Nonetheless, I imagine, for many people, water must be a scary thing because it is so uncontrollable. Remember that film, Perfect Storm? People were fascinated by it, but also scared to death.

It occurs to me that the earth itself sometimes seems overwhelming to us earth dwellers. Hurricanes often wipe out entire villages and more. Tornadoes decimate towns and surrounding countryside, floods waste miles and miles of rich farmland. It’s all part of the vagaries of nature. It’s not God’s doing.

Now, I have no way of knowing how rough the Sea of Galilee gets. It surely can’t compare with the North Pacific, but perhaps with the small boats that were used for crossing in Jesus time there was cause for alarm in a storm. At any rate, the story in today’s gospel does indicate that they were so scared that they thought they were going drown and called on Jesus to save them from utter destruction. Obviously, they must have known that Jesus had special powers; otherwise they would never have appealed to him to calm the waters.

Several of the biblical commentaries on this passage point out that this event is not so much about a storm at sea or about frightened sailors. Rather, it is a prediction by Jesus that the future Christian community would doubtless face such storms throughout its history. At the same time the early disciples and all disciples following them should never lose heart, never doubt Christ’s power to keep the Church safe from ultimate ruin.

Protecting the Church from harm is not automatically assured by the power of Jesus Christ, of course. I believe that the Church’s safety comes also from the “crew,” that is, those countless Christians over the centuries who claim to be followers of Christ.

Surely, our Church is important enough to us that we should love it enough to be willing to take on the responsibility of keeping it afloat.

Of all things, we ought not be the ones who put this Ship in jeopardy by our refusal to take on Christian tasks and Christian responsibilities in the world. There are already more than enough dangers out there facing our Church.

I return, finally, to the image of the great crab boats out in Dutch Harbor where I worked. The men who worked the “pots” were a rough and tumble bunch; they could drink beer with the best of ‘em. But one thing you did not do in the presence of those men was to refer to their boat as a “loser.” That would get you into a fight in seconds. These men were proud of their ships and were willing to bear any burden or danger to bring them back to safe harbor unharmed.

I can readily see then why Jesus would choose a boat or a ship as a metaphor for the church. What else can better carry you across stormy waters of life to safety? With a captain like Jesus, who’s afraid of the deep?

The scriptures: Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5: 14-17; Mark 4: 35-41