LOST: Nor’easters of Life

Acts 27:13-20, Luke 15:1-7

April 6, 2008

Have you ever felt lost, I mean, really lost, with no hope of being saved?

There’s a television show called LOST, some of you may be familiar with it.  It’s about a jetliner which leaves Sydney , Australia , bound for Los Angeles . 

But somewhere over the Pacific Ocean , the plane hits a terrible storm, breaks apart, and crashes into the sea and the survivors end up on an uncharted, seemingly deserted isle. 

They are lost, and each week the show explores the survivors’ hopes of being saved.

In Acts 27, the Apostle Paul and his companions boarded an Egyptian grain ship bound for Italy . Paul was a prisoner of the Roman Empire for allegedly starting a riot in the temple area in Jerusalem . It was decided that arrangements should be made to ship Paul and his companions some 2,000 miles away to Rome to stand trial before Caesar. This six-month voyage would be filled with danger and adventure.  Luke, whom most scholars agree wrote the book of the Acts of the Apostles along with the gospel which bears his name, gives a detailed account of their journey.

And so for the next four weeks, kind of like a television series, we will follow the exploits of the Apostle Paul as he and a ship full of soldiers and prisoners become lost on an unknown island due to a storm at sea.

We will also look at how Jesus regards those who are lost—not just physically lost, but those who are spiritually lost as well.

Probably ever since the first person set sail upon the open seas, there have been stories of scary storms at sea and shipwrecks.  From the movies Shipwreck to The Perfect Storm, to actual wrecks like the Morro Castle which sank right off of Asbury Park , the tales of storms and shipwrecks abound. 

( 8:30 - Probably the most famous is this one right here (Gilligan’s Island video)).

(Now here’s a real person,) Robert Munger, who is a theologian and pastor in the southern California area, was actually in a storm at sea. This is his story in his own words about what it was like:

Being assaulted by winds and walls of waves and a wildly tossing sea was like being run over by a train in a dark tunnel. We knew the typhoon was coming, but I for one hadn’t expected it to pack such a wallop. Everything was battened down as we prepared to take a direct hit. Those of us who were on deck had our slickers on- similar to the old yellow slickers used by New England fisherman. Being a novice to things of the sea, I’d hung mine up by a hot pipe a few days before and the heat had melted all the oil from the fabric. Now my slicker leaked like a sieve. It wasn’t much good but it was all I had to wear as the ship shuddered and pitched into huge mountains of brine and foam.

It was fast approaching midnight . As I made my final rounds on deck, everything I saw brought on physical terror. The lights of the ship reflected only a few feet out over the water. Each wave became visible only as it reared to crash. More than once, I thought, “what if I were washed overboard while making my rounds? No one would even know. I would be lost forever in a violent, angry sea.” The possibility of death was enough to focus my mind. But almost as terrifying as drowning was the fear of falling into darkness and death all alone. No one to see. No one to hear. No one to report. The blotting out of life. Caught. Trapped. Right there in the eye of the storm.

You can imagine what he must have felt like—lost, with no hope of being saved.

This must be what Paul and his companions felt like.  As we heard in our scripture reading, the nor’easter came up on them, and they were helpless.  You know what it’s like when a nor’easter comes through here—imagine being on a ship in it!  The scripture says, “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.”

Wow, to give up all hope.  To have an outlook so bleak that you know in your heart of hearts that you will not be saved.  I can’t even imagine that.

But you know, many people give up all hope every day.  Now, none of them are in raging nor’easters, but are rather facing the storms of life.  And we all face them.

I don’t know what storms in your life you’ve had to face.  Perhaps you have stories of mental or spiritual storms that you’ve passed through. Perhaps they’re related to your work, related to your livelihood. Maybe they’re related to your colleagues, your relationships; maybe your storms are at home, perhaps, with family members. Your storms could even be related to your body, your health, your strength, and your mind.

I don’t know what storms you’ve been through but I do know that all of us at some time or another have had an experience in which we have felt our life to be so tiny, tossed around like that little cargo ship in the middle of the wide ocean. Thrown in every direction.  Tossed around as if in the middle of a storm that would not go away, with our lives in danger, with chaos threatening at any moment to undo us, to rip life away.

Have you ever felt like this? Some of you may even be facing the crisis of a storm right now and you are not sure how or if you will ever get out of it.

Now, switch channels, and go from the violent ocean with the waves crashing over the bow so hard that the water is stinging your face, to a quiet, peaceful pasture.  There are sheep grazing all around, lazily moving about.  Contentment fills them as they mindlessly chew on patches of rich, green grass.  The sky is blue, with only a few white, puffy clouds casually drifting by.

Quite a change, isn’t it?  The anxiety and stress of everyday life has left your body.  You can just lay there, listening to the soft, periodic baas of the sheep, losing yourself in your thoughts.

The shepherd is there, tending to the flock.  He leads them to the greenest pastures, the still waters, caring for them as if they were his own children. 

But suddenly, there is panic!  The shepherd’s eyes dart back and forth, counting, counting.  One sheep is missing!  Where could it be?  As you sit up, you wonder what all the fuss is about.  There have to be at least 100 sheep there, how could he tell that one was missing?  Besides, what difference does it make?

The shepherd, leaving the 99 sheep to themselves, frantically searches for the lost sheep.  You’re thinking, “This is nuts.  Now the other 99 are going to get lost.  It was the sheep’s own fault for straying off, anyway.”  But before you finish your thought, the shepherd returns with the sheep over his shoulders, reuniting it with the rest of the flock.  Joy is in his eyes and on his face, and he calls his friends and celebrates with a huge meal, all due to the return of the one lost lamb.  That’s how important each individual creature is to him.

That’s how important each individual person is to God.

Friends, God doesn’t want anyone to be lost.  For the people on Paul’s boat, they’ve given up all hope of being saved.  But in his parable of the sheep, Jesus tells us that each and every one of us, even if we’ve strayed, are very important to him, and we will be saved.  And he will do whatever it takes to bring us back into the fold.

Are you lost?  Won’t you return to the flock today? Because Christ is waiting for us.

In fact, today he waits for us at his table, to celebrate and to share a meal together.  It doesn’t matter is you’ve strayed, or have felt lost.  Come to Christ, come to the table.