Scripture Texts -
Romans 8:18-25 Matthew 14:22-33
“The adage that ‘all we have to fear is fear itself’ is wrong.” Lee Griffith writes in his most recent book. He continues saying “What we have to fear is contentment. Do not fear becoming a malcontent. Fear becoming complacent."[1] I heard this quote several weeks ago while during a devotional time for the leadership of a youth conference and it convicted and challenged me in ways that I could not have expected. For most of my life fear was something to overcome. For those who know me well and especially those who knew me in high school and college, knew that I had bit of a risk taker. I enjoyed doing things that got my heart beating fast and got my adrenaline going. Pushing my self past any fear, be it heights, rapids, jumping off of cliffs into water, playing on high ropes courses, climbing mountains, or speeding through the hills of the Appalachian Mountains on a bike were all activities that I found great joy in. This drive to push past my fears, led me to choose a minor that afforded me ample opportunities to do these things and do some of these activities at higher heights. For me pushing past my fears became common and somewhat normal and comfortable, to the point of wanting to work in this field and encourage others to push past their own fears.
And yet hearing Lee Griffith’s quote and thinking about my life I began to see places and times where taking risks or stepping out in faith is the least likely thing for me to do. There are places in my life where I would rather play it safe and not take a chance. I would rather stay inside my comfort zone, my place of known safety then venture out into the unknown and unsure. I would rather keep to myself then risk reaching out, where I might possibly loose myself, my identity or be hurt by another person. And I am sure I am not alone in this. I feel quite confident that most of us would rather play it safe then risk. And that which needs to be confronted from time to time in our lives is not our fears but our own complacency.
And when we look at our gospel text this morning, I wonder if Matthew is challenging us, as people of faith, to play it safe, or to open our eyes and see the world that is breaking in all around us and to follow our Lord. And in this text, I believe, we are being called to examine our own lives, and address those places of complacency that we would rather not move from.
As I mentioned before our Gospel text is situated directly after Jesus’ miracle of the feeding the five thousand with a mere five loaves and two fish. This miracle of multiplying simple and small gifts of the earth to feed a multitude must have baffled the minds of the disciples as well as those gathered. Here on the shores of Sea of Galilee, was one like them in every way but yet taught with authority and reached out to those whom no one wanted to help. For the disciples Jesus’ ability defied their abilities and even their imagination. His teaching challenged their known world and ways of seeing and interacting with it. The lines between what was seen as within human ability and powers limited only to the divine were beginning to blur for the disciples. A new world was breaking in all around them and disrupting their lives, their plans, and their vision of what they thought the world was.
And before the disciples could get a handle on what they had just seen, these awe struck followers of Jesus are told to get into a boat and go ahead to the other side. The Gospel writer goes on to say that Jesus then dismissed the crowds and went to a mountain to pray by himself, seeking the solitude he had sought after hearing the news of the execution of his cousin John the Baptizer. And as Jesus prayed, his disciples, men who had grown up by the sea, working in boats much like the one they were in, were being battered by the wind and waves of a storm. And for these disciples and those early Christians listening to this story, the sea, the storm, and nighttime all carried with them a since of foreboding were trouble, chaos, and even demonic powers could be present. And so it is not all to surprising that as Jesus comes walking toward the battered boat on sea that he finds the disciples crying out in fear and terror. A common response found in scripture of those who encounter God. And yet Jesus’ response to his terrified, and exhausted disciples is simply, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’
The middle clause of Jesus’ words of reassurance, “it is I,” can be literally translated to “I am” from the Greek. This use of “I am” should ring bells in our ears. It is the divine name God revealed to Moses. So at one level Jesus is reassuring his weary disciples that it is the one they know and have travel with coming to them on the sea and yet on another the Gospel writer wants to make it clear that the “I am,” The God of Abraham and Sarah; of Isaac and Rebekah; of Jacob and Rachel and Leah is present with the them in the midst of the storm. These are words of reassurance that we all wish to hear in the midst of storms that bring great terror.
