An SOS for Jesus
Sermon for Second Sunday before Lent – 23 February 2025 – All Saints, Kesgrave
Text: ‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’ (Luke 8v25)
God give you peace my Sisters and Brothers.
I almost didn’t make it to Church today.
The last few weeks have been a mixture of intense busy-ness, a week of meetings at Church House Westminster for General Synod, (find out more here) and then as a recompense, and thanks to the generosity of the Clergy Support Trust, a week of rest and retreat, prayer and writing on the Isle of Bute off the West Coast of Scotland.
All was going well and my plan to get an early morning ferry on Friday so that I would be able to attend our Parish breakfast on Saturday were going well. Until I arrived at the Ferry Terminal in Rothesay that is. That was when, as they say in the Highlands when talking to any passing ‘Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim’rous beastie,’ I learnt that the ‘The best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men gang aft agley.’
I had made the cardinal error of not checking the Shipping Forecast the night before!
‘No sir, the early Ferry would not be sailing today.’ I was told by a very helpful clerk at the Calmac Reception Desk.
‘Neither will the 10.30am one be sailing’.
‘We’ll be checking again at midday about sailing times but the ferry might not then be going to where you are heading…’
To be fair there was a 23 Knot wind sweeping across the Firth of Clyde so I guess the Master of the Ferry had good cause to be careful.
On returning at Midday I was told that there might be a ferry after 4pm but that would mean I had no connecting train to London and then on to Ipswich. So it was back to my lodgings, remaking the bed that I had just removed the linen from, settling down to a day of emails, sermon writing, and the odd wee dram or two of the local ‘lemonade’.
I reckon that, although they were allegedly experienced fisherfolk, the disciples were just as ignorant when it comes to the Shipping Forecast as me. Or worse still, they knew a storm was coming. After all Lake Galilee was infamous for sudden squalls yet they chose to put out and cross to the other side of the sea anyway!
Why would they do this? Well, just as Jesus had told them to go fishing when there were no fish to be fished and they caught a boatload so they must have thought that if God was in the boat there would not be any storms.
I can hear them discussing things between themselves. Andrew, the practical sensible disciple (as are all people named Andrew 😉) telling his brother Simon that the weather could take a turn for the worse any minute now but he is shouted down by those over eager Sons of Thunder James and John saying, ‘Jesus got us all those fish last time, surely so long as He’s in the boat with us the storm won’t come anywhere near us?’
So they put out to sea, Jesus goes and has a kip in the fore-ends of the boat, the storm descends, and their nascent faith is shaken to the core. ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’
The disciples, and we with them, learn three things in their stormy backyard;
- Just because God is with you it doesn’t mean you will be protected from storms.
- Because God is with you when the storms of life arrive we do not need to panic
- God being with us means that there will come a time when the storms will end.
Firstly, even for the faithful, and perhaps even more so for them, storms will continue to come and batter the frail barques of our lives. Just because we have chosen to follow the One who Loves us Best it does not mean we are immune from all that life throws at us. Jesus even warns us that when we follow the way of the Gospel things could get worse;
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16v33)
Secondly, when the storms come, unlike the disciples, we must learn that we need not panic. God is with us. In the middle of the maelstrom God is even having a sleep! God is the peace-filled eye at the centre of the storm of our lives. We must learn to not be frightened by the wind and the waves that threaten us but instead gaze upon our sleeping Saviour secure in the knowledge that we are held by Him. If we can learn this then, our fears conquered, we are enabled to take even bigger leaps of faith;
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. (Luke 12v32-33)
And finally because we are in the boat with Jesus when the storms come they will be overcome.
Look back on the storms that you have survived so far.
Look at the storms that you know the future will bring; for we have not yet reached our safe haven.
Then look again at the One who ‘commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’
I came to know the love of this storm calming Saviour in Sunday School at Aggie Weston’s in Pompey; a Docks Rescue Mission that works amongst Royal Navy families. Naturally many of the songs and hymns we learnt were about the sea and ‘Them that go down to the sea in ships’ (Psalm 107v23)
One of them still stirs my soul to this day:
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
when the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,
will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love!
We have an anchor! The Supreme Governor of heaven and earth resting peacefully at the centre of the ship of our life. He is the One who is the answer to any SOS call in any storm we face. He is the One whom ‘even the winds and the water obey’.
How fortunate we are that He calls us to journey with Him. Whatever storms may come and go we are safe in the circle of His love.
[This blog ‘An SOS for Jesus’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.]
oooOOOooo
Jesus calms the storm
One day Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.
24 The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’
He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 ‘Where is your faith?’ he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, ‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’ (Luke 8v22-25
Suffolk Vicar 