The Message: Does it Ever Feel Like Jesus is Asleep at the Wheel?, Mark 4.35-41

Sermon:        Does it ever feel like Jesus is asleep at the wheel?
Scripture:    Mark 4:35-41
Preacher:     Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:     First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale
Date:             June 24, 2018

You may watch or listen to the sermon by clicking here.

Mark 4.35-41

 ³⁵On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”³⁹He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” [i]

It was Christmas break of my Freshman year at college and I returned home after a difficult semester.  I drove some 20 miles to go meet up with some old high school friends to catch up and catch up we did. The next thing we knew it was after 2 in the morning and I had some thirty minutes to get home.  I should’ve known better.  Leaving my friends, I got into my faded red 1962 VW Beetle with Sears red shag carpet tiles on the floorboards and curved roof.  I was tired.

I started off just fine. The roads were pretty empty and quiet as I traveled about fifteen miles before I fell asleep, ever so briefly, behind the wheel of my car.  I know I fell asleep because I was jolted awake when the right front tire went off the road and the old Beetle’s suspension, or lack thereof I should say, bounced my head against the roof and woke me up.  Being startled, I did the one thing you’re never supposed to do when you drift onto a road’s shoulder and that is to oversteer in the opposite direction to get back on the road.  I jerked the wheel hard to my left and the old faded red 1962 VW Beetle decked out with Sears red shag carpet squares begin spinning 360’s on Old Alabama Road and then flipped over three times before landing on its side forty feet off the road between two massive oak trees.  By this time, I was fully awake and realized what happened.  While in shock, I kicked the door open above me and slipped out the top of the car.  I grabbed the floorboard and somehow managed to flip the car back on its wheels, got in, turned the key and the now crushed faded red 1962 VW with Sears red shag carpet squares started!  I gently but very much awake drove the remaining 6 or so miles home and parked the car the last time.  It was totaled.

I learned so much that night.  I grew up that night. I learned that falling asleep at the wheel in the middle of nowhere at 2 in the morning is a very sobering and scary thing and place to be.  You feel totally out of control and your natural instinct is to oversteer and overcompensate in order to prevent an accident; it is just this particular instinct to overreact that actually causes the problem.  I learned that night that when confronted with a crisis, you will have better outcomes physically and emotionally if you remain calm.  I’ve learned that to be true when driving a car, riding a motorcycle or even getting through the day with challenging team meetings.

Have you ever felt that at times your life was in the midst of careening out of control in a flip and roll cycle?  If we are all honest, we would all say, ‘yes.’

You walk in one day and your boss lets you know your services are no longer needed.

You get a routine physical and discover certain levels within your body are out of whack and new tests need to be ordered.

You arrive home one afternoon to discover that your spouse has had a heart attack out back in the garden.

Your retirement funds have been absconded and lost in a Ponzi scheme.

You feel like life is spinning out of control.  You feel as though wave after wave of trouble and problems are breaking upon you one after the other.  Like the disciples, you look heavenward and desperately cry out, “Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing?!”  Sometimes we feel as though Jesus fell asleep at the wheel, and in our Story today, we realize that he literally did!

The Sea of Galilee is circled with mountainous regions that rise up on its eastern, northern, and western sides.  The hot air from the deserts come up and over the hills and mix with the colder air from the high mountainous regions of the north and nasty squalls come out of nowhere.  Living in Florida, we know what that is like, don’t we?  One minute we are playing in the water at the beach and the next minute from out of nowhere a thunderstorm develops and lightening knocks an entire building’s cooling tower and AC like what happened to the Neumann Center yesterday. In a blink of an eye, your world gets turned upside down and inside out. And at that moment, we cry out to God, “Don’t you care we are perishing down here!?”

Jesus has been having an extended teaching and preaching tour among the villages of the northwestern and northern parts of Galilee near the town of Capernaum.  It’s late in the day and he hops into a boat with the disciples and we read in Mark how an armada of Jesus seekers follow them. The fact is, Jesus and the others set out at night to cross over to the far eastern shore of the Galilee from the north.  If you read the scriptures long enough, you begin to understand that in both the Hebrew and Christian testaments, good things don’t typically happen at night.  For our ancient brothers and sisters, the night was a time of shadows and foggy vision.  Furthermore, Jesus and the others went out into the night on the chaotic and unpredictable waters of the Sea of Galilee. Mark has painted a verbal picture setting up the first-century perfect storm! Like a Greek chorus who shouts instructions to the actors, we want to yell, “Wait till morning Jesus!  There’s no rush to cross the sea at night!  We’ve heard of the weather forecast and we’re telling you to please wait ‘till morning!”  But Jesus is tired.  He’s had a full day and he feels the need to be alone and quiet.  He needs rest and gets in the boat and off he goes.

