Asleep at the Wheel
Speaker: Rev. Matt Henry
Location: Whitney United Methodist Church
Date: June 24, 2009
Time for a little truth telling here. Have any of you ever fallen asleep at the wheel. If so, raise your hand. Oh, Lord have mercy. Remind me not to be driving around you guys any more. What was that like for you? Scary. Oh, it was a wakeup call in a major way, wasn’t it? That happened to me only once a long time ago. When I was in my late teens I was going to University. It was 30 miles away from where my parents lived. I had a job at that time as a night watchman in a factory. Bad combination. So I was up from probably10 until 6 in the morning. I came home, had about an hour to eat and dress, drive 30 miles to University. And one morning after a stint at the factory I was driving and I was almost at the University and the next thing I knew I was hearing that familiar crunch of gravel on the shoulder of the road. And right at that time I also heard this loud honk from a semi. Wakeup call. I gripped that wheel like steel not to release control. Now let me ask you a question here. If you were a passenger in a car that God was driving would it freak you out if God fell asleep at the wheel? Oh ye of little faith. Would it freak you out if God fell asleep at the wheel? Yes? Friends, this sermon is for you today.
Now when I was in seminary we learned that the first cardinal rule of Bible study was this. This morning you have been just given a very short snippet of text…this famous story of Jesus and the Disciples sailing over the Sea of Galilee. But the very first cardinal rule of Bible study is this….examine the surrounding text before you attempt to deal with that little bit. And if we do so, in this chapter, at the beginning of Chapter 4, this is what we have Jesus saying. Listen, he says, a sower went out to sow and as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and the birds came and ate it up. You’ve heard this before haven’t you? Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and it sprang up quickly, and since it had no depth of soil, and when the sun rose it was scorched and, since it had no root, it withered away. And other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it. “We’ve always done it this way.” And it too yielded no grain. And other seed feel onto good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding 30 and 60 and 100 fold. And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear, listen.’
Now that’s what starts off, this scene before they’re going over to Galilee. Chapter 4 begins with Jesus telling the Parable about faith. This sower scatters seed everywhere, not just in his own back yard, but it only germinates in the good soil of mature faith. Friends, it’s important that we get this because this is what sets up, this is what happens next, which is a major test of faith of his Disciples. Now this story is absolutely rich with symbolism in that the sea, as we have looked at before, is a metaphor for death and chaos. Now, this is so cool man. The sea is a metaphor for death and chaos and the storm is a direct reflection of the Canaanite god Baal. And Baal is the god of storm and wind and death and destruction, and that is a Canaanite god. So we’ve got to get this nice picture. Jesus and his followers are sailing out over that which represents death, facing the reflection of a foreign Canaanite god…..that is what’s going on in this story symbolically. ….a god no doubt worshipped by the garrison Gentiles that Jesus sets out to seek. So we’re talking about comfort zones here, and that which threatens them. We’re talking about the Disciples’ comfort zone where they would rather stay on their side of Galilee. We’re talking about the garrison’s comfort zone on the other side of the sea, in Gentile land, where they are not looking forward to dealing with any foreign gods. We’re talking about your comfort zone and mine, and we know this as a culture ruled by fear and conflict avoidance, that the Son of God willingly faces and sails right into it, and he brings his followers with him.
Now let’s just look at this story for a moment. It begins with this line, On that day when evening had come. Now, think about this for a second, at least in a pre modern sense. No person in their right mind sailed out on a storm threatened sea at night. To do so would be suicide and evidence of just madness. So that’s how the story sets out. But Jesus is intent on taking the gospel of salvation to the other side, where other-siders live, just like Lesli and the Youth Group. Lesli and the Youth Group blanketed the neighborhoods around here with flyers saying, “Come to watch a movie with us.” They were going out these doors where the other-siders live. Jesus Christ is willing to risk life and limb, his own and that of others by the way, to bring a message of hope, of invitation, outside these church walls, of Judaism into the homes of unbelievers, amen? The lesson here is, being a bearer of salvation requires stepping out of our comfort zone and being willing to go toe to toe with the unknown in order that some might be lifted up out of death, or at least given some music of hope in a hospital.
Just as he was. We’re told that Jesus boarded the boat just as he was. This must be a hint that Jesus must have been exhausted from teaching all day. (Singing to the tune of “Just As I Am”) Just as he was without one plea he got on the boat and left Galilee. And then the storm of life descends upon them bringing evil and death. And here is the name we are meant to catch and it has to be faith. Jesus’ response is to fall asleep at the wheel, or at the tiller. It says that he is lying on a cushion. That’s the cushion that the driver sits on in the back of his boat next to the tiller. That’s where he’s at, at the place of control. You get it? But what’s he doing? He’s sleeping during a storm and the boat’s being swamped and he is sleeping. I mean, I’d like to ask him what kind of sleeping pills are you taking there, dude. But he has crashed. I mean he must be really exhausted. Jesus’ response is to fall asleep at the wheel. His follower’s response, who by now should know better from past experience with him, is to panic.
We interrupt this regular scheduled broadcast for a brief moment. Mark is Jewish and he’s writing to Jews, in Rome in fact where they’re becoming very persecuted. And Mark tells this story in this way in order to echo another tale his hearers would know well. This is, in fact, Mark’s reprise of Jonah precisely because of the different responses of the passengers in that story. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. And then the mariners were afraid….now these are Gentiles by the way….and each cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. And the captain came and said to him, ‘What are you doing sound asleep? Get up.’ Now here’s his response. ‘Call on your god. Perhaps the god will spare us so that we do not perish.’
Jonah’s sailors represent the faith of other-siders. Get that? Mark’s audience, that’s you and me, we are meant to get this point. In both stories the protagonist, which is supposed to be you and I, sleeps calmly while death and destruction are crashing about. Why is this? Friends, it’s clear. This story is Mark’s way of evangelism, of testifying to the power of God of life who conquers the “little g” god of life’s storms. We are the intended audience of this story, for this is often our response when it comes to the chaos and mayhem that threatens our lives. First we try to deal with it solely on our own, yes? (especially if you’re a male) instead of waking up the Master at the first hint of turbulence. When that fails, we eventually seek help from God, and even then it’s often not in faith but in fear. Do you not care that we are perishing? With the expectation that, let’s be honest here, okay? God cannot or will not really intervene because, after all, what can anyone really do about storms and waves. What can anyone really do about somebody who has hit a deer on a motorcycle and almost died, where the doctors are saying, “You might as well close the book on him now.” What can God really do about that? What will God really do about that? Thus the question asked of God isn’t, “What will you do about this?” but, “Don’t you care?”
Friends, indeed this text seeks to address out default responses but also the potential responses when the storms of our lives threaten to overwhelm us, when we have a death grip on the wheel of control. Why are you afraid? Why have you still no faith? At this point we can take a key from those who have come through the storms of life, those from Alcoholics Anonymous who say, “Just let go and let God.” Let loose the wheel of control and anxiety and, brothers and sisters, let us catch some much needed rest because God watches over the wheel. When the storms of our lives threaten to swamp and sink us with pain and anguish, remember that God always brings us to the other side of the unknown where there are others waiting to share our story of salvation and storm tossed seas, the seas of our lives.
These words I speak to you, I speak to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.