"A Calming Presence "

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: July 25, 2006

There is a common misconception in our world today.   There is a belief that in order to get ahead you must strong on the outside; tough as nails.   When you come to a meeting of a group, speak your mind.   When someone challenges you, push back.   The louder the words, the better control you will have over everyone else.   If you want your way, make it happen.   When you come to the boardroom take charge!   Make certain you are the loudest.   Argue every point!   That's how you get ahead!  

If you've ever sat on a committee, you've probably seen this dynamic.   There is the loudmouth.   He knows he's right.   He'll make everyone see it his way.   Opposing views are dangerous.   He can convince everyone to his side if he just pushes.   But in reality, he is just a bully.   Believe it or not, the bully really doesn't have much power at all.

It has been found, and proven, that the one who has the control is usually the one who does not engage in the power struggle.   After the screaming is over, it is not the loudest person or even the person who held an opposing view that makes a difference.   The calm and peaceful presence is the one to whom everyone turns.   

Oh that we had more people with peaceful presences!   They are the ones who make a difference.   They are solid people.   Let me describe who they are by using the biblical image for them.   They are called the meek.   Jesus said, "The meek shall inherit the earth."   Why?...because they are the ones who have all the control.

The word "meek" does not mean weak.   There was a famous newspaper column that told of a man who was going to right a book about meek people.   He was going to call the book, Cower Power .   He was also going to begin a group of submissive people.   The group would be called DOORMATS. That stands for "Dependent Organization Of Really Meek And Timid Souls -- if there are no objections." Their motto was: "The meek shall inherit the earth -- if that's okay with everybody."   Their motto was the yellow traffic light. (Bill Farmer's newspaper column as recorded in Our Daily Bread )

No.   A person who is meek is not weak.   That's another misconception.   The word "meek" in the Bible describes someone who is likened to a "bridled stallion".   A meek person is one who has charging power running through his veins on the inside, but on the outside he is fully in control of his power.

Jesus was meek.   He had power running through his veins but he was always in control.   His meekness is an example of how we can live.            

Our passage, this morning, describes that type of meekness.   Jesus was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee.   He had spent a lot of time along the shore.   He preached to the crowds about the Kingdom of Heaven.   He told them that the Kingdom of God was like sower who sowed seeds...remember that parable?   He described the Kingdom in terms of a lamp shining, not put under a basket.   He taught that the Kingdom of God was like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but it grows into the largest of trees with enough room for all the birds of the air.   With many such parables Jesus taught and, at the end of the day, he was exhausted.   At evening, he stepped into a boat and said to his disciples, "Let's go to the other side."   It was the break he needed.   He could sleep at least until they made it to the other side of the Lake.   On the other side of the lake Jesus would need his strength again.   He would be greeted by a demon-possessed man living among the tombs and Jesus will need to cast out a legion of demons into pigs.   But for now he could sleep.

Gliding upon the lake went the little boat.   The disciples steered a course for the other side and Jesus laid down in the back of the boat, the stern, to catch a few moments of rest.   It was the Sea of Galilee.  

As I said, it was the Sea of Galilee.   There is a natural phenomenon that happens once in a while, but when it does it frightens the strongest of men.    When the wind blows across the mountains surrounding the Sea of Galilee, the elements can be forced out of control.   The wind whips down over the mountains and stirs the water.   The water, in turn, churns and churns until a very dangerous storm appears.   Storms are common on this Lake...but this one, in our passage, frightened the disciples.   I remind you that some of Jesus' disciples were men who sailed on the Sea of Galilee from an early age.   How great must that storm have been!

Can you see the disciples frantically trying to gain control over their little craft?   Keep in mind, these are men.   They don't want to wake the Teacher because He's a carpenter, not a sailor - they are sailors and I don't think they'd want to admit defeat.   What would it take for these rough, rugged men to awaken Jesus?   The same amount of embarrassment it takes me to pull over to the side of the road to ask for directions.   Can you identify?