Now at this point, I want us to notice where Jesus was on the boat. Excavations on the Galilee have found boats of his time that he would’ve used was some 27 feet long and Jesus was situated in a strategic place. Well, back in Jesus’ day, the boat was steered from the back or the stern.  This is where the rudder is but it is also where the one steering, the helmsman, would be.  So where is it we find Jesus in our Story this morning?  Jesus is fast asleep at the wheel and seems to be doing a poor job with his divine cruise control!  The boat is sinking!  The storm is brewing, and water is slamming into and over the sides!  This story of Jesus on the water, with shades of the Jonah Story all along the edges, looks as though the boat is going down. Things are spinning out of control.  All seems desperate and lost.  In the midst of the watery chaos, the disciples collapse into a full-blown panic and start yelling at Jesus to wake up and do something!

And he does.  In fact, he does that which only God can do: He exercises control over the perilous realms of nature.  Just as God, whose Spirit hovered over Creation’s watery chaos and brought forth order and beauty, so Jesus wakes up and commands the watery chaos to be still; one can even translate it as Jesus telling the chaos and storm to literally “Shut-up!” [2]  And it does. And so too do the disciples in the boat.

Jesus’ outburst is one that calmed two things that night.  First, it calmed the storm and crashing waves.  Second and perhaps more importantly, Jesus drastically shut the disciples up in order for them to stop and realize how far they had to go in their faith development.  There are two types of fear described in our Story today.  There is a cowardly fear for losing one’s skin that describes the disciples’ response to the storm, and then, there is flat out terrorizing run for your life fear. The disciples realize Jesus has a spiritual gift set that extends way beyond being pretty good in the pulpit! You see, the disciples were scared of the storm and swamping boat however they were lose-control-of-your-bodily-functions terrified at what Jesus just did! Jesus’ abrupt demand for silence is to jar the disciples’ out of a worldly based hopelessness and complacency and snap them back into the present reality of God’s providential care and concern.  As Episcopal priest, Mark Edington says, “Here is the conundrum: Jesus has godlike authority over the primordial chaos; he is king of the created order. Yet the immediate response to this demonstration of kingly power is not joy, not praise, not acclaim, but fear.”[3]

Friends, fear is not necessarily a bad thing as it reminds us to pay attention. Fear can either incapacitate you or it can be a dynamic catalyst for change. The key to handling and encountering fear is that once it gets our attention, we then have to decide how we are going to relate to that which is creating the fear. Do we relate with spiritual hopelessness and fear as the disciples did and complain to God, “Don’t you care we are perishing?” Or perhaps, do we relate with Jesus with the confidence that indeed, he’s got the whole, wide world in his hands?  Fear is not a bad thing; how we relate to it determines how it will affect us. Is it hopeless fear that God has abandoned us or is it faithful confidence that indeed nothing can separate us from the love of God, not job losses, cancer, knee replacements, divorces, strokes, nor overdue taxes and bills!  We may get the feeling Jesus is asleep at the wheel and life is spinning out of control, but the reality is he is situated in the stern of our life’s ship and has the wheel firmly in hand! Let’s remind ourselves, shall we?  Join me in this!

“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”

He’s got the whole world in his hands he’s got the whole wild world in his hands
He’s got the whole wild world in his hands he’s got the whole world in his hands

He’s got the little bitty baby in his hands he’s got the little bitty baby in his hands
He’s got the little bitty baby in his hands he’s got the whole world in his hands
He’s got the whole world in his hands…

He’s got you and me brother in his hands he’s got you and me sister in his hands
He’s got you and me brother in his hands he’s got the whole world in his hands
He’s got the whole world in his hands…

He’s got everybody here in his hands he’s got everybody here in his hands
He’s got everybody here in his hands he’s got the whole world in his hands
He’s got the whole world in his hands…

What are your fears sisters and brothers?  Believe the Good News:  Jesus is not asleep at the wheel, but he is what?  He’s got the whole world in his hands!  Sometimes my friends, we just need to be reminded of this fact that we often forget when life gets a little swirly. Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
www.firstpres.cc
patrickw@firstpres.cc

© 2018 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[i] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Joel Marcus, Mark I-VIII, from the Anchor Bible Commentary Volume 27 (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 339.

[3] Bartlett, David L. and Taylor, Barbara Brown (2011-05-31). Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) (Kindle Locations 5887-5889). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.

Let’s Talk About Suicide. Judas Iscariot, Kate Spade, and Anthony Bourdain: We are to Have Good Hope for All!, Matthew 27:3-10

Sermon:          Judas Iscariot, Kate Spade, and Anthony Bourdain: We Are to Have Good Hope for All!
Scripture:        Matthew 27.3-10
Preacher:        Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:         First Pres Fort Lauderdale
Date:                 June 17, 2018, Father’s Day

This morning, we are going to be looking at a text, which I must admit, I have never preached on before.  Turn in your Bible to Matthew 27: 3-20.  We are deviating from the lectionary text in order to look at an issue that has been in the news the past few weeks.  We are going to frame our thoughts around the title, “Judas Iscariot, Kate Spade, and Anthony Bourdain:  We Are to Have Good Hope for All” this morning, we are going to address the issue of suicide and see what scripture might have to say.

