Sermon for the Ninth Sunday
after Pentecost
(Proper 14)
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Text: Matthew
14:22-32 Peter spoke up, “Lord if it is really you, order me to come out on the water to you.” “Come!” answered Jesus. So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water to Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he was afraid and started to sink down in the water. “Save me, Lord!” he cried. At once Jesus reached out and grabbed hold of him and said, “What little faith you have! Why did you doubt?” (vv 28-31). |
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In the middle of troubled waters
I don’t think I could
count the number of times I’ve watched the
Shrek movies or parts of them with
the younger members of our family.
The movies have been around for a while but still there is a fascination for the
green ogre, Shrek, and Donkey who set out on a quest to rescue a fair maiden
imprisoned in the tower of a castle that is guarded by a fire breathing dragon.
Between them and the castle there is a great chasm with red hot lava at
the bottom. The only way to get
across is via a very flimsy swinging bridge.
Donkey is definitely not
going to walk across the bridge but Shrek says that he can do it as long as he
doesn’t look down. Donkey steps on
to the bridge reminding himself not to look down, and feeling very bold and
safe. About halfway, one of the
planks on the bridge gives way. He
stumbles … and in fear calls out,
“Shrek, I’m looking down.
Aaah. I’m goin’ to die”. And
refuses to go any further and wants to go back.
Shrek swings the bridge and Donkey, still loudly proclaiming,
“I’m going to die”, backs across the
bridge in total fear until suddenly he finds, to his complete and utter
amazement, he’s reached the other side.
The movie is funny but
it characterises what happens in real life.
When doubt and fear grip our lives, we lose our focus, our sense of
balance, and our confidence.
A bad experience can
cause us to lose confidence and become fearful.
For example, you’re involved in a car accident, maybe you’ve got your kids in
the car with you. No-one is
seriously hurt but your confidence is shot to pieces.
Fear takes control and it takes a long time before you feel confident
enough to drive on the road again.
Someone once planted a
seed of doubt in your mind about your ability and from that moment you have
doubted your talent and not considered it worth pursuing.
Doubt.
It’s the breeding ground of fear and anxiety that makes us take our eyes
off what is real and true and distorts reality.
That's what happened to
Peter when his faith gave way to fear.
Let’s go back a bit.
In the early hours of the morning, far out on the lake the disciples find
themselves in the middle of a fierce storm.
The churning water, the huge waves, the howling wind tossed their boat
about and the disciples were straining every muscle as they tried to row against
it. The sea in Old Testament
literature was a symbol of evil and to be out on the sea in a storm on a pitch
black night was about the worst thing that could happen. The disciples are
caught up in a situation that is chaotic, terrifying, hopeless, and evil!
What makes things worse
is this ghostlike figure walking across the stormy water towards them.
They are really scared!
Above the wind they hear a voice: ‘Take courage!
It is I. Don’t be afraid!’
It's Jesus. Jesus’
presence in the middle of the stormy sea – the symbol of chaotic evil – says a
lot. The words,
“It is I” probably had a lot more
meaning to Matthew’s readers than to us today because they would have made
the connection between the man walking on the water and the God of the Old
Testament, “The I am Who I am” who
had complete control of the waters.
When the people of Israel were fearing for their lives, he parted the sea and
led them across safely. Now the disciples see Jesus walk on the wildest of seas
and he is in no danger. He is more
powerful than the worst evil. This
evil can’t harm him. He’s never far away from those who are caught up in evil
and are afraid.
Just as he knew when the
disciples were in trouble, he knows when we need his help.
When we are at our lowest – fearful, doubting and uncertain of what will
happen next – he is there with his reassuring words, “Take heart, it is I; do
not be afraid.”
Unlike the other Gospel
writers, Matthew has something to add to this story.
He focuses on Peter who swings between faith and lack of faith again and
again. Peter is typically impulsive
and has a strange request, “Tell me to
come out of the water with you”.
To believe that he could
actually walk on water like Jesus is insane.
