First Reading:
22Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying,It is a ghost!And they cried out in fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said,Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.28Peter answered him,Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.29He said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out,Lord, save me!31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him,You of little faith, why did you doubt?32When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshiped him, saying,Truly you are the Son of God.
Second Reading:
9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
What are you doing here, Elijah?10He answered,I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.11He said,
Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said,What are you doing here, Elijah?14He answered,I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.15Then the Lord said to him,Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.
Help! How many of us have ever uttered the simple little one-word prayer that is the title of today's sermon… I know that I have, and do, relatively often. And though it's not actually in the text, I can't help but wonder if it was being uttered by the disciples just a little while after Jesus told them to get into the boat and head off to the other side. To give a little context, the chapter of Matthew where this story lives begins by reporting the death of John the Baptist. When Jesus heard about it he was grieved and went off to pray by himself but a crowd of people followed him because now that John was gone, he was the torchbearer of the movement John led. When it was time for a meal, they were in the middle of nowhere and the situation gave rise to one of the most famous stories we have of Jesus where he fed five thousand with just two fish and five loaves of bread. But Jesus never did get that time alone that he was looking for, until the beginning of our passage.
He told the disciples to get in the boat and sail for home. Then
dismissed the crowd and went up to the mountain to pray like he'd been
trying to do all day. By the time he was alone, it was evening, the
wind had kicked up and a storm had begun and the text tells us that
the boat was battered by the waves and it was far from where they were
headed. And how many of us know that feeling? Everything seems like
it's going wrong, life is falling apart around us… and when we
most need Jesus, it seems like he turned around and went the other
direction. You get in the boat and get going… I'm headed off
this direction. And so we cry out that prayer, Help
! He may
be off praying for us somewhere but it sure would be nice to have the
clarity that comes from his presence.
And in the story he did come… but it took a while. Where our translation says early in the morning, the Greek says in the fourth watch… which puts it somewhere between 3 and 6 am when Jesus finally showed up… hours after the storm started, hours after the ship was being battered, and it makes me realize all over again that we don't ever get promises that things are going to be easy or quick and we don't ever get promises that things are going to be clear or simple… even when Jesus does show up the problem wasn't gone… at least not yet. In the story Jesus comes walking on the water and it's at that point we're told that the disciples were afraid. What do we do when the help we've asked for comes, but what comes is scarier for us to face than the storm. I mean we all have trusted patterns of behavior that we've used to get us out of the storms of life before, and at least some of the disciples were fishermen, certainly they'd been through storms before…
So far I have imagined that they were concerned by the storm but the text tells us that they were afraid when Jesus showed up. You see when people ask for help, myself included, we tend to want God's intervention to calm us down, to ease our fears, to make things better… we don't always want something that's going to challenge us and force us to rethink our ways of being and our ways of doing things… we don't always want Jesus to show up in surprising and unexpected ways. But in the story, what came appeared to the disciples as a ghost, walking on the water in the middle of the storm… that isn't really what we bargain for when we ask for help and it's true that Jesus doesn't always come as we expect… he often doesn't… But he does come to meet us.
Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.
Those are his words to
the crew of the boat that was made up of his disciples… and
from where the story goes, it looks like they don't believe it. At
least Peter didn't… because Peter's response was, If it's
really you, tell me to come out to you on the water.
So Jesus
says alright, come.
And Peter does, and almost immediately he
begins to sink because he notices the wind and again he cries
out Help
and Jesus is there for him, he reaches out, saves him
and puts him back on the boat… and at this point there are two
different sermons that most of us have heard… one says bravo
Peter… look at his amazing faith… he had the courage to
step out of the boat in the first place… wouldn't it be
wonderful if we all had that kind of courage. And perhaps it's true.
Many of us would do well to take more risks than we usually do in
order to move toward Jesus. The other sermon that many of us have
heard says ah Peter, if only… if you kept your focus on Jesus
you wouldn't have sunk in the first place… that would have been
real faith, if only you had it… and I always have trouble with
that interpretation of the scripture because I know, I know that if I
step out of a boat, I'm getting wet no matter how much attention I'm
paying to Jesus, and I can't imagine that the end goal of this passage
is to condemn all of us and point out our lack of faith by requiring
an impossible task, even if it's true that that our faith is small.
And when I took all of this together in my study this week, it made me
think that maybe getting out of the boat isn't really a demonstration
of Peter's faith after all… I mean, Jesus told him to get in
the boat in the first place, Jesus was clearly on the way to the boat
when Peter saw him walking on the water, and it was only after they
were both safely back in the boat that the wind and the storm finally
did die down… When Jesus questions Peter, You of little
faith, why did you doubt,
perhaps the doubt he's talking about
isn't what happened after Peter jumped out of the boat… it's
what happened before Peter jumped out of the boat… perhaps the
lack of faith was his willingness to jump out in the first place. Why
did you doubt that I would show up why did you doubt who I was…
Just before Peter jumped, Jesus said It is I, don't be
afraid
… Maybe staying in the boat would have been the real
demonstration of Peter's faith. And if it's the case that
faithfulness in this story would have meant staying in the boat, it
opens up all sorts of possibilities for how we relate to one another
as the church…
Scholars say that a boat was one of the earliest metaphors for the
church … way back in the 2nd Century that Tertullian
compared the church to a ship in one of his writings and the metaphor
was picked up by Augustine centuries later when he wrote about how
flimsy the boat that is the church seems when it's battered in the
storms of life that were going on when he lived. And I'm aware of how
much more so it seems to us now. In our cultural context there are
plenty of people have disregarded the church as an irrelevant
institution, there many Christians who are afraid to admit their faith
to their friends for fear of being judged and there are quite a few of
us who have never opened the bible except when we're told to and who
hardly know anything about the history or traditions of the faith we
claim as our own. It's not hard to see that if the church is a boat,
it may appear to be badly in need of repairs. And as we float around
in the midst of the storms in our boat that always seems like it could
be better equipped and better funded and better at proclaiming the
good news of our message, I still find myself thinking, well at least
we're in a boat… because in the boat, there are people who will
do whatever they can and whatever it takes to take care of everyone
else in the boat… especially when we that little cry
for Help
Storms eventually come, for each of us and for all of us, and it seems
like they do with more frequency and more force that we might prefer.
But when they do it might do us well to remember that Jesus told the
disciples to get into the boat in the first place because
the boat
is where all of these other people who trust in Jesus
are. These are people who care deeply for one another and who will
respond when they hear someone offer up that little one word prayer
… And when you stick around in the boat long enough, you'll
come to notice that these are the people you have been called to
accompany on their faith journey and they have also been called to
accompany you. They've weathered storms with you before and they're
the ones who will go through the storms with you when they hit again,
whether it's next week or next month, or next year… These are
the people who can remind you, and when the time comes you can also
remind them that even when Jesus seems far away, he will show
up… and in fact he's already here. He's here as we pray for
one another, he's here as we share experience, he's here as we serve
others in need, he's here as we join our hearts and voices in worship
and he's here as we gather at the table to break the bread and drink
the cup.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on August 7, 2011.
© 2011 Daniel Holland
