Mastering Storms - Third Sunday of the Season of Creation
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
September 21, 2025
Just before summer, we were out in the parking lot here
at Grace for our food distribution and we realized a significant rainstorm was
headed our way. If you haven’t seen our food distribution, we have people
entering our parking lot from two different directions and funneling into a
single line that then winds its way to the check in folks and then on to the
food tables themselves. People start arriving as much as an hour or more
beforehand, no matter what we say to reassure them that they will all get food.
Our system works really well, as long as the cars keep moving. But that process
was completely upended when we needed to stop everything for rain and lighting.
We needed to get volunteers under shelter, and get cars parked safely as we
rode out the storm. And some of our guests were distressed, not only by the
weather itself, but by the storm of life that has brought them to us in the
first place. Insecurity popped up as we tried to get the parked cars lined up
again while also addressing new cars showing up as a couple folks worried aloud
that they were there first, or whether we would just cancel the distribution.
Will we get food? In the end everyone saw that the physical storm passed and so
did the emotional one. It was as we said it would be, but it can feel like a
very long time between fear and fulfillment. No one was in a boat but, “Master,
we’re sinking!” shows up in lots of ways.
In the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ disciples call him Master four
times that I think demonstrate our journey in trying to believe that Jesus is
moving us from living in a storm, to living with a storm, to living after a
storm. The good news is about Jesus, as Master, as the one demonstrating God’s
power and presence to us not only in crisis but when we try to live after, to
live again and to live anew. Those ways of being sound a lot easier than they
are. And the truth is that there are all kinds of storms with which we
struggle. The first time Jesus is called “Master” is the storm of having fished
all night and you got nothing. Nothing to feed your family, nothing to support
yourself. Jesus shows up and says, “try this” and “Master, if you say so” is a faint
mixture of hope and skepticism.
The second time is the storm on the sea where those
following Jesus fear they will sink and drown. “Master, MASTER!!” is a full-throated
cry of fear and faith each fighting in their hearts before there is calm.
The third time is Jesus transfigured on the mountain and
a voice coming from a cloud telling them to listen to Jesus. In thunder and
mystery, “Master, if it’s as good as I think, it sure is good I got chosen to
be here.” But before too long, it will be “Master, these other people saying
and doing things in your name but they are wrong. Make them stop!” Show them
we’re in charge, Jesus.
Each of these Master Moments is a storm of insecurity and
confusion and even division. Each time is a new learning, and Jesus keeps
teaching because each is a different storm. And so it is for followers since.
Hoping and doubting and wondering if Jesus as Master is real and true. Worrying
about getting to the other side of a storm and what will be there.
Our passage from Revelation on this Storm Sunday speaks
of the holy space of God containing a rainbow. This comes just after opening
words to seven struggling faith communities wrestling with insecurity and fear
and divisions that threatened their witness of faith for each other and others.
It is after John addresses their general storms that the very next thing we see
is this vision of beauty and the rainbow. Just like that very first rainbow in
Genesis – given by God as a sign that in spite of storms and fears and ordeals,
we can and will encounter the ever-promised love of the Master. There is “after
the storm.” The bridge in Revelation is God saying “Listen, I am standing here.
When you hear my voice and open the door. I WILL come in.” This is Jesus helping
us master the storms.
Master, we want to believe that you have the power to
care for us and move us beyond our storms. Master, can you help us hear you and
see you?
Sometimes it is literally the rainbow in the sky that
almost always makes people pause and try to capture that picture. Master, help
us to capture anew why the rainbow is there. So when we are surrounded by
people who are like loud winds of discord, like waves trying to drown our
spirits by telling us you send storms to judge and punish, help to remember you
are not the master of our destruction or anyone else’s. You love all you have
made.
Sometimes we see God in other people. It might be those
trying desperately to save us in storms, using their God given gifts to help us
live through and live anew.
Meteorologists and scientists and broadcasters and
responders and volunteers who bring aid. Master, help us see you in them, and
see through their work how much you long to protect and restore your beloved
world. Help us to see how much you hurt when we struggle and when we do not
listen to the words of life that allow us all to keep from sinking.
Sometimes we are the reflection someone else needs in
their storm even when it is hard for us to want to love, or when we feel
nervous or unsure. Master, there is no boat in this life where we are sailing
alone. I see that in my journey with the storms of dementia in my Dad’s life.
Often easygoing, he sometimes see the world through a chaos that I don’t see
but which are very real for him. One day he was experiencing a storm of anxiety
and his very long legs and arms were flailing in his wheelchair as he was
confused and calling out. It was hard to not fear being an accidental casualty
with the flailing, but Jesus was in this boat and I placed a hand on his
shoulder and looked at him and said, “Dad, I love you.” Still fear and
flailing. “Dad…Dad…I LOVE you.” A little calmer. “Dad..” I looked him right in
the eyes now on his level. And quietly said, “I Love You, Dad.” And the storm
stopped.
I turned away for a moment only to hear this small voice
say, “ I really do love you too.”
And are there not times that this is our storm experience
too? Flailing or anxious, hoping and doubting, unsure or confused, calling out
and hoping to experience our Master in the storm? Truth is, there with my Dad in
the upheaval, it was my storm too. Maybe in realizing that lots of us are in
storms we can become “I love you” people for each other that Jesus uses to master
what we face. That’s what happened in the parking lot in the rain. We loved
each other through it. It doesn’t mean there won’t be storms. But we have a
loving Master who wants to help us master storms together.
Master, we sure do need you. Help us to see you leading
us in the storms, through the storms, after storms to live anew. Help us to
believe you are also God of rainbows now and for all time.
AMEN
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2025 All
rights reserved. May not be reproduced
in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Texts: Revelation
4:1-8
Luke 8:22-25
22 One
day he (Jesus) got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us
go across to the other side of the lake.” So they put out, 23 and
while they were sailing he fell asleep. A windstorm swept down on the lake, and
the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They
went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And
waking up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was
a calm. 25 Then he said to them, “Where is your
faith?” They were terrified and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is
this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”
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