Pastor Joel’s sermon gripped me last Sunday. We are in the middle of a series called Scary Love. He spoke of Jesus walking on water toward the disciples in their boat. All disciples feared the seeming apparition fearing it might be a ghost but Peter, who doubts that it is really His Lord, vocalizes his doubt to Jesus and is called out of the boat to walk on water toward what he is not quite sure is His Savior. It must have been scary as we are told the waves were rough that night.
Who am I kidding?!!
It was just plain scary because humans do not walk on water! No, I do not watch horror movies either.
But Pastor Joel said something that has stuck with me into this week and I’ve been thinking about his statement. Yes, Peter did well at first but then began to sink and grew more afraid. Jesus merely reached out His hand in that storm and took Peter’s. That was it. He was at once safe again. God the Son asks an awful lot of us at times, doesn’t he?
And we are a people, who more often than not, are simply afraid of being afraid. Well, we’ll leave the disciples in the storm and the boat with Jesus lifting Peter and what Pastor Joel said for later, because this has triggered a memory of Michael Card speaking at the Winsome Women Retreat. (Just to put a little hanger on who Michael Card is, he has written many songs but among them was El-Shaddai and Emmanuel made hugely popular by Amy Grant.)
Almost as if Michael knew that Pastor Joel has been speaking on Scary Love, he looks up from his notes, and abruptly states in a non sequitur fashion, “Jesus can make you really afraid!” He rubs his hand worriedly up over his head and down the back of his neck as if to still the chills that are sneaking up his spine and into his scalp. I think, “Uh-oh, where are we going now?” Do I run for the car with the engine already running or the barn with all the chainsaws to stay safe? Really, the same guy who says, “Let the little children come to me”?
What Michael says next bears truth. He is scared of Jesus because of His absolute Lordship. Doesn’t seem scary but Michael presses the point. “When Jesus says, “Follow me,” it’s not really an invitation like to a birthday party complete with bounce house, bring a gift if you want to. It’s not a casual ask with Jesus saying, “Oh yeah, I’ll be hanging around here for awhile, just get back with me on that sometime.” Picture the flutter of Jesus’ hand as he waves you off, diminishing his ask even further.
No, Jesus is serious and absolutely asks for all of you right then and there. No time to put your nets away properly, remember the disciples left their nets, what self-respecting fisherman would do that? No time to say, “Well, I’ll just jot on home and talk to the wife and kids and let them know I won’t be home for supper for a very long time. Be back in a jiffy.”
Michael says, “He wants ALL of you.” That’s a BIG ask and I remember reading in the Bible of those who were asked to give up their wealth and all they had and to immediately follow Jesus. Some simply could not do it. It was too scary.
That creates a tad of a storm in your life, like a tornado that rips through, touches down for a moment, and leaves your life upended after it has passed, while you’re still thinking of an opportunity that has also passed.
Now, I’m back to Peter in and out of the boat in the storm. I think Jesus is supposed to be something of a storm cloud brewing as he comes among us for life often puts us in scary and difficult places and that is where we learn if we choose to. We can learn that we are never alone no matter how scared we are. Pastor Joel said, “God conquers the storm with us, not us with Him.” Pretty powerful!
I, who will no longer watch horror movies, will grab on to this ‘scary love’ because I know without a doubt, it is the sweetest thing we will ever know.
Similar to Jesus, I will invite you to follow me to worship this Sunday at 9:45 a.m. for this week’s sermon on scary love – Perfect Love. Come in any way you can. Pastor Joel says, “Be not afraid!”
~Shauna Weil