We Are All in the Same Boat

We Are All in the Same Boat

 

Intro:

“The Boys in the Boat – Nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics” by Daniel James Brown, 1951 © 2013 By Blue Bear Endeavors, LLC.

This book is about; “Nine young men from the state of Washington – farm boys, fisherman, and loggers—who shocked both the rowing world and Adolf Hitler by winning the gold medal in eight oared rowing at the 1936 Olympics.”

The author interviewed one of the young men named Joe Rantz for most of the material in his book.  He grew up on the Olympic Peninsula in a little town named Sequim – which incidentally, I lived in or near for about 15-years.  My aunt Marilyn recommended the book as it contains many references to an area where my dad and mom were born and raised.

There are some fascinating historical facts about the local, national and world events of the time.  I was surprised to find many pieces of the story that could be of use to us today in our lives.

The Boat

George Yeoman Pocock is the name of the boat builder that designed and built the “Husky Clipper,” which is the boat the nine young men rowed when the won the gold medal at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

The boat is also called a racing shell.  It hangs from the ceiling in a dining hall at the University of Washington to this day.

Pocock lovingly, and painstakingly crafted the boat from cedar, pine and ash –creating a skin 3/8” thick.  The boat is 62’ long and 24” wide, weighing 300 lbs.  Incredibly, the boat seated nine men, most of them over 6’ tall, with only one being of small stature.  The small one is called a “coxswain,” the middle man the “power stroke” and the remaining seven rowers.

The men are seated with their back to the bow and facing the stern of the boat, and the man sitting in the stern of the boat facing the rowers is the “coxswain.”  Each rower has a double set of oars, one on each side of the boat.  The coxswain calls out how many strokes per minute the rowers complete, decreasing or increasing as part of a strategy to beat the competing boats. 

None of the rowers can see where they are going.  All except the rower facing the coxswain in the stern, can only see the neck of the rower in front of them.  They must trust the other rowers to keep the same stroke per minute count, they must trust the coxswain is steering them in the right direction and not giving them too much to bear or being too easy on them – so they can ultimately win the race.

SPS: Today l will share with you some vital lessons for winning our race.

In some ways, like the nine young men who won the gold in eight oared rowing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics against all odds, we are all in the same boat.

That is the title of my split-sermon; “We Are All in The Same Boat.”

 

(1Co 12:12)  For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Like these nine young men, we are all in the same boat.  We are all in the same body.  We come from many different backgrounds, ethnic and cultural origins.  We are different shapes and sizes.

(1Co 12:13)  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

These men heard their call to become rowers.  We heard our call from God, repented and were baptized, and after the laying on of hands received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

I think sometimes we struggle for unity.  While we are all in the same boat in our race to the kingdom, rowing like our life depends on it (oh that’s right, it does!  Our eternal life!), sometimes we flail about cause the boat to go off course a little, perhaps a lot!  It takes a lot of training, preparation and dedication to row in unison, for the body to truly grasp the “unity of the Spirit” and understand its importance.

(Eph 4:1)  I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

(Eph 4:2)  with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,

(Eph 4:3)  endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

These young men went through grueling training, workouts and multiple races before they made it to what their University, coaches and their nation hoped would be the gold medal winners in Berlin.

One critical, one essential, one vital characteristic they had for the unity of eight men rowing in unison, was humility.

The author, Daniel Brown, emphasizes their humility as follows: “The boys in the Clipper had been winnowed down by punishing competition, and in the winnowing a kind of common character had issued forth: … Every one of them had come from humble origins or been humbled by the ravages of hard times in which they had grown up.”

God says (Psa 34:18)  The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

 

Brown zeroes in on this critical component of a winning team as follows;

 

“The challenges they (the boys in the boat) had faced together had taught them humility—the need to subsume, [I had to look this one up!  Merriam-Webster.com dictionary definition is to include or place within something larger or more comprehensive], their individual egos for the sake of the boat as a whole—and humility was the common gateway through which they were able now to come together and begin and begin to do what they had not been able to do before.”

These young men competed for a seat on the boat, and once the team was formed they had to learn to work together, and with humility become one with the other rowers and the coxswain.

