Collect for Trinity 4
2 Corinthians 6: 1 – 13
Mark 4: 35 – 41
The Bible contains lots of references to storms – the drowning of Pharaoh’s army, Noah’s flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jonah trying to escape God’s request, the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, Paul’s shipwreck off Malta, and the prophecy in Revelation of the storm that announces Jesus’ second coming.
But there are other types of storms – not physical ones at sea, but storms in our lives. Paul certainly had his, as he is not shy of telling us: ‘afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger’. Often all at once – ‘When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions’, as said Shakespeare’s Claudius.
But Paul treated both hardship and comfort alike, rising above them through the grace of God. The disciples were experiencing a gale that would barely compare to the storm they would experience in Christ’s Passion – but they, and we, are also taught to trust and to rise above whatever happens, to fulfil our commandment to love irrespective of the cost. He is at our side, and we can smile at whatever storms may come.
It wasn’t only the wind and sea that will obey Him – the whole of heaven and earth will kneel before Him as Lord.
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