Pentecost Three - June 25, 2006        

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were on a camping trip.  After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retired for the night and were soon fast asleep. 

Some hours later, Holmes woke up and asked his faithful friend, “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

“I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes,” Watson said.

“And what do you deduce from that,” Holmes asked?

Watson thought for a minute and said, “Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.  Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.  Chronologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.  Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day today.  Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe, but loved as if we were the only thing God ever created.  So, what does that tell you, Holmes?”

Holmes was silent for a moment and then said, “Watson, you idiot!  Someone has stolen our tent!”

I suspect if it had been raining, Watson would have noticed the real problem.  It is very often the storms of life that remind us to never take things for granted.  Storms come to every life.  There are times when we are buffeted about, when we seem to have lost our sense of direction and purpose.  We seem to be living in an age when it is as hard to relax as it is to repent.  How did we get that way?

I would suggest that it is partly the rush and pace of contemporary life, with the pressures and demands of work and home.  It is the desire to be a good father, husband, wife, mother, child, friend, co-worker, or church member.  It is realizing that our day only has twenty-four hours in it, just like every day from the beginning of time.  Add to this the general anxiety and insecurity of our age and suddenly the winds howl, the waves swell, and the little boat rocks and we become disoriented and sick.  We yearn for some serenity, some calm, and some peace in the midst of such storms.

We are given an example in today’s Gospel of one who had that sense of calm and inner serenity and peace.  We may, if we wish, learn some things from this man who is asleep on a pillow in the stern of the boat.  We do a great disservice to this story and to the person of Jesus the Christ if we see this only as a physical storm on the Sea of Galilee.  There are other storms and we may look to this one named Jesus the Christ to calm those, as well.

At its most basic level the scene is a great storm on the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus is asleep through it all until the disciples yell at him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  The calm, peaceful man stands and addresses an outwardly hectic situation. 

Where did this calmness, this sense of peace, come from?  More importantly, can we tap into the same source as he did?  The answer is yes, if we choose to do so.  Tapping into that source restores a sense of balance.  Most of the time, we lack that sense of balance.  We tend to be “all or nothing” kinds of folks.  Jesus is often recorded in scripture as demonstrating that sense of balance.  He would become involved in the demands of life and then retreat for spiritual nurture.  He would preach for a period of time and then spend time in prayer.  He would reach out and place healing hands on those who needed that touch and then he would allow others to touch him when he needed ministering unto.  Throughout his life he maintained that sense of balance.

Tapping into that source can restore a sense of purpose.  Jesus was in the world for others and not for himself.  Very often our being in the world is defined by phrases like, “dog eat dog,” “every person for themselves,” “look out for number one,” “if you don’t toot your own horn, no one else will.”  We seek, as the first order of business, money, position, status, power, and fame.  It seems we never get enough, satisfaction is always just around the corner, or will finally come with the next acquisition.

Jesus reminded his followers that his purpose for coming into the world was to do the will of the Father and to serve others.  He also reminded his followers, then and now, that if he, their Lord and Rabbi, came to serve, they, too, must serve.

There is tremendous calm and peace that comes from serving others in the name of the Risen Lord; not because we will be noticed or so that others will be indebted to us, but from knowing we are doing the Father’s will.

Finally, tapping into that source of calmness and peace restores a sense of trust.  “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  Unbelief puzzled Jesus.  Perhaps it should puzzle us more than it seems to do.   He had told them that God was absolutely trustworthy.  He cared for flowers of the field and birds of the air.  Not even a tiny sparrow fell from the sky without the Father noticing, loving, and caring.  How much more for each one of us would that Father notice, love, and care?  We have our own experiences of God caring about us, providing for us even more than we care about ourselves or know what our real needs are.  The Father has shown us over and over again that he is absolutely trustworthy.

Remember in this troubled, noisy world when the clouds gather and the wind blows stiff against you, and the waves shake your little boat to the breaking point, there is one who can rebuke the storms that come from without and within.  That word to us is, “Peace, be still.”

Pray, dear Christian friends, for the calm and peace that can come from having a sense of balance, a sense of purpose, and a sense of trust.  I would want to suggest that the peace and calm that comes from God can stand us on solid ground when it feels like someone has stolen our tent.

Then, no matter what General Convention did or did not do, no matter the gender of the Presiding Bishop, and no matter how high the waves, we can join with Horatio Gates Spafford in singing, “When peace, like a river, attendeth our way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught us to say, it is well, it is well with our soul.”  Amen.