This is Father’s Day, and we welcome and celebrate our fathers.

Dads are different than Moms. They parent differently. They protect differently. They teach differently. Moms buy bumper pads. Dads buy Band-Aids. Moms schedule “play days.” Dads encourage “throw-downs.” Some of you are not going to be happy about this, and of course there are lots of exceptions, but overall there just do seem to be different styles inherent between Moms and Dads.

Moms like to invest in lots of protective gear. Bike helmets, knee pads, water wings. Dads tend to be both hands on and hands off. Swimming lessons, but then a white water raft trip. Bike-pushing, followed by a mondo mountain bike trail. Bigger knee pads, then diving into the deepest drop at the skate park. Moms say, “You worried me so much!” Dads tend to say, “Don’t worry too much!”

Kids need both kinds of parenting. That is the most difficult challenge for single parents, a challenge that can be met and is being met my many single parents in this church. But it’s a challenge nonetheless: to find a way, or a person, to bring in all the possibilities and probabilities that are part of the richness of having both a Mom and a Dad to engage the lives of children.

I thank God Dads are optimists. Dads take chances based upon skills and knowledge they know they possess and they trust they have taught to the next generation. I thank God for all Dads who offer this gift of confidence. A gift of conviction. A gift of risk and courage based on trust. It is a gift every child needs from someone.

In the context of the culture of his day, Jesus loved like a mother, and taught like a father. He didn’t have his disciples sit in a yeshiva learning Torah tidbits. Jesus took his disciples to “work” with him, to apprentice with him, so they could learn by doing. Like all children, the disciples got it “wrong” a lot of the time. That’s why in Mark’s gospel the disciples are often called the “Duh-sciples.” Today’s gospel lesson shows just how “duh!” they could get.

After a long exhausting day Jesus and the disciples get in a boat and start across the Sea of Galilee, heading out into open water. Jesus conked out, contentedly curled up on a cushion in the wind-sheltered stern of the boat. But a storm kicks up, and pretty soon the storm is kicking the boat all over the place.

Yet Jesus sleeps on. Terrified, drenched, despairing, the disciples pounce on Jesus and wake him up, screaming, “Don’t you care that we are drowning!!!” Shouted out of his sleep, Jesus might have keel-hauled his crew of comrades. But he does not. There is no rebuke to the disciples for waking him up. There is only a rebuke to the sea for disturbing the peace. Jesus walks to the side of the boat and calmly, confidently, stills the storm.

WOW.

Imagine with me that you are one of the disciples. We have just witnessed one of the greatest miracles of Jesus’ ministry, the first time he demonstrated his mastery over nature. Jesus had healed people before this, but there were lots of wandering faith healers in Jesus’ day. Here was a healer who could command the wind and the waves to obey him.

If you or I are one of the disciples, I know what we’re doing after that miracle: high fiving one another for the wisdom of our choice. Did we pick the right guy to follow, or what? You know so-and-so could never have done what Jesus just did? Are we good or what?

Then we would go from high fiving one another to body-slamming each other, what a blessing. Can you believe that we were the first to be there when Jesus did the impossible? Can you believe what we just saw? Are we blessed or what? We are the first to see Jesus perform the miraculous? What a privilege! What a blessing! We may just have witnessed the greatest miracle in all of recorded history?

And that’s exactly what Jesus turns around and says to us, his high fiving, body-slamming disciples. Right? Congratulations, disciples, you’ve just seen some of my best work?

Wrong.

What Jesus actually says is (to use more academic language): “F.”

In a paraphrase of Matthew 8:26, Jesus says in those words “O you of little faith”: “Disciples, you failed the test. That’s not the real thrill I had in mind for you. You could have ridden history’s greatest roller coaster ride. With me in the boat, and with the Holy Spirit billowing the sails, what do you have to fear? What harm can come to you?”

The disciples settle for the lull of their lives rather than the ride of their lives. The church loves to focus on Jesus’ first rebuke to the storm, and forgets Jesus’ second rebuke to the little-faith disciples.

The Rock didn’t sink: Jesus is with us, so we can relax and don’t have to worry about storms. One comes up. One always comes up. But what is our fear? We can talk to God through our stormy situations. We can ride the waves with peace and joy and pass out kites.

Jesus doesn’t promise calm seas. But he does promise to calm us in every sea.

Jesus doesn’t promise to speak peace to every storm that comes our way. But he promises to give us perfect peace in the midst of every perfect storm.

The essence of the gospel, in the words of Herbert McCabe, is that if you don’t love, you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you.

If you want a quiet life, a life of peace and contentment, then don’t follow Jesus.

If you want a secure life, a life lived within the margins of safety, then don’t follow Jesus.

If you want a life that is all mapped out, a life you can plan and control, then don’t follow Jesus.

Faith isn’t harbor hugging. Faith is bungee jumping. From an evolutionary perspective, the more risks we take, the more likely we are to survive and thrive. From a faith perspective, life’s ultimate risk is not to risk anything.

As the crew of the “Andrea Gail” found out, there is always one storm bigger than any boat. There are Perfect Storms. No one gets out of life alive. Even in this worst case scenario, even if the Rock doesn’t walk on water but sinks and drowns, what is the worst that can happen?

As long as we are in the boat with Jesus, “[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) In fact, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” (Philippians 1:21) and “to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

When we’re in the same boat with Jesus, it all comes out all right in the end.