WHEN THE STORMS OF LIFE ARE RAGING
--ISAIAH 43:1-2; MATTHEW 8:18-27; ROMANS 8 :(28)-32
Last week I began my message saying, “Inspiration for a sermon comes from many people and many places.” I would not be surprised, therefore, if you asked me, “Who or what inspired your sermon today?” Well, let me tell you. This time God immediately led me on Monday, and here is how He spoke to my heart. He used two brothers in Christ to bring this about—Ron Clark, an old friend from high school days in Marion, Illinois, in the early to mid 1960s, and Bruce Swartz, a brother in Christ in our Central Illinois Emmaus Community.
You will remember that the weekend of July 13th through the 15th I had returned to my hometown Marion, Illinois, to help the Marion High School Class of 1965 celebrate their 60th birthday. They had invited the class ahead of them, the Class of 1964, and our Class of 1966, to come as their special guests.
I don’t know when I’ve had more fun and been closer to Jesus in a long time. I saw friends I hadn’t seen for more than forty years; had breakfast with cousins on my Dad’s side of the family on Saturday and lunch on Sunday with those on my Mom’s side. I had a “God Moment” at the gravesite of my parents as I placed flowers in their vases and attended worship and Sunday School at my home Church Marion Aldersgate United Methodist.
The birthday party consisted of a mixer at the Bowling Alley on Friday evening with the main event being held at the VFW on Saturday. Both evenings I spent time with Ron Clark, Class of 1965. Ron was one of the basketball players on our 1965 Elite Eight Basketball Team. Those were the days before class championships and the IHSA would crown only one State Champion. We lost our Quarter Final at the Assembly Hall that year to Thornton of Harvey 64-60. That was the second time we had lost to them that season having previously been eliminated by them from the Centralia Holiday Tournament in the second round 66-60, but we were extremely proud of our team.
Ron is now a retired school teacher and former coach. Most of his time these days he spends traveling across the country encouraging and ministering with victims of major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Enhanced Fujita 5 tornado that on May 4, 2007, leveled ninety five percent of Greenburg, Kansas, killing ten people. Currently he is in the process of publishing a book that has as its goal raising funds to assist the victims in Greensburg, Kansas.
Reflecting on his calling to aide disaster victims, Ron shares these words with us in a letter to our three Classes:
I am not suited for major world events. I simply spend my days
finding people hurting and try to ease their pain. Some times it is
finding an elderly couple that has most of their house in need with
little resources and a desire to move in before they die. Sometimes
it is helping with some paper work with four hours on the phone
talking to a government or insurance company’s official. Most
of the time it is looking for a person who cares and matching
them up with a person of need in a disaster.
Ron Clark, sixty year old, retired school teacher, is a person who cares and is making
a difference in the lives of people who hurt.
Last Sunday evening Liz and I had to return to our former Church Decatur Central United Methodist for the Anointing Service for the Central Illinois Team that has been leading our Men’s Walk to Emmaus in Springfield this weekend. As Community Spiritual Director, it was my privilege and ministry to anoint the Weekend Spiritual Director The Rev. John M. Cross, Pastor of Bonfield-Grand Prairie United Methodist Parish, as the Weekend Spiritual Director.
Our good friend Bruce Swartz from Restoration Urban Ministries in Champaign gave the homily based on the account of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, our Gospel Lesson for this morning. Although we usually call it the Sea of Galilee, Scripture also calls this famous, Biblical body of water the Sea of Chinnereth, Chinneroth, or Tiberias; or Lake Gennesaret or Gennesareth. In size it is more like a lake.
God used Bruce as my second source of inspiration for today’s message. Bruce emphasized that we normally miss the point of this event. Our lesson is not the fact that Jesus said, “‘Peace, be still.’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” That is not the primary lesson in Discipleship Jesus is seeking to teach us.
Get the picture. This is not a deluxe yacht or first class cruise ship with the disciples on one deck and Jesus asleep in His luxurious suite a deck or two below. This is a first century, wooden fishing boat, most likely about 26 feet long by 7 feet wide. It could carry no more than fifteen men.
The Golan Heights lie to the east. The Sea is 13 miles long from north to south and eight miles wide from east to west. Storms often stir up quickly on the Sea of Galilee due to its geographic terrain. The most violent ones blow in from the Golan Heights and may reach a height of ten feet.
How would you and I feel in the middle of the night, if suddenly we were caught in such a sudden storm with ten foot high waves, violent winds, and Jesus is asleep in the stern while our boat is about to be overturned dooming us to drown? Yes, we’d most likely panic too. While “Jesus rests, we are distressed”. [SOURCE: David Smith, Mark: A Commentary for Bible Students (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2007), 116] We are oblivious to the fact that the Creator of the Universe, the One who made the wind and the waves, is right there with us all the time and that He is in absolute control of the situation.
That’s the thesis of the story, not the fact that Jesus said, “Peace, be still.” The point is that He is with us through all our tough, rough, hard times of life, and even if our ship sinks and we drown, still He is always in control. It may be the storm of divorce; a sudden, terminal illness; the death of a child, spouse, brother, sister; financial loss; a real tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, or loss of your home in an EF 5 tornado; the possibilities are endless—crisis, pain, sorrow, suffering, tragedy; hurt of any kind and in varying degrees. We all have and will continue to prove Murphy’s Law true: “Whatever can go wrong will.” Jesus may not speak to your storm, “Peace, be still.” You may loose your ship, maybe many ships over the years; but Jesus will reassure you, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” You will survive; life will go on, and with Him at your side you will be stronger than before the storm hit.