Upon hearing his Lord’s words of reassurance, it is Peter as we could have only expected, who calls out to Jesus, asking if he can come and join him on the sea. Jesus invites Peter to step out of the relative safety of the boat, and do something he may never have imaged or dreamed of. And oddly enough Peter steps out of the boat and begins to walk toward Jesus on the stormy sea. Breaking all laws of physics, and what conventional wisdom teaches; shocking everyone in the boat, and possibly even Peter himself. One of my seminary professors, Stan Saunders said of this text, “Matthew is continuing not only to demonstrate the dimensions of Jesus’ identity and divine power, but to suggest that the same power is available to other human beings as well.”[2] The lines between what is possible and impossible, what is of this earth and what is of divine ability, what is real and what can only be imagined have been blurred so greatly, that one cannot be distinguished from the other. And in this blurring of worlds we see Peter walking on water.
The world we are living in is filled with storm after storm. And many of us feel as though we have been tossed to and fro and believe that the wind is against us. For the past few weeks we have been inundated with the chaos of the possibility of our nation defaulting and being unable to pay its bills, and sending our nation deeper into recession. And yet as this crisis was narrowly averted the divisions and divisiveness that were played out during this debate remain front and center overshadowing a weak economy and growing rates of unemployment. And the storms that rage are not limited to our political world; we can look within our own denomination at the stormy seas of change that have been brewing this summer. Changes to ordination standards are making it possible for those who have previously been bared from following their call are now finding a new openness for leadership within our church. And it is this change that has prompted some of our brother and sister in Christ to depart from our denomination, or to withhold their resources in an angry protest. And to add to these turbulent seas our denomination has also changed its Book of Order, an act that has forced churches and Presbyteries to reexamine how they function and operate, a not always pleasant or welcomed duty. And within this particular church the leaving of a beloved pastor creates uncertain days of searching for someone new to shepherd and guide this community. We each could add to this list of storms. Storms that are raging in the lives of our families, in our own lives. And on and on the list could go.
And with all of these storms that are raging in our lives, it would be easy to stay within our own personal boats or to stay within our own community and weather these storms. Because that would be the safe thing to do, it would be more comfortable, there would be little risk involved for us. And we could ride this storm out and face another day.
But again this text, I believe, does not allow us to stay complacent and comfortable. It challenges us to see our God at work where we would not have expected and to go and join helping to open the eyes and hearts to the Kingdom that is breaking in all around us. Our text this morning is not urging us to overcome our fears, but to confront the places of complacency and apathy in our lives.
Matthew leaves no room for the naïveté that all will be fine if we but follow, if we but get out of the boat, if we just confront our own complacency and apathy. For as soon as Peter realizes what he is doing and the magnitude of the storm around him confronts him once more, he begins to sink. He comes crashing back into this world once more not being able to sustain the needed vision to remain fully in the world that Jesus is ushering in. And as Peter sinks into the stormy sea he cries out for salvation, to which Jesus quickly grabs his floundering disciple, pulls him up, and says to him, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Peter’s act of doubting and sinking into the sea remind us of the two worlds in which we are apart of, the world as we see and the world that we eagerly await to break fully into ours. A world that the Apostle Paul believes does not compare with the suffering we may face in this life. We await a world where walking on water is possible, and death and decay no longer hold sway over our lives, where there is enough food for everyone and all can find shelter from the elements. Yet like Peter we struggle to see this hoped for world breaking in all around us. The reality of the stormy sea challenged Peter’s vision and forced his mind to come back to a world where walking on water was impossible, and the boundaries between what was within human ability and those powers limited only to the divine were back in focus. We know Peter’s doubting well, because it is our doubt. We find ourselves standing between worlds, a world that we eagerly await and a world we see filled with storms that seem to strong and are pushing us to stay in our places of comfort and known safety, fearing that venturing out will cost us more then our lives.
And yet for us, as those who have tasted the first fruits, and have the Spirit of God moving within each and everyone of us, we are filled with hope. For it is the Spirit that helps us to confront our own doubts, and compelling us to leave our places of comfort, and relative safety, and step out in faith. We are given eyes to see the world as God sees it, and see a world that is breaking in every day all around us, and blurring the lines between what we know is possible, and what is only possible through the divine. And though the storms may overwhelm us at times, and give us reason to doubt, it is that same Spirit that reminds us that our Savior is there, and is able to catch us in our weakness, and will yet love us still.
Hallelujah and Amen.
[1] Griffith, Lee. God is subversive: peacemaking in a time of empire. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2011.)
[2] Saunders, Stanley P. Preaching the Gospel of Matthew: Proclaiming God's Presence. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2010) p.147.
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