28 June 2016
The prophet Amos asks: “Do two [people] walk together unless
they have agreed?” Can two people be
companions and friends if they haven’t each said yes to it? And the answer is: Probably not. In other words, there needs to be some sort
of covenant between them. Without that,
it’s easy for someone to just walk away—especially when “the going gets rough.”
And that’s what we see there in the boat on the stormy
sea. Jesus got into the boat, and his
disciples “followed him.” And I think we
can see the boat as a metaphor for the covenant; they’re “in it together.” Now, Jesus was asleep in the boat; he was
totally at peace with the commitment he’d made to his disciples. “No storm could shake his inmost calm.”
But the disciples were all frantic because the boat—the covenant
with Jesus—was being tested. Of course,
our own boat—our own faith in Jesus—is
shaken sometimes. And, usually, it’s not
anything that God has done. It’s usually something that’s happened around
us, or in the world. Life can be like
the stormy sea. Life tests us to see if
we’ve really agreed to walk with the
Lord.
And the “test” isn’t to see how smooth we can make our
life. Really, the “test” is to see what
(and who) our rock is when life gets rough.
When life throws a curve-ball, it’s good to pay attention to what we
do. Do we jump ship and try to find a
replacement for Jesus? Or do we stay in
the boat and let Jesus take care of the curve-ball.?
Two people can’t walk together unless they’ve each said “yes”
to the friendship. And we can’t weather
the storms of life unless we’ve said “yes” to the Lord’s friendship. We know he says “yes” to us; we see that
every time he offers us his Body and Blood.
And we know we’ve said “yes” to him.
But will our “yes” remain strong and true? Will we have faith when the storms of life
come passing by?
No comments:
Post a Comment