[Pr. McDermott preached this sermon while on vacation at
Highland Park Lutheran Church, Los Angeles, CA]
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
After Jesus fed the five thousand
on the hillside near Capernaum, immediately He knew that He must
leave, or else risk being mobbed as the crowds figured out what He
had done. So He directed the Twelve to get into the boat and shove
off across the lake, while our Lord retreated to an isolated place to
pray. When He came back down to the sea-shore, Jesus saw that “they
were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them.”
While possibly not the same acute peril they faced in other storms,
this was nevertheless a hard force against which the disciples rowed
and fought. The wind was beating against them, buffeting them about
and pushing them off course. The waves were stirred up, making it
rough going and hard to steer. After hours of this, anyone would be
fatigued, frustrated, and fed-up.
Now, one thing that bears considering is why they were out on the
lake in the first place.
