Everybody's Got a Boat Story

Everybody’s got a boat story.  

Jane got in the motor boat on a family camping trip.  While her family was enjoying their time on the lake, they started to hear that they were scraping the metal boat on something.  The boat started rocking.  She started screaming.  She began yelling at her husband that they were going to die.  What are you doing? She yelled.  He tried to reverse the boat but her hysteria made it difficult to concentrate.  

We were in the next boat over watching the escapade and we tried to explain to her that they were too close to shore.  They were hitting the earth that was part of the shoreline.  Not only were they not in danger, but at any moment, they could walk out of the boat up to the lawn.  

Justin got on the boat at Camp Fernbrook, a canoe to be exact, during a banana decathlon race.  Prone to catastrophe, he begged not to do the boat portion of the race.  We egged him on and tried to boost his confidence.  As he entered the boat, he went about 10 feet only to have the entire canoe tip into the algae filled pond.  

Everybody’s got a boat story.  

From Gilligan’s Island to The Love Boat to McHale’s Navy, the boat is a prominent feature in a drama.  

There are so many themes for a boat story.  You’re all held captive in a small space.  You can’t get away unless you jump into the water.  The boat could tip or wreck or run into something.  You can come across other people in their own boats, little islands in the middle of the big sea.  

And just as much as you are held captive on a boat, you are also set free, released from the cares of the land with the wide waters in front of you.  The sun sets over the ripples in the waves, the shore in the distance releases you from the bounds of captivity. 

Everybody’s got a boat story. 

Of course, our Lord has a boat story.  

Mark tells us that it was evening and Jesus tells his disciples that it is time to go to the other side.  They took Jesus with them in the boat and left the crowd behind.  

Now, first of all, getting in the boat in the evening should be our first clue that danger is ahead.  It is the looming music behind the drama that warns us that something is going to happen!!  This is before electricity and before flashlights.  When the journey begins at dusk, the deep cello in the background keeps our senses alert.  

But Jesus is tired.  The crowds had been pressing in on him and he was exhausted from the work of teaching and preaching and so he cuddled up on the boat and fell asleep.  

This is our second clue that something is about to go wrong.  

Sure enough, a great windstorm comes and the waves come crashing.  The waves beat into the boat and the boat is being swamped.  The boat is filling with water.  The panic must be high.  The disciples begin to look to their master, their leader, their savior for help and where is he?

Asleep.

It’s a common Bible Story.  The boat rocking and Jesus asleep.  It’s easy to forget the panic of such an encounter.  When Jane was upset, her captain was alert and awake, safely navigating their boat.  When Justin was panicking, his family was close ashore and attentive, ready to rescue him quickly.

How could he be asleep in a boat in a storm?

A pastor was on a trip to the Holy Land, near the sea of Galilee where this boat incident took place.  He found out about the nearby Yigal Alon Museum and visited.  Inside was the ancient Sea of Galilee Boat, the remarkably well-preserved remains of a first-century fishing craft discovered in 1986 when a drought lowered the level of the lake. The dark, wooden vessel, supported by metal struts, is large—almost 27 feet long by seven feet wide. He was touched by the evidence of numerous repairs, the reuse of timbers, and many wood types (12), some salvaged from other boats. The boat seemed to have, as the brochure said, “a long work life and an owner of meager means.”

A reconstruction of the boat in another room included a raised wooden ledge on which several people could sit. So it would have been easy for Jesus to find a place to sleep, perhaps on a cushion or a bag of sand used for ballast or comfort.

However, even if the boat was comfortable, there is dis-ease during a storm on a boat — even on luxury cruise liners, people are induced to vomit and illness during choppy seas.  

The thing that I can totally relate to  is the sadness of the fact that it seemed that  Jesus was seemingly uninterested or unconcerned, apathetic even about the night time storm and the boat filling with water.  

These circumstances of desperation raise all kinds of emotions and responses in us.  

Anger that he isn’t worried, that it seems as though he doesn’t care.

Fear that the storm will capsize the boat.

Disappointment that Jesus isn’t acting.

I can imagine bickering among the disciples, raised voices, sharp comments.  

The disciples went and woke him and said:

Don’t you care that we are dying?

Perishing was their exact word. 