Our community in Broward County knows all too well the pain from senseless deaths.  On Valentine’s Day this year, 17 people were gunned down at a Parkland High School which has lit the fires nationally as a debate for common sense gun laws.  According to the Washington Post, 141 children, educators, and bystanders have been killed in our schools with another 287 injured.^[1]  Our country is up in arms over such a statistic as well it should be!  The media and our politicians have been vocal on what some have called an epidemic.  As horrible as those numbers are, did you know that in 2017 alone, 45,000 died from suicide?^[2]  Sixty-two percent or roughly 28,000 of those people died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.^[3]  The majority who harm themselves are male but the number of women in middle age is expanding quickly.^[4]  To put it in perspective, the number of people who die by suicide in our country is about one third (1/3) of the total population of the city limits of Fort Lauderdale.  Where’s the press on that?  Where is the civil discourse and angst about that?  I’ll tell you where it is; its’ buried in the fact for why we don’t have many sermons on Matthew 27: 3-10 because the issue of suicide is one of those taboo topics.  As a result of the stigma placed upon those who choose self-harm and destruction, we choose not to talk about it until someone famous like Kate Spade or Anthony Bourdain do the unthinkable.  Our silence on the subject simply adds to the stigma of surrounding it.  Beloved, we can ill-afford to be silent any longer as our silence only contributes to spiritual, social and emotional misunderstandings of suicide.  Let’s look at our text in Matthew.  It’s a text we know about but often skip over:

Matthew 27.3-10

³ When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ⁴ He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” ⁵ Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. ⁶ But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” ⁷ After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. ⁸ For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, ¹⁰ and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”^[5]

As we look at this text, I am in no way saying what Judas did was right, either in betraying Jesus or in taking his own life.  I do believe, however, Judas’ story gives those of us in the Christian community a better understanding as to why he chose the path he did.  Our text is illustrative.

Judas comes as a man saturated with guilt and shame.  His fervent hopes for who and what Jesus was to be and do were not realized.  He knows he lived as a disciple but like many in the church today, his name was on the rolls, but he didn’t really know what discipleship meant for him.  When his role as a disciple didn’t mesh with what Jesus intended, Judas quickly bailed out and arranged for Jesus’ arrest.  In the ensuing time between selling Jesus out and coming back to the religious authorities, Judas’ spirit was crushed and overwhelmed.  The horrible weight of what he had done and the pain it was causing Judas became intolerable, and Judas, with the mantle of guilt and shame tries to do something about it.  When Judas saw that his actions were going to cost Jesus His life, Judas’ despair drove him to action.  What does our text say?

The first thing our text says in verse 3 is that when Judas saw the outcomes of his selfishness, he repented.  Isn’t that what Jesus wants all people to do? Repent?  Judas in his spiritual and emotional crisis turned around 180⁰ in the other direction.  He fully embraced and acknowledged his selfishness.  The word for “repent” Matthew uses is one that describes a turning around because of deep shame and sadness; in other words, it’s a word that indicates a deep remorse for what he did.

The second reality we note is that Judas didn’t keep his remorse to himself. He goes to the Jewish religious leaders and tries to make restitution for what he did.  He tries to give back the 30 pieces of silver he sold Jesus out for in the first place.  In his state of mind, in the despairing swamp of pain in his soul, he tried to rectify the problem the only way he knew how.

Judas then does a third thing:  He publicly confesses his sin to the religious authorities and the Chief Priest.  He publicly admitted his sin against Jesus to the very ones who in Jewish law could forgive him.  He’s doing what Jesus told many others to do:  go and show yourself to the chief priests.  And it’s right here that all the wheels fall off the wagon.

Judas repents, tries to recompense for his actions, and then publicly confesses his sin to the chief priests.  He admits he has sinned by betraying innocent blood and then the ones who had the power and ability to forgive him, to release him from his burden, did what?  They smugly reply in verse 4, “What is that to us? See to it yourself!”  What does that mean, “See to it yourself”? The religious community had trusted in, the community who encouraged him to commit the sin of betrayal in the first place gives him the flippant answer, “It’s your problem; deal with it yourself.”  It’s at this point, beloved, we have in scripture an anatomy of suicide.

A broken person gives off signals they are in pain and seeks those in their community for help.  The people in the trusted community either can’t see the pain or chooses to ignore the pain in the other.  Judas the betrayer and the shattered, when ignored by the people in his community, withdraws to be all by himself.  It’s in that moment of sheer loneliness and despair that he takes his own life.  This Story that’s already full of so much pain and tragedy only becomes more mired in even greater pain and tragedy.  What can we learn from all this, beloved?

