King Duncan
In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people was preparing to have a "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille. Police chief Jerry Peralta pulled up sometime after dark at the posh Richelieu Apartments. Facing the beach less than 250 feet from the surf, the apartments were directly in the line of danger.
A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved at the police chief. Peralta yelled up, "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm's getting worse." But as other party participants joined the man on the balcony, they just laughed at Peralta's order to leave. "This is my land," one of them yelled back. "If you want me off, you'll have to arrest me."
Peralta didn't arrest anyone, but he wasn't able to persuade them to leave either. He wrote down the names of the next of kin of the twenty or so people who gathered there to party through the storm. They laughed as he took their names. They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving.
It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore. Scientists clocked Camille's wind speed at more than 205 miles-per-hour, the strongest on record and much, much stronger than Hurricane Katrina that did so much destruction to the Gulf Coast last summer. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high.
News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, where some twenty people were killed at a hurricane party in the Richelieu Apartments. Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation. Of the two dozen people in the building, only one survived. (1)
Storms come. Sometimes they come suddenly and violently. Sometimes they tear your world apart.
Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly a furious squall came up, and the waves broke over their boat, nearly swamping it. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were now more terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Storms come. They may not come in the form of a sudden, furious squall, or a hurricane. Sometimes they come in the form of a phone call--from a doctor confirming a diagnosis, from a police officer telling you of an automobile accident. Storms come in many forms--a note from a spouse saying she's leaving, a pink slip from an employer. Storms come. Just as they came to those disciples on the Sea of Galilee.
Here's what's frustrating: Sometimes when storms come, it seems as if God is asleep. "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" asked his terrified disciples. And sometimes when we are going though a crisis, it does seem that either God doesn't hear or doesn't care.
You may remember Robert Browning's famous poem:
The lark's on the wing, The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven, All's right with the world.
Browning wrote those words in the mid-Nineteenth century, an era of boundless optimism. But after two world wars, the Holocaust, and numerous genocides, as well as the terrible specter of international terrorism, few people would now dare to say, "All's right with the world." Worse, as author Philip Yancey notes, "God seems to stay in his heaven despite all that's wrong with the world. Why doesn't He do something?" (2)
A Romanian man filed a lawsuit last fall against God for allegedly fouling up his life. The suit states that the man was promised a good life in return for "various goods and prayers," and that the 20-year sentence he's currently serving in a Romanian jail represents a clear breach of contract. (3)
That's absurd, of course, but have you ever felt like suing God? Be honest now. Sometimes terrifying storms come up in our lives and we turn to God and all we find is an awful silence. And we cry out with those disciples of old, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
In our text for today, Christ does stir from his slumber. He rebukes the wind and says to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" When the wind dies down and is completely calm, he turns to his disciples and asks, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" I believe this is the crux of the lesson. We know that storms come. We believe that Christ has the power to calm the storms. Why are we afraid to trust God's promises?
Christ knew that his disciples were human beings, given to fear. He knew that they were still growing in their faith. His retort to them sounds harsh, but it is the harshness of a coach who wants his players to get the routine down precisely so that when they are tested they will be able to respond as they were coached. Jesus wants to help us with our fear--for a greater tragedy than the storms that come in our lives is the inadequacy of the response that we make to those storms. Let me make some brief suggestions about how we can cope with life in the midst of life's storms.
First of all, prepare for them. That makes sense, doesn't it? If we know storms are going to come, don't you think we ought to prepare for them? A TV news camera crew was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction from Hurricane Andrew. In one scene, amid the devastation and debris, stood one house on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him. "Sir, why is your house the only one in the entire neighborhood that is standing?" asked the reporter. "How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?"
"I built this house myself," the man replied. "I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for two-by-six roof trusses, I used two-by-six roof trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did and it did. I suppose no one else around here followed the code." (4)
That man was prepared. But suppose that storm had been cancer or the loss of a child or some great tragedy, how could he have prepared? There are many ways.
HE COULD HAVE MADE SURE HIS RELATIONSHIPS WERE STRONG. His family relationships, his relationships with his friends. It helps when you are going through a storm to have others there with you. You may not be blessed with a family, but you can build your relationships here in the church so that you will have people who will serve as your support group. Ask someone who has gone through the storm of an illness or the loss of a loved one whether close relationships made a difference. They do.
