Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Holy Gospel reading which has already been read.

Dear friends in Christ, God has given us the New Testament to bring us to faith in Christ, and then to teach Christ's disciples about life in His Kingdom. We are Christ's disciples because we believe in Christ and have been baptized into His Kingdom, and we remain His disciples throughout our lives by continuing to hear Christ's Word and receive His sacraments for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith in Him. As His disciples, we have received the gracious promise from Jesus, "Behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20) and so we can confess the words of Psalm 46, "The LORD of hosts is with us" (Psalm 46:7), "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling" (Psalm 46:1-3). Come what may, we have nothing to fear. But as sinners, we do fear the changes and challenges of life, and lose hope, just as the earliest disciples did in today's Gospel reading.

Since we are Christ's disciples, we should place ourselves right alongside those first disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee on that stormy day so many years ago. The Christian Church is a boat of sorts. When we perform the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, we pray that we may be "kept safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church."

So through Baptism and faith, we find ourselves in the boat with our Lord Jesus, along with all His other disciples. And just as it happened in our Gospel reading, so often it seems today that Jesus is asleep. While we are being tossed to and fro by the tempestuous waters of life, our Lord seems to sleep, blissfully unaware and apathetic that we are sinking under a multitude of struggles: heartbreak, sickness, chronic pain, abuse, death, grief, poverty, guilt, shame; fill in the blank with your own tribulations, since we all have them. We know the Lord is almighty and so He could remove any of these troubles from our lives with just a word, but still He seems to sleep on while we suffer, and so we sinners begin to think that He has abandoned us and left us to perish and we grow afraid, much like those disciples in the boat.

Now there are different types of fear. Reverent fear of God is an essential part of being a disciple-the first commandment means that "we should fear, love, and trust in God above all things." But there is a type of fear that is not compatible with reverent fear or love and trust of God, and that is cowardly fear that doubts God's promises to always be with us. Cowardly fear is sinful and shameful. When the disciples in the boat conclude that because the Lord is sleeping, He is no longer in control of the wind and the sea, they fall into cowardly fear and weak faith. They doubt the Lord's promises to be with them and guard them from harm (John 17:12) and they conclude that they are perishing. As the boat begins to sink, they lose the faith of Psalm 46 that says, "Though the seawaters roar and foam, we shall not fear."

Likewise, if we fear that the Lord has abandoned us and left us to perish, we have fallen into cowardly fear, for Jesus has promised His disciples, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28). Note well that Jesus is not promising that we will always have smooth sailing; He does not say, "I give them their best life now, and they will never have troubles." Rather, Jesus promises in John 16, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Note well that our peace is only in Jesus, in His promise to forgive and save us through His Word and Sacraments. But our peace is not in this world, for in the world we will have tribulation. Yet Jesus says, "Take heart; I have overcome the world"; that is, by His suffering, death, and resurrection, He has defeated sin, death, and the devil-He has overcome all our enemies in this world and has given us the victory of eternal life in heaven.

If you want to see some of the tribulation that Christ's disciples should expect, just look at the great disciple St. Paul's description of his trials in 2 Corinthians: He said that for the sake of Christ, he endured "afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger" (6:4-5). Paul considered it an honor and privilege to suffer this way for the sake of Christ, and so we too should consider it God's gracious gift when He sends such troubles our way.

But in the midst of troubles, we must never forget the Lord's assurance that the Father gave His Son over to suffering and death for our sin so "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). So even if our troubles tell us that we are perishing, we are never really perishing. In Christ, it may seem that we are dying, but as St. Paul tells us, "behold, we live"; if we are "punished," yet we are "not killed" …"having nothing, yet possessing everything" (2 Corinthians 6:9-10). The appearances and the reality don't match up; in fact, they are opposites. When our bodies die, it certainly seems that we have lost everything. But in our Baptism into Christ, the promise is this: "All things are yours…and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:21, 23). Because of your Baptism into Christ's death and resurrection, "you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Your eternal life in Christ is not something visible to the naked eye, but it is perceptible only to the eye of faith.

