Storms

Psalm 34: 4-7, 17-18

2 Corinthians 4: 8-9

Mark 4: 35-41

Storms

 Chippie was a happy parakeet who loved to sing. But, poor Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over. The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in.

The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned. Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted Chippie with hot air.

Yep, Chippie never knew what hit him. A few days after the trauma, a good friend contacted Chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn’t sing anymore -- he just sits and stares."

Every felt that way? Sucked in, washed up and blown over? I suspect all of you have at some time.  Like the disciples you’ve been on stormy seas, and if by some strange chance you haven’t - you will.

Storms came in the life of Jesus as well. He and the disciples found themselves in the middle of a ferocious squall out on the lake known as the Sea of Galilee. This was nothing unusual there. It is in a basin surrounded by mountains and notorious for furious storms. Rising just to the North over the lake is beautiful Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is capped with snow, and sometimes the cold air from the top of Hermon rushes down the mountain and blows across the lake. The force of the cold air meeting the hot moist air around Galilee can be explosive, as it was on the day in our story. Jesus and his friends are in the middle of the lake when the squall hits. It is terrifying and it looks as though they will not survive the storm.

I was watching the fireworks from Washington D.C. the other night, and they started to play the William Tell Overture, with the cannons firing as the fireworks exploded. If there were a soundtrack to the story of the disciples and Jesus out on the lake that night, the William Tell Overture would fit well. As the story begins, in the background you’d hear the wind blowing and the waves rising. Then wind hits in full force, the waves crash against the hull, the disciples are screaming, the tension mounts, all hope is gone, and then, the climax music. Here comes the hero--- Jesus. What happens next is something for which the disciples are not prepared.

Like these men, maybe your boat has been thrown around. Perhaps you’ve been plunged into the eye of the storm, and if that hasn’t happened yet, just wait - it’s coming. Maybe it was a family disaster. Death, or disease, or divorce. Maybe it was a financial storm. You lost your job or got heavily in debt. Maybe your tempest came in the form of depression, whose gale force winds can rip down your sails and leave you dead in the water, feeling overwhelmed and underpowered. I don’t know what it has been, or what it will be in your life, but I know this: storms come to everyone. That is the first lesson from this story. Storms will come.

The second lesson of this story is, Jesus is with us in the storm. It you are going to be in a storm, the one person you want your boat is Jesus. Jesus could have stayed on the shore and let them take all the chances by themselves, but he did not do that. Where they went, he was there. However, notice that Jesus is asleep. In the middle of this storm, when the disciples are frightened for their lives, Jesus was asleep.

We have all been there, haven’t we? You are in the middle of a crisis and it seems like God is off somewhere taking a nap. You can almost hear him snoring. He doesn’t seem very responsive to your need. At least we know that we are in the same boat as the disciples. But what is Jesus’ response when he is awakened? After he rebukes the storm, he rebukes his disciples. He asks them two questions: “Why are you so afraid?”, and “Do you still have no faith?”.

Here is the third lesson: Jesus will calm the storm. At the perfect time during the perfect storm he exercises his power over the storms of life. God is never in a hurry, and the reason he is never in a hurry is because he knows exactly what to do at exactly the right time. He does not go by our time. At just the right time, not the right time as far as the disciples were concerned, but just at right time, Jesus stood up and calmed the storm. Don’t worry, God has you in mind. He knows and understand you and your situation. He cares for you. His timing is perfect.

Here is a fourth lesson from this story. It is what a storm in your life does NOT mean. It does not mean that God does not love you. It does not mean that God is angry with you, or that he is paying you back for something. God is not toying with you. Sometimes the storms that happen in our lives are self-made. But many times it is just that storms happen, and trying to analyze what happened or assign blame is a fruitless activity. As Jesus once said, “God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, good and bad happen to all. What  is important  is whether or not we are prepared for them, and trust God’s promise that he will be with us through it all.

Jesus rebuked the disciples because he was hoping that what they had seen him do in the past would provide a stronger faith in the future, but that was not the case. So first Jesus had to calm the storm, and then he had to calm his disciples. Has God ever done anything for you in the past? Has he solved any problems or answered any prayers? He is hoping that his faithfulness in the past will cause you to trust him in the future.

And a final lesson we can take from this story is, it is only in the storms that we can come to truly understand who Jesus is. It is in those crisis moments, at times when we no longer have control, that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we really understand who Jesus is and how true God’s promises are. If you place your complete faith and trust in Jesus, you will have a greater understanding of him, a deeper relationship with him, and a new love for him when the storm is over. You will see his power over darkness and the depth of his love for you. Jesus is telling us to live by faith, not by fear.

God uses storms. I do not believe he causes every storm. God loves each of us, and I know God does not afflict anyone with pain, or harm. But I know God uses every storm. We bring many storms upon ourselves, sometimes we suffer from storms caused by others. And some storms just happen.  But storms become God’s best tools, because they make us humble, and they give us the opportunity to think about what is really most important in our lives.

I hope you’re ready for the next storm when it comes. Not, "If it comes", but "when it comes."  Ask God to deliver you from the storm, and then believe that God will fulfill his promise.  He will deliver you from the storm.

Amen