Call to Worship: Psalm 107:1-3
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south
Hymn: StF 20 Be still for the presence of the Lord.
Sing/ Read /pray /proclaim the words or listen to it here
Be still, for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One, is here;
come bow before him now with reverence and fear:
in him no sin is found — we stand on holy ground.
Be still,for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One, is here.
Be still, for the glory of the Lord is shining all around;
he burns with holy fire, with splendour he is crowned:
how awesome is the sight — our radiant King of light!
Be still, for the glory of the Lord is shining all around.
Be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place;
he comes to cleanse and heal, to minister his grace:
no work too hard for him — in faith receive from him.
Be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place.
David J. Evans (b. 1957)
Prayers + Lord’s Prayer
God of power and majesty, in the silence and stillness of the time I give to you, be with me as I worship you. If I am weak in my faith, let me cling to the awesomeness of you and lead me to complete trust in you again. If I am faith filled, let me not take this season for granted and help me to grow deeper in love with you.
God of power and majesty, we adore you! We adore you for who you are: faithful, holy, loving, powerful.
You are precious, gracious, merciful and life-giving. Forgive us when we have taken our relationship with you for granted and have hurt you and hurt others. Hear us in a moment of quiet as we say sorry to you.
God of mercy, if we are sincere, you forgive us our sins and we thank you for that glorious gift of forgiveness. Come, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn: “My Lighthouse” by Rend Collective
In my wrestling and in my doubts, In my failures You won’t walk out Your great love will lead me through You are the peace in my troubled sea You are the peace in my troubled sea
In the silence, You won’t let go, In the questions, Your truth will hold Your great love will lead me through etc
My lighthouse, my lighthouse, Shining in the darkness. I will follow You
My lighthouse, my lighthouse, I will trust the promise. You will carry me safe to shore (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
Safe to shore (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh) repeat x3
I won’t fear what tomorrow brings With each morning I’ll rise and sing
My God’s love will lead me through You are the peace in my troubled sea. You are the peace in my troubled sea
My lighthouse, etc
Fire before us, You’re the brightest. You will lead us through the storms (X4)
My lighthouse, etc
Prayers of Intercession:
We come to the part of our worship now as we pray for others and ourselves. As we do so, I invite you to think about each specific focus in turn and end with “The Lord hears our prayer”. “Thanks be to God”.
We pray for God’s world.
As we pray for God’s world, we are mindful that we have not been wise, loving stewards of it. We have been greedy and selfish, rather than focusing on the beauty and wonder, and encouraging flourishing.
We pray for world rulers, that they would rule with truth and justice, mercy and grace and that they would remember that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus Christ.
Take a moment in silent prayer to pray for God’s world and world rulers.
“The Lord hears our prayer”. “Thanks be to God”.
We pray for God’s church.
We pray for the church worldwide, that we would unite in the common goal to worship and serve God together in a spirit of unity and holiness.
We pray for the church where we are and in a moment of quiet, we offer up to God our prayers for our church.
“The Lord hears our prayer”. “Thanks be to God”.
We take time now to pray for those who are known to us. We pray for those who are known to us that are going through times of trial that they would know God’s peace and comfort. We pray for those going through times of joy, that they would know your love and not take this time for granted.
We pray also for ourselves, and I invite you to spend some time in prayer to God for yourself.
“The Lord hears our prayer”. “Thanks be to God”.
Gospel Reading from Mark 4:34-41 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.
A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, as the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Message:
This is one of those wonderful stories where we see Jesus bringing Peace to a troubled time on the Sea of galilee. The sea of Galilee is situated in a basin surrounded by mountains.
When cool air from the Mediterranean is drawn through the narrow mountain passes and then clashes with the hot, humid air lying over the lake, this causes a storm to build and to be released over the lake.
It is something that can happen very quickly and for those on the lake can be a dangerous situation.
So on this particular occasion that the disciples were on the lake with Jesus, this is what may have happened. I am one of those people who are not good on boats and I can imagine myself quite easily caught in this situation like the disciples found themselves in. I have been across the channel a couple of times on ferries and twice we were caught in a force 9 storm. The boat was going up and down and down and down and then up as we were caught in the trough and the high point of the waves.
I wasn’t sea sick I was just afraid of it sinking and being left floating trying to swim in freezing cold waters. I can swim but I’m not a strong swimmer, I suppose it was just the thought of the boat going down that worried me more than anything else. Get me in an aeroplane anytime.
Getting back to this story I’m sure we can all identify with the disciples here, they were scared, not just a little scared but really scared. You can imagine them getting a little worried as the waves begin to get bigger and the wind began to blow stronger and stronger.
Don’t forget that on this boat some of the disciples were fishermen and they would have seen storms in their time on the lake. Perhaps though, they hadn’t seen anything quite like this before because of the fear they displayed. Being fishermen they would have had respect for the way in which the weather could change so quickly. They didn’t just flippantly say oh it’ll pass, we’ll be ok in half an hour, they knew the power of the wind and the waves, perhaps this is why they were scared.
I suppose we could in fact be on this very boat with the disciples, finding ourselves in a situation completely beyond anything we can do and we have probably felt like this at some point over the years.
So often in our lives we see the clouds drawing in and we can often change our course to move away, but sometimes circumstances spring upon us and catch us off guard. Sometimes we face those stormy days and times, those times where the situation we find ourselves in is completely out of our control. Before we know it, we are in the middle of a howling storm and trying our best to deal with the sinking feeling we are experiencing.
