Saturday 11 August 2012

SERMON 5 AUGUST 2012. JESUS LORD OF WIND AND WAVES.


Psalm 107 : 1 – 3 & 23 – 32                               Mark 4 : 35 – 41            Robert

As we have progressed in this series on Mark’s Gospel, we have found that Jesus has demonstrated the impact of God’s Kingdom – his sovereign reign on earth – through his teaching and a series of miracles which Mark has arranged to show us that God’s kingly rule through Jesus extends into every aspect of human life. We have seen Jesus healing people who are sick from various afflictions, casting out unclean spirits, demonstrating his power over every manifestation of evil or sin, restoring the outcast and those on the margins of society to their rightful place in the community, and pronouncing the forgiveness of sins to those who come to him for help. And in all these the characteristic of Jesus that has come through perhaps most forcefully, in addition to his love, compassion and power, has been his authority. His authority manifested in his teaching; his authority manifested in his confrontations with the secular and religious authorities; his authority in his victory over Satan and all his works. We have seen how Jesus embodies the complete love and power of God, and how that results in God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now in this Gospel passage this morning, we find him exercising that same complete authority over the powers of nature. “Even the wind and the waves obey him.”

In the opening verses of his Gospel, Mark has let us into the secret of who Jesus is and that he has come to bring God’s kingdom on earth. But we have privileged information which is not available to the disciples or the crowds, even to his family, let alone his opponents. So they see a wonderfully powerful teacher from God. They see a man who can heal sick people, and drive out unclean spirits. Now the disciples see Jesus commanding the wind and the waves. It makes them very awestruck and indeed frightened, but so far they have not fathomed who he really is.

From our privileged position, knowing that it is God himself who is being fully revealed in Jesus, the story we have just read adds a new dimension. So far every action and miracle has concerned people – people in every kind of need. Now we see his power and authority extend into the physical world of nature. To heal a sick person is one thing. To command the wind and the waves is another.  As we read in Psalm 107, everyone familiar with the Hebrew scriptures knew very well that God is Lord of all creation. But to see that power and authority being exercised before their eyes in the person of Jesus was a revelation.

We can understand the meaning of this event in two ways, and they are both important. First, let’s consider what the story tells us (so to speak) on the ‘outside’. God has a plan to restore order, peace and salvation to the whole of creation – not just to people.

We can easily slip into thinking of the Christian faith in very individualistic terms. My life has gone wrong and I do not live in the way God truly wants me to live. So I can go to God through faith in Jesus, as an individual, and find forgiveness, restoration, new hope, new life, and a future that extends even beyond the bounds of death into heaven. And all of that is entirely true and to be embraced with all our hearts. But God’s plan is bigger than that – bigger than the individual. God’s plan is for the restoration of the whole of his wonderful creation.

In his letter to the Romans (chapter 8) Paul tells us “the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time....for the creation was subjected to frustration...(but) in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

So its not only humans who need to be ‘saved’ but the whole created order, and in Jesus there is God’s plan not just for a lot of individuals, but for the earth itself to be restored and re-created according to God’s wonderful purpose. This should, in the first place, broaden our horizons and enlarge our vision. God’s whole world is precious to him and he means to restore it to order and beauty. And this should not only broaden our horizon and enlarge our vision, it should be the motivation behind our stewardship of our world. We are not simply trying to save our earth for our own selfish purposes, but to co-operate with God’s Holy Spirit in fulfilling God’s mission to his creation. Sadly, the Christian Church has been very slow to grasp this, and Christian interest in saving our planet has tended to be dragged by the coat-tails of the secular world into tending our precious world, rather than being in the lead because of our immense vision of God’s saving purposes in Jesus for the whole creation. Our vision is too small because our faith is too individualistic. In this story of a fishing boat on the sea of Galilee, we see a glimpse – a foretaste – of what God means to do in the fullness of time. “Even the wind and the waves obey him.” Calm, order, beauty and peace are to be restored. In the opening chapter of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes these astounding words: “God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”

The second way in which we can look at this story, is to look beneath the surface. If we have been so far looking at this miracle event through a telescope, what happens if we take a microscope? What do we see? Although we see disciples who lack faith and find Jesus’ power intimidating, they have in fact been rescued from a deeply serious and even life-threatening situation. Jesus has brought calm to their frightened senses, and serene water to bring them safely to harbour.

If Jesus can do that to our physical environment, what can he do when our lives are hit by storms of a different kind? The sea of Galilee was well known for its sudden violent storms that seemed to come from nowhere, and there are times when our lives are hit by unforeseen storms which may not be physical but nevertheless shake us and threaten us severely with stress and potential life-changing threats.

Although he wasn’t at the helm, in effect Jesus was in control of the boat, and – yes – in answer to the disciples’ doubts and questions, he did care very much about them and whether they were going to drown in the storm. And although they begged him to help more through fear than through faith, he made sure that the boat could be steered safely to land. Hopefully we, who know better than they do, who Jesus is and what he can do for us, can do better than that. We know that he cares for us and we know that we can approach him in faith, and ask for help. It may not be that the storm suddenly disappears, but his presence in our boat (so to speak) means that he rides the storm with us, and that he has the power and authority to see us through to the other side, wherever that may be.

It may not be that every problem is instantly solved, or every closed door flung open, but rather that – as we face all that life may spring upon us – we have beside us in our boat a companion who is the Lord himself, who will not desert us or leave us cope alone, and that –on the far side of the storm – there will be new hope, a new dawn, a new future, perhaps not of the kind we can presently imagine, but Jesus has the authority to bring us eventually to a safe harbour, and in the meantime we have beside us one whom even the wind and waves obey. The disciples had many and unexpected trials and suffering to face which at this point they could not begin to imagine. But as they travelled in the company of Jesus, they were to discover that even death itself was not the final enemy, but the prelude to resurrection.

In the words of one of many people’s favourite hymns: ‘What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear....take it to the Lord in prayer.’

Discussion


1. When you read this story, does it carry a particular message for you which you feel able to share with the group?

2. How far do you think the Christian Church should be specifically involved in the search  to solve the planet’s environmental problems? Should it be a priority? If so, why? How might the Church as a whole (and locally) be more involved?

3. Do you think it’s right to pray for the weather to change for a particular event/purpose? If so, how might such a prayer be framed? How do you feel if your prayer isn’t answered in the way you hoped?





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