Peter, James and John fight to gain control over the tiny fishing boat but their efforts become futile.   They tried to batten down the hatches (I don't know what that means...but that's what the movies tell me sailors do in a storm).   They tried to scoop buckets of water, furiously dumping them over the side.    The harder they worked, the faster the boat began to sink.      All of the men, rugged and strong, lose control.   They find a challenge so great that they face death.   And so they approach Jesus.   They have nowhere else to go.   Do you ever feel that way?

As they come to the stern, they find Jesus sleeping on a cushion.   He's exhausted.   Jesus preached all day long and when Jesus preaches he gives it his all.   Curious to me is the fact that Jesus is so comfortable in his sleep that he sleeps through the tossing and turning of the little boat.   He sleeps wet with water pouring on top of him.   He is calm.   He has nothing to fear.   He said they were going to the other side.   He wasn't lying.  

"Teacher, do you not care that we perish?"   This is a statement of fear.    Have you faced a storm in your life so great that you couldn't gain control?   Then, when you turned to God the storm didn't seem to go away?   "Where are you, God?   Don't you care that I'm dying here?   How can you sleep when I'm fighting to survive?   Don't you care about me?"

Don't mistake the calmness or quietness of God for apathy.   God is more concerned about you than you are of yourself.   Jesus could sleep because the greater matter was sleep.   There was going to be work to do.   He had fully submitted Himself, body, soul and spirit to His heavenly Father and he didn't need to question God's goodness.   Jesus could sleep peacefully in the midst of the most turbulent storm.   The real storm would be faced in the clash of Kingdoms on the other side.   Jesus was going to come face-to-face with the powers of darkness.   The wind and waves were always under his control.  

Oh, that I would submit myself to God more!   Oh that I could learn to sleep like Jesus!   I lose sleep at night, sometimes over the most ridiculous things.   Do you?   I sweat the small stuff.   I worry about the circumstances instead of the real storms.   I find myself trying to keep up with the tyranny of the urgent instead of the matters of the Kingdom.

The result - stress.   I believe that stress is the number one killer of our society.   It the cause of many illnesses and it's victims are growing in number year after year.   We can't sleep, and we're not even in small boat in a furious storm.

What are we to do?   Are you stressed?   Here are some symptoms of stress overload.   See if they represent you in your busy schedule:

1. Decision-making becomes difficult (both major and minor kinds).
2. Excessive daydreaming or fantasizing about "getting away from it all."
3. Increased use of cigarettes and/or alcohol.
4. Increased use of tranquilizers and "uppers."
5. Thoughts trail off while speaking or writing.
6. Excessive worrying about all things.
7. Sudden outbursts of temper and hostility.
8. Paranoid ideas and mistrust of friends and family.
9. Forgetfulness for appointments, deadlines, dates.
10. Frequent spells of brooding and feeling of inadequacy.
11. Reversals in usual behavior.                                                                                                            
(Keith W. Wehnert, Stress/Unstress, 1981, Augsburg)

Archibald Hart, the well-known Christian psychologist and author of several books and articles on stress stated that the only way to really rid ourselves of the negative effects of stress, since we all experience it and it is a part of life, is to learn how to relax more.   More specifically, the only way to really relieve stress is to sleep well.   That's what Jesus was doing.   (The Ups and Downs of Stress - interview with psychologist and author Archibald Hart - interview, 2004)

Jesus knew how to sleep.    Maybe instead of counting sheep it's time for us to focus our attention on the Shepherd.   Jesus had a balanced life.   He was meek.   He had control over his life.   Do you have control over yours?

