Calm in the Storm

Luke 8:22-25

Squalls come. Storms come. On the Sea of Galilee, everything can be peaceful and suddenly you find yourself in a storm that you didn’t see coming. Winds gusting more than 30 miles per hour can come suddenly over the mountains – and you never know what direction they’ll come from – they can come from the West, from the South, or from the East. One description I read captures the situation particularly well, “In the narrow, long, and winding wadis of this semi-mountainous area on …Sea of Galilee, gusts of wind form rapidly, forcefully entering between steep cliffs and descending with increasing power onto the lake, situated 200 meters below sea level. In a matter of minutes, these gusts of wind transform the smooth surface of the water into a seething and roaring cauldron” (Wilkem, K.E. 1956).

Throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, the sea is a symbol of chaos and unknown, a place of powers that only God can control or calm. In the very beginning, Genesis 1, the second verse, tells us that the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Before God brought order, and created, everything was sea. Throughout the Psalms, the sea is a symbol of evil and danger – chaos that only God can calm.

So, when Jesus gets up and rebukes the wind and the raging waters and the storm subsides, and all was calm, the disciples are terrified and amazed. “WHO IS THIS? Only God can do this. They’ve seen Jesus do amazing things – heal people, cast out demons, miraculously feed thousands, but he commands even the winds and the water and they obey. Only God can calm the storm. Only God can bring order to chaos. Only God can bring something good out of the storms that brew our lives into a seething, roaring cauldron.

Because there will be storms. There are times in all of our lives when, like the disciples on the lake, we can’t help but cry out, “Master, Master, we are going to drown!” Times when we have come to the end of our own resources. When I have been in that place, my metaphor has been that I’ve tried to pull myself up by the bootstraps, but the bootstraps are too short.

Where do we turn? How do we get pulled back up? How do we keep from drowning?

The disciples turn to Jesus, who calms the storm. But then he asks them “Where is your faith?” You see, they didn’t turn to Jesus because they knew who he was; they did not know that he was the Messiah yet. They turned to Jesus because they were flipping out, wigging out, they were unglued. They woke Jesus up, not because they thought he could help – they wanted him to panic with them – everybody in the boat needed to be ready to swim – we are going to drown!

Now, let’s pause a second and think about the storms in our lives and what this story teaches us:
1. Did God cause the storm on the sea that night? No. The way that creation interacts sometimes creates storms. They are a part of life.
2. Did the disciples cause the storm on the sea that night? No. They didn’t cause it, but they did have to face it and deal with it.
3. Was there a divine, ultimate reason for the storm on the sea that night? No. But, even though they didn’t realize who he was, the disciples, quite by accident really, did exactly what is our only hope in a storm. They cried out to God. There is no one and nothing else that can help. That’s why Jesus corrects them…Where is your faith? They didn’t realize in crying out to him they were crying out to God. And then, they started putting the pieces together. Who IS he?

Either we throw ourselves onto the life raft of God’s mercy, or we are left at the mercy of the storm. The choice is a choice of faith – of total trust that we can hold onto God in the storm and we will not drown, and the storm doesn’t have to be the end of the story.

That is what we celebrate when we come to this Table. Jesus invites us to come, and to remember God’s faithfulness, through all generations, through those we have loved in this congregation who have passed on to glorious life eternal where there are no storms, to remember Jesus who lived a life that had storms just like we do and died our death, painfully, and rose again to live victorious over all the seas, all the chaos, to bring calm. At this table, we cry out from the midst of the storms of this world, and pray for God’s Holy Spirit to transform us, to bring order to the chaos within us and our world, to create in us new hearts, to calm our storms.

In the beginning, everything was sea, everything was chaos, everything was storm. And God created light and life, brought order and calm. In the end, Revelation promises that when God’s vision for creation is complete, when the One seated on his throne declares, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Behold, God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no away, …and the sea will be no more.” Thanks be to God! Amen.