The Reverend Ronald J. Kolanowski
June 21, 2009
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 7, Year B

Today’s gospel follows the story from last week when Jesus was teaching the crowds from the boat.  This week that boat is crossing the Sea of Galilee and a storm comes up.  If any of you have ever been on the water in a storm, you know how frightening that can be.

I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan.  The Great Lakes are more like oceans than lakes.  Storms routinely come in from the West from Wisconsin to Michigan.  You could see them many miles away and had plenty of time to prepare.  However, if you are on the water you can’t waste time getting back to shore.  The lakes are dangerous. 

When I was a small child we had a pleasure boat.  One time I was on Lake Michigan with my parents, some family friends and my younger brother.  We visited a town about an hour away by water from our home.  On the way home a huge storm came out of nowhere.  I was not worried at all.  I had complete faith in the adults and thought it great fun to ride the waves.   The adults did not enjoy it.  They put me in the bow of the boat.  It was total fun for me and total fear for them.

The disciples were experienced fishermen who weren’t easily frightened, but this storm was nasty enough to make them afraid.  They grabbed Jesus and shouted, “Jesus, wake up,” and uttered the classic line, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”  Jesus’ immediately calmed the wind and sea, and then asked, “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”

Fear and faith… two powerful emotions that aren’t always at odds with each other.  Fear is not a bad thing; it can be a good thing.  It’s my natural defense mechanism against danger. 

The storms of life happen to everyone and problems cannot be avoided.  Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “. . . the more problems you have the more alive you are.”  We cannot stop the storms of life; what matters is how we feel about the storm.

Bishop Peter Rogness, former President of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, goes a step further.  In his book, He Was Only Twenty-Four, written following his son’s death, he says, “You and I are built for storms.  One of the great perils that face the church in our day is that we steer people out of the storm centers.  We are not to anchor our lives in some sheltered cove and let the storm-tossed world go by.  The Lord’s call is not like that. Not to an easier task but a greater cause.  Not to peace but to battle. Not to a cozy harbor but to the sea of storms.  We are not built for safe harbors.  We are built for storms.”

When I was a chaplain I read a book by John Patton.  Patton held that pain is something that happens to all of us, but suffering is something we choose.  I’ve always been intrigued and bothered by that idea.  I know people who don’t seem to choose suffering but suffer anyway.  I think in particular of people who are trapped in various addictions… diseases that create great suffering.  But today’s gospel is a help to me.  It isn’t necessarily that we choose suffering; rather, it is allowing fear to have mastery over us.  People who are able to have success in recovery programs are those who realize that they are powerless to confront the demons on their own.

This is at the heart of the Christian message.  We are made to weather the storms of life, but not alone.  Christianity is not a private experience; it is something lived in community.  We experience God in and through one another.  We may be created to weather the storms of life, but we do so together. 

So, my brothers and sisters…. who we surround ourselves with makes a difference.  If we surround ourselves with people whose lives are governed by fear it is more likely we will live in fear.  If we surround ourselves with people who live out of faith it is more likely that we will do the same.  The old saying, you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep…is true.

Unlike the fun I had as a child in a storm on Lake Michigan, I had a very different reaction on a large ferry boat during a storm as we crossed the Cook Straits from the North to the South Island of New Zealand.  I was terrified.  I tried to conjure up being a kid riding the waves, but it didn’t work.  That same principle applies to amusement parks.  As a child I would love the roller coasters.  I’m not much fun at Six Flags.  You’ll never catch me on the Superman ride.  I’m too afraid, I have too little faith, to do that.  Getting older and having children tempers one’s sense of adventure.

Fear is not a bad thing, it’s how we allow fear to control our lives that matters.  Life is filled with storms. 

What are the storms in your life right now?  Maybe you are facing financial problems, excessive debt, or loss of a job.  Maybe you are facing illness, or grieving a death.  Maybe you are in the midst of a divorce or a major life transition.  Maybe you are experiencing more than one of these storms at once. 

Today, know that you are built for storms.  Take stock in who surrounds you.  Are you keeping company with people governed primarily by fear or by faith?  It’s not that you are afraid; fear is your natural protection.  What matters is the degree to which your life is controlled by fear.  As Christians, our life is rooted in Christ Jesus.  God is in control.  The fears of the world do not have ultimate power over us.  I ask each of us to consider what it is that governs your life…fear or faith.  What do you want to choose?

Let us pray.  O God, although we wonder why we are caught in the midst of so many storms, grant that we may never be afraid that they will sweep us from your presence.  Be with us to steady us and enable us to take anything that comes with confidence and with faith.  Amen.

Copyright © 2009 by The Reverend Ronald J. Kolanowski