PSALM 139:1-10
ROMANS 8:31-39
MARK 4:35-41
Gordon E. Ellis
April 17, 2005
THE FAITH RESPONSE
It was Thursday, August 7th, 1986, the day a TORNADO ripped through Providence, Rhode Island at exactly 5:25PM. Well at 5:09PM, I met my wife, Diane, at her office, and in SEPARATE cars, we headed NORTH on I-95, and then Route 146 toward Worcester. And AS we reached Route 146, the RAIN became BLINDING. It was the HARDEST rain I’ve EVER seen! And within a MOMENT, I lost SIGHT of Diane. SOON, traffic began to CRAWL, and I was BARELY able to see the car in FRONT of me. THEN, it was BUMPER-to-BUMPER traffic for a few moments. And THEN, ALL of a sudden, traffic STOPPED! It was like a PARKING lot. When the RAIN slowed down just slightly, I caught sight of DIANE, 3 cars ahead, but OFF in the BREAKDOWN lane. I wondered WHY? Well, in a moment, I SAW why! Just ahead of HER was a FLOOD! The water was SO high that it was over the GUARDRAILS, and there were CARS stuck in the MIDDLE of it. Well, we just SAT there and SAT there for nearly an HOUR, with the rain POURING down, and the FLOOD waters STILL rising! For awhile, I just put my feet up on the DASH and listened to the RADIO. They were DESCRIBING the tornado. But THEN I noticed that the water had NOW submerged DIANE’S bumper, and I KNEW she must be getting very ANXIOUS.
SO, I said to myself: THIS is STUPID! WHY are we all just SITTING here, WAITING to be FLOODED? There HAS to be a way OUT of this! I looked AHEAD, and then in my mirror. I could see NOTHING but CARS and water. SO, I OPENED my door and SQUINTED through the rain. And THERE was my answer! There an ON-RAMP about 200 yards BEHIND me. I thought: WHY not turn that ON-RAMP into an OFF-RAMP? And THEN, we can get OUT of here! SO, I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants, and jumped OUT of my car into knee-deep water. FIRST, I checked on Diane. She was FINE, at least until I scared her out of her wits by POUNDING on her window. THEN, I ran over to a TRUCK driver, who was parked several cars BEHIND me. Being a former trucker myself, I KNEW that he would HELP. And THEN, we STARTED, one-by-one, getting that WHOLE mass of traffic turned AROUND and OFF the ON-RAMP: cars, vans, pick-up trucks, 18-wheelers, EVERYBODY. One lady COULDN’T stop CRYING! She kept THANKING us over and over! They MUST be worried SICK about me, she cried. And FINALLY, I got to my OWN car, which I pulled OFF onto the GRASS in order to get DIANE free. But THAT’S when my TROUBLE started. When I got to the man behind her, BANGED on his window, and told him what I wanted, he SAID: I’m NOT moving!
I said: PLEASE, mister, the water is OVER your bumper, and still rising! You have a CHANCE to get OUT of it, like everybody ELSE!
He repeated: I’m NOT MOVING!
I said: Now WAIT a minute. You HAVE to move a LITTLE bit at least! My WIFE is right in FRONT of you, and you HAVE to back up a little so SHE can get FREE.
He said: I don’t care if the PRESIDENT is right in FRONT of me! I’m NOT moving an INCH!
Well, NOW I was losing my PATIENCE! I said: LISTEN, mister, I have been OUT here, in this POURING rain, up to my KNEES in water, for almost an HOUR. And this TRUCK driver and I have managed to help about 75 cars and trucks get turned around, and OFF this flooded highway to SAFETY. Now, if YOU want to sit here, in the middle of ALL this water, and let it get SO high that you RUIN you CAR, that’s YOUR prerogative. But I'm telling you ONE thing: my WIFE is getting OFF this highway. And THAT means that YOU are going to BACK this car up at LEAST a FOOT!
I’m SORRY, he replied, but I am NOT moving an INCH until HELP arrives!
Well, YOU would have been PROUD of me! I DIDN’T rip him out of his car and throw him in the water like I WANTED to! No! VERY calmly and coolly, I said: Mister, help is HERE! And I’m not ASKING you; I’m TELLING you! ONE way or another, this CAR is going to MOVE! Either YOU can back it up, OR, you can get OUT and let ME back it up! But, it IS going to MOVE, and it’s going to move NOW! So, DO it!
ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! he said. I’ll MOVE it, but 6 inches and THAT’S it! SO, he BACKED up maybe 10 inches -- and THAT was IT! HE was DONE! I had to drive over the CURB to get Diane’s CAR out, but pretty soon, we were OFF that highway and moving. We were WET, but SAFE!
Well, I wanted to share that little MEMORY with you, because I THINK of it as a PARABLE about LIFE, LIVING and FAITH. After all: how MANY times on our JOURNEY down the road of life does that road get FLOODED by a DOWNPOUR of life’s RAIN? Maybe our MARRIAGE is falling APART or a LOVED one dies; maybe our CAREER feels like it’s at a STANDSTILL or we’re struggling with a painful ILLNESS. Maybe we feel DISTANT, even ESTRANGED, from one of our CHILDREN or we’re BURDENED with so much STRESS and pressure that we feel like we’re ready to BURST. Maybe we’re CAUGHT in the grip of ADDICTION or we need to give up some INDEPENDENCE because of our health or age. OR, maybe we don’t even know WHY, but we just feel DEPRESSED all the time! Yes, time and again on our JOURNEY through life, we FIND ourselves standing face-to-face with RISING flood waters.
Now of course, that little FLOOD on Route 146 was NO big TEST of faith. BUT, the various RESPONSES that people MADE to that flood can tell us a LOT about the FAITHFULNESS of our OWN responses whenever WE are faced with rising flood waters. ONE response, which SOME people made, was to DRIVE right THROUGH it! Now, SOME of those people were MACHO types, people with more GUTS than BRAINS. AH, they say, a little WATER is NOT going to stop ME! I’LL just PLOW right THROUGH it! Well, a FEW macho types actually MADE it, but MOST of them DIDN’T! They ended up STUCK in the middle of it! Likewise, THAT’S what usually happens to US when WE try to BULL our way through the flood waters of LIFE. We JUST end up getting FIRED, or in a DIVORCE court, or becoming more ILL. You see: that MACHO response just DOESN’T work! WHY? Because it’s not FAITHFUL! It’s trusting in OURSELVES rather than trusting in GOD!
Now, OTHERS who tried to drive THROUGH the flood were NOT being MACHO; they were PANICKING! But AGAIN, they ended up WORSE off than they were before. God only KNOWS how long SOME of those people SAT there in their stalled out and flooded vehicles that night, WAITING for HELP. Likewise, on LIFE’S highway, PANIC is not a FAITH response. And those who PANIC usually end up putting their faith in things OTHER than God, things that really CAN’T help them, such as PILLS or alcohol, FOOD or friends. They say: I can face ANYTHING, as long as I have some VALIUM! BUT, they end up STALLING out in the MIDDLE of life’s DEEPEST water.
THEN, of course, there are those like the woman who kept THANKING us so much; who SEE the water beginning to RISE, but who get so SCARED that they CRY OUT like the disciples: Lord, don’t you CARE? Aren’t you going to SAVE me? Are you going to stay ASLEEP until I SINK? Well, THAT’S not faith either, and to THEM, as to those fear-filled disciples, Jesus might reply: WHY are you such COWARDS? WHERE is your FAITH? Did you really THINK that I would let you DROWN?
There are also those like the man in the car behind DIANE, those who get totally PARALYZED by FEAR, so that they CANNOT move. They just SIT there without even a THOUGHT that there COULD be a better WAY. And they refuse to SEE another way EVEN when someone is standing there pointing it OUT to them. And, THAT is the SADDEST response of all.
You know, as I TALK about this, it may SOUND like I’m talking about certain people, certain OTHER people. Actually I’m NOT, because ALL of us make ALL of these responses sometimes. It just depends on the severity of the FLOOD, on our mental health at the time, and MOST of all, on the state of our FAITH at that moment. SO, we’re ALL familiar with ALL the response. However, the response that I think MOST of us make, most of the TIME, is the response that MOST people MADE out there on Route 146. It’s the response that I made for quite awhile. We say to ourselves: Well, here I am in the midst of another FLOOD. I guess I’ll just SIT and WAIT. I guess I’ll just be PATIENT. And eventually, the WATER will RECEDE, and I can CONTINUE on my journey. And USUALLY, that’s a pretty FAITHFUL response. We TRUST that God will be WITH us, and we just KNOW that water WILL go down eventually. And USUALLY it DOES, leaving us with YET another “WAR STORY” to tell.
However, there IS another, even MORE faithful response. I wonder what JESUS would have SAID that day on the boat IF He had been woken up to the sound of His disciples BAILING the boat as FAST as they could, and BATTONING down the hatches, and HEADING for shore? What I MEAN is this: WHEN we have faith that things will work OUT; and that God WILL be WITH us through THICK and THIN, and that GOD will bring NEW life, hope and beauty EVEN from the WORST floods of life, then that DEEP kind of RESURRECTION faith offers us an INNER peace, an inner SHALOM, which literally FREES us. It’s what we call the PEACE of CHRIST. And what it DOES is it takes the BURDEN of finding a solution OFF of OUR shoulders, so that WE can RELAX, EVEN when we’re standing waist-deep in the FLOOD waters of LIFE. And paradoxically, WHEN we begin to RELAX, we begin to hear GOD’S guiding VOICE in our hearts, and to feel God’s strong HAND upholding us. And, when THAT happens, we SENSE what we need to do NEXT -- AND we are given the COURAGE to DO that which NEEDS to be done! And THEN, as difficult as it IS, we finally DO what we need to DO. Maybe we go see a COUNSELOR for our marriage, or ask a friend to take us to an AA meeting. OR, we just take off our shoes and socks, ROLL up our pants, and help EVERYBODY get turned around and OFF the ON-RAMP. In OTHER words, WHEN we have that RESURRECTION faith, and the PEACE of Christ that it OFFERS us, we are FREED from the bondage of FEAR, SO that we can start BAILING the BOAT! And friends, THAT’S the REAL faith response! And THAT is the response that God is calling us to MAKE! You see: THAT is the MESSAGE in all 3 of our scripture lessons today: that WHEN we have FAITH in God’s LOVE and redemption, we will KNOW, deep in our hearts, that NO flood of life, NOT even that INEVITABLE flood that we call DEATH, has the POWER to DROWN us! And, THAT’S because NO flood of life can ever SEPARATE us from the LOVE of God. As St. Paul says so eloquently: I am CONVINCED that neither DEATH nor LIFE, neither messenger of Heaven nor MONARCH of earth, neither things PRESENT nor things to COME, neither a power from on HIGH nor a power from below, nor anything ELSE in God’s whole WORLD has ANY power to separate US from the LOVE of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yes friends, THAT is the FAITH response, and that FAITH response helps us to feel so CONFIDENT in God’s UNCONDITIONAL love for us that we have a DEEP feeling of PEACE and WELL-BEING, a DEEP feeling of SHALOM in our hearts, EVEN when life gets tough. And SO, we NEED to keep nourishing that FAITH within us, because making that FAITH response is HOW we find LIFE in ALL its FULLNESS. And THAT’S what we’re all SEARCHING for, isn’t it: LIFE in ALL its FULLNESS. AMEN.