We learn that Judas’ suicide is not the unforgivable sin our culture and faith traditions have made it be.  Jesus in Mark 3: 29 tells us the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  Suicide is not the unpardonable sin, so brothers and sisters, we need to have good hope for all!  Suicide is the result of a mental illness whereby a person cannot physiologically or emotionally to handle the onslaught of pain and despair in their lives. When a person feels that level of loneliness and hopelessness, he or she takes things into their own hands.  As a person who struggles with PTSD and my own mental illness, I can tell you that depression is one of the most narcissistic conditions known to humanity.  When you are lost in the mire of depression, you cannot see or hear anyone other than yourself. The lonely, depressed, hopeless person is reduced to being only focused on his or her pain and despair. It’s hard to see or hear others. In their minds, no one can understand what they are experiencing; as a result, they withdraw from others and their psyche runs away from them.  Suicide is caused by a brokenness, an illness, in our human condition.  It is not an unforgivable sin but it’s a sin and lack of confidence in God nonetheless.

We also learn from our text that those who do harm themselves are in desperate need of intentional, caring community.  As a faith community and as a culture, we must stop stigmatizing mental illness. We stigmatize mental illness when we tell hopeless people, “Quit feeling sorry for yourself and just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

We stigmatize mental illness when our insurance systems see it solely as a behavioral issue apart from its biological and physiological consequences and treat it as a lesser medical condition such as cancer or diabetes.

We stigmatize mental illness when we trivially call people “nut jobs” or “whackos”.

We stigmatize mental illness when we see it as something to be ashamed of and hidden and never talked about in our families or churches.

As a faith community, we are on notice not to repeat the sin of the chief priests and blow people off who show signs of emotional brokenness and leave them alone to figure it out on their own.  Our silence on this matter and pretending it does not exist is no longer an option.  So, Church, what are we to do?

Let’s be alert to those in our communities and circles of influence.  Do those we know all of a sudden seem grossly overwhelmed by life’s circumstances?  Do they forget details for the easy-to-remember items? Are they tired all the time and complain of not enough rest? Is there a change in their eating habits? Well, then talk with them about it.

Are there people you know who seem to have uncharacteristically withdrawn into themselves at work, home or at school? These are the people who are usually in the middle of a crowd working the room but now they are sitting off by themselves along the wall. These are the students or employees who typically are first to chime in on new projects and ideas but lately, they have become more silent, maybe even sullen. Then talk with them about your observations.  Check in with them and see how they’re doing.

Have you spent time with someone and the words they use to describe their life and situation seem so dark and heavy they are unable to see any light or hope?  Are they using a lot of first-person pronouns like “I” or “me” in their conversations?  Are their discussions loaded with superlatives like “should” or
“must.”^[6]  Then lovingly look them in the eyes and quietly ask, “You seem pretty overwhelmed right now; have you thought of hurting yourself?”  If they hesitate or say ‘yes,’ then assure them you will walk with them until they are feeling whole again as you help them find clinical help and guidance.

Church, we have to be looking out for and listening to each other.  Ultimately, what a suicidal person chooses to do or not is totally up to them and is their responsibility; if a person is going to go and do a selfish act of self-harm, then there is nothing you can do about it.  Yet, you and I are the embodiment of patient, grace-full love to other sheep like us who are broken and weighed down.  Let’s pledge to be more attentive to the bleating sheep whose cries are cries of pain and let them know all hear them.  We may not be able to “fix” their pain, but at least we can embody Jesus as they go through it.  If you or someone you know is talking, thinking or fantasizing about self-harm, please let me know.  For you see, because we have a friend like Jesus, we are to have good hope for all.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Pres Fort Lauderdale
401 SE 15^th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Wrisley@outlook.com
Wrisley.org

© 2018 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

^[1] John Woodrow Cox, Steven Rich, Allyson Chiu, John Muyskens and Monica Ulmanu, More than 215,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine, The Washington Post, May 25, 2018.  Accessed on 6/14/2018 at https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.71568092eaf0.

^[2] Ritu Prasad, Why US Suicide Rate is on the Rise, BBC News, June 8, 2018.  Accessed 6/14/18 at

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Rhitu Chatterjee, US Suicide Rates are Rising Faster Among Women than Men, NPR, June 14, 2018. Accessed on 6/14/18 at  https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/14/619338703/u-s-suicides-rates-are-rising-faster-among-women-than-men

^[5] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

^[6] Elizabeth Bernstein, The Words That Can Signal if You’re Depressed, The Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2018.  Accessed on 6/14/18 at https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-words-that-can-signal-youre-depressed-1528724000.