10-1-2014

Good Morning All,

        Mark 4:36; “And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.”

        I was watching one of my favorite old movies the other day.  Late at night there was a showing of the movie “Jaws.”  For those of you who do not know, the basic premise is that a huge Great White shark is terrorizing a resort and eventually our three heroes go out and try to kill it.  The shark is supposed to be between 25 and 30 feet long.  On the boat is the old sea dog, a veteran of WWII, a young upstart marine biologist and the reluctant town sheriff.  The old sea dog and the young upstart spend much time sniping at each other while the sheriff gets all the “junk” jobs on the boat.

     One of his jobs is to throw bloody fish guts and pieces over the side of the boat trying to draw the shark.  As he is kneeling down over the edge of the boat, the shark jumps out of the water near the boat.  He stands with a look of terror in his eyes; he backs into the cabin where the sea dog and the young upstart are arguing.  He looks at both of them and says, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”  He saw the shark, saw his boat and decided right away, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

    In our verse, Jesus is crossing the Sea of Galilee when a storm hits.  He is asleep in his boat but the others, especially those on the little boats are terrified.  They are convinced that they are going to drown.  They wanted a bigger boat.  There have been many times in my life when I wished that I had been in a bigger boat.  There are always times in our lives when the storms seem so huge and the waves gigantic; we may even see sharks in the water.  There are times I wish I had a bigger boat.  Yet, if I had a bigger boat, would I just have more room for the junk that life tells me I need?

     The truth is that what we need is faith in Jesus to be there to calm the storm.  We also need to remember that “calming the storm’ may not mean removing the event but it does mean to remove the fear and the anxiety that we experience.  We may still face job problems, relational issues, health issues and the like but these events do not define who we are.  These events do not represent “failures” in our life rather they are to show us the wonder of God.  No matter what we face, Jesus is there to calm it down.  It is never about the size of the storm or the size of the boat but about the size of God’s love for us. 

    God’s love for you will always prevail.  Even in the tiniest boat, God’s love for you will always prevail.  The challenge for us is to always look at the waves and the storm through the eyes of faith.  Holding onto the truth that God is always there to guard us and protect us.  We don’t need a bigger boat because we already have the greatness of God.

Father, the storms cause us to fear and we look at the size of our boat and we question.  Give us the faith to trust in you.  Give us the sureness of your wondrous grace in our lives.  Help us to know that you will always calm the storms for us and give to us the peace that the world cannot give.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.           

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret