The Perfect Storm: Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Second Draft)
Here is the edited version. When you compare it to the first draft, you'll note the major clean-up operation occurred in the first section. The earlier version contained too many unnecessary details about "The Perfect Storm."
If you have other comments or observations, please let me know. My e-mail is jms48@fuse.net. Thanks for your input!
A couple of years ago I picked up a book
off a bargain table outside a bookstore.
It happened to be The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
About a year later, the book was made into a movie
starring George Clooney.
The Perfect Storm
is about the crew of a fishing boat
and a futile attempt to survive a storm.
A terrible storm.
The worst storm ever recorded in the North Atlantic.
It’s a book you can’t put down.
It’s a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
But the adventure and excitement
is only half the story.
You also learn about the members of the crew
and their families,
the town where they live,
the apartments they rent,
the bars where they drink.
It’s a great story. It’s a true story.
Yet, from my perspective, something is missing
from both the book and the movie:
Left unexplored and under-reported
is the element of religion and the experience of faith
in the face of a terrible storm.
Let me set the scene.
Before going out to sea
to face that storm,
you come to know the members of the crew.
Their lives are much like ours,
people living from day to day, from paycheck to paycheck.
For most of them,
life has fallen into a rut.
After all, that happens to the best of us.
Sometimes life goes flat.
You know what that’s like.
You know the routine:
I go here,
I do this.
I drive to work,
I take this exit.
I drop off the kids,
I get groceries,
I put up the kids.
I go to bed,
I wake up,
I start all over.
__________
Now, if this is an accurate description
of your life today,
you need something.
And you don’t need to read “The Perfect Storm”
or watch the movie
to find that out.
That “something” has a name.
It’s called conversion.
Look at today’s gospel and you’ll see that
storms are good at bringing conversions about.
And not all storms happen on the water.
Let’s list a few:
You’re seventeen.
You get caught cheating.
Or you’re thrown off the team
and you’re shunned by your friends.
Then you discover that your girlfriend
is expecting your baby.
That’s quite a storm.
Or, your forty years old
and your doctor schedules you for a biopsy.
Or, let’s say, your marriage isn’t going well.
You take a call at work…it’s from a lawyer, your wife’s lawyer.
Or, again, the phone rings, this time at 3 AM…it’s the sheriff.
You glance in your daughter’s room.
She’s not home.
Suddenly, that little boat
you’re trying so hard to keep afloat,
that boat called Your Life,
starts rockin’…
and you start prayin’.
But is that the kind of conversion the Lord desires?
No, I don’t think.
Neither does the Bible.
But, as the Book of Job reminds us,
sometimes God speaks from the midst of them.
Unfortunately, sometimes the wind’s so loud
we confuse the two sounds:
Is that the sound of the wind?
Or is that the sound of God Voice?
So it’s important that we learn to distinguish between the two.
Maybe that's why the Bible
Bible takes pain to tell us about
the Voice of God.
In its opening pages, the breath of God
calms the waters of chaos
that covered the earth at the dawn of creation.
Later on, the Bible describes
the “small gentle voice” that spoke to Prophet Elijah
as he stood at the mouth of the cave
after a raging storm passed by.
It’s that same Voice,
the voice of Christ rebuking the wind
in today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark.
Have you heard that Voice?
I’m sure you have!
Years ago, when you were but a child,
it came in the whispering to you
in the words of your mother
as you lay sick with a fever…
“You’ll be okay, child. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay.”
Or maybe it echoed in the advice of your father
that day when you were young and mad at your boss
you told your dad were going into business for yourself.
(Though, inside, you were too scared to take the risks.)
But your dad surprised you and said,
“Go for it, son. You can it.”
_________
So, let's say you know the Voice.
From time to time,
you’ve heard echoes of that Voice.
But it's not enough,
because one day, it happens:
Your life really falls apart.
You don’t see it coming.
A terrible storm blows in from nowhere.
Maybe it’s by chance
maybe it's own doing.
In either case, it blows your world apart.
Try as you might,
you can’t patch it up.
You can’t make it work.
You can’t pay the bills.
You can’t sleep at night.
You don’t know what’s going to happen.
You start prayin’.
It doesn't help.
So you try something else.
You start listenin’.
You start listening for that Voice,
in the midst of the storn
you lean into the wind
and start listening for the Voice.
That’s when it happens. This thing called conversion.
You find youself clinging to God like never before.
God gets you through the night, pulls you past your fear.
It's called conversion.
It makes all the difference and it means…everything.
