David Rennie, Lay Minister, North Little Rock

Preaching at Central Presbyterian Church, Russellville, Arkansas

Sunday, Aug 10, 2008

A little back ground might be helpful in understanding our Gospel lesson this morning, which I assume if you have been following the lectionary these past few weeks, has already been covered; but I will review it here.

Everywhere Jesus went, multitudes of people had been following him. Now remember, Jesus had just suffered the loss of John the Baptist, and his disciples had just returned from a mission trip which he had sent them on. He had attempted to get away from the crowds with his chosen ones by crossing the sea. However, the crowds had followed him on foot, and were waiting for him on the shore. Instead of turning them away or fleeing from them, Jesus had compassion, and healed all of the sick. Matthew tells us there were 5,000 men plus women and children. So there were literally thousands of people present.

When the first evening came, Jesus performed the miracle of feeding them with the 5 loaves and 2 fish. Now, the second evening arrives which would be around sundown, and instead of providing shelter for the night, Jesus commands the disciples to get into the boat and head for the other side of the sea. He also dismisses the crowds, and sends them on their way.

What happened to the ever so compassionate Christ? What is the urgency to dismiss the people and get the disciples out of there? The answer is found in John. When Jesus realized they were about to come and take him by force, to make him King, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. You see, the Jewish people were looking for the promised Messiah, and would have accepted Jesus as the Messiah, except for one thing. He did not fit the mold. He did not fit their idea of what a Messiah should be and do. They wanted a Messiah that would lead a revolt and overthrow the Romans and re-establish Israel into a Davidic type kingdom. Isn’t that what some people do today, accept Christ, only on their own terms? Jesus, alone, goes up to the mountain to pray, to recharge his batteries, and to spend time with the Father.

Meanwhile, the disciples, who are only following the Lord’s command, are about at the middle of the sea, far from the shore; and they encounter a fierce storm. This is also a symbolism for us. Just because we accept Christ as our Savior, Jesus, we don’t do what is right. Accepting Christ doesn’t mean we are promised fair and clear weather for the rest of our lives. There is no easy sailing. By following Christ we will also encounter the rough seas of life. We will have fair weather in eternity.

Sometime between 3 and 6 AM, the fourth watch of the night, Jesus, seeing the disciples in distress, came walking to them on the water. The disciples, when they see Jesus, are afraid and cry out. They think they are seeing some kind of a ghost in the middle of the maelstrom. Can’t you just hear their teeth chattering and their knees knocking? I don’t know about you, but I think I would have been afraid, myself. Isn’t that just like us though? When we are in the midst of storms in our lives, we fail to recognize Jesus.

I wonder how Peter and the other disciples remembered this story after the fact. They had been frightened when they saw Jesus walking on water, and then Peter made a fool of himself by stepping out of the boat and sinking. While I was thinking about this story, I came across an article by Phillip Yancey, where he talked about his grandmother’s tendency to recall difficult times with a touch of nostalgia. We older people tend to do that. Yancey then mentioned polls that suggested that the time during the London blitz, where London was on the receiving end of German bombs and V2 rockets, was for many Londoners, one of the happiest times of their lives. It might not have been happy all of the time, but they remembered it happily because a new spirit of community and patriotism sprang up betwixt the horror of the bombs and the V2 rockets.

Yancey went on to tell about elderly people who happily swapped stories about the Depression and World War II, two of the most terrible times in the past century. He noted that they speak fondly of hardships and blizzards and the childhood out-house, and the times in school when they ate canned soup and stale bread for three weeks in row. I think that Yancey has something there. I’ve recounted hardship stories to my children often enough that they roll their eyes when I start a new one, or an old one, retold many times. Yeah, Dad, we know, they say, you walked five miles back and forth to school every day and uphill in both directions. I think that their mother taught them that last line, “uphill in both directions”.

Anyway, I can imagine the disciples when they remember the story of Peter and the storm, fondly. “Hey, do you remember the time Peter stepped over the side of the boat and sank like a rock?” They would all laugh, not in Peter’s presence of course; Peter was the alpha male in that group and they had to be a little careful. But that is what made the story so funny. Here was Peter, strong Peter, tough Peter, stepping out of the boat and sinking like a rock, hollering, “Lord, save me”! I’m sure every now and then the disciples would resurrect this story and a few more like it, just for laughs. But they weren’t laughing that night.

