A Sermon Prepared for Delivery
by The Rev. John D. Painter
at Centenary United Methodist Church
Metuchen, New Jersey
June 21, 2009
(Father’s Day)

Text: Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
—Mark 4:35-41, NRSV

Way back in 1966, Sister Miriam Therese Winter and the Medical Mission Sisters de-picted this story of Jesus asleep in the storm-tossed boat in song. The song was called Joy Is Like the Rain, although after all the rain we’ve had in the past several weeks, I’m not sure how much “joy” we’re finding anymore in the raindrops that keep falling on our heads. I heard that Seattle, WA, has had almost a month without measurable rainfall…Hey, Seattle! We know where it went!

I saw rain drops on my window, Joy is like the rain.
Laughter runs across my pane, Slips away and comes again.
Joy is like the rain.
I saw clouds upon a mountain, Joy is like a cloud.
Sometimes silver, sometimes gray, Always sun not far away.
Joy is like a cloud.
I saw Christ in wind and thunder, Joy is tried by storm.
Christ asleep within my boat, Whipped by wind, yet still afloat,
Joy is tried by storm.
I saw rain drops on a river, Joy is like the rain,
Bit by bit the river grows, ’til all at once it overflows.
Joy is like the rain.

So, in today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark Jesus invites his disciples to go with him to the “other side” of the Sea of Galilee. Although Jesus invites them to sail, Mark says they took Jesus with them—took Jesus “just as he was.” A curious phrase I’d like to spend some time con-sidering more fully a little later in this Message.

As is sometimes the case when the disciples are sailing on the Sea of Galilee, there is a great storm. The boat becomes swamped, and the disciples are justly terrified. And where is Je-sus through all of this tempest? He is curled up “on the cushion.” Asleep! And the terrified disci-ples wake Jesus, demanding, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Jesus arises, rebukes the wind and the waves and then he turns and rebukes the disciples: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And with that, Mark says that the disciples are filled with awe.

I’ve preached this story any number of times over the years, sometimes as a story of the way that Jesus comes to us in the storm—stills the wind and the waves—and saves us. But somehow this time around the thing I was drawn to notice more clearly in this story than I have at other times is that Jesus is asleep!

Now this sailing-across-the-Sea-of-Galilee thing was Jesus’ idea. They are in the boat, turned into the storm, at his invitation. Do you find it odd that Jesus would have invited them to sail into a storm?

Probably not. After all, there are some people here this morning that Jesus has invited to sail into a “storm.” Was it your idea to care for an aged parent? You weren’t the one who wanted your life to be disrupted in order to love and care for a seriously disabled child. You were not serving at a homeless shelter because you thought that would be a good place to spend a Monday night. Jesus invited you to go there. Jesus invited you into the “storm.”

Sometimes God does that. We say, in our beloved 23rd Psalm, “He leads me beside still waters.” But sometimes God leads us into stormy waters. Look at today’s scriptures. We didn’t read all of them this morning, but in today’s passage from 1 Samuel, the young shepherd, David, is led to face the giant Philistine, Goliath. In the epistle, St. Paul is obviously in the middle of a big fight at First Church Corinth. David would have probably preferred to stay home in Bethle-hem, safely looking after his father’s sheep. Paul might have chosen to remain secluded in his study at Jerusalem or Tarsus, poring over scripture, not going out and beginning new churches in difficult places like sin-city Corinth. But they got “invited” to sail with Jesus into the storm.

God enabled the shepherd boy to triumph over the giant. Sometimes God does that. But though Paul escaped bodily harm at Corinth, his story ends at Rome, where Paul was executed by the government, executed even though Paul obeyed God and did God’s will. Sometimes God does that.

And in today’s Gospel, where is Jesus? He sleeps on his cushion in the boat, even though his disciples fear for their lives. This is a bit disarming. After all, what greater purpose might Je-sus have than looking after us?

When Jesus awakes, he asks his disciples two questions: “Why were you afraid?” (We know the answer to that question already, for Pete’s sake—they thought they were going to die in the storm!) And, “Have you still no faith?”

