Matthew 14:22-33 I love this morning’s gospel lesson. This is one of those lessons that can stick in your brain because it is so very visual. Despite the fact that we do not have projection in our church so I cannot put an amazing image up on the screen for you, I believe it doesn’t take much to have a picture in your head of what happens here. What a great movie scene it could be. Close your eyes and imagine. (if your reading this I guess you can’t close your eyes). You and your closest friends have just spent an amazing afternoon with Jesus and witnessed one of the greatest miracles of all times. You have seen hungry people fed with food you didn’t even know existed. The bunch of your can’t stop talking about it. But Jesus still needs some time alone. Remember, His cousin and friend had just died and he still has not had any time to himself to grieve. Jesus sends you on ahead and so you all get in a boat. None of you can stop talking about what you just witnessed except to get the boat sailing. But the winds pick up without you even realizing it and there you are, in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and your boat is being tossed and turned. All of a sudden everyone is a little less excited with joy and more anxious with fear as the winds seem to be more than the boat can take. “Where is Jesus when we need him?” Someone is bound to say it. A storm with darkness and waves taking over and you can’t see Jesus. Then there is a figure in the water. Not really one for believing in ghosts, you are still frightened. Oh… It looks like it could be Jesus. But Jesus is on top of the water not swimming out to us. What is that all about? The chatter in the boat gets louder. Everyone starts to speculate exactly what is going on. Why would Jesus walk to us? Why not just calm the sea? Why won’t he make the storm stop? All this chatter around you, and you can’t take it. You are bold. So, you go for it… “okay if that is you Jesus I am coming out there with you”. You are big and bold in your faith standing there with your group of friends. They may all be afraid, but you have guts. You know Jesus so you are all in. And you do it. You step out. You look at Jesus and you are on the water. But all of a sudden that arrogance in your faith isn’t so strong because your friends are back there in the boat. You have jumped out on your own. Jesus is out there in front of you, but you are standing there on the water alone. “look mom, no boat”. The reality of what you are doing, the impossibility of what you are doing hits you and you look down. The waves are sloshing at your feet. The wind is howling around you. Fear overtakes you. “What am I doing out here?” That great arrogant faith you had as you jumped out there all of a sudden disappears and is replaced with fear and you begin to sink. You cry out “Jesus help me”. And as Jesus always does, he reaches out and takes your hand and brings you up out of the water, into his arms, and places you back in the boat with your community of faith, and he says “you of little faith, why do you doubt?” And all those around your cry out “you are the Son of God” as you lay in the boat all wet, and maybe a bit ashamed and embarrassed you realize that once again, Jesus has put you back where you belong. I know that isn’t all in the story. One of the challenging things about scripture is that it isn’t a novel whose goal is to give us those details of what the characters are thinking all the time, or what their demeanor is as they do the things that they do. It is a bit like text messaging. You have to infer the tone of the writing. But put yourself in this story, and I think that you will find that I may not be far off with my speculations about the inside of this story. Peter is a bit of a loudmouth. Peter is always the one that stands up and has something to say. He is bold and I think that he probably fought a little bit of arrogance during his time with Jesus. But God was working on Peter the entire time. Jesus said that Peter would be the cornerstone of the faith that comes through Jesus Christ; being given that title would make anyone a bit arrogant. But there really is no place for arrogance when it comes to faith. Over and over again Jesus tells those around him; especially the disciples, that they must be humble and pure of heart. Humility and pure hearts do not mix well with arrogance. And so, throughout the time that Jesus is with the disciples, Peter puts himself in situations that force him to be called out and even scolded a bit. When he gets a little too big for his britches something happens and he is put in his place. I like Peter because Peter reminds me of me, and of so many others I know and it reminds me that God can use all of us. God will take all of our lives, good and bad and do something amazing with it. No matter how bad we blow it, God will use it for something great. So let me break it down. ALL of the disciples are frightened. That included Peter. The huddled together on that boat and they cried out. Some were probably those faithful pray-ers who take a deep breath in a storm and say “Lord, I know you will get us through this.” Some were just frightened and cried out in desperation, “Jesus where are you?” Some may have even been too frightened to pray at all. But they were together. As a community of faith they were able to encourage and support and even calm the fears of one another because they were not in this storm alone. As Jesus appears I believe there were differing reactions again. Some were still frightened, “There is a ghost out there. As if a storm wasn’t enough, what will happen to us?” Those faithful pray-ers were still faithfull and likely cried out, “I called for you and you answered me, you are here”. And then there is Peter. He is not one to let a moment go when he can show how tough he is. “If that is you”, because Peter knew full well it was Jesus, “Let me come to you”. And of course Jesus invites him to come. Big bad Peter steps out because he has seen the great things Jesus has done. He has been a part of the healings and he was there when he fed the hungry and he was there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Peter knew Jesus would take good care of him and he steps out onto the water. But reality sinks in. His friends and fellow disciples are not out there with him. Jesus is right there, but he is out there and Peter can’t touch him. Peter is on his own and he looks to his feet. Peter looks to his own understanding and his own abilities and he fails. Peter takes his eyes off of what the Lord has called him to do. Peter relies on what he knows with all certainty; human beings cannot walk on water; and he sinks. And then, big bad disciple Peter cries out it fear yet again, “Lord help me”. And Jesus does just that. He picks him up and puts him in the boat. In his humiliation and his embarrassment, Jesus brings Peter back to the others and the world settles down and life resumes. When I had you imagine the story at the beginning I told you to imagine yourself as Peter. I