Sermon Matthew 14:22-33 January 24, 2016 2nd
in series
Getting Wet
“You have to be in to win it.” This is the famous line used
for the lottery and any other game of chance. We are encouraged to take part of
something that we might have the opportunity of winning and gaining a little
extra cash. It’s risky, it’s a gamble to
dump a few dollars for a slim chance to get the dollars back and a little more,
but it’s also viewed as a fun experience. The power ball is the best example of
needing, wanting, seeking after’ being in it to win it.’ And since all of us
are still here a few Sundays since the big day and the big win-I assume we were
not among those who won.
Last week we talked about the words Jesus shared about who
he is in the gospel of John. We learned that Jesus was serious about letting
people know his purpose in the world. We shared that ‘Getting into life
and a life of faith is essential.’
We learned that Christ offers life and we in turn
have life to offer.
This week we have a witness to all of this through the story
of Peter, Jesus, the disciples, and the storm.
What makes this story important for us today is to remind us
beyond the chances of
lottery wins and gambling risks,
is that life and faith
belong together
and
we need to dare to take life and faith
where we are guaranteed to get wet!
This story of Jesus
walking on water appears in three gospels, Mark, John and Matthew. However,
Matthew is the only account that tells us of Peter walking on water.
This account is most
helpful to you and I
as we struggle to
learn more about who Jesus is
and who we are in
relationship to him.
So as we recount this
story we discover that Jesus has just finished feeding the multitude with bread
and fish.
He is exhausted
and sends the
disciples across the sea to the other side
while he tries to grab
a minute of prayer with the Father.
Clearly Jesus finally
had some alone time with God
as we discover it is
in the wee hours of the morning
before he heads out
across the sea
on foot to go and meet
up with the disciples.
The wind and the waves
have picked up and it is four in the morning and quite scary. There is nothing
creepier than not being able to see the sounds you hear or the bumps you feel.
When waves slap against a boat it can have all kinds of strange sounds depending
on how it hits the sides. And the disciples look up from their work as they are
doing their best to secure the boat and to keep it headed into the wind to get
to their destination and they see a figure out on the water and totally freak.
It’s a ghost.
“And they cried out in
fear.” Jesus responds, “Take heart, It is I, do not be afraid.” The classic
Biblical experience.
Fear happens,
God appears,
and in God’s presence,
fear is dispelled.
Jesus uses the
Biblical name of God “I AM, that I AM” The Greek ego eimi-was understood as the
name of God-It is I, was a declaration of God present with them!
-Now, Jesus assuring
the disciples that he is present with them should be enough for this story to
make us all feel at ease and comfortable with the presence of God during stormy
and troublesome times.-
But, Matthew challenges the followers of Jesus a
little more by sharing what Peter does next.
Peter challenges Jesus.
“If you really are who you say you are, then tell me to get out of this boat
and come to you!” And so Jesus, says. “Come.” Peter wasn’t too certain about
what he saw and heard and needed verification for himself. Now I’m not so sure what Peter was thinking
when he wanted this kind of guarantee from Jesus. But, I assume he thought if
Jesus was out there walking on water, he should be able to walk on water too. Perhaps,
Peter was one of the disciples that remembered the miracles that Jesus had
done.
I taught a Sunday
school class about discipleship by John Ortberg entitled “If you want to walk
on water, you gotta get out of the boat.” And that’s exactly what Peter did.
Peter challenged Jesus
and
Jesus met his
challenge and
invited him to come.
Jesus saw that he was ready
to take the risk
and invited him to
step out and follow through.
Peter dared
to take his faith into unchartered waters.
Perhaps conditions are
different today.
We dare not risk
anything.
We have so many
guarantees to insure safety that if we do something different we are considered
reckless, or neglectful, or irresponsible.
Think about parents
today.
Everything they do is
under the scrutiny of others.
They can’t even let
their ten year old cross the street by himself without getting a social media accusatory
blast of bad parenting.
Think about the power
of advertising and how it has people filled with fear
over security and safety
for their present
lives and their future.
There are all kinds of
financial and insurance commercials
making people worry
about their elderly years.
No wonder we’re not
doing anything that requires risk anymore
-because
society has convinced us
not to dare to take any.