He could have also prepared himself for the storm physically, mentally, spiritually. For example, does your general health make a difference in a storm? How well you've taken care of yourself can make a significant difference when you are struck by a catastrophic illness. We don't talk about this much at church, but maybe we ought to. A person undergoing surgery or chemotherapy or radiation will generally do better if his or her overall health is good. Being in good physical condition is also a good way to deal with the depression that inevitably comes with a terrible loss. Prepare for life's storms by keeping yourself fit. Don't wait until the storm comes.
Mentally and spiritually we prepare ourselves by building our lives on the Rock. There comes a time in our lives when we decide what we believe and how we will live. "I will live according to God's building code," we decide. "I will live a life of quality, trusting God's promises." There are other ways to live that might bring us more sensual gratification and less sacrifice, but we believe that our lives have purpose and meaning, that a loving Creator has intended our lives for something more than mere animal satisfactions. And so we seek to live our lives according to God's code so that, when the storms of life come, we respond reflexively with faith and not fear, just as a well-trained athlete responds in the contest as he or she has been coached. This is not to say that we cease being human. We still may go through all the steps associated with grief and loss--denial, anger, rejection, guilt, bargaining, depression/confusion, and acceptance. But we go through the process without being overwhelmed.
And then, eventually, when the storm has run its course, as all storms do, we see how God has guided us through. We had despaired at times that we could possibly make it, but we do make it and we give God the glory. And, if we are wise, we reflect on the lessons we have learned from this experience. For this is the purpose of storms--to produce growth.
Robert A. Schuller tells about a farmer in Washington who was especially proud of the apples he produced every year, and with good reason. His farm was at a high elevation, and the cold winds that came through there made his apples especially crisp and flavorful. Every year, after he harvested his crop, he would polish those apples until they virtually shone. Then he would put them into beautiful packages to show them off. These weren't your ordinary run-of-the-mill apples but the kind that made beautiful gifts to send loved ones for Thanksgiving and Christmas. As word of his marvelous apples spread, it got to the point where he was inundated with orders even before he had harvested the fruit.
One year, just before harvest time, a severe hailstorm pummeled his property. When it was all over, there wasn't a single apple without blemishes on its skin. There was nothing wrong with the apples. They just didn't look as pretty as they usually did, and the farmer was afraid that the people who had ordered them might be disappointed and ask for their money back.
Then he had an idea. He took all of the apples with the little blemishes on the outside and wrapped every one of them the same way he did every year. He put them in the same kind of packages. Then he added a note. It read: "Notice these high-quality apples. This year represents the finest crop. You can see the blemishes caused by the hailstorm, which created the extreme cold giving the ultimate flavor and ultimate crispness to these apples."
Well, not a single order was returned. In fact, just the opposite happened. The following year when his orders started coming in he had many requests from people who wanted to make sure they got the apples with the blemishes this year, too! (5)
That's the way it works for people of faith. We don't escape the blemishes. We wear them proudly, for we could not be who we are today without the growth that those blemishes brought with them.
Storms come. Some of you are young. It seems like you will live forever. That's wonderful, but if you are smart, you will prepare yourself for that time when life sends us the unexpected squall. Prepare yourself by building strong relationships. Prepare yourself by keeping yourself fit physically, mentally and spiritually. Decide to build your life on the rock of faith.
Rabbi Jan Goldstein recalls one unexpected benefit from the 1994 earthquake that rocked Los Angeles. The disaster caused massive power outages all over the city. But, for the first time in years, Goldstein saw his neighbors wander outside at night and gaze at the stars. Usually, the artificial lights that powered the city blocked out most views of the night sky. In Goldstein's experience, few Angelenos had the opportunity before this earthquake and the subsequent power outage to appreciate the beauty of the stars. (6)
I wonder if something like that didn't happen that night to the disciples. After the Master had calmed the storm, there was a great calm. But the wind from the storm had cleared the air in a wonderful way and, as they gazed at the heavens, they could see the stars as they had never seen them before. And they reflected on this man who had power over the wind and the waves. And they learned the meaning of a life built on God.
__________________________
1. Christian Values Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1994, p. 10.
2. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
3. The Week, October 28, 2005, p. 8.
4. Leadership 14, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 49. Steve Farrar, Standing Tall (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, Inc. 2001).
5. Dump Your Hang-ups (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1993).
6. Jan Goldstein, Life Can Be This Good (Berkeley, CA.: Conari Press, 2002), p. 96.
In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people was preparing to have a "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille. Police chief Jerry Peralta pulled up sometime after dark at the posh Richelieu Apartments. Facing the beach less than 250 feet from the surf, the apartments were directly in the line of danger.
A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved at the police chief. Peralta yelled up, "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm's getting worse." But as other party participants joined the man on the balcony, they just laughed at Peralta's order to leave. "This is my land," one of them yelled back. "If you want me off, you'll have to arrest me."
Peralta didn't arrest anyone, but he wasn't able to persuade them to leave either. He wrote down the names of the next of kin of the twenty or so people who gathered there to party through the storm. They laughed as he took their names. They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving.
It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore. Scientists clocked Camille's wind speed at more than 205 miles-per-hour, the strongest on record and much, much stronger than Hurricane Katrina that did so much destruction to the Gulf Coast last summer. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high.
News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, where some twenty people were killed at a hurricane party in the Richelieu Apartments. Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation. Of the two dozen people in the building, only one survived. (1)
Storms come. Sometimes they come suddenly and violently. Sometimes they tear your world apart.
Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly a furious squall came up, and the waves broke over their boat, nearly swamping it. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were now more terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Storms come. They may not come in the form of a sudden, furious squall, or a hurricane. Sometimes they come in the form of a phone call--from a doctor confirming a diagnosis, from a police officer telling you of an automobile accident. Storms come in many forms--a note from a spouse saying she's leaving, a pink slip from an employer. Storms come. Just as they came to those disciples on the Sea of Galilee.
Here's what's frustrating: Sometimes when storms come, it seems as if God is asleep. "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" asked his terrified disciples. And sometimes when we are going though a crisis, it does seem that either God doesn't hear or doesn't care.
You may remember Robert Browning's famous poem:
The lark's on the wing, The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven, All's right with the world.
Browning wrote those words in the mid-Nineteenth century, an era of boundless optimism. But after two world wars, the Holocaust, and numerous genocides, as well as the terrible specter of international terrorism, few people would now dare to say, "All's right with the world." Worse, as author Philip Yancey notes, "God seems to stay in his heaven despite all that's wrong with the world. Why doesn't He do something?" (2)
A Romanian man filed a lawsuit last fall against God for allegedly fouling up his life. The suit states that the man was promised a good life in return for "various goods and prayers," and that the 20-year sentence he's currently serving in a Romanian jail represents a clear breach of contract. (3)
That's absurd, of course, but have you ever felt like suing God? Be honest now. Sometimes terrifying storms come up in our lives and we turn to God and all we find is an awful silence. And we cry out with those disciples of old, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
In our text for today, Christ does stir from his slumber. He rebukes the wind and says to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" When the wind dies down and is completely calm, he turns to his disciples and asks, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" I believe this is the crux of the lesson. We know that storms come. We believe that Christ has the power to calm the storms. Why are we afraid to trust God's promises?
Christ knew that his disciples were human beings, given to fear. He knew that they were still growing in their faith. His retort to them sounds harsh, but it is the harshness of a coach who wants his players to get the routine down precisely so that when they are tested they will be able to respond as they were coached. Jesus wants to help us with our fear--for a greater tragedy than the storms that come in our lives is the inadequacy of the response that we make to those storms. Let me make some brief suggestions about how we can cope with life in the midst of life's storms.
First of all, prepare for them. That makes sense, doesn't it? If we know storms are going to come, don't you think we ought to prepare for them? A TV news camera crew was on assignment in southern Florida filming the widespread destruction from Hurricane Andrew. In one scene, amid the devastation and debris, stood one house on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him. "Sir, why is your house the only one in the entire neighborhood that is standing?" asked the reporter. "How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?"
"I built this house myself," the man replied. "I also built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for two-by-six roof trusses, I used two-by-six roof trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did and it did. I suppose no one else around here followed the code." (4)
That man was prepared. But suppose that storm had been cancer or the loss of a child or some great tragedy, how could he have prepared? There are many ways.
HE COULD HAVE MADE SURE HIS RELATIONSHIPS WERE STRONG. His family relationships, his relationships with his friends. It helps when you are going through a storm to have others there with you. You may not be blessed with a family, but you can build your relationships here in the church so that you will have people who will serve as your support group. Ask someone who has gone through the storm of an illness or the loss of a loved one whether close relationships made a difference. They do.
He could have also prepared himself for the storm physically, mentally, spiritually. For example, does your general health make a difference in a storm? How well you've taken care of yourself can make a significant difference when you are struck by a catastrophic illness. We don't talk about this much at church, but maybe we ought to. A person undergoing surgery or chemotherapy or radiation will generally do better if his or her overall health is good. Being in good physical condition is also a good way to deal with the depression that inevitably comes with a terrible loss. Prepare for life's storms by keeping yourself fit. Don't wait until the storm comes.
Mentally and spiritually we prepare ourselves by building our lives on the Rock. There comes a time in our lives when we decide what we believe and how we will live. "I will live according to God's building code," we decide. "I will live a life of quality, trusting God's promises." There are other ways to live that might bring us more sensual gratification and less sacrifice, but we believe that our lives have purpose and meaning, that a loving Creator has intended our lives for something more than mere animal satisfactions. And so we seek to live our lives according to God's code so that, when the storms of life come, we respond reflexively with faith and not fear, just as a well-trained athlete responds in the contest as he or she has been coached. This is not to say that we cease being human. We still may go through all the steps associated with grief and loss--denial, anger, rejection, guilt, bargaining, depression/confusion, and acceptance. But we go through the process without being overwhelmed.
And then, eventually, when the storm has run its course, as all storms do, we see how God has guided us through. We had despaired at times that we could possibly make it, but we do make it and we give God the glory. And, if we are wise, we reflect on the lessons we have learned from this experience. For this is the purpose of storms--to produce growth.
Robert A. Schuller tells about a farmer in Washington who was especially proud of the apples he produced every year, and with good reason. His farm was at a high elevation, and the cold winds that came through there made his apples especially crisp and flavorful. Every year, after he harvested his crop, he would polish those apples until they virtually shone. Then he would put them into beautiful packages to show them off. These weren't your ordinary run-of-the-mill apples but the kind that made beautiful gifts to send loved ones for Thanksgiving and Christmas. As word of his marvelous apples spread, it got to the point where he was inundated with orders even before he had harvested the fruit.
One year, just before harvest time, a severe hailstorm pummeled his property. When it was all over, there wasn't a single apple without blemishes on its skin. There was nothing wrong with the apples. They just didn't look as pretty as they usually did, and the farmer was afraid that the people who had ordered them might be disappointed and ask for their money back.
Then he had an idea. He took all of the apples with the little blemishes on the outside and wrapped every one of them the same way he did every year. He put them in the same kind of packages. Then he added a note. It read: "Notice these high-quality apples. This year represents the finest crop. You can see the blemishes caused by the hailstorm, which created the extreme cold giving the ultimate flavor and ultimate crispness to these apples."
Well, not a single order was returned. In fact, just the opposite happened. The following year when his orders started coming in he had many requests from people who wanted to make sure they got the apples with the blemishes this year, too! (5)
That's the way it works for people of faith. We don't escape the blemishes. We wear them proudly, for we could not be who we are today without the growth that those blemishes brought with them.
Storms come. Some of you are young. It seems like you will live forever. That's wonderful, but if you are smart, you will prepare yourself for that time when life sends us the unexpected squall. Prepare yourself by building strong relationships. Prepare yourself by keeping yourself fit physically, mentally and spiritually. Decide to build your life on the rock of faith.
Rabbi Jan Goldstein recalls one unexpected benefit from the 1994 earthquake that rocked Los Angeles. The disaster caused massive power outages all over the city. But, for the first time in years, Goldstein saw his neighbors wander outside at night and gaze at the stars. Usually, the artificial lights that powered the city blocked out most views of the night sky. In Goldstein's experience, few Angelenos had the opportunity before this earthquake and the subsequent power outage to appreciate the beauty of the stars. (6)
I wonder if something like that didn't happen that night to the disciples. After the Master had calmed the storm, there was a great calm. But the wind from the storm had cleared the air in a wonderful way and, as they gazed at the heavens, they could see the stars as they had never seen them before. And they reflected on this man who had power over the wind and the waves. And they learned the meaning of a life built on God.
__________________________
1. Christian Values Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1994, p. 10.
2. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).
3. The Week, October 28, 2005, p. 8.
4. Leadership 14, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 49. Steve Farrar, Standing Tall (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, Inc. 2001).
5. Dump Your Hang-ups (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1993).
6. Jan Goldstein, Life Can Be This Good (Berkeley, CA.: Conari Press, 2002), p. 96.
