Weathering Storms: Sermon

Dr. Seuss the writer of children’s books, often captures deep truths in simple statements. A quote I read of his in preparation for this sermon reads:
 

Troubles of all sort come throughout our lives – some develop slowly over time, some happen suddenly and shockingly, some have a nasty habit of reappearing time and time again. And while we wish we had a big bat with which we can fight back – it’s not actually that simple.

In the last few weeks – we as a congregation have faced trouble, have seen heartache and have weathered storms. Yesterday we assisted with the funeral of a beautiful young girl, the daughter of one of our families.

And the reality is that each of us, at some time, has gone through trials and difficulties, has suffered and has journeyed through valleys of pain and loss and heartache.

This morning I’m going to be looking at weathering storms. Looking at what we can use to hold us and help us, to get our lives through rough seas and dark clouds.

We will be looking at multiple readings this morning but I’m going to start with one from the book of Mark – a well-known story of Jesus and his disciples. Its Mark chapter 4 – and I’ll be reading from verses 35-39

“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!

Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

May God bless to us this reading of his Holy Word.

Let us pray:

Father, as we come to your word this morning speak to our hearts, guide us and encourage us. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you and bring you glory. Amen.

The storms that happen in the sea of Galilee are fierce, unpredictable and extremely dangerous to small boats. Because of the relatively shallow waters, the winds are able to create a great disturbance. In our reading we are told that the waves were breaking over the boat to the point of them being swamped.

Storms have the ability to grab our attention, to question life, at times to shake us to our core. Whether the waves carry labels of illness, or financial strain, or broken relationships or loss – each of them can frighten us, intimidate us and at times even leave us devastated and in despair.

How do we survive in our little boats? If we are honest we know we are fragile. The Bible describes us as grass – in 1 Peter 1 we read

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall…”

Those beautiful little flowers we see in the veld – we are as fragile as that. And while we like to hold on to the idea of us being strong and in control – it’ll often take just one wave to shake our strength, and we realise that we have very little power at all.

But we do have some things that never change and are a gift of strength to us as we journey on these seas – and the first is the gift of hope as an anchor

Hebrews 6:19 reads:

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

The hope that we have is that this is not all there is. That while it may seem that what we can see and touch here is the only reality – there is a beauty and reality far more permanent and true than this.

And so our hope rests in a God who not only created us, but who longs to be known by us. A God who loves us so much that he became one of us that we might love Him. He then died for us to enable us to live forever, and that we may know Him and know his love.

He then gives us his Spirit, who lives inside us as a promise, as a foretaste of what awaits us when our journey here is finished.

And so we have hope knowing that there is meaning and purpose behind all that happens. We have hope because we know God has not left us but rather is intimately involved in our lives. One of my favourite stories is of a painting depicting a burnt down cottage, and in front of it an old man, who has clearly just lost all that he has. Holding the hand of this old man is a young boy sobbing. The Title of the painting is “Hush Child – God ain’t dead”.

We serve a living God who is on the throne, and who has promised us that one day – all that is wrong will be made right. That one day injustice, evil, cruelty and heartache will be destroyed. That one day cancer and corruption and abuse and slavery will be abolished… and that he will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.

We do not need to fear death for it has been conquered. Our anchor is lodged in the truth of hope. No matter what waves and storms may beat our boat – our hope, our anchor can hold firm.

As the old hymn tells us

It is safely moored, ’twill the storm withstand,

For ’tis well secured by the Saviour’s hand;

And the cables passed from His heart to mine,

Can defy the blast, through strength divine.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul

Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,

Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,

Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.

The second gift we are given is the Word as our light.

Psalm 119:105 reads

In stormy waters one of the most comforting sights for a boat is the lighthouse. Not only is it a promise and encouragement of land nearby, but it also provides guidance and direction around dangerous rocks and shallow areas.

The young adults group that meets here on Tuesdays are studying a group of psalms called the psalms of accent. And what we keep discovering more and more is that every human emotion, every struggle seems to be captured in the psalms. We have the writer crying out for deliverance, for guidance, for favour. There are moments of questioning –

Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favour again?

Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?

There are moments of great joy and trust–

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the sea resound and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant and everything in them – Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy” Psalm 96:11-12

The Lord is my shepherd – I shall not be in want…” Psalm 23:1

God’s word for us can be as that lighthouse is – an incredible source of encouragement and promise. But it also is His chosen way of speaking and guiding and comforting us.