Let me give an example, just a small thumbnail, of the humble background of just one of the Olympic rowers, Joe Rantz.  He had very humble beginnings and rose to greatness.

We all had humble beginnings—remember (1Co 1:26)  For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

(1Co 1:27)  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

(1Co 1:28)  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,

(1Co 1:29)  that no flesh should glory in His presence.

 

Joe Rantz, like the other young men, grew up in the depression.  His mother died at an early age, and his dad remarried.  They lived in Sequim, a little dusty town on the Olympic Peninsula when Joe was about sixteen-years old, and that’s when the stock market crashed in 1929.  Joe’s step-mom never accepted him, and she refused to cook for him or have anything to do with him.  His step-mom convinced Joe’s father to abandon Joe and leave him behind at the family farm in Sequim to fend for himself, thus freeing his father to feed Joe’s much younger step-siblings wherever his father could find work or food.  Joe knew how to fish and hunt, and between poaching game when he had to and living off edible forest herbs and plants. Joe survived.  Despite his abandonment and meager sustenance, Joe made good grades.  He wanted to go to college, to the University of Washington.  Joe like using his muscles, and nearly every day he chopped and hauled wood.  The idea of being on the University’s rowing team was very attractive to him.  Joe overcame his adversities in his teenage years, and he was accepted to the University of Washington where he competed for a spot on a rowing team at the University.

(1Co 12:14)  For in fact the body is not one member but many (see MIB page 90).

Brethren, we are all in the same boat.  God determined precisely who to call, and where to place each and every one of us for His purposes.  The coach and sometimes the boat builder determined which men should sit in which place in the boat for the best time, the fastest race results.

 

Brown breaks the seating order down as follows:

 

The bow oarsman must be technically proficient: capable of pulling a perfect oar, stroke after stroke, without fail.  The same is true, although to a lesser extent, for the number two and three seats.  Any deflection, or irregularity in the stroke of the bow oarsmen has the greatest potential to disrupt the course, speed and stability of the boat.

 

The four, five, and six seats are often called the “engine room” of the crew, and the rowers that occupy are typically the biggest and strongest in the boat.  While technique is still important in those seats, the speed of the boat ultimately depends on the raw power of these rowers and how efficiently they transmit it through their oars and into the water.

 

The number seven seat is something of a hybrid.  He must precisely match the timing and the power set by the rower in the number eight seat, the “stroke oar,” and must transmit that information efficiently back into the boat’s “engine room.”

 

The “stroke” or number eight seat, sits directly in front of and face to face with the coxswain, who faces the bow, and steers the shell (the boat).  Theoretically the stroke oar always rows at the rate and with the degree of power (give me ten big ones!) called for by the coxswain.

 

[Now stay with me] When working well, the entire boat operates like a well-lubricated machine, with every rower serving as a vital link in a chain that powers that machine forward, somewhat like a bicycle chain.

 

(1Co 12:14)  For in fact the body is not one member but many.

(1Co 12:15)  If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?

(1Co 12:16)  And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?

(1Co 12:17)  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

(1Co 12:18)  But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

(1Co 12:19)  And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

(1Co 12:20)  But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

(1Co 12:21)  And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

(1Co 12:22)  No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

These boys came to realize that each one of them had a specific task in that boat, and they had to perform just as their position in that boat required.  They became the boat, and part of each other.

 

While we are all unique, and told to “work out our own salvation,” (Philippians 2:12), God’s instruction is pretty clear that we are part of each other and should actively and sincerely love one another.

 

(1Co 12:26)  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

(1Co 12:27)  Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

 

We are all in the same boat brethren, the body of Christ.

 

The boys in the boat spent many, many hours together. To reach the level of precision required to be champion rowers, the boys in the boat spent thousands of hours training, rowing, and enduring agonizing pain.  They would practice in Lake Washington in freezing winter temperatures, gusting winds and high waves – at night!  During all of these thousands of hours of what we might call trials and suffering, they built a bond that would not be broken. They still had homework to do in between classes, workouts and rowing races!  Do you know the students that signed up and were accepted to the rowing team(s) were typically students that had the highest grades?