It means turning your life
—and every part of your life—
over to Him.
Homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(First Draft)
A couple of years ago I picked up a book
off a bargain table outside a bookstore.
It happened to be The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
About a year later, the book was made into a movie
starring Nick Clooney.
The Perfect Storm
is about the crew of a fishing boat named the Andrea Gail
and a futile attempt, 500 hundred miles from shore,
against the worst storm ever recorded.
It’s a book you can’t put down.
As a movie, it keeps you on the edge of your seat.
But the adventure and excitement
that churns at the center of that true-life story
is only part of the reason why that story is so gripping.
What Sebastian Junger manages to do is
bring you into the ebb and flow of the ordinary lives
of a crew of six people who work on a swordfish boat.
You learn about their families,
the town where they live,
the apartments they rent,
the bars where they drink.
As the story unfold, you begin to feel
the ache in their muscles,
the danger of their work,
the frustration and fulfillment
of these blue collar workers in the fishing industry.
It’s a great story. It’s a true story.
Yet, from my perspective, something is missing.
Left unexplored and under-reported
is the element of religion and the experience of faith.
But then,
maybe that’s part of what makes the book and the movie
so realistic.
The members of the crew, you see,
are ordinary people just living their lives
from day to day, from paycheck to paycheck.
The routine of their blue collar lives
reminded me of the description of the people
in Noah’s hometown
in the days leading up to the flood.
For the workers on the Andrea Gail,
as for many of us here in this church,
life was mroe dull than bright.
You know what that’s like.
I know what that’s like.
It happens to the best of us.
Life goes flat.
There's no sense of mission:
I go here,
I do this.
I drive to work,
I take this exit.
I drop off the kids,
I get groceries,
I put up the kids.
I go to bed,
I wake up,
I start all over.
Is this your life?
If so, you need something.
That “something” has a name.
It’s called conversion.
Look at today’s gospel and you’ll see that
storms are good at bringing conversions about.
And they don’t all happen on the water.
·Your doctor schedules you for a biopsy.
·You take a call at work…it’s from a lawyer.
·The phone rings at 3 AM…it’s the sheriff.
Suddenly, that little boat
you’re trying so hard to keep afloat,
that boat called Your Life,
starts rockin’…
and you start prayin’.
But is that the kind of conversion the Lord desires?
No, I don’t think.
Neither does the Bible.
God doesn’t cause storms to come blowing into our lives.
Rather, as the Book of Job reminds us,
he speaks from the midst of them.
Sometimes, of course, the wind’s so loud
we confuse the two sounds:
The sound of the storm and the sound of God Voice.
So it’s important that we learn to distinguish between the two.
Maybe that's why the Bible
Bible loves to tells us about this Voice.
In its opening pages, the Bible describes this Voice
as the breath of God calming the waters of chaos
that covered the earth at the dawn of creation.
The Bible tells us of the “small gentle voice” that spoke to Elijah
as he stood at the mouth of the cave once the storm passed by.
It’s that Voice, the voice of Christ rebuking the wind
in today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark.
And the Bible loves to remind us of that Voice
and the power of that Voice.
Which is the reason that the phrase:
"Have no fear. Do not be afraid."
appears in the Bible more times
than any other verse.
Have you heard the message?
Have you heard that Voice?
I’m sure you have.
Years ago, when you were but a child,
it came in the whispering to you
in the words of your mother
as you lay sick with a fever…
“You’ll be okay, child. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay.”
Or maybe it echoed in the advice of your father
that day when you were young and mad at your boss
you told your dad were considering
going into business for yourself.
(Though, inside, you were too scared to take the risk.)
But your dad surprised you and said,
“Go for it. You can it.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
So, let's say you've heard that Voice
from time to time,
but it's not enough,
because one day, it happens:
Your life really falls apart.
You don’t see it coming.
A terrible storm blows in from nowhere.
Or maybe it's own doing, you know,
you make a mistake, you commit a sin, you screw up bad.
In either case, you can’t patch it up.
You can’t make it work.
You can’t pay the bills.
You can’t sleep at night.
You don’t know what’s going to happen.
You start prayin’.
It doesn't help.
So you try something else.
You start listenin’.
You start listening for that Voice,
in the midst of the storn
you lean into the wind
and start listening for the Voice.
That’s when it happens.
You find youself clinging to God like never before.
That's when it happens.
God gets you through the night.
God pulls you past your fear.
It's called conversion.
It's called turning your life,
every part of your life,
over to Him.
(Second Draft)
Here is the edited version. When you compare it to the first draft, you'll note the major clean-up operation occurred in the first section. The earlier version contained too many unnecessary details about "The Perfect Storm."
If you have other comments or observations, please let me know. My e-mail is jms48@fuse.net. Thanks for your input!
A couple of years ago I picked up a book
off a bargain table outside a bookstore.
It happened to be The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
About a year later, the book was made into a movie
starring George Clooney.
The Perfect Storm
is about the crew of a fishing boat
and a futile attempt to survive a storm.
A terrible storm.
The worst storm ever recorded in the North Atlantic.
It’s a book you can’t put down.
It’s a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
But the adventure and excitement
is only half the story.
You also learn about the members of the crew
and their families,
the town where they live,
the apartments they rent,
the bars where they drink.
It’s a great story. It’s a true story.
Yet, from my perspective, something is missing
from both the book and the movie:
Left unexplored and under-reported
is the element of religion and the experience of faith
in the face of a terrible storm.
Let me set the scene.
Before going out to sea
to face that storm,
you come to know the members of the crew.
Their lives are much like ours,
people living from day to day, from paycheck to paycheck.
For most of them,
life has fallen into a rut.
After all, that happens to the best of us.
Sometimes life goes flat.
You know what that’s like.
You know the routine:
I go here,
I do this.
I drive to work,
I take this exit.
I drop off the kids,
I get groceries,
I put up the kids.
I go to bed,
I wake up,
I start all over.
__________
Now, if this is an accurate description
of your life today,
you need something.
And you don’t need to read “The Perfect Storm”
or watch the movie
to find that out.
That “something” has a name.
It’s called conversion.
Look at today’s gospel and you’ll see that
storms are good at bringing conversions about.
And not all storms happen on the water.
Let’s list a few:
You’re seventeen.
You get caught cheating.
Or you’re thrown off the team
and you’re shunned by your friends.
Then you discover that your girlfriend
is expecting your baby.
That’s quite a storm.
Or, your forty years old
and your doctor schedules you for a biopsy.
Or, let’s say, your marriage isn’t going well.
You take a call at work…it’s from a lawyer, your wife’s lawyer.
Or, again, the phone rings, this time at 3 AM…it’s the sheriff.
You glance in your daughter’s room.
She’s not home.
Suddenly, that little boat
you’re trying so hard to keep afloat,
that boat called Your Life,
starts rockin’…
and you start prayin’.
But is that the kind of conversion the Lord desires?
No, I don’t think.
Neither does the Bible.
But, as the Book of Job reminds us,
sometimes God speaks from the midst of them.
Unfortunately, sometimes the wind’s so loud
we confuse the two sounds:
Is that the sound of the wind?
Or is that the sound of God Voice?
So it’s important that we learn to distinguish between the two.
Maybe that's why the Bible
Bible takes pain to tell us about
the Voice of God.
In its opening pages, the breath of God
calms the waters of chaos
that covered the earth at the dawn of creation.
Later on, the Bible describes
the “small gentle voice” that spoke to Prophet Elijah
as he stood at the mouth of the cave
after a raging storm passed by.
It’s that same Voice,
the voice of Christ rebuking the wind
in today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark.
Have you heard that Voice?
I’m sure you have!
Years ago, when you were but a child,
it came in the whispering to you
in the words of your mother
as you lay sick with a fever…
“You’ll be okay, child. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay.”
Or maybe it echoed in the advice of your father
that day when you were young and mad at your boss
you told your dad were going into business for yourself.
(Though, inside, you were too scared to take the risks.)
But your dad surprised you and said,
“Go for it, son. You can it.”
_________
So, let's say you know the Voice.
From time to time,
you’ve heard echoes of that Voice.
But it's not enough,
because one day, it happens:
Your life really falls apart.
You don’t see it coming.
A terrible storm blows in from nowhere.
Maybe it’s by chance
maybe it's own doing.
In either case, it blows your world apart.
Try as you might,
you can’t patch it up.
You can’t make it work.
You can’t pay the bills.
You can’t sleep at night.
You don’t know what’s going to happen.
You start prayin’.
It doesn't help.
So you try something else.
You start listenin’.
You start listening for that Voice,
in the midst of the storn
you lean into the wind
and start listening for the Voice.
That’s when it happens. This thing called conversion.
You find youself clinging to God like never before.
God gets you through the night, pulls you past your fear.
It's called conversion.
It makes all the difference and it means…everything.
It means turning your life
—and every part of your life—
over to Him.
Homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(First Draft)
A couple of years ago I picked up a book
off a bargain table outside a bookstore.
It happened to be The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger.
About a year later, the book was made into a movie
starring Nick Clooney.
The Perfect Storm
is about the crew of a fishing boat named the Andrea Gail
and a futile attempt, 500 hundred miles from shore,
against the worst storm ever recorded.
It’s a book you can’t put down.
As a movie, it keeps you on the edge of your seat.
But the adventure and excitement
that churns at the center of that true-life story
is only part of the reason why that story is so gripping.
What Sebastian Junger manages to do is
bring you into the ebb and flow of the ordinary lives
of a crew of six people who work on a swordfish boat.
You learn about their families,
the town where they live,
the apartments they rent,
the bars where they drink.
As the story unfold, you begin to feel
the ache in their muscles,
the danger of their work,
the frustration and fulfillment
of these blue collar workers in the fishing industry.
It’s a great story. It’s a true story.
Yet, from my perspective, something is missing.
Left unexplored and under-reported
is the element of religion and the experience of faith.
But then,
maybe that’s part of what makes the book and the movie
so realistic.
The members of the crew, you see,
are ordinary people just living their lives
from day to day, from paycheck to paycheck.
The routine of their blue collar lives
reminded me of the description of the people
in Noah’s hometown
in the days leading up to the flood.
For the workers on the Andrea Gail,
as for many of us here in this church,
life was mroe dull than bright.
You know what that’s like.
I know what that’s like.
It happens to the best of us.
Life goes flat.
There's no sense of mission:
I go here,
I do this.
I drive to work,
I take this exit.
I drop off the kids,
I get groceries,
I put up the kids.
I go to bed,
I wake up,
I start all over.
Is this your life?
If so, you need something.
That “something” has a name.
It’s called conversion.
Look at today’s gospel and you’ll see that
storms are good at bringing conversions about.
And they don’t all happen on the water.
·Your doctor schedules you for a biopsy.
·You take a call at work…it’s from a lawyer.
·The phone rings at 3 AM…it’s the sheriff.
Suddenly, that little boat
you’re trying so hard to keep afloat,
that boat called Your Life,
starts rockin’…
and you start prayin’.
But is that the kind of conversion the Lord desires?
No, I don’t think.
Neither does the Bible.
God doesn’t cause storms to come blowing into our lives.
Rather, as the Book of Job reminds us,
he speaks from the midst of them.
Sometimes, of course, the wind’s so loud
we confuse the two sounds:
The sound of the storm and the sound of God Voice.
So it’s important that we learn to distinguish between the two.
Maybe that's why the Bible
Bible loves to tells us about this Voice.
In its opening pages, the Bible describes this Voice
as the breath of God calming the waters of chaos
that covered the earth at the dawn of creation.
The Bible tells us of the “small gentle voice” that spoke to Elijah
as he stood at the mouth of the cave once the storm passed by.
It’s that Voice, the voice of Christ rebuking the wind
in today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark.
And the Bible loves to remind us of that Voice
and the power of that Voice.
Which is the reason that the phrase:
"Have no fear. Do not be afraid."
appears in the Bible more times
than any other verse.
Have you heard the message?
Have you heard that Voice?
I’m sure you have.
Years ago, when you were but a child,
it came in the whispering to you
in the words of your mother
as you lay sick with a fever…
“You’ll be okay, child. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay.”
Or maybe it echoed in the advice of your father
that day when you were young and mad at your boss
you told your dad were considering
going into business for yourself.
(Though, inside, you were too scared to take the risk.)
But your dad surprised you and said,
“Go for it. You can it.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
So, let's say you've heard that Voice
from time to time,
but it's not enough,
because one day, it happens:
Your life really falls apart.
You don’t see it coming.
A terrible storm blows in from nowhere.
Or maybe it's own doing, you know,
you make a mistake, you commit a sin, you screw up bad.
In either case, you can’t patch it up.
You can’t make it work.
You can’t pay the bills.
You can’t sleep at night.
You don’t know what’s going to happen.
You start prayin’.
It doesn't help.
So you try something else.
You start listenin’.
You start listening for that Voice,
in the midst of the storn
you lean into the wind
and start listening for the Voice.
That’s when it happens.
You find youself clinging to God like never before.
That's when it happens.
God gets you through the night.
God pulls you past your fear.
It's called conversion.
It's called turning your life,
every part of your life,
over to Him.
posted by BlueCollarPreacher at 4:43 PM
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