That was the way God created you to be.   God's intentions for you as His child is for you to have control over all things - - control for your life; control for the situations around you; control of your emotions and temperament.   Even the world God made, He made it and placed it under your power.   You were made in the image of God. When you read the first pages of the Bible we, humans, had the power to control the world and creation.   We were the stewards of all things.   But we lost that power when sin entered the world.   Now the forces were in control and we became the victims.   Storms kill.   Wind kills.   Floods kill.   This is a world gone wrong.   But Jesus, the perfect human, the second Adam without sin, had the power of all elements under his control.   Everyone who follows Jesus and allows the Spirit of God to transform their lives begins to experience the right relationship of humanity.   Power is restored where it needs to be.   The disciples were victims.   They were helpless.   Jesus was in power.  

Jesus shows the disciples how to live as God's human beings.   "Quiet!"   He said to the storm.   "Be Still!"   In the Greek it's very explicit.   He said, "Silence!" to the winds and the waves...then he said, "Put the muzzle on and keep it on" Immediately the wind died down and it was completely calm.   It's almost as if the winds and the waves had just been scolded like farm animals. And they obeyed.

Who is this that the winds and waves obey?   He is the God-man who became human to show us who we were supposed to be.   Come to Jesus and you'll be turned into what God intended you to be, not what you are.

Why did Jesus have such control?...because He fully submitted all things to His Heavenly Father.   No one has full control of their life if they have not done this.   You may have some control over your life.   But you will never have full control until you submit it all to the Father in Heaven and let His Spirit transform you into the image of Jesus Christ.

If I asked you, this morning, whether you identified with Jesus asleep on a boat in the middle of a storm or the disciples running around out of control, what image would be more like you?   Maybe the storms of life out there are not as complicated as the storms within.   Maybe you are the storm, frantically running around out of control.   Are you more like Jesus or the disciples?   Are you sleeping soundly, trusting in the Father's goodness or are you running around the boat trying to bail the water out of a sinking ship?

Let me offer you three suggestions about how you can gain control of your life:

Submit.   We humans are trying to figure out who we are.   God is the only one who knows who you are...and who you are to become.   Let go and let your heavenly Father take away your messes.   Let God recreate you in His image.   What does that look like?   See Jesus?   That's what it looks like.   You shall be made just like Him...if you give your life to God and let go of control.   It's a paradox.   The more control you try to have the more you lose it.   The more control you give over to God, the more control you will have.   God wants to make you meek.   God wants you to be a bridled stallion...or, if you will, a tamed lion.

Receive God's Peace.   That's what Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves - - Silence! Be still!   Quiet down!   Put a muzzle on it!   We are like hyperactive children bouncing off the walls.   Let Him speak silence to you.   Let Him command your energy to stop for moment and rest. Close your eyes for a moment and receive this word from God - "Silence!   Be Still!"

Let go of fear .   Perfect love, the Bible says, casts out all fear.   When you learn to love, all fears subside.   If there is fear in your life, let God replace it with love.   "Why are you afraid?" Jesus said.   "Do you still have no faith?"   You can trust God.   You can trust Jesus.   When Jesus said, "let us go over to the other side", he meant that the plan of God was to get to the other side.   God doesn't go back on His word.   What has God spoken to you?  

Do you remember Abraham, the father of faith?   When he was to offer his son as a sacrifice because God asked him to do so, he also knew that God promised his son was going to have descendants more than the sand of the sea or stars in the heavens.   Abraham could say to his servants on that fateful day of the sacrifice, "the lad and I will go up the hill and the lad and I will return."   Abraham was going up Mount Moriah to face one of the greatest storms the world has ever known.   But God said that his son was going to have children so even if he was struck down God would bring about the promise He made.  

What has God said to you?   I trust you're listening to His voice and receiving His promises and plan.   Whatever God has said, you can trust God to get you over to the other side.   You're going to get through this.   I don't know what it is you're facing, but I do know that if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you'll get to the other side.  

Is there a storm raging around you?   Is your life out of control?   Submit your life to God, receive the peace of His presence (He's in the boat with you.   You'll not be harmed) and let go of your fears.   Jesus is a calming presence.   He will come to your aid I promise you.   He is meek and he is strong.   He still calms the storms - "Peace, Be still!"

Amen.