We can read of his faithfulness to David as he faced giants and Daniel as he faced lions.

We can read of his provision as he leads his people through dry and desert areas.

We can read of his power as we see Him create the world and split the oceans.

We can read of his love as we look at a cross that he went to for you and me.

And his word can be a light to us in dark places.

Going back to a verse that we read earlier from 1 Peter

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall…”

The last part of that verse reads – But the word of the Lord will stand forever. The light never goes out.

We have hope as an anchor and his word as a light.

And finally, we have Jesus as a companion.

In our first reading for today in Mark 4, we read of the disciples in the storm and in a boat that is ready to sink. And then we read;

Jesus was in the stern.

Jesus was there. While the storm was terrifying them all – they had the creator of water and lakes and storms there with them.

 The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!

Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

I love the power in those words. He rebuked the wind and said to the waves…

Our boats as they are tossed about by waves and storms, always have Jesus in them. We are never alone.

“Never will I leave you – never will I forsake you”

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.”

“I will not leave you orphans – I will come to you.”

“In this world you will have trouble – but be brave – I have overcome the world.”

We are not made to weather storms alone. Not only is he present with us in the boat – but he also understands. As he walked here among us, as one of us, he experienced grief, betrayal, fear, exhaustion, frustration, loneliness and pain. He is not a God who cannot sympathise or who stands far off – but rather one who knows, who understands, who loves us – and who has the power to change things.

And we are not by any means promised a storm free life. We are not even promised that when we turn to Him that he’ll click his fingers and everything will go smoothly as we would want.

There is a saying that says – “Sometimes God calms the storm… sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child.”

The biggest storm is often the one that rages within our hearts and in our souls. And in the midst of whatever rages around our little boats – may we hear the words deep within – “Quiet. Be still.”

In the Narnia series, C. S. Lewis writes of Aslan, who relates to the world of Narnia as Jesus does to our world. In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the books characters are sailing a ship into unknown seas. They come to a patch of darkness and in rowing into it find themselves in a terrifying situation – a situation where their worst nightmares become reality. They have rescued a man who has been trapped there for many years – and now are struggling to get out themselves. In this dire situation Caspian, the King turns to the ship’s captain Drinian:

"Drinian," he said in a very low voice. "How long did we take rowing in? - I mean rowing to where we picked up the stranger."

"Five minutes, perhaps," whispered Drinian. "Why?"

"Because we've been more than that already trying to get out."

Drinian's hand shook on the tiller and a line of cold sweat ran down his face. The same idea was occurring to everyone on board. "We shall never get out, never get' out," moaned the rowers. "He's steering us wrong. We're going round and round in circles. We shall never get out." The stranger, who had been lying in a huddled heap on the deck, sat up and burst out into a horrible screaming laugh.

"Never get out!" he yelled. "That's it. Of course. We shall never get out. What a fool I was to have thought they would let me go as easily as that. No, no, we shall never get out."

Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting top and whispered, "Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now." The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little - a very, very little - better. "After all, nothing has really happened to us yet," she thought.

"Look!" cried Rynelf's voice hoarsely from the bows. There was a tiny speck of light ahead, and while they watched a broad beam of light fell from it upon the ship. It did not alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up as if by searchlight. Caspian blinked, stared round, saw the faces of his companions all with wild, fixed expressions. Everyone was staring in the same direction: behind everyone lay his black, sharply-edged shadow.

Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first it looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite, and at last with a whirring of wings it was right overhead and was an albatross. It circled three times round the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of the gilded dragon at the prow. It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words though no one understood them. After that it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard. Drinian steered after it not doubting that it offered good guidance. But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart," and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's.”

Courage dear heart.

In life storms will come – some will do damage to our boat, some may even feel as though they may overwhelm us. But as the disciples saw, as Lucy found out – we are never alone. We have Jesus as our companion.

Three things to hold us together – to enable us to weather storms. We have hope as an anchor firm and secure. We have the Word as our light to encourage and comfort. And above all, we have Jesus as our companion.

And Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble – but be brave, I have overcome the world.”

Courage dear heart.

Let us pray. 

The Goodness of God!

Psalm 145

A psalm of praise. Of David.

¹ I will exalt you, my God the King;
    I will praise your name for ever and ever.
² Every day I will praise you
    and extol your name for ever and ever.

³ Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    his greatness no one can fathom.
⁴ One generation will commend your works to another;
    they will tell of your mighty acts
⁵ They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
    and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
⁶ They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
    and I will proclaim your great deeds.
⁷ They will celebrate your abundant goodness
    and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
    slow to anger and rich in love.
⁹ The Lord is good to all;
    he has compassion on all he has made.
¹⁰ All you have made will praise you, O Lord;
    your saints will extol you.
¹¹ They will tell of the glory of your kingdom,
    and speak of your might,
¹² so that all men may know of your mighty acts
    and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
    and your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is faithful to all his promises,
    and loving toward all he has made.
¹⁴ The Lord upholds all those who fall
    and lifts up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ You open your hand
    and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and loving toward all he has made.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
    he hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The Lord watches over all who love him,
    but all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹ My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
    Let every creature praise his holy name
    for ever and ever.

Isn’t that a beautiful Psalm? It’s truly one of my favourites. It’s a Psalm of David, which was actually a song – one of the sadness’s of translating things like the Psalms is that one loses out on the rhyme and rhythm of the songs. This is also the last of the acrostic poems – an acrostic poem is when each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet. In this case the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters.  Strangely though – and this can be your interesting fact for the day – In verse 13 you will notice there are four lines. The second two lines which reads

The Lord is faithful to all his promises,
    and loving toward all he has made.

Does not fit into this acrostic pattern. It stands alone in the midst of the psalm and no one knows why!

Goodness is a difficult term to define these days as it is one of those words which gets used to describe any number of things.  The chicken we ate for supper last night – that was some good chicken. The little boy who sits quietly through a church service is a good boy. A closely competitive rugby match is a good game. And let me tell you – I’m feeling good today!

All these things however good they may be – are in some way tainted. They are good for the moment – but far from what we mean when we talk of God’s incredible goodness.

When Jesus gets approached by a rich young man and addressed with the term “Good teacher” he replies by saying in Mark 10:18 (NLT): "’Why do you call me good,’ … ’Only God is Truly Good.’"

The Dictionary defines goodness as: moral excellence, kindness, generosity, benevolence. We’re going to look at Psalm 145 among other passages to come to understand the saying we so glibly say so often;

God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good.

Firstly – Moral Excellence. Another way of saying this would be verse ¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and loving toward all he has made.

Righteousness. The Lord is Goodness – thus everything we know as being good, we know because we can compare to him, and his standards, and his love. He is the plumb line – the constant, the unchanging. When we want to know what is right or good we turn to Scripture, we turn to Christ and how he lived while here among us. “What would Jesus do” is a well overused saying, but its truth remains – you want to live a good life? Follow Christ. This is why we refer to God as the Rock – the one solid aspect in our lives that will not change. Why Jesus said that those who obey his teachings are like a man who builds his house upon a rock – constant – dependable.

One of my favourite authors; Lloyd C. Douglas, who wrote The Robe and many other novels, lived in a boarding house during college. A retired music teacher lived on the first row, with whom he had a daily ritual. Douglas would ask, “What’s the good news today?” The old man would take his tuning fork and strike the side of his wheelchair and said, “That’s is Middle C. It was Middle C yesterday, and it will be Middle C a thousand years from now. The soprano upstairs sings off-key, and the piano across the hall is out of tune. But this - this is Middle C.”

Moral excellence. As the song says;

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS, O GOD, MY FATHER
THERE IS NO SHADOW OF TURNING WITH THEE
THY CHANGEST NOT, THY COMPASSIONS THEY FAIL NOT
AS THOU HAST BEEN THOU FOREVER WILL BE 

Secondly – Kindness.  Again this is a word that has truly lost its significance. 

There’s a lovely story from the Olympics comes from 1928, about Henry Pearce of Australia who was competing in the single scull rowing event. He was leading when a duck and her string of ducklings came into view up ahead. They were on a collision course and Pearce reckoned his boat would cut the string in two and sink a few ducklings in the process. So he pulled in his oars. When the ducks had passed Pearce again bent his back to the task. There’s a happy ending to the story in that he still went on to win the race.

The kindness of God is what Isaiah was talking about in chapter 42 when it reads,

“A bruised reed he will not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.”

This aspect of the goodness of God is what makes him ever patient with us and our failures, our falls, our disappointments. It’s what makes him sit with us in our grief, and weep alongside us. It is this kindness that draws us to him, rather than the harsh push of need. As a child runs to his father with a scraped knee so we can run to our Father with our bruised lives. 

