"Swamped but not Sunk"
Text: Mark 4:35-41
4th Sunday after Pentecost
June 21, 2015
How many of you have been to the Titanic exhibit? Forgetting about what happened, how many of you
would have gotten on that ship? Water, large bodies of water, 8 miles across and 13 miles long, that
would be large to me, and at that time was something to be feared, the storms, it could bring chaos. I
would fit right in as I have a pretty healthy fear of the water. Many have felt this way with the flooding
in various areas of our country. I think to a point, we can identify with the disciples, they were swamped,
but not sunk.
Especially on Sundays, for many Pastors, an afternoon nap is to die for. Jesus had been teaching
all day, no doubt he was exhausted, "Let's get in the boat and get out of here." They helped him into
the boat, "just as he was," w whatever that means, no shaving kit, cell phone charger, or a jacket. Gets
his pillow and goes to sleep, a storm swamps them, they react just like all of us, "Where is God, don't
you care?" Today it might sound like, "Don't you care that my child is sick, that my marriage is in trouble,
that I don't have friends, I don't have much money, I feel alone, I want to give up, my spouse has died, I
have lost my job. We have all thought and said these or similar things. One pastor summed this up well,
"God's compassion is not measured by our circumstances."
A lady was panicked flying in a storm. Next to her was a pastor, "Can't you do something about
this storm." And he stole my line, "I'm in sales, not management." There was a heavy rain on Sunday
morning and a man asked Mark Twain on the way out of church, "Do you think it will stop?" "It always
has." I don't know what the disciples expected, but what they got was calm. Their reaction is
interesting, "Who is this?" During Bible School this week the kids were asked each day to identify God
sightings, where they see God at work. Here was one and the disciples whiffed, they completely miss
it. I find it interesting that he was asleep in the stern, that is usually where the boat is steered from, and
he is steering things, and they miss it. How many God sightings do we miss? Now if we take away Jesus
from the storms then we have every right to fear the chaos, but just as Jesus was present with the
disciples, so we have that same assurance.
A few years ago a group from here went on a mission trip to the boundary waters of
Minnesota. Each morning we had to cross a rope bridge at this Bible Camp to get to the worship area. A
rope bridge shakes; there is nothing solid about it. But when you get to the other side you are on solid
ground, a place of peace and stillness. That swaying of the bridge reminds us how helpless we can be,
but with the presence of Christ in the stern of our lives we can make it. There are no storms so bad, or
bridges so shaky that God does not have the power to subdue, even death.
This week in VBS we studied the power of God, the power of God to provide, to comfort, to
forgive, and to love us. This power gives us the ability to have the faith that Jesus talks about. As your
bulletin back says, "There is nothing we can experience that our God cannot overcome, he calmed the
storm, he overcame death, may his power transform our hearts." The ocean is huge, but we are never
alone in the boat. There are times we are swamped with storms, almost too much to bear, but when
you get to the other side, you then see that you did not get through it alone. The presence of Christ,
alive and awake within us, gives us the power to respond to whatever we face.
A boat is a means of travel. Maybe Jesus is trying to move the disciples and us. Notice he did not
say, "You go to the other side," but "let us go to the other side." Jesus was there all along, no matter
what he was doing, whether preaching and teaching or sleeping on a pillow. The promise is that there is
something on the other side that Jesus knows about, and needs to get us to. Maybe the act of faith is
getting in the boat. We may be swamped, but still moving and not sunk.
Jesus got in the boat just as he was, with God's power just as he was, is all we need. The floods
will not overwhelm you; the deep water will not swallow you up. Christ is present with and moving you
to the other side. So get in the boat, weather the storms of troubled waters, trusting in Jesus, every
storm ends in calm.