LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1971, Page 91

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O58 SCOTT ATI IN re TRITON “ROE TERE eC

EVENING DEVOTIONS

Mattuew 8: 23-27, esp. 26

In the Name of Jesus

That must have been quite some storm back there
on the Sea of Galilee, enough to frighten seasoned,
hardened fishermen out of their wits, enough to con-
vince men who had ridden out many a storm on that
same lake that they were perishing. All of their experi-
enced efforts were futile. Every trick of their trade
that had stood them in good stead many times before
was useless. It was just too much for them. Through
their spray-soaked eyes all that they could see was the
end. By every assessment of what was only too plainly
visible there was no hope. Every time they tried to
reassure themselves with memories of past storms fol-
lowed by sudden calms, the howling wind and the
swamping waves snuffed out all such self-assurance
like a match flame in a hurricane, and they could only
stare into the abyss of their present where there was
no light.

“Ah,” we say, “but that is not quite true. After all,
Jesus was in the boat with them, and so it could not
have been as desperate as it appeared. Weren’t these
men Jesus’ disciples? Hadn’t they already learned
a great deal from Him? Hadn’t they already been eye-
witnesses to any number of miracles? They were actu-
ally safer than they had ever been in their mothers’
arms, and they could no more perish than this earth
can fall out of the hands of God.” And that’s great!
Actually terrific! No less should be expected of us as
we sit here under a story of which we already know
the end and in calm detachment evaluate the faith and
the response of some men who should have known bet-
ter because they already had so much more than we
have in the Jesus who was visibly and personally pres-
ent with them. And with that we can superiorly go
back to the business which has brought us together and
handle our problems with our great or little theological
acumen and face up to our issues in the self-assurance
that we will yet manage them because surely Jesus is
here with us. We certainly invited Him in, and we can
confidently get on with it now, because He is sure to
be there where two or three have gathered together
in His name.

And with that we show that we are as blind as the
disciples, because we are not willing to face up to the
possibility that we don’t know what we are talking
about. We’re not going to hear Jesus at all, neither out
of this story of which we know the end as well as the
beginning and the horrible middle, nor out of what is
said and confidently concluded by our vote at this con-
vention, unless we let Jesus rebuke us corporately as
a Synod and individually as professed disciples with

Why Are You Afraid?
No sooner do we apply the name “church” to our-
selves as a synod, and to our actions as a convention,

91

when our Lord Himself shows us that we had better
first see ourselves back there in that boat which these
men were convinced they had entered to their doom
and where all of their very best efforts amounted to no
more than their own blowing into the teeth of the gale.
Otherwise we do not even begin to realize what was
going on back there, and we’re not about to understand
what’s going on right here and now. That was the
church back there. If the outcome had been what these
men were predicting on the basis of their own best ex-
perience and the evidence at hand, not only would they
have perished, but we with them. There would have
been no church because there would have been no
foundation on which to build it, and, by all that was
visible, neither would there have been a Jesus Christ
to hold it all together as the chief cornerstone. Let the
storm have its way and let the safety of these men and
their boat depend on what they were able to do, and
it must be obvious even to us that there never would
have been apostles, and Jesus Himself would have be-
come food for fish, and at best we would still be sitting
here and trying to build each other up in the hope that
the Messiah will yet come and that our world has not
been forgotten by God.

Well, then, what does this mean for us who claim
that we are the church today and that our business
here is church business? Whatever else it may mean,
it certainly gives us the humbling reminder that the
church’s present and future are as little dependent upon
us and our efforts, seasoned and experienced church-
men though we may be, as the safety of that boat, which
involved our present, depended on the skills and the
knowledge and the efforts of the disciples. Can’t we
picture these men resorting to every device that had
helped them in past storms, bailing with all the fury
which their hardened sea-muscles allowed, throwing
overboard everything that might be a hindrance, shout-
ing at each other to try this because that had failed,
even for a while encouraging each other that it might
not be as bad as it seemed? You can almost see Peter
taking charge and working twice as hard as all the rest,
stuffing seams that were opening under the force of the
storm while the others pitched out the water that came
in faster than they could throw it out, doing his best
to bind it all together with whatever was available and
thus doing his very best to keep it all from breaking to
pieces. Might it be that they even called each other
names in their pithy fisherman language because given
suggestions were not heeded, James arguing with John,
his brother no less, each accusing the other of being
the stupid one who had gotten them into this mess to
begin with? And all of it was to no avail as these men
fell back exhausted and frustrated, hopeless and help-
less, while the storm raged on and their certain destruc-
tion became more certain still. Finally, when there was
no other possible “out” left, driven by total despair of
themselves, they turned to Jesus, who was asleep. Think

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