PRELUDE
Peace, peace, wonderful peace
https://youtu.be/ySPQcp5hIqM
Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm;
In celestial-like strains it unceasingly falls
O’er my soul like an infinite calm.
Refrain:
Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!
What a treasure I have in this wonderful peace,
Buried deep in the heart of my soul,
So secure that no power can mine it away,
While the years of eternity roll!
Refrain:
Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!
I am resting tonight in this wonderful peace,
Resting sweetly in Jesus’ control;
For I’m kept from all danger by night and by day,
And His glory is flooding my soul!
Refrain:
Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!
And I think when I rise to that city of peace,
Where the Author of peace I shall see,
That one strain of the song which the ransomed will sing
In that heavenly kingdom will be:
Refrain:
Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!
Ah soul, are you here without comfort and rest,
Marching down the rough pathway of time?
Make Jesus your friend ere the shadows grow dark;
Oh, accept this sweet peace so sublime!
Refrain:
Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!
GREETING
“Jesus loves me! Still today, walking with me on my way, wanting as a friend to give light and love to all who live. Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.” Amen. (NCH, 327, 3)
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Mark 4)
L: Sometimes, waves of despair wash over us.
P: Let us call on the Lord and find peace.
L: Sometimes, waves of trouble gather around us.
P: Let us call on the Lord and find safety.
L: Sometimes, waves of doubt overwhelm us.
All: Let us call on the Lord and find faith.
HYMN
My faith looks up to Thee
https://youtu.be/oGKLmThF2to
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my guilt away,
Oh, let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!
May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me,
Oh, may my love to Thee
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread,
Be Thou my guide;
Bid darkness turn to day,
Wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray
From Thee aside.
When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold, sullen stream
Shall o’er me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love,
Fear and distrust remove;
Oh, bear me safe above,
A ransomed soul!
INVOCATION
“Your love, O God, has called us here, for all love finds its source in you, the perfect love that casts out fear, the love that Christ makes ever new.” Amen. (NCH, 361, 1)
FIRST SCRIPTURE LESSON
Job 2: 1-10: “Job’s afflictions and patience”
GLORIA PATRI
https://youtu.be/QUBxpypSblw
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen, Amen!
PASTORAL PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, we thank you now and always, not only for life, but also for all of life’s blessings, which are your special gifts to us. You have created not only this world and all who inhabit it; but, even more, you have given each one of us loved ones and friends. You have given us not only houses in which to live, but, even more, homes to call our own.
O God, as we remember that your relationship to us is at least partially modeled in our human relationships as parents and children, on this Father’s Day, we ask a special blessing on fathers everywhere. Deliver all fathers from the excessive demands of professional, business, and social life that limit family relationships; from the insensitivity and harshness of judgment that prevent understanding; from domineering ways and the selfish imposition of their will; from softness and indulgence mistaken for love. Bless all fathers with wise and understanding hearts, so that they might demand neither too little nor too much. And grant all fathers such a measure of love that they might nurture their children to that fullness of personhood you intend for us all.
O you, who are the Father of the fatherless and the Redeemer and Protector of all your
children: we lift before you every family of your great world family and every member of each
family. For those who suffer the pain and discouragement of illness or grief, grant health and consolation according to your perfect will. For all those who are low on hope, rekindle the flame of expectancy. And to those who find it difficult to let go of everything else, that they may trust only in you and be reconciled to one another, grant the blessedness of this release. We remember before you this day those who are anticipating surgery or recovering from it, those who are lonely, those who need you most for the everyday living of their lives, those nearest and dearest to us, but especially all those who continue to struggle with these companion pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism.
O God, grant us all the courage to go forth to live as we have prayed. For your sake and for the sake of all those for whom we bear responsibility, we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father Who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power,
and the Glory forever!
Amen!
DOXOLOGY
https://youtu.be/eMnevRoAz74
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise God all creatures here below!
Praise God above you heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Amen!
OFFERING PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Generous God: we ask you to take our gifts, bless them, and use them to calm the storms of life and to create in our communities new and life-giving streams. In Christ's name we give and pray, Amen.
HYMN
How Firm A Foundation
https://youtu.be/8sbgARp5Eww
1 How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?
2 "In every condition, in sickness, in health,
in poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth,
at home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
as days may demand, shall thy strength ever be."
3 "Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand."
4 "When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."
5 "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."
6 "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!"
SECOND SCRIPTURE LESSON
Mark 4: 35-41: “Wind and sea calmed”
SERMON When Jesus is asleep and seems not to care
“Jesus, lover of our souls, let us to your bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high; hide us, O our Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past; safe into the haven guide, O receive our souls at last!” Amen. (based on NCH, 546, 1)
My friends, what exactly do we do when Jesus is asleep and seems not to care? That is indeed the question of despair and desperation that comes during the crisis moments that all of us face in life. And it seems as though we’ve all faced a lot of those these days, like this crisis of Corona virus, like this crisis of systemic, institutional racism. Or a loved one dies; or the malady is diagnosed as cancer; or the contract at work is not renewed, and we face unemployment. The relationship that we had hoped had been made in heaven seems now to have been made in the other place. Just one crisis, just one storm after another!
