So Jesus said – Let’s go.
Let’s go now. To the other side.
Let’s go.
Get in the boat, let’s get in the boat and go
Go to the other side.
Now, Jesus, he’s the leader, he’s the rabbi, he’s the teacher, he’s the friend,
But he doesn’t know a thing about boats.
We’re the fishermen, we’re the boatmen, we’re the sailors, we’re the ones
Who know how to sail the boat.
So we set things right, we set about it, we set sail.
We’re going.
To the other side.
And Jesus (he’s the leader, he’s the rabbi, he’s the teacher, he’s the friend)
He’s tired from all the preaching and he sleeps.
In the boat.
Now, we’re the fishermen, we’re the boatmen, we’re the sailors, so we just get on with it.
We sail the boat.
We plot a course (because we’re good at stuff like that) for the other side.
Calm within the storm
And then it happens. A massive storm.
Now, we are the fishermen, the sailors, the boatmen, we do know about boats
And sailing, and storms and stuff.
So we move this and tie that and draw this in and hoist that and it’s all good.
Except it’s not.
And Jesus, who’s the teacher and the leader and the rabbi and the friend
Is still asleep. Like a baby. In the back of the boat.
And we do know about storms, and stuff like that, but this is HUGE
This is not just any storm
And we are the fishermen, and the sailors, and the boatmen but
This is a really, really, bad storm.
So we wake him up.
Calm after the storm
And Jesus, who’s the leader and the teacher and the rabbi and the friend
Says
Really?
And he says to the wind and the waves
‘Pack it in. Be Quiet, Be still’
And they stop.
I mean, we’re the fishermen, we’re the boatmen, we know about storms
And that’s not what normally happens.
Be Quiet. Be Still. And it is.
Totally. Calm.
And then Jesus – who to the best of our knowledge
Is the teacher and the leader and the rabbi and the friend
Says: Why are you afraid?
Do you still have no faith?
Storm after calm
And we were terrified.
Who is He?
Who calms the Sea?
Who Tells the Wind to stop?
Who even does that?
God.
Who is He? He is God.
And if there’s one thing harder than a storm outside your boat
It’s figuring out what to do about God in your boat.
Because the storm is not the wind or waves or sea
The storm is me
It’s the fear, and the lack of faith
The sheer, sheer terror
That I am in a boat
And I am not the fisherman, or the boatman, or the sailor
I’m in a boat with God
And if Jesus – who is the teacher and the leader and the rabbi and the friend
But is God
Says, we are going to the other side. We are going.
To the other side.
And He says, look, did I tell you that the ocean would be calm?
Did I tell you that the journey would be one of peace and balm?
Did I tell you it was easy? Did I say we would just glide?
No.I said
We’d get to the other side.
Jesus, He’s the leader, He’s the teacher, He’s the rabbi, He’s the friend,
He’s with us in the boat, and He’s with us to the end.
* * * * * * *
© Jackie Bridgen, Leonora Home, Pilgrims’ Friend Society. www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk
| Our team prayers this morning began with the story of Jesus telling the storm to be still. (Mark 4: 35 – 41).
Jackie Bridgen, business manager at our Leonora Home, gave this spontaneous poem. It was inspired by a sermon preached the previous Sunday at Ladyfield Evangelical church, Chippenham, by Peter Baker of Landsdowne Baptist Church, Bournemouth. Jackie says she took “the key phrases and bones of the poem: I pulled the headings and one particular phrase from Sunday’s sermon, and wrote an outline, and drew some sqiggles and then I ‘wrote’ it live this morning with help from the Holy Spirit.’
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