There are always those storms that stick in our minds.
The storm that sunk the whahine in Wellington Harbour… My
dad wasn’t on the boat but he was on a business trip to wellington that day…
due to fly home… I remember the relief my mother had when he rang that night saying
he was Ok. He was in a hotel because he couldn’t fly out.
Cyclone Bola… I was working in a tunnel house complex in Te
puke at the time. AS the winds began to rise and the dark storm clouds
collected on the horizon. I found myself two stories up standing splay footed
in a guttering frantically trying to repair our plastic roof before the storm
hit. I was anchoring the plastic sheet down, I was holding a sail area more
than a n Americas cup yacht.. When they had sails… while someone attached it. I
half-jokingly said to my boss, now would be a good time to talk about danger
money. We had to do it all over again of
course when the storm finally cleared. I was also on the first flight out of
Tauranga after the storm a frightfully bumpy experience. I also remember the
surf at the mount the week after the storm. Some of the best I’ve even been in.
Psalm 29 is a vivid picture of a storm coming up off the Mediterranean
Sea, sweeping over the hills of Lebanon uprooting cedars trees as if they were
mere stalks of straw. Causing the sand
and dust to rise up and swirl and as it came over the wilderness and onto
Jerusalem: A devastating fatal storm. But God’s people are safe in the temple
and as it passes they hear God’ voice in the howl of the wind and the resounding
crash of thunder. They see God’s glory displayed in this very natural
phenomenon. Unlike the other people of
their day they do not think the storm is God or a dety to be feared or
worshipped, they ae aware that their God, our God sits above the storm and is
sovereign that God can be trusted to care for his people and keep them
safe in the storm.
For us it’s not only a vivid picture of the worst nature
cans throw at us it’s a metaphor for the storms that life throws at us. Times
in our lives when it seems as if everything whirls around us like a tornado, or
we are battered and bruised and things that we thought were solid are swept
away. Storms that can leave us
devastated and hurt…They even threaten to be fatal.
But there is hope and comfort in this psalm. God is a
shelter in the storm. He is sovereign and above these storms, not distant and
disinterested but unaffected, undiminished by their course. Like the psalmist
we can hear God’s voice in the storm. In Jonah, the great storm threatens to
swamp the boat Jonah is fleeing in. The great storm is God speaking to call
Jonah back on track. In Acts paul on his way in chains to Rome is caught on a
similar Mediterranean storm, it is rough and constant and people far for their
lives. Yet God uses it to take Paul on his way to new mission fields new
opportunities for ministry and miracle in Malta. In Psalm 107 with its
vignettes of the exile returning to
Jerusalem there is a picture of sailors on the sea… going up and down
staggering round like they are drunk in the waves, yet God is with them and
leads them through till they can reach safe harbour… They gather in the great
assembly and tell of God’s leading and guiding and protection in the wild
waves. Testifying to God’s goodness even in the face of the storm. All these
are ways God uses storms to speak to his people. Ways he can use the storms in
our life as well. If I may be so bold
even the storms of the late autumn season.
But there is also the comfort and hope that not only des God
speak through th storms he speaks to the storms as well. In Our New testament
reading, Jesus is in the boat as they go over to the other side of the
lake. A storm rises and threatens to
sink the boat… There first though is well where is Jesus… and yes he is with
them in the boat… but he is asleep and he just doesn’t seem to care…aren’t they
the kind of responses we often have as the wind rises and he waves rage… Where
are you God have you gone home put your feet up and fallen asleep in front of
the tele… But Jesus stands and speaks to the wind and the waves and they still
themselves It’s our hope and our comfort. But its also a challenge as Jesus
rebukes his disciples and asks them where is their faith. In the storm or as it
is being calmed by the voice of the one who loves us enough to weather the
storm of cross and grave, we are called to have faith and say ‘Glory” knowing
God is enthroned above the floods. God is able to see us through… to lead and
guide us… and yes praise God to intervene and smooth and calm… let us stand in awe of the one whom even the wind and waves obey.
Let Pray
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