 

Some of their workouts involved sawing giant felled trees with two-man hand saws – but the coach insisted that the vast majority of their work-outs involved rowing in the boat or shell that they would compete in so the specific muscles used for rowing that boat would be strengthened.  However, the boys could not work out in their boat during the summer.  They found other ways to stay in shape.  A couple of them worked on the Grand Coulee Dam hanging from slings and pounding away at rock with jack hammers.  Have you ever lifted a jack hammer, much less lifting it and pounding rock all day long in insufferable heat?

According to Brown, sometime after winning the Olympic Gold Medal in Berlin in 1936, the boys got together and rowed in competition one last time, winning the National title at the Poughkeepsie Regatta, and winning by four lengths (or roughly 240’!).  Afterward they celebrated with a pint or two and calculated on a bar napkin (not sure on the accuracy!) how many miles of rowing they had done during four years of college.  They rowed approximately 4,344 miles, far enough to row from Seattle to Japan.  Each had taken approximately 469,000 strokes along the way—all in preparation for 28-miles of actual collegiate racing.  Joe Rantz and two other rowers had never been defeated.

 

Conclusion

The boys in the boat, the Husky Clipper that they rowed to the Olympic Gold Medal win had a winning chant they used when they rowed, which was called out by the coxswain; “M.I.B.!, M.I.B.!, M.I.B.!”  Do you know what the acronym stands for?  MIND IN BOAT!, MIND IN BOAT!, MIND IN BOAT!

The boys in the boat learned to avoid any distractions when they rowed.  They had to keep their mind in the boat – they had to dip the oar, pull the oar and lift the oar cleanly out of the water in perfect timing with the coxswain’s count and the amount of power called for.  Any distraction would result in oarsman “catching a crab,” which is when the oar doesn’t enter or exit the water cleanly and is slowed down by the drag of the water.  This throws the whole boat’s stroke off sync, and they must get back in sync.  This results in the loss of precious time needed to win the race.

The Olympics

Brown writes that “…for months…the Nazi’s transformed Berlin into something resembling a vast movie set—a place where illusion could be perfected, where the unreal could be made to seem real and the real could be hidden away.”  The Nazi’s were busy pulling off one of the biggest propaganda stunts in history.  Hitler wanted to lull the world into believing his Nazi vision was of great benefit to the world, and Nazi’s were wonderful, hardworking and fun-loving people.  He wanted the world to believe in his vision of utopia while he and the Nazi’s brutally and methodically arrested, tortured and murdered Jews and Gypsy’s and anyone else that didn’t fit their vision of the super race.  (Joseph Goebbles was a master propogandist that successfully convinced the world at the Olympics that Hitler’s Germany was a new kind of “utopia”). The boys in the boat were awestruck by all the pageantry and grandness of the huge buildings, and striking architecture in Berlin – and thousands of swastika flags everywhere!  They were not distracted from their goal of winning the gold medal in the eight-oared race!  The Germans even convinced the Olympic Committee to change the rowing rules at the last minute to the German’s advantage.  There were seven racing lanes, and those rowing teams that won the qualifying heats were usually assigned the best racing lanes (one through four, or inside lanes), and the rowing teams with slower times had the outside lanes that were more exposed to cross winds and currents.  The Committee reversed it at the last minute, and the boys in the boat were assigned to the worst lane!  They were not distracted!  M.I.B., M.I.B., M.I.B!  They went on to win the gold medal, beating the Germans and Italians, and setting a new Olympic record!

 

Brethren, we are in the same boat.  We must remember to keep our mind in tune with Christ.  We must remember to work together, and that we are not alone in running the race.

Brown provides many quotes in his book, and I want to conclude with a couple of those quotes from George Pocock, the boat builder, and a scripture.

“Where is the spiritual value of rowing?...The losing of self entirely to the cooperation of the crew as a whole.”

“Good thoughts have much to do with good rowing.  It isn’t enough for the muscles of the crew to work in unison; their hearts and minds must also be as one.”

(2Ti 4:7)  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

 

Paul is a man that knew how to keep his focus and his mind in tune with

Christ!  He talked about finishing his race, but he was also inspired to write all of the former scriptures we read showing we are all in the same boat!

 

(1Co 1:10)  Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

 

WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT!