Fear or Float

Today we had no power still in Sharon so sermon did not get printed nor read as the beautiful setting of worshipping outdoors simply lent itself to spontaneity in the Spirit. We paused periodically to wave to power trucks going by. We summoned at least one observer to join us. It was nothing short of wonderfilled! 

Below are the thoughts I might have preached but even they never coalesced. Instead I talked about riptides. I learned early on at the Delaware and NJ shores that instead of fighting a riptide one had to try to relax. This was a life lesson which comes back to me often when I face or recognize my fear, fight, flight amygdala reptilean brain. 

This week as though anxiety were not high enough we found ourselves like the disciples in the boat at sea, in turbulent waters. A tornado left all of us without power and now 5 days later most of us have still not been restored. 

As in the riptide or in the disciples’ boat, fear can sink us. By breathing and inflating ourselves and relaxing into the Spirit we can float through this. 

Jesus is called out of his solitude to respond to our cry. When we recognize this Salvation we exclaim and profess My Lord and My God. 

Jesus then asks each of us to respond to our brothers and sisters trapped in chaos by having the faith to “walk across the water” to them.

This week when electric power has been the main thought we have the opportunity today to know that the Power of God is never turned off, cut off or threatened by storm. 

May we know this divine power more acutely this week, may we breathe with the Spirit, and may we engage in the salvation work which Jesus taught us. 

Blessed be God who animates our lives and saves us. AMEN

Today’s Gospel story is one not unlike Holy Week and Easter, which begins in fear and terror and ends in salvation and peace. 

Today we hear the Gospel story of Jesus coming across the stormy waters to save the disciples, to calm their fear. Today we hear one of the quintessential Gospel stories of salvation set in the waters of the sea. It speaks with particularity to a situation of a storm over which Christ triumphs. It speaks more broadly to the continuous stream of mercy and justice which God offers us no matter how frightened we are, no matter how chaotic the circumstances.

The Gospel reverberates with a rhythm of Jesus drawing away to pray and Jesus being called out of solitude to calm storms, to deepen faith and to create community. This rhythm is His as well as the rhythm of our lives in God. 

We the People of the Way are learning with God’s help to balance prayer and meditation with action and mission. We live between call and response. 

But as we travel we encounter storms and we are met by fear. We are stopped or stalled by life’s circumstances, just as the disciples were on the sea. In fact, just this week when we thought we had enough anxiety from pandemic and political protest, a tornado swept through. We looked for God in the wind, in the rain, in the damage.

When we are in such states we call to Jesus out of our deepest needs. And while the response often appears ghostlike or unreal we soon learn that indeed Jesus hears our call and emerges in miraculous ways, sometimes subtle, often not so much. Jesus is salvation...period.

Even the Incarnate God demonstrates that salvation is not a superhero rescue. The Incarnate God shows us that salvation is a deeply embedded process of faith formation, prayer and action. Less about the particularity of the crisis and more about the calls and responses of our lives. Salvation is happening all the time.

I often think of this story and its magnificence of grace and confession as a foreshadowing of how we are to be in resurrection life. I remember the waiting at the tomb by Mary with grief and an unwavering faith as well as the doubts of those who left. I remember the conversations amongst disciples after his death, some desperate, some curious, which nevertheless stimulated appearances of the Risen Lord. 

It is much like the Transfiguration which was celebrated Thursday which foreshadows the Glory of God made manifest.

These stories, and all Gospel stories, support the premise of our faith: God is always closer to us than we can imagine. Our work, our call, is to cultivate our prayer life, to actualize our gifts, to be in the world not of the world, and to receive the love of Jesus in good times and difficult ones. 

Seek and Ye shall find; Ask and it shall be answered; knock and the door opens.

These are the assured calls and responses of our lives.

We too are terrified. We too are afraid. We too have been stretched to our limits of tolerance and resilience. We too cry out.

May we in these difficult times be assured that Jesus will calm our storms. May we be assured that we may know peace and grace. May we experience that moment of confession of recognizing our God: My Lord and my God.

This story like ours may find its reconciliation and resolution in Prayer and Worship.