Take Courage! It is
I.
By Rev Steven R.
Mitchell
Mountain View
United, Aurora, CO 8/10/2014
Based on Matthew
14:22-33
Last
week we discussed the concept of preparing enough food for five thousand plus
with only a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. For some of us the idea of a truly physical
multiplication of these meager items might seem too impossible, as it goes
against natural reasoning. On the other
hand, if we look at that particular story as a metaphor of taking what we do
have and trusting it will be the start of something bigger, then the feeding of
the five thousand plus is more understandable.
This
week’s text seems to be even more unbelievable.
You have the disciples out on their own, in the middle of the sea, and
find themselves in the midst of a storm, scared half out of their wits. Then, they see a figure that appears to be walking
on the water. Already scared half out of
their wits, it would be very natural for them to image that what they were
seeing was a ghost walking on the water.
In
the midst of this fear they hear this apparition saying: “Hey guys don’t be afraid, it’s
just me, Jesus, walking out here on the water, during this really bad storm,
with the strong winds and the waves crashing all around me.” Evidently, Jesus wasn’t convincing enough,
because nobody really seems to believe that it was Jesus. After all, it isn’t everyday that you see
someone walking on the water; swimming maybe, but never walking. What was he wearing, Armani inflatable sandals
that allowed him to walk on water and not be knocked down by the waves as they
came crashing up against his body? No, if
it were me seeing this, I think I would rather stick with, “I was having a full blown hallucination.”
Yet
Peter decided to challenge the unbelievable by saying to this figure, “If you really are Jesus, then command me to
come to you, for if you command me, then I too will be able to walk on the
water.” Although scripture doesn’t
say this, I can imagine that Jesus extended his arm and held out his hand and
simply said to Peter, “Come.” So Peter, trusting in Jesus, gets out of the
boat, leaving the rest of the disciples on board watching Peter walking on the
water toward Jesus. Then being a good
distance from the boat, Peter starts to realize what he has just done by
getting out of the protection of the boat and starts to think to himself, “What
in the Egyptian Dessert am I doing? No
man can walk on top of water. I don’t
care if Jesus did tell me to come to him, it’s humanly impossible for me to be
outside of the boat walking on water, what was I thinking about?” At which point Peter takes a dunk into the
sea. As he is bobbing up and down like
an apple in a barrel, he cries out to Jesus, “Save me, Lord.”
Jesus
reaches out and grabs Peter, pulling him up out of the water. (I have
a sneaking idea, that Peter was probably saying a few choice words to Jesus,
inquiring as to what made Jesus think he, Peter, could possibly walk on water.) Then Jesus responds with, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus pretty much drags Peter over to the
boat and throws him back in, and once Jesus himself got into the boat, the
storm stopped and the sea became calm.
Then scripture tells us that those in the boat worshipped Jesus saying,
“Truly you are the Son of God!”
So, this makes for a
really good story line for children in Sunday school or possibly an Indiana
Jones style movie, but what could it possibly be saying to us, especially those
of us who are not comfortable around water, who wouldn’t get out of a boat on a
lake without wearing a life preserver and having a pair of water-skies strapped
to our feet?
Have you ever
started in a direction and at some point wondered if you had made the best
choice? This story talks about our human
nature and how easily we can become disoriented, confused, and have the sense
that we are alone, even lost. It is a
story about how at times we don’t recognize God being with us, because God’s
presence doesn’t fit into our “perception of reality”. It is a story of how we often decide upon an
activity or path, and as we get into it, encounter problems or rough times, and
we begin to doubt ourselves and in that doubt stop what we have set out to do,
because we have lost the faith that it takes to achieve our goal.
I
struggled this week with the conversation between Peter and Jesus, particularly
over the word “command”, which was the
word Peter used in order to make sure that the person he was seeing out on the water
truly was Jesus. After all, if Jesus is
the son of God and he commands me to do something, then I should be able to do
what he says. I struggled because Jesus
simply said, “come”. Why an invitation and not a command? Finally, I figure out what was bothering
me. It was a matter of “responsibility”,
more precisely, self-responsibility.
If
Jesus had done what Peter had asked and had “commanded” Peter to come to him,
then Jesus was the responsible person for what would happen to Peter. If Peter was able to walk on the water and
made it safely to Jesus, then Jesus was the man! If however, Peter went out to Jesus and
started to become side tracked and sank as he did, had Jesus commanded him to
come out, then his failure to walk on the water would have been Jesus’
responsibility. But Jesus doesn’t
command Peter to come out; he invites Peter to join him. In this way, Peter is the person responsible
for his own conduct. If Peter acts on
the invitation, then sinks as he attempts to walk out to where Jesus is
standing, the responsibility lies with Peter, not Jesus’. We say God sent His son in order to save the
world – meaning God sent Jesus to die.
Yet scripture tells us Jesus, while in the garden of Gethsemane chooses
to go down a path that will surely result in confrontation with the religious
community and probably death. It was
Jesus’ responsibility for this action, not God’s. Jesus had enough faith in God to speak out
God’s truth that was surely a walk toward certain death by those who feared or
offended by God’s message.
Today’s
lesson is teaching us about personal responsibility, and what happens when we
lose sight of God in our life. God
invites us to do many things; it is we who decide to take that invitation. Then when the storm of change or challenge comes
along, we often get so caught up in the uncomfortableness that our faith wavers
and we find ourselves sinking. Many a
church growth program has sunk in defeat as it encountered unforeseen
challenges and crisis.
Rev
Ernest Campbell, former pastor of Riverside Church in New York, City (an
American Baptist/UCC congregation), addressed a group of pastors on the crisis
in today’s churches, saying, “the reason that we seem to lack faith in our
time is that we are not doing anything that requires it.” Pg 336-337 Feasting
On the Word, Vol 3, Year A Ask yourself,
“Are we at Mountain View living a life
that requires faith?” Churches that
struggle with limited resources and dwindling attendance are most likely guilty
of not taking a chance and stepping out of the safety of the boat, or as Rev
Campbell says,”taking a chance and doing something that takes faith.” Instead they act like the disciples in the
midst of a stormy sea, confining themselves to the safety of their boat, and not
recognizing Jesus’ presence.
This
morning’s story tells us that Peter took the risk to go to Jesus. Did he fail, yes, because he became
overwhelmed by the “impossibilities” instead of holding fast to the faith that
initially prompted him to get out of the boat.
But the story also re-assures us that Jesus, even when we find ourselves
failing and bobbing around like a cork, is there to pick us up and his presence
in our lives can calm the storm. For
some of us, this seems like an impossibility.
Yet when we place our trust and faith into God’s hands, we can find that
calmness that gives us the strength to continue stepping out of the boat. Always remember that Jesus is beside you, even
in the midst of a storm saying to you, “Take courage. It is I.
Don’t be afraid.” Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment