Proper 14 A 08

“Walking on water” is a common expression in our language. We might say something like, “John thinks he can walk on water” and what we mean is John thinks he has great ability and thinks he can do extraordinary things, yet we also believe like Peter he may well sink.

Whatever the historical event behind the scene in today’s Gospel from Matthew, the narrative we have before us is highly symbolic and can be interpreted in numerous ways. At the core is the teaching that if we truly believe Jesus acts and speaks as God does, we can conquer our fears and have power over evil if we put our trust in Him..

Many of us have experienced storms in our lives when it clearly seems the wind and waves of the particular situation are keeping us from reaching the shore of safety and peace. And it is at times like that our faith is truly tested. Is the Lord present with us to save us or not? We begin to think that the risen Lord is just a ghost, an inspiring shadow of the past but without power to help us.

It is at times like these that we have to step out in faith, use the “little faith” we have, and walk on the water toward Jesus as Peter did. Matthew tells us that Jesus reached out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

We heard last week how the disciples tried to send the hungry crowd away because they had only very meager resources with which to feed them: fives loaves and two fish. They had little faith. Jesus challenged them to trust God acting through Him, blessed, broke and gave the loaves and fish to the crowd, and there was more than enough – even left overs! (Mt 14:13-21)

The present narrative about walking on water follows directly after this account. We are told Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead (of Him) to the other side (of the Sea of Galilee)” (Mt 14:22). Jesus, meanwhile, went up the hillside to pray.

Deacon Judi and I visited the Holy Land in the year 2000. As part of that special tour for pastors, we have a ride on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. We saw how the fishermen would cast a net and bring in the fish. We also saw the beautiful rolling hills along the shore, and afterwards, we visited the museum where they have the boat found in the mud in the 1960’s when there was a drought and the water receded from the shoreline. The boat was one which would have been used in the first century. It was about 24 feet long, some six feet wide, and some three feet deep – sufficient to hold the twelve disciples and Jesus, and shallow enough to take on water if the waves were high.

Matthew had already described in Chapter 8 how the disciples and Jesus were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee in a storm. Jesus, however, was asleep. So the disciples woke him up crying out: “Lord, save us, we are perishing” (Mt 8:25). Again Jesus responded, Matthew tells us: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith? He then got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there came a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him” (Mt 8:23-27).

In the narrative we heard this morning, there is no storm but a strong wind making it very difficult for the boat to cross the Sea. The disciples were probably afraid that the boat would or was already taking on water. Matthew says that early in the morning (in the wee hours when everything seems more fearful than in the noonday), Jesus “came walking toward them on the sea.” The disciples were terrified, Matthew says, and they said: “It is a ghost! .., and they cried out in fear (Mt 14:24-26).

We here in Michigan can picture the scene. Nearly all of us have had the experience of seeing large waves or being caught on a lake when the wind picked up and threatened us. But in this symbolic narrative, Matthew’s Jewish congregation would have another frame of reference as well: the Hebrew Scriptures.

We prayed Psalm 107:23-32 a few moments ago. In there we read: “They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress” (Ps 10:28). Psalm 69 has similar theme: “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck…. I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me” (Ps 69:1-2). Here, as you could see by reading the rest of that Psalm, the “deep waters” are the many troubles the psalmist is experience not literally “deep waters.” It is a metaphor for troubles. We use the idiom the same way in our language.

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” (Mt 14:27). That word of Jesus to the frightened disciples on the Sea of Galilee, this “I am” or “It is I” is a common phrase for God who spoke that phrase to Moses when Moses asked God, “What is (your) name?” (Ex 3:13-14). The prophet Isaiah used the phrase “It is I” along with “fear not” some 43 times. Listen to Isaiah’s powerful words spoken on behalf of God, which have been made into a hymn, by the way:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Is 43:1-3).

So when Matthew speaks or writes that Jesus said, “take heart, it is I; do not be afraid,” he is stressing that Jesus does what God does and speaks as God speaks. This is why Paul, writing to the Romans, can say: “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart…. Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:8-9).

