Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

If you've ever felt like you were in a no-win situation, this sermon might be for you. What happened when the disciples were stuck in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and couldn't get to shore? If you choose to read my sermon, you'll find out.

I’m happy to be back from my vacation with our family at Ocean City, New Jersey; and although I’m very tired, I’m also rejuvenated. Spending a week by the ocean always relaxes and refreshes me like no other place can do. I know that some folks like the city and others like the mountains; but give me the ocean any day! Maybe it’s the sound of the waves lapping on the beach, or maybe it’s the sight of the ocean’s vastness, or maybe it’s my meditations on the depth and mystery of the sea, or maybe it’s all three; I really don’t know. What I do know is that for me, a trip to the ocean is better than a week at a spa!

The ancient Israelites wouldn’t have agreed with me, though. They didn’t like the ocean in the least! As far as they were concerned, the ocean was a terrifying place. Why, everyone knew that the chaos monster, Leviathan, lived in the ocean; and to venture out on it was very risky business! Whenever the sea is mentioned in the biblical text, listen and you’ll hear the music from “Jaws” playing in the background. The creatures that lived in the ocean depths were powerful and uncontrollable and scary! But the Israelites also knew that God was even more powerful than even the sea. God could contain its chaos. Human beings might be in mortal danger when they venture out on the ocean; but God has everything under control, even the raging waves that the chaos monster churns up with its gigantic tail.

We need to remember that the Israelites felt that way when we read stories about the Sea of Galilee in the New Testament. Now, the Sea of Galilee isn’t as vast as the Mediterranean, but it has its own share of chaos. Geographically, the Sea of Galilee is fairly shallow, and when storms blow up across it, they can be very dangerous to anyone who is in a boat. Anyone who has experienced the choppiness of Lake Erie, another shallow body of water, knows what I’m talking about! Fishermen weren’t usually risking their lives when they went out for a catch, but that’s because they didn’t venture very far from shore. But crossing the whole Sea of Galilee… That was something else! And that’s exactly where Jesus sent his disciples as this morning’s text begins (Mark 6:45-51).

The disciples had just witnessed Jesus feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes. After the meal was over, Jesus sent them across the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida while he remained behind to pray. And he sent them “immediately.” (There’s that word that Mark likes to use so much! There’s no time to lose! Hurry up – get going!) Now, ancient Bethsaida was located at the northernmost point of the Sea of Galilee. Journeying there by boat would have taken the disciples across the deepest part of the lake. And that’s just where they were when evening came and the wind kicked up. (Can you hear the music from “Jaws” in the background?) The story tells us that the disciples were rowing as hard as they could, straining at the oars, but the wind was against them. Imagine how frightened they must have been! The darkness of night was quickly approaching. They were out in the middle of the water, sitting on top of whatever lurked in the water’s depths. And they couldn’t get to shore because the wind was blowing against them. They were, as we might say, between the devil and the deep blue sea!

Let’s freeze-frame that picture for just a minute with the disciples stuck in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Even if you’ve never been in a boat in your life, I’ll bet that you can understand what they were going through. Jesus had given them what seemed to be an easy job – get in the boat and go to Bethsaida. Some of the disciples were fisherman; they knew how to handle a boat! But they couldn’t get where they were going because the wind decided to blow the other way! They couldn’t do what Jesus asked them to do, even though they were trying their hardest. Does that sound familiar? It sure does to me! Many times in my life have I tried to do what Jesus asked of me, only to get stranded in the middle of the lake because the wind was blowing the other way. It happens to us as a church all the time, doesn’t it? Jesus asks us to make disciples, but we have lots of competition during the Sunday morning worship hour, and people don’t come to church like they used to. The winds are blowing against us. Jesus asks us to bring the children to him so that they can be blessed; but we don’t have young children here any more! The winds are blowing against us. Jesus asks us to minister to the last and the least, but our congregation is aging and there are fewer and fewer people available to take part in mission. The winds are blowing against us. We’re trying our best – we’re pulling on those oars like our lives depend on it – but we’re just not getting anywhere. And underneath us is chaos bubbling and churning and threatening to overturn our little boat and plop us into deep water. Yes, just like the disciples, we’re between the devil and the deep blue sea.

But the story doesn’t end there. Let’s set the story in motion again; but now, let’s move the focus to Jesus, back on the shore where he has been in prayer. Jesus saw that his disciples were getting nowhere. Jesus heard that “Jaws” music, too; but he just laughed at it. After all, chaos doesn’t have any power over the Son of God! And so, instead of traveling overland to Bethsaida, Jesus went out onto the sea to meet the disciples in their boat. He walked right over the water, over the chaos, over the threat. The disciples, of course, weren’t expecting Jesus at all, and they thought that he was a ghost. They were already frightened, and now they were terrified! But Jesus reassured them “immediately.” “Don’t be afraid!” he said, “Be brave! It’s me.” As quickly as Jesus wants us to do what he asks of us,” Jesus is even quicker to come to our rescue when we get into trouble. And sure enough, the minute that Jesus climbed into the boat with the disciples, the wind died down. The disciples were astounded. They hadn’t yet understood that their friend and teacher is the one who created the world and who holds even chaos in his hand!

We can leave the disciples’ story now and come back to our own story. We’re still in our little boat rowing as hard as we can against the winds. How is our own story going to end? Well, I think that depends on whether or not we decide to let Jesus into the boat with us. The chaos is always going to be there; and whether or not the winds blow is out of our control. But we can certainly decide who is travelling in the boat with us! And we have a couple of choices. We can go it on our own. We can try our best to head for the far shore and row that boat without any help. But that’s not going to get us very far in the end. The winds against us are strong, and our strength is going to give out sooner or later. Or we can get help from people who are specialists in rowing boats. They’ll analyze the direction that the ocean currents are flowing, and predict when the winds will die down, and they’ll even help us practice rowing so that we’re as efficient way as we can be. After all the advice is considered, though, we still have to row that boat all by ourselves. But there’s a third option. We can invite Jesus to get into the boat with us. Oh, we’ll still have to do some rowing; and the progress that we make may not be spectacular right at first. But with Jesus in our boat, the winds won’t last forever! When Jesus is in the boat, he will advise us, guide us, and cheer us on. He might even help us row now and then! No matter how far out at sea we may be; no matter how chaotic the ocean may be underneath us; no matter how hard the winds may blow against us; Jesus can always reach us over the chaos.

So, don’t despair! The next time that you realize that you’re between the devil and the deep blue sea, and you hear the music from “Jaws” coming closer and closer, listen again. Even over the noise of the winds, I’ll bet that you’ll hear Jesus saying, “Don’t be afraid! Be brave! It’s me!” Maybe we should let Jesus into the boat with us!

Alternative Worship

What is worship about, anyway? Is it just about "food for thought"... or is it about something much deeper and much more important? This sermon suggests an answer, as well as why it matters to our world!

I was skimming through my Facebook posts recently to see what my friends had posted. Among their random thoughts, videos of kittens, and political opinions from both sides of the aisle, I found a link to an essay titled “Alternative Worship.” That sounded interesting. I had expected it to be against “traditional worship” – the kind of worship that we offer here at Nashville UCC every Sunday. Instead, it suggested that any worship, traditional or contemporary, shouldn’t always be the “same old, same old.” Diversity in worship, it argued, offers worshippers different ways to encounter the Divine. Yep, I’m on that page, for sure! The last thing that I want here in this sanctuary is boring worship! But what really struck me was the conclusion of the essay. “Every worship service should be ‘alternative,’” it said, “an alternative to the violence, selfishness, and loneliness of the world, an alternative to the never-ending drive to fuel our self-esteem with material goods and other addictions, an alternative to seeing ourselves as small, petty, and isolated; and instead, as part of something larger than ourselves. Every worship service is an opportunity to encounter the living God. …every time we show up for worship, we have the right and duty to expect and demand no less.” (V. R. Marianne Zahn, huffingtonpost.com)

Ponder that for a moment. Worship is always alternative, because when we encounter God in worship, we experience an alternative to the meaningless rat race that the world offers us. In worship, we are offered a taste of life in the kingdom of God! That is what worship is all about. It’s not about learning creeds or memorizing scripture or singing familiar hymns. Now, those are all good things. If, however, we learn and sing and memorize but don’t encounter the God who stands beyond the world around us, then our worship has been very thin, indeed! Worship, at its best, should move us away from the ways of the world and closer to the ways of God.