With such great promises from God, there should be no room in our hearts for cowardly fear, but instead we should boldly confess with St. Paul, "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Yet because sin and unbelief still dwell in the hearts of Christ's disciples, they do sometimes fall into cowardly fear, as the disciples on that boat did, but at least at that point of fear they realized that there was only One who could help them, so they went to Jesus and cried out, "Save us, Lord, we are perishing!" They had fallen into cowardly fear, but at least now they are talking to the right Person, to the Man who can do something about their plight. For He is the Lord of hosts, the One who at the creation said to the sea, "Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed" (Job 38:11). The Scriptures say that He is the One "who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar" (Isaiah 51:15). He is the One who rules "the raging of the sea" and "when its waves rise," He stills them (Psalm 89:9). And so He does save them in answer to their desperate prayer. "Peace! Be still!" He says to the winds and the waves, and they obey.

And that does remind us disciples that the question "Why?" is not nearly as important as the question "Who?" "Why is this happening to me?" is something we often ask, but that becomes a less pressing question when "Jesus" is the answer to the question "Who is my Lord and Savior?" "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) St. Paul asked. If God did not even "spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) The Lord who gave His life for us on the cross will graciously gives us all things, all things that "work together for good" (Romans 8:28), for our good. That even includes our sufferings. When the One who is in charge of our sufferings is Jesus, then the question, "Why is this happening to me?" can only have one answer: for our eternal good, because we are His disciples, those who have been called according to His purpose.

And so to call us back to Himself again this morning, He speaks into the tempestuous lives of us disciples with the Gospel, "Peace! Be still! In Baptism I have clothed you with Myself, I have hidden your life within Myself so that nothing can harm you. In Absolution, I declare that your biggest problem, God's wrath against your sin, has been taken care of. In Holy Communion, I assure you that those who have My flesh and blood abiding in them have eternal life and will be raised up on the last day."

And with those comforting words of Gospel ringing in our ears, then we can speak to our gracious Lord with confidence, without cowardly fear. After we have peered into the heart of God by looking upon the face of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel, we see that God the Father has no ill will toward us, but instead turns His fatherly ear toward us. In the midst of our sufferings, He invites us to speak to Him: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me" (Psalm 50:15) He says, so that for us we know that it will be just as the Psalmist describes in our Introit, "Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress" (Psalm 107:28).

Of course, this deliverance may not happen instantly, and we may have to bear our trials patiently until that final deliverance when all things are made right in the Resurrection. So in the meantime, as we call upon the Lord, He even invites us to ask Him, "Why, O Lord, is this happening?" and "How long, O Lord, must I suffer these raging seas?" When we approach the Lord on the basis of His Gospel promises to us, He loves to hear even our complaints. When your boat seems to be going down, drown yourself in the Psalms, where in God's own Word you learn to pray rightly to Him, "Why?" and "How long?" Just consider Psalm 13:1-6, where the Lord invites us when we are suffering to pray to Him, "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I … have sorrow in my heart all the day? … Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death…But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me." The pain we experience is very real, and so the Lord invites us to cry out to Him in prayer, "Why? How long?" But even in the midst of our sufferings, we can be sure that the Lord has dealt bountifully with us, because "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

But our questions and complaints can only be addressed to the Lord; they cannot be made about God to other people. There is a reverent fear that disciples must show to their Lord, and we see that in the boat on the Sea of Galilee when after Jesus has hushed the winds and calmed the waters, He says to His disciples, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

The Lord questions us disciples with a "Why?" He says, "After all these promises I have made to you, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith in My promises?" He rebukes our lack of faith, and that is terrifying because sin and unbelief cannot stand in the presence of God's holiness. Surely that is why the disciples were filled with reverent fear of the Lord, who even controls the wind and the waves.

Yet Jesus does not want to leave us only with this reverent fear, but also wants us to have trust and love for Him. There is a hidden promise contained in the rebuke, "O you of little faith?" because the Lord is not calling His disciples unbelievers, but rather is telling us that even the smallest faith is still faith, and even a bit of faith takes hold of the Savior Jesus and receives all the blessing of salvation that He has to give. But He also wants to invite us to greater and more robust faith in Him, because He says to His disciples, "By my perfect life, sufferings, death, and resurrection, I have given you so many reasons to believe in Me and trust Me for everything. I have told you not to doubt that when your body dies, yet you will live, because I live. I am with you always, forever, to guide and protect you. And I control the wind, the waves, and all the tribulations you experience in this world, so when you begin to sink under your troubles, do not doubt, but call out to Me, and I will deliver you." In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.