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Third Sunday after
Pentecost
June 25, 2006 Sermon
by The Rev.
Bill Van Oss
Readings
It was the winter of 1985. I was a
student at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul. It was around noon on
a Friday, and I was setting out to drive the 250 or so miles to
Green Bay
to visit my family for the weekend.
All would be well, I thought. The skies were cloudy and it was cold, but
it was not snowing. Not yet at least.
As I crossed over the big bridge that links MN and WI on I-94, the skies
were darker ahead. Ohh… I thought – looks like snow. Little did I know.
. .
I was probably 20 miles East of Hudson when I drove into the heart of
the blizzard. Heavy snow and high winds, it was nearly impossible to see
beyond the hood of my Ford Escort.
I remember the feeling that welled up inside of me distinctly to this
day! It was pure fear. This was long before the advent of cell phone. I
felt completely alone in that car. Even as 18 wheelers rolled by, I felt
completely isolated in that storm.
Should I turn back? But how? Should I stop on the road? I might get hit!
Should I exit? Where would I go? It’s remote out here, I can’t see. Will
something happen to the car? What will I do then?
I was stricken with fear that verged on panic. I was squeezing the
steering wheel so tightly my hands hurt, and I was leaning forward so
far to see that my head was nearly touching the windshield. My back
ached.
The snow just kept raging. The wind howled and I thought to myself, ”I
could die out here.”
What should I do? And then it came to me. The only thing I could do.
Pray. And the only prayers I could come up with were the first ones I
learned. The “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary.” I just began to say them
out loud, over and over.
Now I must confess that at that point in my life God was kind of asleep
on a cushion. I didn’t disturb Him too much, and God didn’t bother me
either. We had things worked out.
You see, I was the master of my own destiny. I had the world by the
tail. I was going to school at a good college, having lots of fun, lots
of friends, I was young and free and in control. I even had my own car
(a big deal in that day), and so my relationship with God was, well,
“let sleeping savior lie,” if you will.
God didn’t bother me, and I did the same with God – until that horrible
Friday afternoon in Western Wisconsin, and then, with fear about to
overtake me, the Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s just spilled out, “Wake up,
Wake up God.” And this story has a happy ending.
The snow slowed down, the winds calmed, and my ability to see returned.
I could look out the windshield and see cars to follow, two strips of
road below, but event more than that, my vision returned a bit on that
day – for it was I who woke up.
I had a revelation like the one Job and the disciples had in today’s
scripture readings.
I heard God say to me, “You think you’re in charge? Bill, you think you
are the master of your own destiny - that you are in control?”
“I’m in charge,” God said to me that winter day. “I laid the foundation
of the earth, I shut in the sea when it burst out from the womb. I have
made the clouds and the earth, and even you, young man,” God said to me.
“And I can still the storm with a single word--.”
“What you need to do,” God said, “is to trust, to have faith, and to see
that I am with you at all times and in all places: in times of storm,
and in times of calm.”
That frightening day more than 20 years ago is a vivid reminder of the
power of fear, but it is an even more powerful reminder that it is faith
that overcomes fear.
When we turn to God, sometimes even waking up a God we have allowed to
go to sleep, when we pray, and trust, that God is there for us, that God
cares for us, and that no matter what, God loves us – and watches over
us, it helps to calm the storms in our own lives and gives us the
ability to see, to see who God is and who we are and what life is truly
all about. Not living only for ourselves but living gratefully and
generously and compassionately for God and for others.