Several weeks ago, as I was just starting to organize my thoughts for this sermon, we heard the news of a massacre in Charleston, South Carolina. On June 17, a young white man named Dylann Roof killed nine members of the Emanuel AME Church, including their pastor. After being welcomed into their weekly Bible study, and after praying with them for over an hour, Roof pulled out a gun and shot nine human beings in cold blood. This act of terrorism didn’t take place in Iraq or Afghanistan or Syria. It happened right here in our own country – the country that just recently celebrated its birthday with speeches about how all its citizens are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But even though our country was founded on the principles of equality and opportunity for all human beings, and even though our legal system tries its best to guarantee those things, the reality is that we fall far short of that ideal. We can only find that ideal in God’s realm of love and peace. And so, we are called to worship the God who offers us that realm, not any group or political party or nation.

The difference between worshipping the ways of the world and worshipping the God who created us and sustains us is the difference between the actions of Dylann Roof and the response of the congregation into which he brought so much pain. Let’s take a look at the actions of Dylann Roof for just a moment. Let’s look evil in the face. Dylann Roof believes that some people are not as worthy as others are. In his twisted thinking, African-Americans are less worthy of life than whites are. In fact, African-Americans deserve to be killed – exterminated like rats that have infested the garage. That kind of warped thinking is rooted in hate; and Roof bought right into it. He hates African-Americans just because of the color of their skin. They have done nothing to him except to live in the same country. But he has been indoctrinated into hate, Dylann Roof used a gun to snuff out nine innocent lives. He bought right into the violence that is pervasive in our country, and into the thinking that not only permits violence, but encourages it. After all, we’re entitled to whatever we want, aren’t we?

Now, you might protest that Dylann Roof doesn’t represent the majority of people in our country. And – thank God – he certainly doesn’t! But his actions are representative of the kind of thinking that the world offers us. It tells us that some people are better than others. It tells us that it’s OK to hate people who are different than we are. It tells us that violence is an appropriate way to change things that we don’t like. When people worship the ways of the world, they risk being corroded by hatred and spewing violence like a broken sewer line. That’s what happened to Dylann Roof. What a waste of a life!

But there’s another way to think and to behave; and that’s how Christians are called to behave as citizens of the Kingdom of God. Compared to the ways of the world, we’re absolutely radical! In God’s kingdom, no one is better than anyone else. Remember what Paul told the church in his letter to the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” These days, we might say this instead: “There is no longer black or white, native or immigrant, liberal or conservative; for all of us are one in Christ Jesus.” We’re supposed to love one another as Jesus Christ has loved us!  That’s why the members of Mother Emanuel Church welcomed Dylann Roof into their Bible study. Welcome is what we do as children of God! And when, after praying with them and hearing God’s word in the midst of their fellowship, he pulled out a gun and shot nine of them point blank, it’s why they returned love for his hate. Those Bible study members took seriously what Jesus said when he told his disciples to “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.” A friend of the pastor – who, by the way, was the first one to die – called Roof’s grandfather to tell him, “I love you.” The daughter of one of the slain women told Roof to his face, “May God have mercy on you. I forgive you.” Not one of the members of Mother Emanuel Church responded with violence. They didn’t join together to burn and loot businesses, or lob Molotov cocktails at homes in white neighborhoods. No, they responded with compassion, with prayer, and with hope. “The doors of Mother Emanuel are open,” said one of those members on the Sunday after the massacre, “and it sends a message to every demon in hell and on earth.” “Through all of this, God is still our refuge,” said another. “I’m still heartbroken, but it’s gonna get better… day by day.”

Friends, we can’t talk ourselves into behaving like that. We can’t do it by just wanting to be better people. We can’t even do it by gritting our teeth and trying our best. No, we can’t convince ourselves to reject hate and violence in favor of forgiveness. But we can worship into it – if we’re worshipping the One who made heaven and earth, who redeemed us by his death and resurrection, and who transforms us by his Spirit. When we gather for worship each Sunday morning, we have an opportunity to encounter the God who stands above all cultures and nations. We are invited to worship the God who offers us not a political kingdom with a congress and a court and a president, but an eternal kingdom of peace, harmony, and joy. We are invited to worship the God who can change even us into good citizens of that kingdom!

Jesus was absolutely right when he said to the Pharisees, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; and give to God what belongs to God” (Mark 12:13-17). Yes, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Be a good citizen. Participate in civic affairs. Love your country! Offer thanks that we are a free people, and that we have opportunities to live fully! But to give to God what belongs to God; and that is our worship. Because in the end, it is that alternative worship that will help to usher in the eternal kingdom of God.