“Sleeping At The Wheel”
Mark 4:35-41
Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second, he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in—washed up—and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said “hello” when Chippie was sucked up into the vacuum. The poor bird’s owner gasped—put the phone down—turned off the vacuum cleaner—and opened the bag. There was Chippie—still alive—but a little stunned.
Since the bird was covered with dust, hair and all the stuff you find in a dust bag, she grabbed him up and raced to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do…she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the bird with hot air. Poor Chippie never knew what hit him!
A few days after the trauma, a friend who had heard about Chippie’s troubles contacted his owner to see how the bird was recovering. “Well,” she replied, “Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore—he just sits and stares.”
Things happen in our lives that come along unexpectedly, and we end up feeling a bit like Chippie—sucked in, washed up, and blown over—the song stolen from the stoutest of hearts.
After a week of Vacation Bible School there may be few here this morning, like Chippie, who are just sitting and staring.
The disciples in our story for this morning probably felt a little sucked in—washed up—and blown over. They thought the danger lay outside the boat—outside the church if you will. They would soon learn the real danger lies within the boat, within their own hearts. In a word, they lacked faith. And without faith their lives were at risk of the storms which would inevitably come. And come they did and come they will. So, what can we learn from this boat ride in the storm?
- Storms come suddenly.
- Storms can make you lose direction.
- Our fear of the storm has the power to paralyze.
This sailing thing was Jesus’ idea. “That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side’” (Mark 4:35). Why the rush? Chapter 4 of Mark’s Gospel opens with a crowd so big that Jesus had to sit in a boat on the lake in order to teach them all. Wasn’t this where they needed to be? But instead, they’re in a boat, turned into the storm, at His invitation. Do you find it odd that Jesus would have invited them to sail into a storm? Probably not. After all, some of you here this morning have been invited into a “storm” by Jesus.
Did you know that a boat is the symbol for the church? It has been that way since the beginning. The ship has always been a symbol for the church. In “churchspeak” where you are sitting now is called the “nave.” The word “nave” is obviously linked to the word “naval.” Literally, “nave” is the Latin word for “ship.”
The ceiling in some of our older churches looks like the bottom of a boat turned upside down. Even as we sit here in church, we are in the boat with the disciples.
Now, when we say boat, we’re not talking about one of those big cruise liners, or a nice comfortable pontoon boat which are so popular for our area lakes. A few years ago, archeologists dug up a boat that would have been a fishing boat from Jesus’ time, like the disciples would have used and what they would have been sailing in that night.
The ministry of Jesus involves one dangerous crossing after another, from its very beginning. His path through the world becomes one of confrontation; confrontation between the way things are and the way God means them to be. The unclean spirits don’t want their boat rocked, neither do the authorities. But the Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus and rocking the boat is what He has come to do.
Mark writes that the disciples took Jesus “just as He was.” I wonder what was meant by this statement.
Why is Jesus, the one who announced this journey, suddenly in the passive role? “They took Him with them”—like the toddler you buckle into the car seat as you head home to bed. “Should we put him in his pajamas first? No, let’s not wake him.”
Maybe the disciples recognized the need to take Jesus with them whether they thought He was ready or not; which leads to the following question: Will we take Jesus as He comes to us, as He is, not as we would have Him be for us?Let’s confess, we are often guilty of attempting to remake Jesus into who we think we need Him to be rather than “just as He is.” We love to sing the traditional hymn, “Just as I am, without one plea…O Lamb of God I come.” We can come to Jesus just as we are. But do we have enough faith to allow Jesus to come to us just as He is?
The good news for hapless disciples like us is that because Jesus is who He is, we’re enough too. He takes us as we are. He doesn’t wait for us to be ready. If He did, we’d never set forth—we’d never get in the boat.
Many of the disciples on board that night were experienced fishermen. They had charted those waters hundreds of times before. They had been caught in storms before: so, why all the fear in this storm? Maybe it was a storm unlike any other they had faced. Or maybe they were chastising Jesus for not pulling His wait: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” In other words, are you just going to sleep there or are you going to get up and help? Get up and grab an oar Jesus! We need all hands on deck!
It’s not that Jesus didn’t care. He’s just the ultimate “non-anxious Presence.” It’s as if He is enacting for the disciples, and for us, that verse from Psalm 46: “Be still and know I am God.”
Jesus is sleeping at the wheel. He will not be jerked around by the fear of the disciples or our fear. “Faith” means the willingness, even the eagerness, to be with God as God is, rather than as we would have, or think, God should be. Ever felt like you were in the middle of a storm and Jesus was asleep at the wheel?
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Not flustered in the least, Jesus stands up and speaks: “Peace. Be still.” Was Jesus speaking to the storm? Or, was He speaking to the disciples? Or, is He speaking to us?
He talks to the storm face to face, Jesus will talk to anyone: members of opposing parties, hostile foreign heads of state, sinners, Samaritans, people who are out to destroy Him; anyone.
Some boys were playing on a beach with a large beach ball. By accident the ball was thrown too high and, driven by the wind, landed in the water. No thought was given to it for a few minutes until one of the boys noticed it was going farther and farther from shore. One of the boys decided to retrieve the ball. After entering the water, he realized that it was farther from shore than he had thought. Grabbing hold of the ball proved more difficult than he had expected, for it was riding high on the waves. Each time he sought to grip it; the ball slipped out of his hands. About this time, he noticed that he was quite a distance from shore, and realized, too, that he was getting tired. At that point some fear gripped him as he realized that he could drown. But he was a Christian and so he spoke a brief prayer, calling on God to protect him. His prayer brought him reassurance that God would help him, and his fear was replaced by confidence. Suddenly the thought occurred to him that he should swim around the ball so that each attempt to grab it would push it in toward the shore. The plan worked. In a matter of minutes, he was able to step on shore with the retrieved ball.
Every Christian has the choice in every situation: succumb to fear or have faith. Learning this lesson can bring peace of mind in the many turmoils and storms we pass through in this life.
In the Gardiner Museum in Boston there is a painting by Rembrandt entitled “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” It is Rembrandt’s interpretation of this scene. It shows panic etched on the faces of the disciples, as their small vessel is being raised up on a high wave, about to be crashed down. Two of the disciples are trying to rouse Jesus who is asleep in the stern of the boat. But if you look more closely, you will discover that there is something that is not quite right. There are too many people in the picture—there are fourteen. There should be thirteen (twelve disciples & Jesus). But there are fourteen. Rembrandt painted himself in the picture. He has placed himself in the same boat.
This is what we should do. It’s the best way for us to interpret this passage. We are in the boat with Jesus, faithful but frightened. And the Good News is that Jesus is there with us! And so, what we have been saying all week at VBS is true. Jesus is a true friend that we can count on!
Deo Volente!
Thanks be to God!
Eastman First Methodist Church 