Getting Wet

Sermon Matthew 14:22-33 January 24, 2016 2^nd 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.”

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

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.

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.