What did Jesus mean by, have you still no faith? Did he mean, do you lack faith that I am the Savior, the Rescuer? Or did he mean, do you still lack faith that I am the Son of God?

We are here to worship Jesus this morning. But let’s be honest. We are also here hoping to receive comfort, enlightenment, meaning, a sense of peace, a reason to go on living, and a host of other things that we think we need and deserve. And of course, sometimes when we are at worship we really do receive peace, meaning, comfort, and a host of other divine gifts.

But all that is secondary. The main thing that we get is Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus is more than our errand boy. Mark says it upfront in this Gospel: here is the very Son of God.

Will we take Jesus as he comes to us—as he is, not as we would have him be for us? Mark says that the disciples took Jesus in the boat with them “just as he was.”

Let’s confess that we are often guilty of attempting to remake Jesus into who we think we need him to be rather than “just as he is.” We love to sing the traditional hymn, “Just as I am, without one plea…O Lamb of God I come.” We can come to Jesus just as we are. But do we have enough faith to allow Jesus to come to us just as he is?

Jesus is in the boat asleep. He will not be yanked around by the fears of his disciples. “Faith” means the willingness, even the eagerness, to be with God as God is, rather than as we would have God to be.

I heard about a person who faithfully played the piano at church every Sunday. When her daughter was taken ill, she declared, “If my daughter doesn’t recover, I will never play the piano again in church.”

Her daughter died and she kept her promise. She never played another note for God or God’s people for the rest of her life.

I can understand her hurt and anger. But let us wonder how much of our worship is an at-tempt on our part to get what we want rather than to build an enduring relationship with God? How much of our prayer is our attempt to present Jesus the odd jobs that we need to have taken care of this week rather than an open attempt to simply be with Jesus?

The good news is that Jesus really is the Son of God, which means, among other things, that he will be “just as he is” rather than how we might like him to be. And that means that part of the adventure of being a Christian—part of the drama of Sunday worship—are all those times when we come here seeking peace, or happiness, or answers, or something else we think we’ve got to have and instead, we are simply met by a living, sovereign, free God. And that’s when we are apt to join his first disciples in their awe, exclaiming, “Who then is this?”

I confess that we preachers are often guilty of presenting Jesus as if he is just another helpful means of getting whatever it is that you think you want and need. Are you sad? Come to Jesus and he will make you happy. Trouble with your children? Come to Jesus and he’ll fix that. Addicted? Lonely? Confused? Come to Jesus. He loves you so much that he will get busy for you!

No. We are those who are in the boat with Jesus, not those who have tamed Jesus or who manipulate Jesus. Sometimes Jesus leads us into calm, peaceful waters. And sometimes, in love, he invites us to sail with him into the storm.

I saw Christ in wind and thunder, Joy is tried by storm.
Christ asleep within my boat, Whipped by wind, yet still afloat,
Joy is tried by storm.

Sometimes faith means that we believe that Jesus is the solution to our problems. And sometimes faith means that we are willing to love and to obey Jesus even when he brings us problems that we would not have had before we met Jesus! The disciples in today’s Gospel are clearly confused by Jesus. But they clearly stay in the boat with Jesus. And maybe when all is said and done, that is true faith.

I saw rain drops on a river, Joy is like the rain,
Bit by bit the river grows, ’til all at once it overflows.
Joy is like the rain.

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PRAYER
Lord Jesus, we have come together on this Sunday morning in order to be with you. We ask you once again to come among us. But when we pray for your presence, we pray with some consternation. After all, how do we know what you will say to us or how you might appear be-fore us?
Will you challenge us, confuse us, or make us uncomfortable? You have done that to us on other Sundays. Dare we pray to you to come to us as you are rather than as we would have you to be?
Lord Jesus, help us to worship you as you are. Come to us, living Lord, speak to us, show us your glory, stand against us, stand beside us, surprise us, and love us as you will, not as we want. Amen.