Matthew 8: 23-24

After the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, attention was drawn once again to a little church that stands in the shadows of the great skyscrapers in the financial district of Manhattan. It is the John Street United Methodist Church, the first Methodist chapel in America, originally formed in the 1760s, with the current building erected in 1841. Religious and secular writers alike commented on the witness of the church that stood firm while the great buildings around it were destroyed or structurally compromised. Heather Hansen, of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries wrote these words:

"A civil war and two World Wars have come and gone... and still it stands. Its walls have heard talk of slavery, segregation, Korea, civil rights, women’s' rights, assassinations, Vietnam, Iran, Kuwait, Columbine, Bosnia... and still it stands. Its pews have embraced the gallant, the broken, the healthy, the free, the laborer, the confused, the fearful, the sick, the poor, the young, the rich, the elderly... and still it stands.

'Its roof and grounds have felt the chill of winter rains and snow, felt the heat of hot summer suns... and still it stands. More recently, its exterior and interior have been made heavy with dust, smoke, papers, and crumbled concrete as the nearby World Trade Center Towers fell to the ground...and still it stands.

'It is more than just a building, more than just a place on the map. It is people of all walks of life brought together in the One. It holds the hearts of men, women, and children around the world."

Someone has said that the world is not interested in how many storms you went through, but whether you brought in the ship. John Street United Methodist Church is one of millions of reminders of one of the central facts about Christian faith - that while storms continue to strike day by day, year by year, century by century - faith in Jesus continues to bring in the ship.

We see this lived out in the very first generation of Christian apostles. God had entrusted them with a daunting task - to preach the Christian truth in the face of brutal opposition. They had no earthly power base; no earthly riches; they were ridiculed, beaten, scorned, and martyred. The storm blasted against them everywhere they turned. And despite it all, they brought in the ship. The seeds of faith they planted grew into a movement of faith that spread throughout the world, assailed in every generation as it went. But still here. And still strong in the storm.

Most scholars believe that the Gospel of Matthew was written for a group of Christians who were experiencing severe storms because of their faith. Their families and friends were turning against them, their lives were threatened, they were being dragged in front of high officials. They desperately needed to know what to do.

What we see in today’s scripture is that Matthew had an answer for them in the power of Jesus, and that power could prevail against both the storm from the outside and the storm from within. First the storm from the outside: Jesus and his disciples are in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee. If you travel to that sea on a mild day, it is hard to imagine a storm on that placid water. But you also can see on the horizon the Horns of Hittim - two rugged rock formations forming a deep ravine. And the wind channels down through that ravine and causes sudden and severe windstorms. And the disciples found themselves in the middle of one of them. And when they turned to their leader, he was asleep! Jesus understood that we don't have to be afraid, because God's power can withstand any storm. So he woke up and calmed the storm.

And in the next story, Jesus addresses the other kind of storm - the one that comes from within. They're called demons in the Bible, and we know that they come in many forms - demons of jealousy, demons of rage, demons of addiction, demons of greed and prejudice, and so on. There are many people who would tell you that the storm within is much more threatening than the storm without. How do you batten down the hatches, how do you fortify the ship, how do you build against the waves - when the storm is already inside you, threatening to destroy the boat from within? But again, they turned to Jesus, and he ordered the demons to leave the two men, and depart into the swine, and be destroyed.

This portion of Matthew has been called instructions for apostles; and if you've been following along this sermon series you know that I'm picking "A" words out of these scriptures. Two weeks ago, it was Apostles are Active. Last week it was Apostles are Available. And in today's scripture we are reminded that Apostles are Anchored. Even though it might feel this way sometimes, we are not drifting aimlessly at the mercy of the next storm that threatens us from the outside, or the next demon that tries to claim us from the inside. We are anchored in the promises of a Lord who has dominion over the storms and the demons, and has promised to be by our side. And we don't claim that enough; but when we do God does amazing things. A little church nestled among towering buildings survives September 11, 2001 and much more. A person whose life is turned upside down by a sudden loss faces the next day and the next and the next and perseveres in faith. A young person deluged with moral temptations finds words from his or her confirmation mentor or Sunday School teacher coming into his mind at the key moment, calling him back to what he was taught. That's God giving us an anchor in the storm, and promising us that if we just hold on to Him, we'll be able to bring the ship in.

