Stormy Seas

 When Jesus 

realized that

 they were about

 to come and

 take him by force

 to make him king,

 he withdrew again

 to the mountain by himself.

 When evening 

came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a

 boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark,

 and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough 

because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about

 three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming 

near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I;

 do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were 

going.

 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the

 lake saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw

 that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias 

came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord

 had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor 

his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and 

went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to 

him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them,

 ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you

 saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not 

work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures 

for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on

 him that God the Father has set his seal. John 6:15-27

Stormy Seas

The wind is high and bitter
an angry and fierce scolding demon
our calm and capacity is all gone
we tremble and we mutter prayers
abandoned, lost and all alone.

Whatever we had hoped for
we could not imagine this sorrow
the pounding and the sliding
frigid waves across our rails
the taste of blood as we bite down.

This life of faith we walk in the dark
some days can be saturated with light
most often our humanity is on show
we stumble, we cry, we are sure
that our failures are written in the sky.

The storms will rise, indeed are here
the words we sing lost in the gale
there is yet another sunrise or two
another shore that will claim us
we are travelers all and all are at home.