I grin when I hear it.  Of course, I’m hearing it now, sitting on a sturdy chair with no fear that I’m drowning.  

I hear their desperation. I know it must have been scary.

But I also hear the exaggerated response that we often bring to moments of uncertainty.  

Our common response is:

This is the absolute worst thing I can imagine.

I’ve never had anything so bad happen.

I will NEVER make it through this.  

Nothing like this has EVER happened to anyone else. 

I’m sure you are never prone to moments of exaggerated response?

And so they implored Jesus to act because they were sure that they were near death. 

And so he woke up.

And he looked at the waves and he calmed them.  And he said to them  “Peace be still”  And he rebuked the wind.

And there was a dead calm.  

And he looked to these disciples, their eyes must have been large, their stomachs topsy turvy, their knuckles white and he said…

Have you still no faith?

The thing about this story that is most terrifying to me is not the storm.  I’ve been through storms and I know you have too.  Storms that cause the house to shake and the lightning to crack so close you think you’re on fire.  Storms that cause you to wonder if you’ll make it home alone.  

Personal and emotional storms that feel like they keep thundering in your head, pounding and thrashing at your life.  

The most terrifying thing is not the storm.  

The most terrifying thing is getting in the boat.  

Getting in the boat is the commitment to go somewhere new.  To leave the shore, to step away from the solid ground under your feet.  

Because when we stay on the shore, though we are safe, we are standing on familiar ground.  

Jesus says over and over again about how he has come to show us a new way, a new life.  He says to us “Behold I will make all things new.”  He does not come to validate our current life.  To pat us on the back for who we are are where we stand right now.  He calls us off of the shore, off of the couch, out of our home and onward.  No matter where you are right now, Jesus desires that you move toward him which means you cannot stay where you are now. 

Think, my friends, What life do we miss when we seclude ourselves on shores of safety and sameness? On the other side of the sea awaits growth, learning, and life for the disciples.  It involves teaching new people the way of Jesus that will change the lives of those they meet and it will change the lives of the disciples.  Getting in the boat can only bring us to other shores full of experiences that will challenge us to move our feet, open our minds, and grow our  hearts. We have to choose the shaky boat with Jesus, hurling through uncharted waters toward the dense unknown, over the insulated shores where things make sense and our hearts shrink.

This whole Jesus journey we are on is a shaky journey.  If it feels safe, it isn’t changing our lives.  If it isn’t changing our lives, it isn’t what God calls us to.  

Perhaps that desperate cry of the disciples in the boat… I’m dying!  Is exactly what God wanted.  For the disciples to feel that part of them was dying, so that they could be born again to new life.  

I’m sure that God wants something to happen for each one of us on a new journey.  I’m sure that the journey will be shaky and scary and that there will be times when we will question God and wonder why we ever signed up for this, but I’m also certain that God’s got this.  God’s got the boat and the storm and the journey and God is holding it all, holding all of the messy pieces, all of the different kinds of wood, the different kinds of people, the different ways of believing, the fears and the joys, Jesus is holding them all and trying to show us that he not only will calm the storm, but he will get us to the other side.  

So, as we stand here together in worship, I will say again:

Everbody’s got a boat story.  

Even if you’ve never left the shore, Jesus has invited you into his boat, invited you as a church and as an individual to weather the storm, to take the risk, to fear and embrace what is waiting on the other side.  

Jane’s boat didn’t topple, but her hysteria and fear lasted for hours.  Later she apologized and shared how out of control she felt.

Justin’s boat did topple and he was angry with us the rest of the day, but now, 25 years later we still fondly remember an afternoon of adventure as a family trying new things and braving new waters.  

What risk are you being invited to right now?  What safe place do you know you need to step away from?  Where do you feel God nudging you to do something new?  Something scary?  Something that you really don’t want to do?

Listen in your heart and in your mind and in your body for God’s leading.  

That is where God wants your next journey to begin.  

We don’t know what will happen when we step into the boat, but we do know that Jesus is with us, that it will be a little shaky, and that what awaits us on the other side is a new page in our story of sailing with our savior.   

Amen.  

“Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise,” writes Henri Nouwen, “whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy. It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.”

Offered in worship on June 3rd, 2018

Tinicum UCC, Pipersville