June 20, 2021 ~ Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Sermon

                                                                                                06/20/21—Highland—Meute

“Your Lord Jesus” Summer Series: “Even Wind and Sea Obey Him”

Psalm 107: 1-3, 23-32; 2 Corinthians 6: 1-13; Mark 4: 35-41

Pearl: Living under the Lordship of Jesus means launching into the unknown and unfamiliar.

Function: To encourage listeners to by faith trust God through the storms that come to us as we live the kingdom life in the Way of Jesus by venturing toward others who are unfamiliar/different.

“On that day, when evening had come, [Jesus] said to [his followers], ‘Let us go across to the other side’” (Mark 4:35). Incidentally there was a Christian magazine which I received and stopped publishing sometime in the late 80’s which used the title, “The Other Side.” With Jesus you are called away from the familiar, comfortable shore to go to another, different shore of life and experience.

1. This can be done in your own community, although it may also mean going further to get to know those who are different than you.
   1. There is an aspect of the gospel of Christ, the reality of the kingdom of God among us, which continually urges us forth to others who are unfamiliar to us.
      1. This is because the God who loves the world and who relates with this world puts that very drive within us.
   1. As we get to know those from other shores of experience, faith, background, orientation, and so on, we get to know more of God. God made everyone; in the image of God, all were created.
      1. As you get to know “the other” you know more of God!
2. Leaving the comfort of the familiar shore for the other, unfamiliar shore can be done in many ways. What are some of the ways Jesus prompts you to venture out from your shore of familiarity?
   1. It might be a particular faith that you have some knowledge of but really have not studied. Rather than being content with the little knowledge that you have why not venture forth to get some deeper understanding.
      1. God compels us toward the “other.”
   1. That neighbor you always give a wave to but never actually talk to could be a new shore for you to visit.
      1. Jesus had so many encounters like this. I think of the Samaritan woman at the well. In the heat of the day Jesus spoke to her. His disciples were shocked that he would engage a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman in the very public place of a community well.
         1. But then again, God compels us toward the “other,” without distinction. This is the way of Christ. It is the way of the “kingdom of God among us” as Dallas Willard puts it.
   1. The gospel of the kingdom urges us to relate with those from other shores of life experience in order to mutually encourage each other and to mutually seek the vitality of each other.
      1. This cannot happen if we choose to stay on our own shore. If we refuse to engage those who are less familiar we choose not to follow Jesus. Jesus always urges us into relationship with others from different shores.

Leaving the shore of the familiar will bring us through some storms. But storms are to be expected when following Jesus.

1. Have you experienced any storms as a direct result of being a disciple of Jesus? An African-American mother of a church in North Minneapolis told her white minister, Rev. Swanson, “Pastor, if no one is ever upset or mad at you, you’re doing something wrong” (Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity, David W. Swanson, 2020). 
   1. Following Jesus and seeking the kingdom of God among us will rock the boat!
      1. This is why Jesus was put on the cross.
      1. He spoke of a different Lord than Caesar and paid for it with his own life.
      1. He challenged the powers by talking about a power of love from a different kingdom, the kingdom of God among us.
         1. He spoke of a different way of life and a different view of people and his views could not be tolerated.
   1. Jesus knew very well that venturing forth to the unfamiliar would bring you through storms.
      1. He knew it so well that he slept right through a particularly bad one.
      1. His disciples woke him up in sheer panic, and these disciples were fishermen, those who were very familiar with storms out on the waters.
      1. Even followers of Jesus can be overwhelmed by the storms. We might not expect them. We try to avoid them. We do all that we can to avoid storms.
      1. But Jesus knows that being about the kingdom of God among us will stir up storms. Advocating the realm of God on earth, representing it, championing the kingdom of God, will always trouble the waters.
   1. Paul the Apostle described the consequences that he and others experienced of representing the kingdom of God among us.
      1. He wrote in shocking detail the results of leaving the familiar position or place, and trying to share the life and way with God with others which advocates for the best life for all people:
         1. They experienced afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.
         1. “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown and yet are well known, as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Cor. 6: 8b-10).
      1. Such things do not happen to the follower of Jesus who stays on the comfortable shore of the familiar.

As we follow Jesus to other shores of life and peoples we find more of God who is very much everyone’s God. And we get to know all of God’s children, which is what God wants.

1. God wants us to know others so that we can empathize with them and if necessary even be advocates for their well-being.
   1. This will not happen if we do not leave the familiar shore.
   1. This will not happen if we do not challenge our familiar ways of thinking.
   1. This will not happen if we cannot open our hearts. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that his heart was open to them and he invited them to open their hearts toward him.
2. Venturing to a new shore may not so much be toward anyone in particular but entertaining a new concept or idea or cause.
   1. You are encouraged to venture forth by following your Lord Jesus, who always moves on toward unfamiliar shores with the good news, compelled by the kingdom of God among us.  
   1. We are good at thinking about venturing forth. “Now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” wrote Paul.
      1. Gimli, the dwarf warrior in the Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” had a line I love: “Certainty of death; small chance of success; what are we waiting for?!”
3. Followers of Jesus who represent the kingdom of God among us launch out toward the unfamiliar.
   1. There will be storms.
   1. There will be conflict. My older and wiser friend (he told me to say that) Pastor Mike Schutz, and who preached at my Installation here at Highland wrote, “Spending your days trying to avoid conflict is comparable to living in the ocean and trying to avoid getting wet. The task is impossible, and you just look silly.”
      1. A musician responded to him, “Conflict resolution is only a half-step away.” In music a half step is a very slight change and only a short distance, but it provides resolution!
   1. There will be questions.
   1. There will be head-aches.
   1. There will be failures and the need for apologies and giving and receiving forgiveness.
4. But it is in these places, these messy, stormy places, that if we look around, we find that our Lord Jesus is sleeping, knowing full well that God is with us even if we go down under the waves to the deeps.
   1. He weathered many storms himself but his final storm took his life.
      1. Followers of Jesus will make it through to the other side by faith.
      1. Faith in God.
      1. Faith that God will be found in the other, from that distant shore.
      1. Faith that venturing forth into the unfamiliar is the spice of life and of growth.

If even wind and sea obey the Lord Jesus, how much more should you and I obey him by “going forth to the other side?!”