The idea of the Church as a ship has always been popular. Even now you are sitting in what is called the nave of the building. It is called the 'nave' as the roof looks a little like an upturned boat - the Latin for ‘boat’ being ‘navis’ from which we get the words 'navigate' and 'navy'.
In today's gospel reading we can see one of the biblical inspirations for nautical themes. It is imagery the early church was quick to pick up on. We must remember that many of the early disciples were fishermen, and the apostles spread the Gospel along the sea routes. For people whose daily lives revolved around the sea and who had knowledge of what life at sea was like, using seafaring imagery to communicate the gospel was an obvious thing to do.
A church buffeted by persecution, as the early church was, could identify with sailors in a ship, at the mercy of a storm. The Apostle Paul was shipwrecked. Even in our own time for a modern ship, as we have recently seen with the Costa Concordia, the idea of a shipwreck is a horrifying one. A major storm is a very unpleasant experience, and sailors are very conscious how calm waters in a matter of minutes can become quite treacherous. The early Church, and even the Church now, could feel it was about to be swamped.
What is true of the Church is also true of the individual. There is the voyage each of us has through life and the storms are the crises we meet. Some will encounter more storms than others, but it is true that everybody will experience some storms. As with the disciples in the Gospel, it is often only in moments of crisis that people, and perhaps even the Church, really turn towards God, and not always in a good sense.
They turn to ask what God is doing. The Gospel lection tells us, “...they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’” We are first told in the Gospel that Jesus was asleep in the stern during the storm. It seems that Jesus doesn't care. But are we here talking about reality or the disciples' perception? Is God absent and uncaring or is that the disciples' perception of the situation? Jesus is of course acutely aware of what is going on all the time.
Our questioning of God in times of crisis should lead us to examine our attitude to God at other times. It is us who behave as though God is asleep, because we are distracted. Jesus answered the disciples by questioning their faith. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ He acted at the same time. The winds dropped and the sea calmed at his command.
At this, even though they were Jesus' disciples, we are told that “...they were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” The answer to that question is that he is the God who made heaven and earth. The God of creation has power over his creation. This is the God in whom we have faith. Of course he is there all the time; we have only to learn to see that this is so. We have to learn to interpret what God is doing, both in our own lives and in the lives of our community.
In Wales, all the road signs have to be written in both Welsh and English, and the local council in Swansea wished to place a new sign at the roadside. As with all new signs the sign company contracted to make the signs sent off the following text to a translator: ‘No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only’. The sign company received a very prompt reply from the translator, and duly completed the sign, and placed it at the position required. You can imagine the confusion when people read the new sign. The English had been translated into Welsh as: ‘I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.’
I don't think it's stretching it too far to suggest that our lives can look a little bit like that defective sign at times. We can live in a way which is chaotic and fragmented, and the way we live can send a mixed set of unrelated messages to those around us, especially to those who do not have faith.
The way we live our lives, whether we like it or not, acts as a sign that conveys a particular message to those we encounter. If our lives are carefully and consistently worded, they will communicate to others something of the love of God, and of the huge difference that our faith makes to the way we see the world and live in it. If our lives are well worded, and point in the right way, they will lead others to the Church, where they can become part of Christ's mystical body, which is built up by receiving him in word and sacrament.
On the other hand, the sign that we make of our lives might say something to others about Christ, but make it hard for them to see why they should bother having faith. If we don't live out what we profess, we might even drive others away from Christ and his Church, and make a life of faith something that seems ridiculous or even damaging.
The faith that we have, handed down to us from the Apostles, is the most important thing that we have to offer to our world; I'm sure we'd all agree on that. But if we're not careful, the beliefs that we hold can seem to others as simply a set of words with little or no relevance. What brings our faith alive, and makes it attractive to others, is when those words are lived out in every aspect of our lives. It's then that people can see the great richness that life with Christ holds for all those who seek him.
The first disciples were weak and inadequate in many ways. Surely the Lord, when he appeared, could have chosen more talented, competent and dazzling men to spread the Gospel through all the nations. But he didn't. He chose ordinary folk and invited them to come and see. He revealed himself to them, and that transformed them.
May Jesus, the man who calmed the storm, reveal himself to you in a way which enables you to show him, and his love, to those around you. May you be the way in which God translates his love for all into something that is understood and accepted by your family and friends.
May Our Lord bless you as he calms the storms of your life.
