Someone I was listening to described herself as being ‘all at sea’ when speaking of a time in her life when she wasn’t sleeping well. It had thrown her off balance, and disrupted her routine. We probably all know what that feels like. Many events in life can give us this feeling: from illness to bereavement, from a shock to retirement. We’re left reeling, so we can relate to the analogy used in our Psalm: ‘They reeled and staggered like drunken men.’ Natural symbolism has been used from early times to help describe our spiritual state.
In our gospel reading, Jesus is asleep in one of the boats as they cross the lake. A great gale springs up, and the boat’s being beaten by the waves so that it’s being swamped. They wake him up. ‘Don’t you care that we’re all going to perish?’ Jesus rebukes the wind, and says to the sea ‘Peace! Be Still!’ The sea becomes still. Jesus wonders why they were afraid: their faith should overcome their fears. At times we find it hard to hold on to the hope and promise our faith gives us.
The story’s an illustration of the kind of event which convinced so many people of his time that the living God was being revealed to them through Jesus, not least because of the parallels they would see between this story and the story of Jonah. 2000 years later, we still believe that God is revealed to us through Christ. As Christians, might God be revealed through us?
We might be ‘all at sea’ on the journey of faith. Sometimes we’re not at all sure where we’re going, one minute we’re up on the waves and the next we think we’re sinking and the boat’s going to break up. If we hold on in our minds and hearts to the knowledge that Jesus is here with us, all shall be well. Our faith gives us hope.
We pray ‘Thy will be done’ every time we meet together. It’s good to pray the Lord’s prayer every day. Let’s hold on to those words. Let’s jettison any baggage that might be holding us back, or that causes us to think or say or do anything unkind. when we feel as if we are all at sea, let’s take spiritual direction from the words of Jesus, their working out in practice as given to us in the New Testament, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Then we will, as the words of our Psalm put it, be brought to our desired haven. Our faith can overcome our fears.
The living God is revealed to and through us as we follow Jesus. Let’s praise and thank God for this, and embrace our calling with humility. Through our words and actions, and our whole demeanour, may those we meet know that God is real, that God is good, that God is love. Amen.
Julie Rubidge, Lay Minister