Sunday, 7^th February 2010.

Luke 8:22 & Revelations 4

I suppose it must be about ten years ago now since Peter and I arrived back at Calais in a storm. But we duly drove onto the ferry and set sail with no mention of anything other than a rough crossing. However we ended up spending nearly twelve hours on the boat, ten of them just off the cost of Deal. For the storm was too severe for our ferry to be able to get into Dover harbour.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience; the only safe place to sit was on the floor. So I can easily imagine how the disciples felt for I was on a large ferry – they a small rowing boat.

Help, help, God help us, we are drowning, they cried out, but how often do we call out to God in anguish. How many times do we hear others calling out – for I am pretty sure that more prayers are said to God in panic or despair than in praise. It is when we feel we are alone, that no one is helping us, that we get that overwhelming feeling of the need to know that God is with us.

In society in general God doesn’t often seem to feature that is until disasters occur and then He is thanked, prayers are offered to him, people know that they need him.

And this is what happened to the disciples, they knew Jesus was alongside them, albeit asleep, but they had to cry out to him, they were scared and who else could they turn to. But as we know Jesus wasn’t pleased they had woken him, not because he was tired and didn’t want to be disturbed, but because they had so little faith as to think he wasn’t protecting them. For if they didn’t trust him when he was alongside them, how would they be able to trust him, to have faith in him, when he was gone, when they could no longer see him.

But Jesus did stop the storm; he was able to bring peace out of chaos, calm out of panic. He was able to show the disciples that if they trusted in him, in God, then they would always be safe, they may face many dangers but he would be alongside them. And it didn’t take a long sermon to show the disciples, just a few words, to show the almighty power he had over all things.

It brings to me the words of St Francis, preach the Gospel at all times, use words if you must. For as we saw in the reading it was Christ’s actions which brought home to the disciples his power not all the words he had spoken to them previously.

Faith in the early stages of the church was, I think, spread far more through making people spiritually aware than preaching, through helping people to find their inner self. And today there seems to be a resurgence in that longing to find one’s spirituality, people have a deep longing to understand.

Tragically people don’t always see the Christian church as the route to that path, you hear of people spending money going to mediums in an attempt to find their inner selves, to talk to loved ones departed this life. The tragedy is that these people are being mislead, this isn’t what Jesus promises, he promises salvation to those who believe, not a preview of what is to come - and what’s more gaining salvation doesn’t cost money, all it costs is faith.

I think the Church needs to spend more time encouraging people to meditate, to find the space, it doesn’t need to be long, but the time to find time to be still with God, and I’m not talking about time in church I am talking about making time at home to have time with God, to be still and able to listen to him. I know it’s not always easy I use to lock myself in the bathroom when my children were young, just to have few minutes in silence.

Just as the disciples were afraid in the storm, because they didn’t know what would happen to them, in the same way the future can make people afraid for it is unknown,

it is beyond our ability to understand.

Whilst the whole bible is a revelation, the purpose of epistle is to give us a glimpse into heaven, to help us visualise the throne room. John was transported spiritually from where he was into the timeless dimension of eternity, in other words he had this vision.

In his vision he was standing in the centre of the throne room where he saw the throne in heaven. He was standing in the middle of the throne room right where our Lord dwells and there was someone sitting on the throne. The throne is the symbol of God’s sovereign rule and authority not just over heaven but over all creation.

John described He who was sitting on the throne as being as being overpowering, more brilliant than the brightest jewels with a rainbow surrounding the throne. It wasn’t an earthly scene, there was no old man with a beard, it was a spiritual scene so dazzling it is hard to describe.

For everyone, there are sudden storms in life. Perhaps we feel no one understands us – we loose our job, become ill or someone we love becomes ill, and we begin to feel scared, we feel alone, we feel that no one is bothered.

But there is one person who is always bothered – who always cares for us and that is Jesus. He may not be able to make the problem go away but he does help us to cope with it. He journeys with us, helps us to see the way ahead.

This has been proved by countless people since Christ’s time. When the Gospels were being written the church faced persecution and today countless number of Christians are persecuted for their faith. But what keeps them going is the knowledge that God is with them, that he suffers with them and will never leave them, and they can feel his power in their lives giving them the strength to carry on. Last Sunday we were reminded again of the suffering in Zimbabwe, but that the Church there trusting in God that peace will come to their land.

In the 3^rd century a theologian wrote ‘ The little ship offers us the figure of the Church, for she is tossed by the sea, and by the waves, with the Lord patiently sleeping, as it were, until awakened by the prayers of the saints he checks the world and restores tranquillity to his own.’ Belief in the power of prayer has sustained the church since Christ’s time.

Christ lived on earth and he knows how it feels to be scared. If we trust him, he will help us, help us to understand what is happening, help us to cope. He will calm the storms of doubt and fear in our hearts. We call him the Prince of Peace because when we pray to him, he will come into our hearts to comfort us and help us cope with all the storms of life. Amen,