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.

Sacred Moment.

Sacred Moment.

A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

He was three years old.

He looked at me from a distance and wasn’t really sure if he should approach. I saw him clutch his daddy’s hand a little tighter. I squatted down so we could be face to face and I said hello.

He smiled at me.

Barely verbal, he said hello back.

I told him how glad I was to see him.

I stood back up and greeted his father and the man who came to be his Godparent. They appeared as if entering the church was not a common or familiar practice for them. The father was kind and genuine. I could tell both men were determined to be there for this child. Both men were set to offer this child into the hand of God.

We had very little time before the service was to begin.

We had not spoken before.

We had not done the usual pastoral visit,

nor the usual meeting with the child.

I had received a phone call earlier in the week from the child’s grandparents’ expressing their son’s desire for his child. SO, with the permission of the elders, we forged ahead to prepare for a Sunday baptism of a child we had not met and the father they barely knew nor had I met.

I was convinced that this was a moment Jesus would honor.

The little boy was ready to run and discover as he tried to tear away from daddy’s grip. I said to him, “Do you want to play with toys?” His eyes lit up as he said to daddy, “Toys, toys!” We found our way upstairs to the nursery and there he played with fire engines and everything that made noise. Through the sirens I ran quickly through the liturgy for dad and Godparent. I shared the questions I would ask and the expected response from each of them. I again thanked them for choosing baptism for this child. It was all in such a rush, not the way we would expect it to be done right. But, what is right really? Did Philip hesitate at the request of the eunuch? I think not.

I looked at the little boy and said, “Let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you the water and everything that will happen this morning.” We went downstairs and I showed him the pitcher that held the warm water to be poured into the font. He pulled away unsure and not too keen on water. I held out the pitcher and again offered it to him to touch and then I gently took his hand and put his fingers in the water. He looked up at me with big eyes and he touched the water again dipping his fingers deeper. We walked to the font and I spoke of what would happen next and how the water would be placed on his head and, if he let me, I would lift him up and hold him.

Time was running out and it was clear we needed to empty the sanctuary and allow the congregants to gather. We squeezed through the side door and we parted ways for the time being.

The moment in worship arrived and I called the family forward and all the children to be witnesses to “remember our baptism as we witness today’s baptism.”

The little boy was filled with energy. He saw the baptism candle and tried to blow it out as one would blow out a birthday candle. He took the wooden cross to be given to him at the end and gripped it in his hand. He reached around dad and looked at the children seated there. He looked up at all those grown-ups staring down at him.

He smiled.

All through the long liturgy and the many words and prayers he held the hands of several people. He looked at them and eyed them with a wondering heart.

And then the moment came to pour the water.

Together we took the pitcher in hand and as we poured together I prayed the prayer of the presence of the Holy Spirit over the waters. It seemed in slow motion as we intentionally emptied the pitcher together into the font.

We eyed each other with satisfaction.

God had united our hearts and made us one in Christ.

I reached to pick him and he went willingly into my arms. And here the little child who was so afraid of water received the water poured over him. His eyes were mesmerized and so large.

He didn’t say a word.

“I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen!”

He was motionless,

still,

ever so quiet.

Again, we looked at each other as I said the words. “This promise is for you, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him has eternal life…you too will grow to love God as God loves you.”

In my arms he stayed as I walked with him all around the large sanctuary and as I shared the story of home and the place to belong with God and this congregation.

                                                             I believe he saw God that day.

                                                     I believe he saw the real face of God,

                                                             his eyes and his body showed it to me. 

                                                          Yes, I’m sure he saw God that day.

The only other time I have seen this awe on the face of a child was when my son

was three years old. We had stepped inside a cathedral in the midst of mass. And there was the priest wearing white and waving his arms with the liturgy. We stood there for some time taken in with the worship. And then with respect as to not disturb the rest of worship since we were tourists we quietly departed. As we came out my son looked at me with enormous eyes. He face was almost drained of color as he stared at me. He said to me, “I saw God.” I said, “You did? Where?” He responded, “He was inside wearing white and waving his arms.

I saw God.”

I do not doubt that he saw God that day.

Just as I do not doubt this little boy saw God.

                        Because I too caught in the holy moment of Sacrament,

                                           not only experienced God,

                                                              but

                                                         I saw God.

             A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

                                                          He was three years old.

Waters of Life

Sermon Exodus 2: 1-10 June 7, 2015 Ordinary time-communion/baptism

Waters of Life

 Last Sunday during the church picnic we had a trivia game and one of the categories was Bible and there was an option of Old Testament or New Testament, well the groups always chose New Testament-so dear friends you might note that today’s lesson and for  the next three Sundays comes from the Old Testament. Coincidence perhaps-and then again perhaps not. J

Our story begins today in Exodus. You may all well know that the previous book Genesis ended with Joseph, the son of Jacob, being the hero and the rescuer as he delivered the people of Israel, the sons of Jacob, from famine by bringing them down to Egypt. Joseph welcomed his family and so did all the people of Egypt welcome these immigrants to a foreign land. They were well received and were given a new home. And we enter into the book of Exodus, 400 years later, 400 years from the welcome of immigrants and opening up their society to those in need, to turn and to close themselves to these Israelites-these Hebrews. The welcomed people are now the oppressed and living in slavery.

Now most of you are going to tell me this morning that you know all about the story of Moses. And most of you know the story well because we have all watched Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. And this is good news if we remember the story.

The people of Israel were a people familiar with chaotic times. They had threats surround them and times of helplessness and serious conditions befell them. Their history speaks of the need for God to intervene in the most chaotic and horrendous times. This story of Moses and his leading of the people out of Egypt is the core of the faith of the Jewish people. God the great God is the one who rescues his people.

Every story has its beginning and the beginning of the Moses story is essential to the Jewish faith and its spirituality. There is much here about the sovereignty (the BIGness) of God about how God intervenes through the lives of people who do not even know God or acknowledge God’s existence.

There is much here about how a life of purpose comes unwittingly through the hands of others and how they mold and shape and prepare those in their care for the greater things of life.

Imagine if we were aware of the impact we had on the lives of people with whom we work or care for or encounter on a daily basis?

Think perhaps even how we might have been the instrument of being the ‘angel unaware’ as we assisted someone by the roadside or took in an animal needing shelter or simply smiled at a person in line at the grocery store.

There were so many players to make this event come to pass; the midwives, the mother, the sister, the Egyptian princess, all who acted from the heart, their hearts which were filled with love and concern for life. This princess who rescues the Hebrew baby ends up being the giver of life to the one who ultimately rescues all of God’s people from oppression, from slavery. Moses is known as the redeemer of the Jewish people.

The story works through many facets of planned and unexpected turns for the sake of the life of Moses.

His mother makes a basket for him and places it in the reeds near where she is aware the princess comes on a daily basis to wash. The reeds I assume are much like the shallows we have around here, where one can walk through them waist high. The princess has much autonomy in the Egyptian culture as well as authority to execute contracts and secure personnel.

She does so with the mother of Moses who then becomes the caretaker of her own son in the palace of the pharaoh. We can be sure that she nurtured his mind and character and instilled in him the values and traditions cherished by his people.

The salvation of Moses from certain death through the acts of others on his behalf points again to the power of God at work to bring about the salvation of all of God’s people. The very act of placing Moses in the waters is to put him in a vulnerable spot.

How could a mother do that?

How could mother put her child vulnerable to the elements of the water?

We who are the people who live between the waters know very well what it is like to be vulnerable on the water.

 We know about storms and seas and wind.

We know about going under and coming up again.

We know about how we are at the mercy of the elements when we place ourselves on the water.

Yet, this mother knew that to be vulnerable enough to place her child in the water was to place him in the hands of God, the Creator and giver of life.

We do the same through the act of baptism.

We place our children in the waters of baptism

placing them in the hands of God

and offering them up to new life in Christ.

In this story God is not mentioned on purpose. Because the writers of this story knew that the people hearing it and reading it would have also known all those other regional stories about babies in the water and how the gods intervened. God’s name is withheld to remind the people of the power of God fully present in the most vulnerable times. Again, pointing out the BIG God, the sovereign God we have who provides for us and uses the least likely to fulfill God’s will.

There are people who God has put in place to be vulnerable and take risks.

It happened in my life.

People came alongside and took the risk to invite.

A young girl who had no use for God,

who had no faith in God,

who had little faith experience

and people chose to invite,

despite the negative response.

And so after a yes to the invitation

and several weeks that followed

and continued yesses to invitations,

I too became vulnerable

to the place God had brought me

opening up to a new way of life with Christ.

And the most powerful sealing moment

was when the priest

shed his ecclesiastical robes

and became Christ for me.

He knew I was not baptized

nor would I have the opportunity

to be confirmed

or to join the church

or to be in full communion

and he became vulnerable to the moment

and he offered the bread and the cup to me

and my life was forever changed.

To be vulnerable is to take the risk that God will not only carry us on the water but will take us through the waters into new life.

To be vulnerable is to trust ourselves in the hand of God!

Offering ourselves to God,

to allow God to breathe the breath of life in us,

to allow the waters to flow freely,

is to say, “Take my Life and let it be all for Thee…”

Take my life, Lord.

Amen.