# Morning Prayers: The Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones October 09, 2025 - [ Blog ](/news-categories/blog) *By the Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones* *Assistant Minister/director* *The Memorial Church of Harvard University* *(The following is a transcript of the service audio, Oct. 8, 2025)* The reading this morning, selected reading, comes from Acts, Chapter 27. Paul and some prisoners were handed over to imperial powers. They sailed for Italy, and there was a storm, a dangerous storm. There were 276 people on board. The ship was torn apart. Some jumped overboard and swam to dry land; the rest floated on broken pieces of the ship and made it to land. For the time that I have with you this morning, I would like to place the tag upon this text entitled, “Surviving on Broken Pieces.” Beloved, there is a storm in this text, and there is a storm in this nation, if you didn't know. In Acts, Chapter 27, Paul the Apostle, the prisoner, the prophet, finds himself bound by chains, boarded onto a vessel headed for Rome. He didn't choose the journey, he didn't choose the ship, he didn't choose the storm, but the storm came anyway. And today we are in a storm, because there's a storm in America right now—a storm of rising hatred where white nationalism dresses itself up as policy. A storm and waves of oppression where the poor are told their poverty is personal failure. A storm and waves of erasure where histories are banned, identities are silenced, and truths are redacted. There is a storm in America, a storm of fragmentation, families broken, democracy bruised, hope hanging by a thread. Can you feel the waves? Can you feel the ship? And like Paul and those prisoners, we feel it. Do you? The isolation, the fear, the anxiety, the sense that the ship is not going to make it. But hear the word of the Lord this morning, the ship may not survive, but you will. The text says, "They hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach, but the ship struck a piece of land. The bow struck fast, and it would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding surf." The vessel failed, the system collapsed, the structure gave way, but then comes the miracle. The rest were to get their own planks or on broken pieces of the ship. In this way, everyone reached land safely. Everyone, not just the powerful, not just the ones with titles, not just the ones who could swim, but everyone. Some swam, some floated, but everyone survived. Friends, in a world where it feels like everything is coming apart, when institutions are cracking, when democracy is under siege, when the boat you trusted no longer holds together, don't give up. You may not have the whole ship, but God will give you a piece of the ship. A piece of something to hold onto, a broken piece of faith, a fragment of courage, a shard of resistance, and that will be enough. The storm may rage, the systems may fall apart, but we serve a God who still delivers through the debris. So cling to what you have left, hold tight to your community, your people. Grasp your peace, ride the fragments of your faith, because you will reach land safely. We will get through this. This may not be a season of sailing, but it is a season of surviving. And by God's grace, we will survive, even if it is on broken pieces. The system may fall, but we will get to shore. And by God's grace, we will keep moving until we build again, until resurrection breaks through the wreckage, until the balm in Gilead makes the wounded whole, until the balm in Gilead heals our sin-sick soul. We will get there even on broken pieces. Amen. Please rise in body and spirit for prayer. God of the storm and the shore, when the vessels we've trusted break apart beneath us, give us the strength to hold fast to the broken pieces. Help us believe that even in wreckage, you are still leading us to dry land and calling us to hope, to something new. Amen. Harvard Memorial Church · The Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones - Oct. 8, 2025 | Morning Prayers See also:- [ Morning Prayers ](/blog-categories/morning-prayers) - [ Calvon Jones ](/media-archive/calvon-jones) - [ Morning Prayers ](/archive/morning-prayers) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)