Sermon

Walking on water… and sinking

Scripture Text:

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon:

There are so many jokes that come from the story of Jesus walking on the water.  So many, that when you hear the scripture you might tune it out because it’s become a sort of cliché, a predictable story; or maybe you tune it out because you’re not sure whether you really believe it: Jesus walking on the water?

But if we believe that Jesus is God, it actually follows quite naturally that he walk on water. God moved over the primeval waters in Creation, to create the heavens and the earth.  And Matthew probably wants us to remember the God of Israel, parting the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross to the other side.  Matthew also might want us to remember the prophet Jonah, who threw himself into the sea to save his ship from a storm.

But of course, the truly unbelievable part of the story is that Peter, the human being, walks on water.  It might be easier to think of Jesus doing that sort of thing, but Peter?  Which brings me to what I find the most believable part of the story: that Peter sank.  He stopped looking toward Jesus, looked around at the waves, remembered that the sea is deep, and he started to sink.

Peter believed that with Jesus’ help, he could walk on the water, and so he did.  He had faith in Jesus’ power in his life.  When he stopped having faith, he sank.

Now, I could preach a sermon about keeping our eyes focused on Jesus – on having faith in him, so that we won’t sink. On ignoring the waves and wind all around us, our worries and fears, so that we can walk across the stormy sea toward our Lord, as Peter was unable to do.  I could urge you to only have faith, and everything in your life will center itself in God.  The lesson could be that we shouldn’t be like Peter.

But the thing is… that we’re just like Peter.  He’s the human being in this story.  And I don’t know about you, but I find it incredibly difficult to take my eyes off the choppy water and waves that seem to be all around me in my very human life, in this very human world.  I find it very hard to always keep my eyes on Jesus. I have a feeling that if I tried to walk across the water toward Jesus, I’d sink, too.

Jesus says to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  But I don’t hear scorn or criticism in Jesus’ voice, I hear the voice of a teacher and a friend.  Even though Peter doubts, Jesus reaches out his hand and catches him.  And Peter for all his doubts and fears throughout the gospels, still becomes one of Jesus’ most beloved disciples.

(A bit of an aside:  you know, we can choose how we hear scripture.  We can choose to hear it as judgmental, unbelievable, or irrelevant.  Or we can choose to hear it as loving, wise, and totally relevant to our lives – even when it’s a puzzle.  I don’t hear Jesus challenging Peter to do something impossible; I hear Jesus challenging Peter to have faith, inviting him to take a risk in that faith, and then reaching out to catch Peter to save him when he’s in over his head.)

While Adam and I were on vacation, we spent a week with my family at a beach house in Michigan that my parents have been renting for years.  Long ago, when my brother, Jon, was five and I was eight, we had a fire on the beach, as we often did.  We roasted marshmallows, watched the sunset, and went swimming in the water, which instead of being just blue was also pink, red, purple, orange, and grey.  While the grown-ups were talking, we were playing with a big beach ball in the shallow water and we knocked it out too far.  My brother went after it – but the ball kept floating away, just beyond his reach.  He kept following it and the water got deeper and deeper. The next thing I remember is watching my Uncle Kirk suddenly start sprinting through the waves toward Jon, then diving in to reach him just as his little head was about to disappear under the surface.

I wonder if that’s what Peter felt like.  I think that’s what being caught by God is meant to be like in this story.  It’s more than just a warm spiritual feeling:  it’s someone’s warm, strong hand reaching out to grab you.  It’s real – like a physical relief.  It’s the feeling of being able to breathe, and the sense that you’re loved enough that it doesn’t matter that you weren’t able to do what you set out to do, whether it’s walk on water or chase a beach ball, because you’re not going to be left to drown.

In a way, it didn’t matter whether Peter could keep looking at Jesus or not.  It was important that Peter tried, that he was willing to step out of the safety of the boat.  If all we do is stay where it’s safe, there’s not much of a chance that we’re going to meet Jesus.  But the dominant image of the story isn’t the walking on water, it’s the outstretched hand of God in Christ – both welcoming us and ready to catch us.

Why?  What’s the hand of Christ reaching toward us about? Sometimes it seems like popular Christianity would have us believe that Jesus is a magical doorway to a life of wealth and total happiness.  Or that he’s the Ultimate life coach and can show us how to live better lives.  But the outstretched hand of Christ isn’t just a helping hand.  And he’s not just trying to show us the way or how to be better people.  This is the hand of our God, the creator of heaven and earth, the master of life and death, reaching out to us with love and wanting to save our lives.

We should always try to walk in faith, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus – it’s a discipline that will make us happier and more fulfilled human beings.  But it’s ok if we fail at faith. Christ’s hand reaches out, ready to catch us, and to encourage us to try again.

Amen.

Uploaded on August 7, 2011 in by RevHeidi

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