We dare not risk going
into troubled waters of injustice, or prejudice, or discord, or disparity. We
dare not speak out when a voice could be heard.
We dare not respond to
anger with love.
We dare not…
You see fear blurs
reality and all things become distorted in the midst of fear.
We see ghosts when
there is really the one who loves us reaching out to bolster us up
above the waves.
It doesn’t matter if
we are Peter
daring to get out of
the boat and walk on water to meet the Savior
who challenges us
every day to live
and dare to get wet;
or if we are the
disciples siting in the boat,
Jesus comes to us and
saves us in the condition he finds us.
I remember my nurses
training…
I remember we were
taught to use the fear of the circumstance to propel us to action. We spent
hours in the skills training lab practicing scenarios that required quick thinking
and rapid response. We role played a variety of difficult situations. Those
years of intense training allowed me to overcome any fear I might have had and
allowed me to act to save a life of a patient in distress.
There comes a
point
when preparing is done
and
doing
happens.
Gathering data
must stop
and
action
must happen.
Because
even if we are pummeled by the waves,
Jesus
reaches out his hand and saves us.
The hymn that we’ll
sing in just a moment, Precious Lord Take my Hand, comes from such circumstances.
My friend and
colleague in France suffered loss. He and his wife suffered the loss of three
babies born too soon. One loss happened on a Saturday night and on Sunday he
did not cancel services but held them as usual. He was there in the midst of
worship in the midst of his pain and anguish. When asked how he could be there
during such a loss his response was that it was in worship and with the
congregation that he received his strength and consolation. It was there where
he needed to be in the time of his greatest need.
The writer of the hymn
Precious Lord take my hand had lost his wife and his son in childbirth. In 1932
he headed to St Louis to play at a revival. While at the revival he received a
telegram telling him his wife had just died in childbirth. When he returned
home he learned she had given birth to a son, who later died that night.
After the funeral it
is said he fell apart and could not find release or relief. Finally a friend
took him up to a neighborhood music school.
“It was quiet;” he said. “The late evening sun crept
through the curtained windows. I sat down at the piano, and my hands began to
browse over the keys.
Something happened to me then I felt at peace. I feel as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, one I'd never heard or played before, and the words into my head-they just seemed to fall into place:
Precious Lord, take my hand,
lead me on, let me stand!
I am tired, I am weak,
I am worn, Through the storm,
through the night lead me on to the light,
Take my hand, precious Lord, Lead me home.”
Something happened to me then I felt at peace. I feel as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, one I'd never heard or played before, and the words into my head-they just seemed to fall into place:
Precious Lord, take my hand,
lead me on, let me stand!
I am tired, I am weak,
I am worn, Through the storm,
through the night lead me on to the light,
Take my hand, precious Lord, Lead me home.”
Cliff Kirkpatrick former
GA stated clerk, reminds us that stepping out in faith doesn’t guarantee calm
waters but it is always accompanied
with the promise that
Jesus will never leave us,
he will extend his
hand to us and
lift us up and
lift us out and
get us back in the
boat safely to the other side.
The challenge for us
is whether we are ready to dare to challenge our call from Jesus and step out
in faith knowing the guarantee we will get wet.
Jesus immediately
reached out his hand and caught him.
– Matthew 14.31
– Matthew 14.31
Jan Richardson said
after the loss of her husband, “What I know about faith is this: I cannot force
faith but can ask for it, can pray that it will make its way to me and bear me
up over the next wave, and the next.
That it comes.
That I can lean into
it.
That it will propel me
not only toward the Christ who calls me,
but also back toward
the boat that holds my life,
incomprehensible in
both its pain and its grace.
What are you knowing
about faith right now? Where is it bearing you?
Another poem: Blessing
that Bears the Wind, the Wave
That we will risk
the drenching
by which we
are drawn
toward the voice
that calls us,
the love
that catches us,
the faith
that carries us
beyond the wind,
the wave.
the drenching
by which we
are drawn
toward the voice
that calls us,
the love
that catches us,
the faith
that carries us
beyond the wind,
the wave.
Let us be ready to
take the risk. Let us dare to go forth, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Resources: Feasting on
the Word; Painted Prayerbook, Matthew-Donald Senior.
