Our Gospel this morning, is a favourite for many reasons, not the least is because it is Sea Sunday today. On Sea Sunday churches all over the world come together to remember seafarers and pray for them, their families and those who support them. I think most of you know, that the Rev. Ronda Ploughman, formerly the associate of our parish, moved to the Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario this past winter. Ronda was joined by Pastor Dan Phannenhour, who presided for us this summer while Bishop Terry was away, and they were joined by one more. Me, I joined the ministry team of the Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario as my Diaconal ministry outside of the parish.
The seafarers we work with daily are wonderful hardworking men and women, quick with a joke, generous and eager to contribute and help out. Getting to know these people has given me a whole new perspective of what the disciples might have been like, especially Peter and the other fishers. They must have been strong and hardworking like the seafarers I know, I’ll bet they had a great sense of humour and were eager to please Jesus and participate in everything he said. Like in today’s Gospel.
First, lets acknowledge, that it was tragedy time in Israel; John the Baptist, their great prophet and moral visionary, had been assassinated by King Herod and everyone was stunned by this tragic, shocking event! As a nation, they were grieving, and so was Jesus, as John the Baptist was his cousin. And it was popularity time for Jesus. That is, his miracles and teachings had created notoriety and large crowds were following him like masses of young people followed Elvis Presley!
In Matthew’s gospel, we have seen Jesus do several miracles in a row. Jesus stilled the storm on Lake Galilee and this demonstrated his power over nature. Jesus then raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead which demonstrated his power over death. Jesus cured the sick, demonstrating his power over disease. He caste out demons, showing his power over the demonic. And in the previous Gospel story, he has just fed five thousand men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish. In other words, the miracle of the walking on the water occurs immediately after all these other miracle stories in the Gospel of Matthew.
And Jesus, after feeding the five thousand, was trying to send the crowds home and so sent the disciples out in a boat on Lake Galilee, probably for their own safekeeping, since the crowds were everywhere. The Sea of Galilee is a large lake, eight miles wide by thirteen miles long. Eventually, Jesus went up into the hills to pray but meanwhile, a vicious storm came up on the lake; the waves were enormous as the disciples, able seamen, were rowing in the middle of the storm in the middle of the night. It was about three o’clock in the morning, and the disciples were frightened, terrified, by the storm. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to the disciples, walking on this rough water. The Bible says that the disciples were frightened, utterly astounded by what they saw, as if they were seeing a ghost. Their reaction wasn’t, “There is Jesus, just like we expected, walking on the water. He must be God,” No, they were frightened, shocked, and terrified by what they experienced, but with recognition that it was Jesus came faith and Peter asks Jesus to call him out, to call him to walk on the water with him, and Peter does. He does, until his focus changes and he loses faith. Haven’t you ever had this experience? I have. Just to show my kids they shouldn’t be afraid, I said I would jump off the 5 meter platform diving board. I was doing fine, as long as I didn’t acknowledge how high I was. And at the last second I looked down at the water and panicked and lost my nerve. Like Peter, I called to Jesus to help me (probably not as articulately as Peter) but my nerve was restored, I felt calm and peaceful (like the disciples) and was able to jump, hopefully with some grace, off the platform diving board.
The Seafarers who come to the Hamilton Centre have told us so many stories I would like to share with you. One group told us of a terrible storm crossing the Atlantic, this very spring. The storm caused some minor damage to their ship and as they limped into Quebec they had an accident with a cement pylon which caused major damage to their ship and they were docked in Quebec City for weeks as repairs were made. They considered themselves very fortunate. A sister ship had their first mate swept into the sea and never recovered.
The Mission to Seafarers stands with our men and women who work diligently to bring 90% of the goods we use and consume. Everything from the computer I used to write this sermon to the snacks I ate while writing it, to the clothes we wear here today. Our candles and musical instruments, chairs and microphones. 90% of all our good are shipped
Seafarers are men and women, yes we have run into a few women so far! And so far, the countries that most of our seafarers come from are Philippines, Ukraine, Russia, and India. Most have never been to Canada before so everything is magical and new and they are so thankful for any kindness we show them. We, the Mission, greet each vessel with a visit and give them a bag of chocolates! It is a treat and a sign to them, that we are there for them! They never get something for nothing! And thank you Ascension for donating a bag of chocolate. I can tell you that your bag of chocolates went to the seafarers of the vessel, Federal Katsura on Wednesday. Whenever we visit a ship, Ronda and I are dressed up in pink work boots and pink hard hats, the watchman usually announces to the whole ship “Seaman’s Club or Seaman’s Mission is Here!!!” and the crew come happily to say hello. Sure the chocolate helps, but it is what we represent that brings them out. They know that we are here for them, to serve their needs and support them.
For instance, one ship was abandoned by it owners. The crew had no provisions, no food – and no money or credit to get any. Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario was there for them. Even though none of them were Canadian citizens, we helped supply them and took care of them until their situation was rectified.
We help groups of seafarers, like the entire crew and we help individual either onboard or on shore.
One female seafarer, a ship’s cook came to us. She was new to seafaring, with young children home in Ukraine that she was working hard to support. Although against her wishes, the Captain claimed he was putting her wages into a bank account in the Ukraine for her, which the seafarer had no access to. Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario intervened and had the ship arrested, as this contravened Maritime Law. Seafarers are to be paid in cash in port. Mission to Seafarers was able to affect a resolution and our seafarer received the monies she was owed.
We aren’t always able to affect a resolution, sometimes we have to give consolation, like when a family member of a crew member has passed away and we help with grief counselling and travel arrangements, etc.
One day, a seafarers arrived at the centre to play pool and have some coffee and fellowship. He was happy as a lark and exclaimed how lovely and colourful our money was. He had gone down to Jackson Square and vicinity to change some American money. He pulled out a big wad of cash, colourful indeed…and marked on every bill.. Canadian Tire money. Our hearts broke for him. He had been had by some unscrupulous money changer. We weren’t able to get his money back, but we tried to help him through an awful situation and advised his Captain.
Our Hamilton Centre is the third biggest in Canada and we need your help. I’m using Sea Sunday, to invite you to consider joining us as a volunteer. We have all different roles for all different people! Currently we especially need people who can drive Seafarers between the docks and the centre (or to Walmart) and we really need hosts. Engaging people who will man our centre for a few hours once a week. Your job is to give fellowship, resources (we’ll give them to you!) offer coffee, essentially be our host to seafarers who come to the centre to play pool, use the wifi to talk to home and while other just hang out. We have a Volunteer Info Day on Wednesday, July 20th at 7 PM at our Hamilton Station, 651 Burlington Street, the North side of Burlington Street just east of Sherman Ave. See me after service to get any more details and phone number.
The spirituality of our seafarers is heard loud and clear. They say things to us, like:
“Thank you – now we can sleep because we talked to our families”, and “thank you so much – you made my day”. “We love the Hamilton Seaman’s club. It has everything we need. If we only had 20 minutes it would be enough”. Or, “there is not one more thing you could do to make it a better place”. Well, we know there IS one more thing to make it better, and that is YOU.
The laughs and tears are awesome, but by far the best moments to eavesdrop on their skype conversations are when you hear a child’s voice say, “I love you Daddy, good night” and the answer back is “I love you too”.
So to sum up today’s Gospel – it is about seafarers, boats bobbling up and down on fierce ferocious seas, a miracle, Jesus, and peace and calm within.
AMEN.
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