Other boats ...

Hear the word of God:

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?"

Sometimes you look at a text for a long time, and you think,
“What am I missing?”
And so you look, and you look, And suddenly there it is!
What do you see?
Although we all know this text very well,
I saw something in it for the first time tonight.

“Other boats were with him.”

Other boats that Jesus was not in.
Now we know what it was like in the boat that Jesus was in.
Wind. Water. Wailing.
A boat bursting at the beam with all three.
Danger. Drowning. Death.
A dozen hearts bursting with the fear of all three.
If it was that bad in the boat with Jesus (and it must have been bad),
Then can you imagine what it was like in the boat without Jesus?

I know that you don’t want to imagine this,
but try, for just a moment.
Imagine that you’re in the boat, the one without Jesus.
What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?
If you thought that Jesus could hear you, what would you say?
What would you want to hear Jesus say?

Now that you’ve imagined what it is like to be in the boat without Jesus,
You’ve figured out what it’s like to be without Jesus altogether.
Is that a place where you would want to live?
Is that a place where you would want someone you loved to live?

Just remember, the sea isn’t any smoother in the boat with Jesus;
It’s just that Jesus is in the boat.

Grace and peace,

Ron

Because you are with us ...

Today, a prayer meant to follow the reading of 2 Samuel 7:

The threats do not wane
Walter Brueggemann

The threats do not wane,
The dangers are not imagined,
The power to undo is on the loose . . .
And in the midst, you speak your word.
It is your word that cuts the threat,
that siphons off the danger,
that tames the powers.
You speak and all is made new.
You speak your true self of abiding faithfulness,
of durable presence,
of long-standing reliability.
You give yourself in the utterance of “fear not,”
and we do not fear.
We do not fear,
because you are with us,
with us, and so safe,
with us, and so free,
with us, and so joyous.
We diminish our lives in our feeble anxiety . . .
and you veto our anxiety;
We cheapen our neighbor with our frantic greed . . .
and you nullify our greed with your satiation;
We pollute our world in our lust for safety . . .
and you detoxify our mess.
Now come here and in Kosovo,
here and in Littleton,
here and in East Lake,
here and in Louisville,
here . . . and there . . . and there . . . and there,
Override the fickleness of it all,
And give us faith commensurate with your true, abiding self.
Amen

Grace and peace,

Ron