The Joshua Victor Theory

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Back in January I compared the size of the “Sea” of Galilee to our island of Maui. I estimate it would stretch roughly lengthwise from the base of West Maui mountains up to Makawao, and from Kahului Harbor to Maalaea Harbor—13 miles by 8 miles. Small, but big enough to get caught in a storm. Especially if you imagine crossing that distance on a small fishing boat against a driving wind, when you’re exhausted after rowing till 3-4 AM in the darkness. It was no joke. Today in the Gospel, we’re back at the Sea of Galilee for another of Jesus’ miracles, showing that He is God who rules over the storms. You know how weathermen describe the “eye” of a hurricane? In the center of a massive spinning storm with high-speed winds circling for hundreds of miles, there’s a small pocket of calm. The “eye” of the storm. While no hurricanes hit the tiny Sea of Galilee, sudden windstorms from the...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Did you notice in our Gospel reading, that everything was calm and fine before Jesus and His disciples entered into the fishing boat, to cross the Sea of Galilee? Jesus was leading them into the storm. It reminds me of how the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness after His baptism, to be tempted. Undoubtedly Jesus did so for this reason—to test their faith, and show them who He was in a yet more marvelous way. Do we acknowledge that God may intentionally lead us into some rough sailing, some real, humbling difficulties in life? Not because He wants to harm us, or even that everything has a hidden “life-lesson”, but that God in His own mysterious ways, has crosses for us to bear, and wants us to lean completely on Him? If Jesus lead them into the storm, you see there is no promise or guarantee that we will be spared the storms and dangers of life, or even that we will be rescued f...

The following Lenten series I will be preaching on is adapted from Dr. Reed Lessing's series on Jonah the prophet. Dr. Lessing is professor of Old Testament at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO.  “For this job,” said the personnel director, “we are looking for a responsible man.” “That’s me,” said the applicant. “Everywhere I’ve worked, whenever anything went wrong they said I was responsible .” This is Jonah! He is responsible for going down to Joppa, going down into the ship, lying down in the innermost recesses of the ship, and he is even responsible for the sailors lifting him up and throwing him into the raging sea! He was responsible for what went wrong! In spite of this the LORD does not hire someone else; he didn’t let Jonah get away with it. Jonah may have won the battle, but God will win the war. To do so he sends in the big gun, “the perfect storm.” The storm will bring a sudden halt to Jonah’s escape plans. God had called Jonah to arise , go to Nineveh, but ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The miracles in today’s Gospel follow just after Jesus fed the 5,000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. While Jesus was dismissing the crowds, He sent the disciples in the boat to cross the lake ahead of Him, and then He took some time alone for prayer. Today we’ll see how Jesus calls us to courage. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Try to picture the situation of the disciples. Jesus sent them out across the lake to Bethsaida late in the evening. Jesus finishes praying and sees that they’re struggling against a strong wind, and were making it across the lake with great difficulty. Their backs must have been bent hard against the oars, their muscles fatigued and failing, their spirits discouraged and distressed by the lack of progress. And it was the 4th watch of the night! That was the last watch of the night, which meant it was between 3-6 AM. This ...