Getting back to the disciples, you can imagine them getting all worked up and perplexed, even those who were used to being on the lake. But what about those in the boat who were land lovers, for whom this may be the first time they had stepped into a boat.
If it was me, you’d never get me in a boat again as long as I lived. Fortunately, the experiences I have had, did not put me off going across the channel in a ferry for a short crossing, but you wouldn’t get me on a cruise for a long period of time. In fact if I have the option of going through the Tunnel rather than on a Ferry, the tunnel wins every time.
But for some of these disciples it was a time of literally being out of their depth, particularly those not used to being in such a hostile environment. The interesting thing about the disciples here is that they must have forgotten who was in the boat with them. The boat must have been a decent sized one because Jesus was asleep on a cushion usually kept under the coxswain’s seat.
The disciples must have been so consumed with fear that they were not giving a thought about Jesus. That is until one of them decided they’d had enough and went and woke Jesus up. Jesus must have been at peace in a deep sleep not noticing the turmoil that was raging around him. Perhaps that says a lot about Jesus, being at peace with whatever situation was thrown at him, because he knew that he had authority over everything. The disciples must of really been panicking because one of them said to Jesus, ‘Teacher don’t you care if we drown?’ This time of distress must of been a time where they were really vulnerable, finding themselves in the grip of a terrible storm.
But then we see the reaction of Jesus. Jesus got up rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ We are told that, ‘the wind and waves died down and it was completely calm’. This showed that Jesus not only had power to do miracles, but he had power over the natural world too. All things are in his hands both the natural and the supernatural and this was one of those times where the disciples were yet again astounded. I’m surprised it took them so long to go and wake Jesus up, if it had been me I’d of been next to him, holding onto him waking him up straight away..
The disciples had seen Jesus do many things already and yet they were scared and perhaps rightly so from a human perspective. But what about a Spiritual perspective? Surely they should of known who it was, that was with them in this boat, in this situation. They must of forgotten that it wasn’t just their mate Jesus, but it was Jesus, the Son of God. At times in our lives we recognise that Jesus is with us, but sometimes like the disciples we forget who Jesus is and what he can do in our lives.
This story could have been so different, but I suppose that’s why we know about it, because of the reaction of the disciples. If the situation was the same, but just suppose the disciples thought instead, ‘well we’ll be ok because Jesus is with us’. This is a completely different mindset to the one that the disciples actually had.
Instead of Jesus saying to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ Jesus might of said, ‘Well done, what faith you have, I’m so impressed with you.’ But as we know, the disciples were not as full of faith, as much as they would of liked us or each other to of believed.
I suppose at times we are like the disciples in that when things are going smoothly we don’t really fully grasp what Jesus has done already or what he still can do. We know that the disciples hadn’t fully understood who Jesus was because they asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’ They had forgotten who it was that was with them in the boat and what he could do about the situation they found themselves in.
Remember the disciples were just ordinary people like us and we too sometimes need reminding who is with us in the boat that we are in. We need to remember that we are not alone, but that Jesus is with us as we journey through life.
In the storms that we face and go through, let us not be like the disciples and forget who it is that is in the boat with us. If the disciples had not waited so long to wake Jesus then the situation could of changed, they would have had a different attitude too. They would not of been full of fear, but they too like Jesus would have had that inner peace.
There have been countless times when I have visited someone terminally ill and yet they have an inner peace to face what is ahead. They have this peace because they accept the difficult journey they are on but also they recognise that they are not alone. They recognise that Jesus is travelling with them, holding their hand and leading the way.
You could say that the disciples could have felt a bit fed up at being told, ‘Do you still have no faith?’ but they didn’t. They came to realise even more the power that Jesus had and it reminded them exactly of who Jesus was. Do we recognise who Jesus is and what he can do?
Perhaps you have been through stormy times and you have trusted in Jesus and this has encouraged you to trust more.
SILENCE and Reflect
Prayer
Lord God we thank you for this story of our humanity and vulnerability but also the demonstration of your power and love through Jesus. We now pray for those we know who are facing stormy situations and we ask that you will bring your peace and calm into these situations.
We acknowledge that all things hold together in your hands and that the whole of life can be changed through you, by your power and your love. You are Almighty God and in you there is peace and calm even though the storms of life may rage about. It is through your amazing grace that we are saved and that we can see the lights of the harbour of your safety.
In our lives Lord help us not to be fearful, but help us to trust in you as we face the future. We recognise that storms may come at any point but just like the children’s song we can say those words, ‘With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm’.
We ask that you will give us more faith to trust in you and we ask that you will bring your healing and loving peace into the situations of those for whom we have prayed. We ask this in the Almighty power and wonderful saving name of Jesus our Lord, Saviour, Redeemer and friend. Amen.
Song: Listen to: (Oceans by Hillsongs United)
You call me out upon the waters, The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery In oceans deep My faith will stand
And I will call upon Your name And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise My soul will rest in Your embrace For I am Yours and You are mine
Your grace abounds in deepest waters Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me You’ve never failed and You won’t start now
So I will call upon Your name And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise My soul will rest in Your embrace For I am Yours and You are mine
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger In the presence of my Savior Oh, Jesus, you’re my God!
I will call upon Your name Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace I am Yours and You are mine.
Blessing
