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall continue to seek Him as
the center of our vision. He is the rock of our salvation. As the old hymn
puts it:
From every
stormy wind that blows
From every swelling tide of woes
There is a calm, a sure retreat
‘Tis found beneath the mercy seat.
The Lord Jesus rebukes the wind and calms the storm
at sea. He does this because He is Lord. He is Lord of all. He is the Lord of
life. In him all things consist. He is the Lord of His church. He is the Lord
of our lives. Let us set our minds and hearts upon Him. Let us trust Him with
all things in all things. Behold, what manner of man He is “that even the wind
and the sea obey Him.”
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