How hard it is to understand the storms of life! One moment, everything is going great: the winds are calm; the seas are serene. And then the very next moment, everything changes—the winds of crisis begin to blow; the waves of misfortune beat against us; and we too, just like those first disciples, feel that our entire world is sinking around us. And then, to make matters even worse, we cry out to the Lord: “Why me? Help! Don’t you even care if we perish?” But he’s asleep and seems not to care.
These common, ordinary, everyday human crises that all of us experience in the living of our lives reveal some of the same characteristics, and teach some of the same lessons, as did that storm at sea that Mark describes in our morning gospel lesson.
First, crisis always seems to come suddenly.
The storm at sea came to the disciples that way. Of course, they knew that might happen. They were keenly familiar with the waterway. They knew that a squall could quickly erupt on the horizon and spread over the entire lake. But even though they knew what could happen, and thus were prepared for it, at least in some sense, it didn’t make the storm any easier to deal with.
And so it is as well with all of us. A loved one, for example, may die after a long illness, or quite suddenly. It doesn’t really matter; the grief is equally devastating; the reality is equally shocking. When we are confronted with crisis, no matter how prepared we may be, the suddenness of its onset brings both fear and despair.
And second, the inevitable fear that comes is always fear of the unknown.
The disciples quickly became frightened as the storm intensified. The waves beat against their boat, and it began to fill with water. The real, not just metaphorical, danger of sinking became imminent. They simply didn't know what was going to happen to them, and they became frozen with fear, just as we do.
Whenever difficult situations impinge upon our lives, we too often move from shock to fear, precisely because we don’t know what’s going to happen next. Not knowing what to expect inevitably brings apprehension. The unknown is always frightening—like moving to a new community, starting in a new school, beginning a new job, calling a new pastor, facing a storm at sea, or even retiring for the second time—all frightening experiences indeed! And if the simple unknown of everyday living is so frightening, how much more will we be fearful when our whole world is collapsing around us, as it sometimes seems to be doing these days.
And third, this kind of fear leads inevitably to despair; and, as I think I’ve said to all of you before, it is despair, not doubt, which is the opposite of faith.
The disciples’ fear turned into just such despair. Their boat was now sinking. That was bad enough. But what was even worse, what caused them to despair, was that Jesus was asleep and seemed not to care. They cried out in desperation: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” No wonder then that we modern disciples also feel despair, desperation, hopelessness, whenever illness or loneliness or failure comes our way. We not only lose hope because our world seems to be sinking around us; but at precisely that moment when we need God most, God seems to be asleep, unconcerned about our plight. Even if God didn’t cause the tragedy of
the virus or the tragedy of racism, we wonder, why didn’t God prevent those tragedies from happening? After all, isn’t God supposed to be all-loving and all-powerful?
Out of these depths, we cry out to God, using the words of the Psalmist: “How long, O Lord? How long?” (113: 1a) And as Job’s wife said to him in the very midst of his own supreme despair: “Curse God and die!” (2:9b) “God doesn’t care about you! You have lost everything that is dear to you: your possessions, your family are all gone; and God doesn’t care!” How often we have said or at least felt the same!
But the lesson to us all comes at the conclusion of the tale, and what a simple yet powerful lesson it is; as our story reminds us, “But [Jesus] was in the stern...” (4:38)
These are the common characteristics of life’s storms, crises, and tragedies—they all come suddenly to bring both fear and despair. But at that point of deepest desperation, when even we people of faith are tempted to curse God and die, we need to remember finally that Jesus was in the boat all the time—asleep to be sure, but nonetheless present and caring and prepared to help. He wasn’t off at a distance like some casual observer of the drama; he was right there in the very middle of the storm, just as he is always right here in the middle of our storms, even though at times, he may appear to be asleep, or silent in response to our prayers.
My friends, to end as we began—what exactly do we do when Jesus is asleep and seems not to care? We rejoice that he’s still in the boat with us, and claim the faith that he is ever ready to awaken in order to rebuke the wind, and calm the sea, and bring peace to our troubled souls. As the poet says, “O sing a song of Galilee, of lake and woods and hill, of one who walked upon the sea and bade its waves be still: for though, like waves on Galilee, rough seas of trouble roll, when faith has heard the Savior’s word, falls peace upon the soul.” (NCH, 51, 3)
“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well, with my soul.” Amen. (Hymns for the Family of God, 495, 1)
HYMN
When peace like a river...
https://youtu.be/MCd919CqjFE
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul!
BENEDICTION
“Blessed quietness, holy quietness, what assurance in my soul. On the stormy sea, Jesus speaks to me, and the billows cease to roll.” Amen. (NCH, 284, refrain)
BENEDICTION RESPONSE
Go Now in Peace
Congregation:
https://youtu.be/mefNCtwjp2M
Piano:
https://youtu.be/JLJXpuxDjes
Go now In peace, never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now In faith, steadfast strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now In love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace. in faith and in love.
Amen. Amen. AMEN!
Copyright © 2018 Second Congregational Church - All Rights Reserved.