We see it in Jesus reaching out to touch the man with leprosy, turning to speak to the woman who had touched his cloak, in noticing the short outcast who had climbed a tree to see him go by, in feeding 5000 families, in raising a widow’s son.

 In verse 14 of our passage it reads:

¹⁴ The Lord upholds all those who fall
    and lifts up all who are bowed down.

Mother Theresa is quoted as saying

“Be the Living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”

Generosity is the next in the definition of goodness, and I wonder if we even need to walk down this road. Creation sings to the generosity of God, Family testifies to it, our church is evidence of it.

I’ve just spent 10 days in the Fish River Canyon and in the Kalahari desert. You have never seen stars until you’ve seen stars in the desert. We would lie at night staring at the sky in wonderment – there was not a single patch of sky that was not flecked with specks of light. The milky way was a clear bright stripe running through the sky. We saw shooting stars, and satellites, and constellations and really words are inadequate to try and describe them.

Science tells us that without a telescope you can only see about 3,000 stars from any point on Earth and let me tell you we saw at least that. They estimate the universe contains at least 70 sextillion stars (70-thousand-million-million-million). That's 7 followed by 22 zeroes, or ten-times the number of grains of sand on earth. Psalm 147:4 tells us God "counts the numbers of the stars; He gives names to all of them." 70 sextillion names. You what to know about generosity? Not only that, but God counts the numbers of every hair on every person in the world. Jesus said, "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Luke 12:7). 

Kent Crockett, a Christian author and speaker commented that “If God knows that much, He certainly knows what you are going through right now.”

God is a generous God – take a brief moment to think of the ways in which he has blessed you. Our thoughts immediately go to family, and friends, houses and jobs, children, grandchildren...

And then we see Christ. God’s ultimate act of generosity… For God so loved the world that he GAVE…

If God did not withhold giving us his most beloved and precious only son – will he not freely give us all things. If you who are evil know how to give gifts to your children, how much more would your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

Our God is a good God.

Lastly the definition speaks of benevolence. Whereas the words goodness and kindness have been overused – This is a seldom used word. It speaks of the nature of a person, beyond their actions. It links to concepts of selflessness and altruism. 

In the OT, goodness is translated from the Hebrew words tov and tuv: but it refers to that quality in God that causes Him to deliver people, bless them and store up future gifts for them. It implies a sense of delight in the giver and the gift. This delight is the nature of God – a God who longs to deliver and bless and give.

This is how we can say God is good – all the time. It’s not just his actions, but his very being that is good. Sadly however this understanding brings up difficult questions. Just on Thursday our country was thrown into shock with 34 miners being shot by police in protests, just 100km from here. 34 families today are without fathers and sons and breadwinners. Wives are asking God why? Children are asking God why? 

And there is the on-going painful question that we all ask at some point in our lives. How can a good God, allow suffering? How can there be so much evil in the world, and since it’s a personal question it becomes how can there be so much pain and struggle in my life. 

Corrie Ten Boom said, “Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!’ Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. "No, Corrie," said Betsie, "He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: 'For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.'" Corrie concluded, "There is an ocean of God's love available--there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love--whatever the circumstances."

Terrible things happen. We don’t always know why. But what we can know is that whatever the circumstances. God’s goodness and his love does not change. He proved his love once for all on the cross, in the horrific death and resurrection of his son. He loves you that much. Just as a child cannot understand why his parents would take him for painful injections, or force him to eat his vegetables – so too we cannot understand all our Heavenly Father does. But we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that whatever those circumstances are – God does not change. His goodness, His love, His mercy is steadfast.

Our Psalm today reads in verses:

⁸ The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
    slow to anger and rich in love.
⁹ The Lord is good to all;
    he has compassion on all he has made.

Tim and I, when we got married made a deal with each other. You see I know that Tim loves me and would never intentionally do anything to hurt me, and he knows this from my side too. So whenever anything is said, that sounds harsh, or can be taken in two ways – we made a deal with each other to always hear the way in was meant – in love. I have chosen to always believe the best about my husband because I know him and his love for me.

In the same way, the way we look at the world shows what we believe about God. God is good. All the time. If we look at the world with that understanding, we will run to him, rather than from him. We will know that nothing is outside of his mercy. We will approach the throne of grace with confidence in times of need. We will experience the nearness and love and kindness of God in hours of our deepest need.

There is a beautiful poem which reads

"He giveth more grace when burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance;
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done;
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources;
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace knows no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth and giveth and giveth again."

Our God is a good God.