21st June 2024
Megastorm
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.
Mark 4:37 (NKJV)
A couple of years ago I was reunited with an old school chum. It had been 40 years since I had seen him, but we quickly picked up where we had left off. In the course of our conversation, he told me he owned a yacht and invited me to come sailing with him. Foolishly, I accepted.
The day arrived and I boarded a train down to Milford Haven in Wales, where his yacht was moored, and from whence we planned to embark on a three day sailing trip. Alas, it was not to be. As I looked out of the train window at beautiful bright sunshine, the weather app on my phone told me that Storm Agnes was heading straight for the same harbour I was. A text from my friend confirmed my worst fears – the water was too rough to sail.
As we sat in the harbour waiting for the weather to improve, the tightly moored boat pitching and yawing, I couldn’t help thinking how much worse it would be out on the open sea. Perhaps nearly as bad as for those disciples in our header scripture. The Greek word translated as ‘great’ in the passage is mega, indicating literally a megastorm. But there is another ‘mega’ in the same chapter. This ‘mega’ appears after Jesus rebukes the storm, and the wind and the waves are calm: ‘And they [the disciples] feared exceedingly (mega) and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” ’ (v.41)
The disciples were no longer afraid of the storm. Instead, the fear they had experienced only moments earlier was now eclipsed by a great awe and wonder as they responded to a new depth of understanding about the person of Jesus Christ, the man-God who even the wind and the sea obey.
Prayer
Almighty Father, help us to share in the awe and wonder experienced by the disciples as they witnessed the storm subside at Jesus’s command. Let us fall down and worship our God in the flesh, and thank him for all he has done for humanity.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Peter Mill
About the writer:
Peter Mill is a minister in Grace Communion International and Co-Regional Pastor for Scotland, Ireland, and Northern England.
Local congregation:
Grace Communion International Central Glasgow
Garnethill Room
Conference Suite
St Andrews West
260 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 4JP
Meeting time:
Sunday 11:15 am
Local congregational contact:
Peter Mill
Email: edinburgh@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church