They were in a storm in a small boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. They had been with Jesus all day the day before, and had been rowing against the wind most of the night. They were wet, exhausted and far from home. I can’t imagine circumstances much more miserable. But then one of them spotted something odd. It looked like a man walking across the water. The disciples were fishermen and they knew where they were, in the middle of nowhere. They only thing they could imagine was that they were seeing a ghost. One problem with seeing a ghost, of course, is you don’t know what to expect. You don’t know whether you’re really seeing a ghost, or simply going mad! The most frightening thing is that the ghost might be coming to make a ghost of you. Remember it was not the disciples who made the decision to cross the sea at night; Jesus told them to cross the sea; they were simply following his orders.

Did you ever feel like you were doing what Jesus wanted you to do, only to find yourself in trouble. That has happened to me more than once. A pastor relates, “I remember one dark stormy night when I was doing what Jesus wanted me to do. I was young, still a student serving a small rural church in a corner of Kansas. I’d been visiting with a family that had come to church a time or two, and we were hoping desperately that they might join our small congregation. I felt proud of myself being out on such a night, doing my pastoral work. I was so young and inexperienced that I was a terrible preacher, and not much of a pastor; but no one could say that I wasn’t trying. So I found myself in the middle of a blizzard on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere, trying desperately to spot the next crossroad so I wouldn’t get totally lost. I was driving an old clunker of a car, the best I could afford, hoping that it wouldn’t suddenly die and leave me stranded. I can’t remember now why I decided to open the car door. I suppose that I couldn’t see the road and decided to get out and see if I could see the ditch. Whatever the reason, when I opened the door, the wind caught it and ripped it off its hinges. My throat tightened up and I had to force back tears. If you’ve been there, you know how I felt. If I had my wits about me that night I would have shouted, ‘Is this the way you treat your friends, God; no wonder you don’t have many’? I managed to get the car door on and closed, and found my way home after such a miserable night; and I wasn’t about to call it the Grace of God, though that’s what it was. A person could freeze to death on that kind of road on that kind of night, and I was too miserable to be dead. By the grace of God, I was alive, but it would be a long time before I would see it that way”.

At any rate, I can appreciate how the disciples felt in that little boat in the middle of nowhere, with the storm raging around them, doing what Jesus had told them to do. Now that view doesn’t say that they were afraid. There were other stories where they were afraid, but in this story, they were just tired and miserable, until they saw the ghost. When they saw the ghost, they pretty much came unglued. These tough fisherman who had faced storms without flinching, flinched when they saw the ghost. I’m sure, in the years to come, they would nudge each other and tell their ghost story and laugh. They weren’t laughing that night. They were wet, exhausted and miserable—and scared. I can’t say that I blame them.

But in preparing for this sermon, I came across a quotation that fits, a quotation we should all learn. This quote is by a man named Cranfield, who wrote a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. Cranfield says, if it is the result of obedience to Christ’s command that the church or the individual Christian is in a situation of danger or distress, then there is no need to fear”. What this means is if we are doing what God wants us to do, by the grace of God, that situation will turn out okay.

And that quotation reminded me of the late Henry Newhan. Newhan was a Catholic priest, an author, and a much beloved man. When he visited Rome, he had the privilege of conversing with Mother Teresa. He told her of some of his problems and asked for her advice. She replied, “If you spend one hour a day in contemplative prayer, and never do anything which you know is wrong, you will be all right”. I want to repeat that. If you spend one hour a day in contemplative prayer, and never do anything which you know is wrong, you will be all right. Some people would be put off by that answer because it seems simplistic. But Newhan was not put off, not at all. He said, “With those words she answered none, as well as all, of my problems at the same time. It was now up to me to be willing to move to the place where that answer could be heard”. She was also saying simply that if we are doing what God wants us to do, by the grace of God, it will come out okay. That’s what we heard.

It came out okay for those disciples. Jesus told Peter who he was and joined him in the boat. When he came to them, the storm stopped. When Jesus comes to us, when we invite him into our hearts, the storms stop. There is no promise that you will not have storms if you follow Jesus, because that isn’t true. The disciples had plenty of problems after they began to follow Jesus. Newhan had problems, Mother Teresa had problems, you have problems, I have problems. But when Jesus comes to us, when we allow ourselves to be quiet for a few minutes and invite him to guide us, the storm stops. When we know that Jesus is with us, we find that we are no longer afraid. When we are doing what he wants us to do, we can be sure that everything will come out okay.

When a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof, the father stood on the ground below, with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump. I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flames and smoke and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. But his father kept calling, “Jump. I will catch you”. But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters”.

