Don't know why
there's no sun
up in the sky.
Stormy weather.
Just can't get
my poor self together.
Keeps raining
all the time!

Some of you folks will recognize those words from a song of years gone by. But even those who don't remember the song, will surely recognize the sentiment! In these last weeks we have seen enough storms to last us a long time! And, of course, we are not the only area hit lately by wild weather. In truth, we have been much better off than parts of the U.S., China, and other places in the globe where tornadoes, hurricanes and floods have recently wreaked havoc.

A few weeks ago, we said a prayer in our church, one that comes up every year at this time. It's a prayer about storms, and it's a prayer that I particularly love. It starts out like this: O God our defender, storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid.

Our minds go to those powerful storms when the thunder and lightning seem to be right there in your living room.

They can send a surge of fear through even the bravest among us.

I'm reminded of the story of the young Martin Luther who, when walking out in a terrible storm, was so petrified, he made a pact with God. "If you get me home safely, I'll become a monk."

Now this was not what his father had planned for him. He was to become a lawyer. But Martin got home safely, and fulfilled his promise. He became a monk, and ultimately one who would lead the church to great and much needed reforms.

But the prayer is about much more than wild and frightening weather. It goes on: Rescue your people from despair, deliver your sons and daughters from fear, and preserve us all from unbelief. Despair, fear and unbelief. These speak of different kinds of storms that can rage about us and in us, in our hearts and in our minds.

On the Sunday that we used this prayer, we heard that very difficult gospel reading where Jesus says to his disciples, "Don't think I've come to bring peace in the world. I've come to bring a sword... to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother..." (Matthew 10:34-35) Now we know that Jesus, who, I'm certain, had a great sense of humour, was fond of using a certain amount of hyperbole in his parables to get a point across, but here he was deadly serious, not exaggerating one bit!. He was sending out his disciples on a mission of teaching and healing. He knew very well that there were those who strongly opposed his radical message. His disciples would meet the same opposition.

The cost of discipleship would be great. "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves." (Matthew 10:16)

Storms would indeed rage about them, and indeed about those who became followers after hearing their message. It would indeed divide families where some would cling to the old legalism of the religious authorities, and some would accept Christ's message of God's love, and of his Kingdom. But they would never face these storms alone. God, their defender, would be with them to the end

Perhaps for us here today, the cost of discipleship is not as great as it was for those early Christians, and storms about our faith might not be as threatening, but as we journey through life, each one of us encounters storms of one kind or another.

As I thought about this, I remembered the thunderstorms at the cottage when I was a child. They just seemed to go round and round. Just when we thought one was leaving, the lightning and thunder would become more intense, coming closer and closer.

It sometimes seemed to my child mind that they would never go away. The storms in our life are frequently like that, one anxiety, one loss, one grief following one after another until we think, "When will it stop?"

There is so much pain in the world, so much anxiety, so much to fear, the "thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to". Anxiety about children, about parents, the economy, war, job loss, the eroding of moral values. So many worries! So many storms raging about us!

But, as our ancestors in the faith discovered, we never have to face these storms alone. God our defender is always with us, and we can turn to him for rescue from despair, and deliverance from fear. He is with us. We need only to trust him.