Today’s Scripture

Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32             Job 38:1-11     2 Corinthians 5:14-21             Mark 4:35-41

 

            So many times you are asked, “What church do you belong to?”  “What is your religion?”  How many times are you asked, “What is your faith.”  “What do you believe?”  “What do you put all of your marbles on the line for?”

 

            The writer to the Hebrews describes faith this way, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” [Hebrews 11:1].  It is the statement that introduces “what the ancients were commended for,” [v. 2] as he begins giving the examples of men and women of faith in Scripture.

 

            “Where is your faith?  What is your faith?  How do you know what you have faith in?  What happens in you when the winds and waves of life are overcoming you in your little boat?  What happens when your boat is swamped and sinking rapidly in deep waters?  How many times have you heard another express, “I do not know how someone without faith in Christ can get through times like this (one).”  You are standing precariously on a precipice, losing your balance, and below is not a barren canyon, but the eternal fires of hell.  “Where is your faith, buddy?”

 

            That is the message of all of today’s readings.  Each one, the Psalmist, Job, Paul in 2 Corinthians, and Mark’s account of Jesus quelling the overpowering waves on the Sea of Galilee, point all to one true God.  It is the God who made you and all things in a creation that is his alone.  It is the God who does all things by the power of his voice, his word alone.  It is a pure and perfect and unchanging and eternally true voice and word that speaks in each passage that speaks to you and all people today.  It is the one true God who is challenges people of faith in each circumstance.  These passages were written for you just as that one true God and his one true word are challenged in each circumstance in your lives today.  Just read the newspapers!

 

            In Psalm 107, the merchants went out in their boats.  They knew what they were doing.  It was their daily business.  Just as you and I each go out in our “boats” today, doing the things we know how to do.  They were raised up high, nearly to the heavens on great waves.  Don’t you ride on the high waves some days too, never imagining what it is like when your boat reverses and you are deep in the trough and those high waves now are crashing down. 

 

            Those confident merchants “reeled and staggered like drunken men, they were at their wit’s end,” [v. 27].  As sinners, we over-consume of ourselves and lose control as if in a drunken and staggering state.  That is what sin does to you.  You lose knowing and living in God’s perfect control.  Think of the first sin and how it exemplifies each and every one of our sins, proceeding as if we know more than God and ignoring his perfect commands of love.

 

            In both the Psalm, Job, and Mark, people cried to the Lord in their distress.  In Job, God speaks from a “whirlwind.”  That is the same word that describes the “furious squall” that came up on Galilee.  The waves were overcoming that little boat as the merchant’s boats in the Psalm.  God challenges Job, “Where were you when I made all things,” telling us again of his great providence, his control over all things not just of nature, but in your heart and soul also.

 

            Back to that precipice, crumbling beneath your feet, leaving you falling helplessly into the vast torments of hell.  “Where’s your faith buddy?”  That is why God gives you the Psalmist writing of the faithful calling in their distress upon God.  That is why God gives us Job and God’s answer to him.  That is why Jesus sleeps so the disciples, in their fear, call out to him as the last resort.  It is explained in Paul’s missal to the Corinthians as he clearly states the Gospel, Christ died for all and reconciled us to God again. 

 

            Buddy, your faith is in God’s love to you in Jesus Christ.  Your faith is the foxhole prayer of one rapidly dying on a cross, “Lord, remember me…” because Jesus does.  Whether it be the trials of this earth or the threatening torments of hell, remember Jesus’ words, “Quiet!  Be still!”  Are those words like those of angels who say, “Do not be afraid!”  Are those words like those of Jesus the evening of his resurrection to frightened disciples quivering behind closed doors, “Peace be with you.”  And in his love you and I always reply to that blessing, “And also with you.” 

 

            The result of Jesus’ words is this, “Then the wind died down and it was completely calm, [v. 40].  Even calm water has great force and power as you are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  How calm are the torments of your life when you cry out confessing your sins and you hear those words, “Your sins are forgiven.”  When you seem to have no strength how great is that meal prepared and given to you?  Take and eat, this is my body.  Drink of it all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant.  This is the feast of victory of our God.  In this faith you do not live any more in a world of fear of the waves that seem to overtake your boats.  In this faith you do not live in a state of terror from the fires of hell that appear to lap at the ground in front of your next step. 

 

            God has redeemed his people from all places, from the land of the foe, from east and west and north and south [Psalm 107:2-3].  You are not left out as Christ died for all {2 Corinthians 5:14-15] and that does include you.  How powerful that word is that created all things.  How powerful is that word that does control all things.  How powerful that word that says, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” [Luke 23:43].

 

            The Psalmist had faith.  Job had faith.  The Corinthians had faith.  The disciples had faith.  In each one, that faith was tested daily and in different ways.  Each one rode high on the waves in that faith and also saw those waves crashing down relentlessly.  Each one received and went on in God’s word of comfort and strength.  That is so that you and I today have confidence in those same words, “Quiet!  Be still!”  Jesus is speaking to the surging waves in your heart, in your soul.  And immediately he brings complete calm.   Amen.