Jesus says, “Take heart; It is I. Be not afraid”. It is literally translated from the Greek “I am”, again giving indication that Jesus is God. No matter what the storms, no matter what the trial, Jesus is always there for us. Now, Peter, hearing Jesus’ voice, says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Jesus’ reply was short and correct, “Come”. I don’t think that Peter doubted that this was Jesus. Instead we see the great trust he showed for the Lord. Would you have stepped out of that boat as Peter did? He did exactly that. He stepped out on faith, and was walking on the water. As long as he stayed focused on the Lord, he walked on the water; but as soon as he turned his attention to the storm, he sank like a rock. That is just what we do so often, isn’t it? We step right out in faith, doing God’s will, answering God’s call for our lives, then the storms of life strike. Our children rebel, we lose our job, we just feel that no matter what we do, we just cannot get it right. We have looked away from the Lord, and we also sink like a rock. It is very important to remember that we stay focused on our goal, trust that God will see us through despite what is happening all around us.

A helicopter pilot who flew from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, told this story. I don’t know if any of you here are pilots or not. If you are, you will truly understand this. “ I was flying the helicopter back to the ship when a blinding fog rolled in. Flying at a low altitude, I knew that a single mistake would plunge my crew and me into the ocean. Worse yet, I was experiencing a complete loss of balance, which is common for pilots flying by instruments. The loss of balance, known as vertigo, was so bad that despite the instrument readings, I was certain that I was lying on my side. For 15 minutes I flew the helicopter by its instruments, fighting the urge to turn it according to my feelings. When we finally broke safely through the fog, I was deeply thankful I had been trained to rely on my instruments, rather than my own feelings”.

That’s what people who live by faith do. They remember that feelings can be misleading, but that truths in God’s word are reliable, trustworthy and consistent. When Peter’s going down for the third time, when he cries out, “Lord, save me”, the Lord reaches out without hesitation and takes Peter by the hand. Oh yes, he gently rebuked him for his little faith, and asked him why he doubted. Then he takes him to the boat where they both step in together; there is calm. When we take a risk for the Lord, when we dare to do what is right, when we decide to go that extra mile, a mile we need not walk, but which Jesus tells us we can walk, He is right there to help us. We need not doubt the outcome. We do not need to fear the adversity we encounter on the way. The Christian life, like walking on water, is humanly impossible. It can only be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. As long as we look away from every other object but Jesus only, we can experience a supernatural life. Like Peter, who stepped out of the boat and walked on the water toward the Lord who had called him, we too can step out; and we should step out to respond to the Lord who bids us come to Him. When we do, the power flows. When we do, marvelous things happen. When we do, we discover new things about our world and ourselves. We can risk because we have a powerful Lord watching over us. We can trust because we have a forgiving God caring for us.

We can step out because we have a God who is sure to save. That is why those disciples and followers of Christ in the first century, loved this story. That’s why it ended up in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It spoke to their experience. I’m sure they swapped anecdotes with each other about their own stormy adventures and other adventures where they did the seemingly impossible as they lived by faith against outrageous odds, at their worst moments when they started to sink, yet their Lord was there with them, saving them from sinking further into fear and despair, then and in their adversities in the future. It began as Peter’s story; it became their story. But supremely, it was a part of the glorious story of Jesus of Nazareth, a child of man and child of God, who in terms of loving God and loving those around Him, dared to go where no human being had every gone before, and brought those who love Him to a safe and glorious shore.

Have you ever dared to walk across the waters, when Jesus said, “It is I. Do not be afraid. Come”. Maybe it is time. We need to open our eyes to God’s possibilities. We need to open our hearts to God’s ways. What are the impossibilities in your life? What crowds do you have to feed? What battles lie before you? What giants do you have to face? When faced with the impossibilities of life, face them hand in hand with the One who makes all things possible. Heed His word. Kneel before Him in prayer. Take His will for your life. Then proceed on His pathways with the confidence that comes not from your strength, but from His. You plus God are greater than your adversary.

You plus God are greater than the tasks that challenge you. You plus God add up to whatever God wants. Walk with God in faith and see what wonderful things God brings about in your life. In the days ahead, you will be faced with many storms. Some of them will be little squalls, which pass quickly. Others will be full blown hurricanes. Get ready. Invite Jesus to join your life, to guide you, to direct you day by, day and moment by moment. If you will do that, when the storms come, you will be okay; yes, by the grace of God, you will be okay. Now, to the King of all worlds, the Almighty Invisible and only God, be all honor and glory forever, Amen

Now let us say together a portion of those things we believe, using the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.

He descended into Hell. The third day He rose again from the dead

He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty,

from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen