Opening Text: Matthew 8:23-27 A storm is unleashing its fury on the Sea of Galilee.

The waves are lapping over the side of the boat. These experienced fishermen have lost their confidence in both the boat and their own skills and abilities. They are no match for the storm. All of a sudden, it does not matter who caught the most fish, who has the nicest house, or whether or not they will be having leftovers again for dinner. The petty things of this life are taken away in an instant. The disciples are afraid. Then there is Jesus. He can sleep through anything. He has no fears, no guilt, no worries. Sometimes we think he sleeps through our prayers. In any case, He rarely behaves the way we think he should. Why is he sleeping while the storm raged? Why is he not with his disciples? Why isn't he helping? Why, when they came to him looking for salvation, did he rebuke them? But, God is not like us. He does not submit to our ideas. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. We live by faith, not by knowledge or understanding. Unlike every other man, Jesus never considers appearances. He is his own man in a way no one else is, that no one else can be. What ever he does whether we understand it or not, is the right thing. But this idea requires faith. Because he doesn't seem to be doing the right thing. He seems to be sleeping, to be ignoring us. Wars and disease, hatred greed, bigotry and addiction: these things do not seem right. All around us are crime and poverty. Families are falling apart. Babies are murdered in their mother's wombs. American soldiers are maimed or killed in foreign lands. Wives and husbands are unfaithful. The government lies. Children cheat. Schools and teachers can't be trusted. Friends betray us. And then, as if all this were not bad enough. Nature itself comes down on us in hurricanes, tsunamis, killing frigid temperatures, and ice and snow. All of our feeble efforts against them are useless. All of our programs with grief, debt, pregnancy, and marriage counselors, or engineering feats and government money seem to have little effect on the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. As someone put it, it is like wrapping some gauze over the top of a volcano to stop the lava. The disciples recognized just how frail and weak they were. They cannot stand against the storm. But in their weakness they learn to pray: "Lord, save us. We are perishing!" It is a panicked cry. And this is why it receives a rebuke. But the prayer was pleasing to God and he answered it. Jesus' rebuke is not of the prayer, but of the panic. Just because Jesus was sleeping does mean that he had abandoned them. Just because they suddenly knew their true standing and were stripped of their own arrogance and vain posturing did not mean that he did not love them or would fail to save them. The winds and the sea and all of creation obey him. All of creation, even the demons know who the creator is. There is only one creature that does not know this and that is man. Man looney is the rebel. Man alone, you and I continue top try and set ourselves up as god. Yet, it is for man alone that he became a man to redeem us. How then could he allow us to perish? How then could we panic?

We have a tendency to travel through life as though we are safe and in control. But, every once in awhile we get a glimpse of reality, of our stability and it is usually accompanied with same response as the disciples, by panic. You and I are not in control. We are frail and weak. It is only our vanity and pride that keeps us from being in constant prayer to the One who slept in the disciples boat. It is our lust and greed that allow us to so easily push Him aside imagine ourselves to be concerned with more practical things. To be laying up treasures here on earth for ourselves. There is no better prayer, no higher praise, than this: Lord, save us! It is the prayer with which the children greet ou savior as he enters into Jerusalem that Sunday before he went to the cross. In Hebrew it is hosanna! Translated, it is "save us" In contrast to the disciples in the boat, the children have the proper tone and setting for this prayer. For when we call on God to be our God according to his promise, to save us, it is our highest praise. Jesus was glorified by being lifted up on the cross. Therefore it is there that we find our joy. Therefore we pray hosanna, save us. By the intervention of the Holy Spirit we pray boldly and confidently, trusting that God will be our God, that he does know best and will give us what is best for us and most enjoyable for us, that he will save us. Then we are really praising our Father in heaven, we are praying the children who greeted the sacrifice for all time outside the city. The sacrifice that purified and cleansed them. We recognize Him for who He is. Then we are praying and praising as rightful heirs. And then, it is God who is working in us. If Jesus can command the wind and the waves, then how much more can he turn our selfish hearts away from the petty things of this world and unto Himself. He saved us. This is why we pray each week in the communion liturgy this same greeting of the children, this prayer of the disciples in the boat. "Hosanna, Lord save us!" There, in the bread and the wine, Jesus gives us his own body and blood to save us. We praise him with our plea for salvation and he answers with his own flesh and blood. There our faith is strengthend and nourished. There we are left pure and holy as Jesus is pure and holy. There we are now without any blemish, without guilt, without shame or regret. Now, now nothing can harm us. Nothing can snatch us out of his hand. What manner of man is this? He is the god-man that gave his life for you. Hymn