Acts 27:27-44 “Shipwreck Beach”
Last year at about this time, I got a call from a congenial voice that explained that she was a long time United Church member from the mainland. She asked me if I had ever heard of her church or pastor. I had not. Just the same, she went to explain her circumstances. As it turned out, she had come to Kauai for her daughter’s wedding. The plans were for that Saturday for the couple to be married down in Poipu over looking the ocean. She went on to explain that the person with whom her daughter had made all the arrangements not come through for them and so the couple was now without somebody to marry them. She asked me if I might be available.
This was of course very short notice. However, I thought that I could make the time to meet the couple, and I did happen to be free that Saturday evening. I drove down to Poipu and met with the couple and did the required marriage counseling the very next day. They took me out to where they wanted to get married. We walked through the ceremony as such. And, during that time with them, I re-enforced with them the ideal that since I was a pastor that I would have to make the ceremony one that included Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God. They were good with that.
The next day was the wedding. It was also the day when the first major tropical storm of the season was supposed to swipe at the South coast of Kauai. In an early morning cell phone call, I reassured the couple that the weather would be perfect for their wedding, in spite of the fact that it was already raining down in Poipu.
As we gathered later on that evening, one could see that there were storm clouds all around us, but on Shipwreck Beach where we were to have the wedding, there was a patch of blue sky and sunshine. The bride’s mother came up to me somewhat amazed that I had predicted the weather so perfectly. I told her to wait because there would probably be a rainbow just at six o’clock when the ceremony was to begin. Then, right at six o’clock a rainbow appeared right over the ocean! Perfect!
I told the couple that I would have to rush the service somewhat because the rain was coming back in. Fifteen minutes later, as the couple was kissing, the raindrops began to fall again. It was great how it all worked out. But, I have to be honest, the couple and their families were getting spooked a little by how God had blessed their union so perfectly. It was as if it had all been planned out in heaven. Of course, I affirmed for them that it had been.
I should add that about two weeks ago I got a card from the couple in the mail thanking me once more for marrying them and sharing with me a picture of their first-born child. Amen to that!
Now, before we get too far into the Biblical text for today, that is Paul’s experience on his “Shipwreck Beach,” let me ask you a little bit of a quick question on the text. It is a simple question: When Paul was shipwrecked, how many were on the boat? You may refer to verse 37 of chapter 27. The answer is that there were 276 persons on the ship and one angel of the Lord! You have to read up in verse 23 to get that one extra person that had apparently also been on board. The angel had stowed away and traveled with Paul, Luke and Aristarchus.
In spite of all the hardship that Paul had to face with being on a ship that is always fighting against the wind, sailors that do not listen, and the eventual shipwreck, the whole time, the angel was there telling him that everything is going to be all right. This reflects back on the couple that I married, too. In spite of everything that went wrong with their plans to get married, they had the most blessed experience one could hope for.
We have to believe in angels. We have to believe that God is actually present with us in times of trial. I think we as Christians tend to start looking around for God in every situation. We expect the angel to be there. Even in our worst moments, we sense God whispering to us what we need to do in order to make it through.
Let us look at what actually happened during the shipwreck that would seem to bespeak of God’s hand being involved. Of course everyone was saved. That is obviously God’s doing!. But, how did they make it through the wreck? Everybody had to swim for the shore, either on their own or using a plank when the ship started coming apart. Indeed, all of the soldiers would have had to leave their swords and shields behind. I don’t know if you have ever tried swimming with a steel sword? Chances are you would drown. Likewise, any prisoners who would have been shackled would have had to be freed in order to allow them to swim. The rich people would have lost all their wealth. So, we get the picture that by the time everybody has reached the shore, they have all been made rather equal to each other. Prisoners are no longer prisoners, and soldiers are no longer soldiers. They are all just human beings trying to get through life. I get the sense that that is also God’s doing.
Strangely enough, I like to think of the ship breaking apart as a massive involuntary act of baptism. Everybody goes into the water and comes out the other side touched by God in a way.
An interesting point before their baptism, Paul breaks bread and thanks God for it in their presence. So, we have a communion and a baptism of all the people. Everybody ate the bread because once it went into the ocean it would be gone anyway. And, everybody went into the water. I say every shipwreck in your life should be a spiritual experience!
Now some of you might say that you have been “up the creek without a paddle” or even “barely able to keep your head above water,” but that you have never been “shipwrecked.” I use that term today as a metaphor. As my wife can attest, we have had to swim for land in the middle of a typhoon in Thailand before, but I don’t want to bring that up. I think the very idea of being shipwrecked as Paul was means that you simply cannot stay where you are anymore. You have to jump off the ship.
This moment came for the Apostle Peter in Matthew 14:22-33 when the disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat and a great storm comes up. Jesus was not with them in the boat, but then they see what they think is a ghost walking over the water towards them and they are afraid. As it turns out, the ghost is actually Jesus. Peter asks the Lord if he is really Jesus to have Peter himself walk out on the water. So, Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking across the sea to Jesus. Just then, Peter starts losing his faith once more and begins to sink. Jesus comes over and takes his hand and lifts him once more out of the boat.
When we consider this story of Jesus, it makes us wonder if it had been Peter rather than Paul on the wrecked ship if he would have simply been able to walk on water over to the beach. That would have really shown the others on the ship the power of faith!
Likewise if Paul would have been swallowed by a big fish and then spat up on shore as Jonah had been, that would have really shown the others!
Or, maybe the sea would have parted for the survivors of the shipwreck and allowed them to walk on dry land to shore as was the case with Moses! That would have been a grand miracle.
Or maybe, as we read at the end of the Gospel of John, the resurrected Jesus could have been on shore with a nice breakfast waiting for them. That would have been a great miracle indeed.
And yet, out of all the people on the ship, not one had even a hair on his head damaged as the angel promised, that is a great miracle in and of itself. It does not need to be anymore spectacular to affirm the faith we have in Christ Jesus. It was not a spectacular miracle as we have seen in the past, but it was a miracle none-the-less.
Yes, even a shipwreck can be a miracle! That is what I want you to take home with you today—even a shipwreck can be a miracle! Being able to see that depends on your attitude in life. If you can see the miracle of shipwreck, then you are in the right mindset.
I am reminded of a story by Brian Cavanaugh entitled “The Optimist.” There are two twin boys who are very different from one another. One was an optimist and the other prescribed his life to Murphy’s Law—that is that everything can go wrong will. The worried parents took the twins to a psychologist.
He suggested a plan to balance the boys’ personalities. On their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give the pessimist the best toys you can afford, and give the optimist a box of manure.” The parents did just as the doctor suggested.
When they peeked in on the pessimist, he was in his room grumbling about the fact that he didn’t like the color of the computer he had gotten and that he did not like a game he had gotten.
They peeked into the other room where their optimist son was and saw him gleefully throwing the manure up in the air. He was laughing and giggling. “You can’t fool me! Where there is this much manure, there’s got to be a pony!”
The shipwreck from the optimists—no from the Christian point of view—was a great miracle that allowed Paul to speak of God in the presence of angels. Amen.