Indeed, how many times has this been true for you in your personal life? How many storms has Jesus already enabled you to endure and go on? My Mom and Dad lost their only other child at birth sixteen years and two days before I was born. Our good friend in Champaign Judy McKinney has just had stem cell replacement therapy at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis for cancer. Mom and Dad and Judy survived their storms. We still do not know the final prognosis for Judy, but there has never been anyone who has had a sweeter, Christian spirit and kept going with Jesus through her storm than Judy McKinney.
Life’s storms may not bypass us, but Jesus will go with us through them all as long as we keep our eyes fixed on Him. We have the assurance of Psalm 60:12 and Psalm 108:13: “Through God we shall do valiantly.” We can be certain that in all our trials, tribulations, problems, and storms, His promise in Hebrews 13:5 is always ours: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” No matter what storms life may send our way, with Jesus we will “weather them all.”
Always stand on Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This verse was given to me by my pastor Eugene F. Black in the midst of one of my worst storms in life when I was a junior in high school in 1965.
To share it fully I have to say that the week of Monday, July 10, through Saturday, July 14, 2007, was a week of “holy nostalgia” in my life. Those were the exact corresponding calendar dates as they were in July of 1962 a few weeks before my freshman year in high school would begin. In 1962 that was the week our MYF went to Beulah Youth Institute in Eldorado, Illinois. It was on Saturday morning, 14 July 1962, that I responded to the Invitation at the Closing Consecration Service promising that “if God every called me into full time Christian Service, I would obey His call.”
When He started doing just that a month to six weeks later, I began “rebelling and resisting with all my might.” I said, “Lord, this is not what I bargained for on July 14th; I never thought You’d really call me.” All the time I knew in my heart that I would never have joy or peace with God until I surrendered to Him in total obedience. On Saturday evening, February 27, 1965, just nine days after my seventeenth birthday, four of my friends, one of their Mothers, and I were involved in head-on-collision just outside the city limits of Herrin, Illinois, while we were on our way to see Herrin High School’s production of the Broadway Musical L’IL ABNER.
The accident was the other driver’s fault; she was only a fourteen year old girl from Harrisburg. A fifteen year old Herrin youth in her car was killed. One of my two best friends was driving the car in which we were riding, and his Mother was killed too. He had lost his Father to a heart attack only three years earlier. For me, that accident was my “Divine Wake Up Call.”
My right wrist was broken and so was my nose. When the doctor showed my Dad the x-rays of my wrist, he commented, “This looks like hamburger; I hope we can save it.” Forty years later when I had some pain and another x-ray, my new doctor said, “I can certainly see that your wrist once was severely broken!” The surgeon drilled a screw through my right thumb, and that was used for traction for over six weeks. I told the LORD on the spot that night, “Lord, if You get me out of this mess, I’ll do what you want me to do.”
God certainly did not send that accident to teach me a lesson or punish me by any means. He also did not heal me instantaneously. This was my storm which taught me that Romans 8:28 is unquestionably true: “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” All things are not good, but God uniquely brings good results out of tragedy in the lives of all His children who put their absolute, obedient faith and trust in Him.
He will not always bring your storms to an end or remove the obstacles in your path. Just like Isaiah said in our Old Testament Lesson you will have to pass through waters and walk through fire. He will be with you as you swim through the waters and as you walk through the fire. The flames may singe your skin, but they will not consume you, for He provides your strength “Through It All.” Andrae Crouch’s song by that title has kept me going with my eyes fixed on Jesus no matter how tough the situation may become.
I’ve had many tears and sorrows,
I’ve had questions for tomorrow,
There’ve been times I didn’t know right from wrong;
But in every situation
God gave blessed consolation
That my trials come to only make me strong.
I’ve been to lots of places,
And I’ve seen a lot of faces,
There’ve been times I felt so all alone;
But in my lonely hours,
Yes, those precious lonely hours,
Jesus let me know that I was His own.
I thank God for the mountains,
And I thank Him for the valleys,
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through;
For if I’d never had a problem
I wouldn’t know that He could solve them,
I’d never know what faith in God could do.
Through it all,
Through it all,
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus,
I’ve learned to trust in God;
Through it all,
Through it all,
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.
[SOURCE: Andrae Crouch, “Through It All” (Valencia, California: Mann Music, Inc., 1971]
He is there with you all the time. Lean upon Him for comfort, support strength, and ultimate victory. He will empower you to “weather your storms” every time, as you keep your eyes fixed on Him.
I don’t know when the Lord has ever really “ended” one of my storms in life. When our basketball team went to the State Quarterfinal Round in Champaign in 1965, I did not get to go. I was hospitalized for over two weeks and spent another week and a day recovering from the automobile accident at home before being able to return to school. I had to watch the game on television. Although that was a disappointment, the LORD enabled me to weather the storm, and He has continued to do so for more than forty-two years since that cold night in February 1965.
My friend Ron Clark “finds hurting people and seeks to ease their pain.” I hope this sermon does the same for you. My friend Bruce Swartz reminds me that as I “keep my eyes fixed on Jesus,” He will empower me to weather all my storms in life. Jesus wants to do the same for you and promises you He always will, my friends, as you keep trusting and looking to Him. You can be certain “He will never leave you nor forsake you,” and He will strengthen you and bring you victory “Through It All.”