Matthew desperately wanted his church to know that; and God still wants us to know it today. We do live in drifting times. All the things that seemed certain and sacred and reliable are changing around us. This week's issue of Rolling Stone magazine has on its cover a picture of a controversial rap singer with a bloody face and a crown of thorns. The article is entitled "The Passion of.. . " and then it has the singer's name. And we know what that's about - it's about using shock value to sell magazines and CDs. But it feels like an attack on our faith, doesn't it? It feels like the world has lost its moorings and the boat of faith is just drifting in the storm.

I heard a story I like - a certain man had the job of ringing the village bell at four 0' clock every afternoon; he did it for decades. And he was paranoid about it. What if his watch wasn't reliable - everybody would be thrown off. So, every afternoon, he strolled by the clock shop. And there in the comer of the window was a big grandfather clock, and the bell ringer, when no one was looking, set his watch to that clock, so he could be sure of four o’clock, and could ring the village bell at the right time. This went on for years, and then he woke up in a sweat one night and thought, "What if the clock keeper sells that clock?" So, first thing in the morning, he ran to the shop and tried to buy the clock. And the clock keeper said, "Well, to honest with you, the reason I haven't sold that clock is it keeps lousy time. In fact, every day, when no one is looking, I set it to the four o'clock bell in the village."

We live in a day when it seems like no one knows the real time anymore; nothing is sacred; nothing is firm; there is no truth; there is no foundation.

And God reminds us again that nothing could be farther from the truth. I believe that God looks upon this congregation this morning and sees apostles of the truth - people empowered to go and make a profound difference in this world as representatives of the best News the world has every received - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we go, God promises that we will be anchored in this great truth - that Jesus is as vital as ever; that the cross still stands strong for forgiveness and mercy and love, and the empty tomb still flows with power and victory in Jesus. We're called to announce that; to live it where we work and play and live and study. And as we do, we will be anchored in the sure strength of God. What a gift God is giving us this morning; a gift to be shared with the world.

The Christian writer John Ortberg writes about a woman he met in a nursing home. Her name was Mabel; she was 89 years old at the time. I won't go into his heartbreaking description of her face; she had been seriously deformed by illness; she was blind. Every day, for 25 years, she sat there in a wheelchair in the hallway and people tried not to look at her. Here is what Ortberg wrote:

"I don't know why I spoke to her. She looked less likely to respond than most of the people I saw in the hallway. But I put a flower in her hand and said, 'Happy Mother's Day.' She held the flower up to her face and tried to smell it, and then she spoke. And much to my surprise, her words, although somewhat garbled because of her deformity, were obviously produced by a clear mind. She said, 'Thank you. It's lovely. But can I give it to someone else? I can't see it, you know, I'm blind.' I said, 'Of course,' and pushed her in her chair back down the hallway to the place where I thought I could find some alert patients. I found one, and stopped the chair. Mabel held out the flower and said, 'Here, this is from Jesus.' That's when it dawned upon me that this wasn't an ordinary human being." And I would like to break into Ortberg's story and say that the reason Mabel was not an ordinary human being is that she was an apostle - called and equipped and inspired and sent by God to be a messenger of hope and life even in her dreadful situation. The storms of life could not shake her faith that was anchored in God's love - unshakable.

Ortberg continued to visit Mabel as she grew weaker, and finally he wrote: "How could she do it? The answer, I think, is that Mabel had something you and I don't (see) much of. She had power. (Even) lying there in that bed, unable to move, unable to see, unable to hear, unable to talk to anyone, she had incredible power!"

When's the last time you looked at your life and saw incredible power? God sees it. And promises that if you go forward as an apostle of hope and life in Jesus, no storm can destroy you, no demon can possess you - by the grace of God, you will find the destiny of your life. And, like so many before you, you will bring the ship of faith in, and the world will be changed by the love and power of God.