What was he thinking? The
storm is still raging, the sea is a very dangerous place – it’s a symbol of all
that is evil, and to think that he, a mere mortal, could walk on such chaos –
that’s just crazy. I think the
other disciples might have been surprised when Jesus simply answered, “Come!”
Peter did.
He swung his legs over the side of the boat, then
he took a few hesitant steps toward Jesus across the heaving surface and he was
doing fine until he got scared and felt his feet sinking into the black waves
below. He went down like a stone.
Peter had accepted the
risk of faith by answering Jesus’ call and climbing over the rim of the boat but
his fear overwhelmed him when he felt the force of the wind and saw the size of
the waves. He shifted his attention from the power of God in Jesus to his own
limitations and fears.
Don’t we see ourselves
here in the sinking Peter? I do?
So full of faith one minute and yet in the middle of a storm gurgling and
spluttering. We can’t see our way out of it.
Everything seems to be too much.
The trouble is too big.
The sickness to overwhelming.
We know Jesus is more powerful than any evil that can come into our lives but
somehow we’ve taken our eyes off him and focussed only on the size of the
trouble around us. Suddenly we’re
overwhelmed. Matthew says the waves
“harassed” the little boat the
disciples were in. That’s exactly
what the storm that overwhelms us does – it unrelentingly harasses us and we are
worn down.
The waves “harassed”
Peter but he managed to cry out, “Lord, save me.”
Without hesitation he knew who to call to and who could save him – not
the other disciples, but Jesus. And
“immediately”, Matthew emphasises,
Jesus reached out with a strong hand to catch him and haul him to the surface.
There he could walk across the waves, that would otherwise drown him,
with Jesus by his side.
It’s true Jesus commented to Peter, “You have such
a little faith, why did you doubt that I would keep you safe?” but that
didn’t stop Jesus immediately reaching out to give him a hand.
You see, this isn’t a story about the size of Peter’s faith, but how he
used it. As he gurgled and spluttered in the wild seas he knew there was only
one who could really help him and so he called out to Jesus
“Lord, save me”.
Jesus reaches out to
save us who are “of little faith”.
That is good news indeed, because like Peter, faith and doubt are all
mixed up in us.
One minute we are filled with faith and courage the next filled with fear and
doubt.
One moment we are being lifted up, the next we are sinking like stones in the
wild seas of our life.
One day we are so confident, trusting Jesus completely, the next we doubt his
power to help us.
We obey and fear, we walk and sink, we believe and doubt.
It’s not like we do only one or the other, we do both.
Faith and fear-filled doubt live side by side in us.
We don’t like it, God doesn’t like.
We are this way because of the way sin has infected every part of us and
our lives.
In the Bible, God
promises that he would stand by us as we ride the wild waves and the turbulent
seas of our life. Our doubts and
fears may paralyse us but he is always there to rescue us with his mighty arm.
When we sink, as Peter did, as we all do, our Lord reaches out and catches us,
he holds us with his mighty arm, he reassures us of his presence and help.
Why does he keep on rescuing us even though we are “of little faith”?
All I can say is that’s the way God is, full of grace and never-ending
love.
We haven’t quite come
to the end this story yet.
Remember, the storm is still raging all this time but when Jesus and Peter got
into the boat, the storm finally stopped, and all the disciples worshipped
Jesus. They had been afraid; they
had believed that chaos represented by the turblent sea was in control, but in
the end Jesus had shown he was the one with authority over all things and he was
the one who would not let down those whom he loved. In the middle of the storm,
in the middle of all that was evil, when they thought that all was lost, they met
God – his authority, his power and his love.
“Truly you are the Son of God!”
they declared.
In the middle of chaos, when
even our faith is failing, may we listen to the voice and take hold of the hand
that will guide us over every turbulence.
May we, like Peter, experience
the peace that comes when Jesus takes control in the midst of the worst storm,
and the stillness that fills our lives knowing the grace and love of the Son of
God.
© Pastor Vince Gerhardy
10th August 2014
E-mail:
sermonsonthenet@outlook.com