The personal message for us, therefore, is clear: when we encounter the storms of life that threaten to overwhelm us, we pray for the Lord’s help, and do what he teaches us to do stepping out with our little faith, reaching for the hand of the risen Lord who has extended his to catch us.

Rabbi Harold Kushner, in two very popular books, writes about his own tragedy of the death of their son by a strange disease. He tells how many people, with little obvious faith, respond to storms of life with that faith and find that they are able to accomplish much more than they thought possible, able to cope in ways they would never have thought of beforehand.[1]

I have been near death at least three times in my life, and even now I am well aware that the number of years ahead of me are limited. In the midst of the crises in my life, I have used what faith I had to reach out to the Lord for help and have found it. In fact, responding to these crises has greatly enlarged my faith. I am now very aware that I came from God at birth and will return to God at death, so as our Prayer Book says at the beginning of the Burial rite quoting from St. Paul: “For none of us has life in himself, and none becomes his own master when he dies. For if we have life, we are alive in the Lord, and if we die, we die in the Lord. So then whether we live of die, we are the Lord’s possession”[2]

I am not just quoting theology to you, rather, I am testifying to my own experience when I say we can trust the risen Lord to see us through the storms of life. Sometimes the answer we will get when we cry out for help will be to see the present storm as the consequence of our own actions, and therefore as a call to change our life style. Other times it will be a call to greater understanding and compassion for the suffering of others who may also be inflicted with a storm in their lives for which they are not responsible.

Christ is present with us and will keep us from sinking if we will act on our “little faith” and step out on the waters, conquer the fear in our hearts, and trust that we will receive the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the storm or find safe harbor.

Some commentators see an additional symbolism in today’s gospel. They point out that the Church has through the centuries been described as an ark, a boat, and Peter from the beginning has been the designated leader who, despite his many flaws and failures, is asked to step out in faith and lead the Church where the Lord directs. This is a timely symbol as our Bishops return from the recent Lambeth Conference. What is said in this Gospel applies to them and also to those of us here who are on the Vestry or in some other leadership position within the Church, formal or informal. Not all leadership is elected nor appointed. We all know there are people in our congregations whose faith and wisdom we rely upon when major decisions need to be made.

Those, who like Peter, lead the Church must have the courage to follow Jesus even when that seems to mean leaving the relatively safe confines of the boat and step out on the water in the midst of storms. Too many of our church leaders – from the bishops to the vestry to the informal leaders – are fearful to take the Gospel seriously and follow Jesus through the storms which threaten all people and the Church as well. Instead of walking toward Jesus across turbulent waters trusting that he has said, “come,” and extend his hand to catch us, they admonish us to huddle in the boat and hope the wind will die down before the massive waves overcome us.

The forceful winds of history are lashing us and all people with wave after wave of things which destroy human life: war, terrorism, crime, hunger, disease -- to name the obvious ones. But with them also are the countless little waves which threaten to diminish our lives day by day. The cruel words we say to one another, the corruption in the marketplace, sexual manipulation of one another, greed, and all sorts of other acts of inhumanity between us.

People of little faith, why do you doubt? The Gospel can be lived, and Jesus is faithful and will do as He has promised. Why must it take a crisis before we turn to God and promise to change our lives?

For our homework this week (I give homework and let the good Lord to the testing), let us reflect on what is it that makes us fearful, now or in the past? What storms have we already lived through, and did we discover the presence of the Lord in their midst? If not, why not? Did we risk trusting Him?

As St. Paul also wrote to the Romans (chapter 12:2)): “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” for you and for all humanity, and for the earth itself, as we pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

May God open our eyes that we may see, and our ears that we may hear, our minds that we may understand, and our hearts that we may have the courage to receive God's Word today and to act upon it. Amen.

God bless you and keep you this day and always. And remember that the good Lord loves you more that you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe that?

[1] Harold S Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (Harper 1981), and also Overcoming Life’s Disappointments.

[2] Book of Common Prayer, p. 491. This is a quotation from Paul, Romans 14:7-8).