“Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.” John 4:46-54

“Driving along a country road, I ignored a Bridge Out sign and continued on. But in a few miles I came to a stop: The road was completely barricaded. So I turned around and retraced my route. That’s when I saw this sign on the back of the first: “It was, wasn’t it?”

“The word out of the play strips them for a moment naked and strips their teacher with them and to that extent Shakespeare turns preacher because stripping us naked is part of what preaching is all about, the tragic part.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

Every once in a while I get myself in a position where I end up in a traffic jam because I have not paid attention to the warning signs. And by signs I am talking about actual physical signs. Signs are funny things — especially road signs. Since my wife works for PennDot, I must support the signage rules they utilize — realizing it is our fault that we are not paying attention.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus demonstrated signs of his divinity — turning the water into wine at the wedding at Cana, and in the above-mentioned text where he healed the son of the royal official — to name two. My question to you is this: how many signs of Jesus’ presence in your life do you miss? How many signs of your guardian angel’s presence in your life do you miss?

Sometimes the signs are right there in front of us – and like road signs, they strip us bare to the reality that we are not paying attention. We can be too distracted to see them, or too stubborn to believe them. The Kingdom of G-d, the presence of Jesus is all around us each and every day. Are we too busy to see them?

Pastor Dave  

“Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.  When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:23-33

“While in the men’s room at a beachside park, I noticed they had a plastic baby-changing table installed on the wall. Apparently, some sportsmen had co-opted this politically correct amenity for their own use. Above the table was a sign saying: “It is unlawful to clean fish on this table.” (Cliff Revell)

“There would be a strong argument for saying that much of the most powerful preaching of our time is the preaching of the poets, playwrights, novelists because it is often they better than the rest of us who speak with awful honesty about the absence of God in the world and about the storm of his absence, both without and within, which, because it is unendurable, unlivable, drives us to look to the eye of the storm.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples were looking into the eye of another storm – with the question “What are we going to do now?” Much of their time with Jesus was troubling, disturbing and, of course, just pure awesome. Take for example the time they were stuck in a boat, in a storm, at night, and Jesus looks like a ghost walking on the sea. If we would see something like this, we would say it was troubling, disturbing, and downright unbelievable – but also awesome. Our times with Jesus should un-trouble our souls, bring comfort and of course peace. But all these experiences should be building a trust and faith so we can, as Buechner says, “drive us to look to the eye of the storm” of our livesinstead of always running.

I believe this is what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples when he says: “You of little faith…why did you doubt?” We will have times where we face down the terrors of life, and we will have times where we fail, like Peter in spectacular ways. And yet, Jesus is with us in both the abundance and in the scarcity. Can we learn to press on in both circumstances – looking into and through the storms and living into the peace?

Pastor Dave