did that because I think that at some time in our lives we are all Peter. People of faith all seem to have moments where we think we have it all together in matters of faith and we get a little arrogant and forget that a life of faith is not a solitary life. A life of faith is not meant to be lived on our own. When we allow our faith to be just me and Jesus, we quickly find ourselves leaving out the Jesus part and relying on our own merits and then, things don’t work out so well. Let me explain. Everyone of us either knows, or one day will know what it is like to be sitting in that boat. We are out there all excited about our faith. We have seen God work in our lives and it feels good. But something happens that makes all that God has done in our lives fade in our minds because we are so consumed by what is happening here and now. Those storms take on lots of forms. Maybe a relationship fails. The way your life once was isn’t what it is now and it you are out there on your own. At least it feels that way. Sure, you can remember God at work in your life, but right now, the storm is a raging, and all you can think of is where is God now. Maybe it is an illness. Maybe it is the death of someone close to you. Maybe you have a vision of what your life is suppose to be like and it isn’t that and all you can think is that God has left you to fend for yourself. We have all been in that boat. Frightened and confused. We all want to be the disciple that fervently prays “Lord, I know you are with us, help us to not be afraid”. We want to be the one that is comforting the world. But sometimes, we are the one in the boat crying out “Jesus where are you”. And sometimes we are Peter. There is this storm in our lives and we are going to show the world that we got this. It is almost like in our need to show others how strong our faith is, we pound our chest and say, “Look Jesus I AM this strong and here I come”. So we leave the people of faith to prove ourselves and we step out. But we quickly come to our senses and realize that we cannot face life’s challenges on our own. But we are not back there with other people of faith to hold us up, and, I have not really relied on Christ because, well, I had this after all, and so we sink. WE have relied on our own understanding and we sink. We are meant to be in community. We are meant to be a part of a community of faith. Jesus did not call Peter out of that boat to shame him. Jesus allowed Peter the chance to stand on his own and when he could not do it, Jesus picked him up and brought him back. It would be great if we could be people of faith who always have their eyes on Christ and so we can get out of that boat and walk on the water and never sink. But we are sinful human beings who are often times distracted, and often we are faced with doubts and fears. When we get out of the boat on our own; when we face life and all of its challenges on our own, we may stay faithful for a time, but it won’t be long before we realize how difficult it is to remain faithful on our own. Soon we, like Peter will sink. Jesus will reach his loving hand out to us to pull us back up, but we have to be willing to realize that it isn’t about us. This faith this isn’t about me or you. Faith is about relying on the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting the community of faith God has given us. As much as people want to say they can do that all on their own, they are wrong. They are wrong because God never intended us to be independent believers. God created us to be in relationship with him and with one another. Don’t get me wrong. We are called out to do things on our own, but Jesus doesn’t call us away from a community of faith. Even as missionaries leave this country and go half way around the world to be in service to people far from their own homes, they go with the support of a community of faith. Meredith Emery is over in Tanzania,Africa working with the people, sacrificing so much. She doesn’t always have much to eat. From what I have heard, she lives pretty much the way the native people live and that means she does without a lot. She is out there on her own, but she is not alone. Meredith is out there supported in prayer and finances by her own congregation and this congregation. She did not step out with her chest poked out to say “see what great thing I am doing”. She is out there, in stormy seas I assure you, lifted held up by the hand of God and the community of faith. You have to face a family crisis on your own in many ways, but you are not alone. You can be, and should be supported by the community of faith that you are a part of. You may have a tragedy in your life and there are parts of that you have to deal with on your own, but you are not alone. The people of faith stand with you in prayer and support. In the storms of life, we all take on different roles. Sometimes we are the ones cowering in the boat crying “Jesus where are you”. Sometimes we are the ones who huddle around those crying out and we pray “Lord I know you will be with us.” And sometimes we are Peter, wanting to show the world we have it all together. In a lifetime, we are likely to be all of these things at one time or another. That is why the community is so important. When we are the ones cowering in the boat, those who are steady can surround us and remind us that God is already with us. When we are Peter and we step out thinking we can do this on our own, the Lord will reach out his hand and pick us up and bring us right back to the community of faith that sustains us. As that community of faith, we have to have open arms. We cannot sit in our boat and chastise the one returning to the boat for their mistakes or failures. This boat of ours; this community of faith has to be a safe place for people to come back to and be renewed in the faith, so they can be the ones who are offering security and assurance in the face of the storms. Communities of faith, churches, are messy. They are made up of all sorts of people in all sorts of places in their faith journey. Most, if not all, really do want the church to be a place for growing in faith and love for Jesus Christ. Everyone has a different idea of how that may happen. As a community, we cannot be Peters, arrogant enough to think we have all the answers and we don’t need the others. We have to trust that the other folks in the boat have something to give. God will work through all of us. God will use each of us to support others at some point on our journey, and all of us will need to be supported at times. That is the nature of life. Peter reminds us that we are people who need to be in community with one another and that always our eyes need to stay on the mission of Christ. May we never forget that in the storms of life, Christ is there and will lift us. And through the community of faith, Christ will give us the strength we need to face the challenges of this life. AMEN
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 13:57:04 +0000
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