GETTING WET Matt 14: 22-33
I think it was Mark Twain who tells the story of a visit to the Holy land where he decided to take his wife for a romantic ride on the Sea of Galilee. The boatman who he approached to take them onto the water noticed that Twain was well dressed and so suspecting that he had a rich customer to rip off, responded to Twain’s request for a price by suggesting $25. Walking away Twain muttered, ‘Now I know why Jesus walked!’
The story we have heard this morning takes us away from anything that corresponds with our experience of life. We know that nature does not allow people to walk on water even if some Nottingham Forest supporters were some time ago prone to suggesting that Brian Clough was able to do so. We can talk the talk but surely this story takes us into a world with which we are unfamiliar.
And so it is that people often try to explain away this story. Some regard it as a misunderstanding for it does not fit in with our rational understanding of nature. Others see it as a psychic phenomena. Still others see as a parable that eventually got passed on as an actual event. Others though see this story as an event that demonstrates that Jesus is the Lord of all creation, the one who has authority over all the forces of nature including the sea which in those days was greatly feared as a force of chaos and destruction.
You will doubtless have your own conclusions but about one thing, we must be certain. Within the early church, this story of Jesus walking on the water was a cherished story, a story passed on by the people of faith with the result that it is to be found in three of the Gospels that are in our Holy Scriptures.
In part, the cherishing of this story would seem to come from how it spoke to the early community of Christians in their situations. They received from the apostles this story at a time when they were a small minority in a hostile environment. For living the Christian faith, many knew what it was to be beaten. Some of their friends were executed. The road to social advancement was blocked. And when disasters happened they were the most likely to be blamed. For in the Year 70, following the great fire of Rome, Nero was to use the unpopularity of the Christians so that they rather than he, the negligent Emperor, should take the blame, to be the scapegoats. And so from the on, for two and a half centuries, the response to times in which Rome’s fortunes were low, was for the cry to go up for the Christians to be fed to the lions. And so, many would perish in places such as the Coliseum for the entertainment of the majority who despised what was termed the ‘Christian superstition.’
Any battered minority looks for signs of hope. Today, we hear of Muslim women who since the bombings of July 7th are afraid to go out for fear of being abused, spat on or attacked for wearing the hijab. How much worse was the position of Christians in Rome during times when the fury of the mob was unleashed. And against that background, can we not see that the message of Jesus, spoken to frightened disciples, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” is a message of hope. And I would suggest that in our world today we need to hear that same message. In our world, battered by the waves of war, terrorism, authoritarianism and environmental neglect amongst other things, we need to that same soothing message of Jesus offering us cause not to fear. And whilst, we cannot in Britain envisage the sort of persecution experience by early Christians in Rome or indeed by some Christians on other parts of our planet, increasingly we find ourselves in a land in which secularism is expressed primarily by an indifference to matters of faith and religion with a result that Christian communities are increasingly becoming marginalized and adrift from the direction of society. And so as we seek to be faithful, we need to hear afresh those words - “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
But the story also has something to say about the risks of faith. And here, the figure of Peter comes into his own. God old impetuous Peter! Well, here we find Peter daring to take an outrageous step. He sees Jesus walking on the water and his immediate instinct is to go to Jesus. So often, we talk about faith as a mind matter. But that shortchanges faith. I rather like the description of faith that I read recently which describes faith as “like that function of the heart that gets blood to hands and feet.” In other words faith involves action with all the risks that action involves. And it is expressed in a range of ways in which people are caught up in the ways of God, even meeting God in the process. Now Peter was a man who sometimes got things wrong. That was not about to stop. He would still have his moments of failure such as when got frightened after Jesus’ arrest and he would sometimes get things wrong as Paul certainly felt he had done with regards to his attitude concerning the Gentile mission. But, he clearly has a passion for Christ. And in our Gospel Reading, we find him leaving the precariousness of the boat in order to take a crazy risk with his safety to reach out to Jesus.
Heat those words again;
“Lord, if it is you, command me to join you on the water.”
Crazy! But that is the nature of faith, not always bound by norms but daring to look beyond and to see hitherto unforeseen possibilities. It is about seeing the potential of what a rock song calls a “a crazy little thing called love” to bring about a greater and more beneficial change to our world that might or force could ever dream of!
But of course, there is no plain sailing in our story. Things go wrong. Peter begins to sink as in so many ways most of us have done at some time or other. For faith brings no guarantee against failure.
And yet, there is hope. And here the hope comes from Jesus. Reaching out to save the sinking Peter, Jesus responds to Peter’s desperate cry of “ Lord, save me” with a gentle, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
And there is the rub of the whole story. We are often far from giants of faith. Indeed sometimes I wish that people would speak less of giants of the faith for such an emphasis can only make us feel inadequate. Yet more importantly, it can take us away from the emphasis of Christ. For the message of Christ is not that we have to be giants of faith but it is that faith as small as a mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds, is faith that can be used to move mountains. And are there not a few mountains in our world and even here in North Devon that could do with moving?
So this story about Jesus is full of meaning. It’s an encouragement to us to dare to take the risks of faith for God’s Kingdom. Just as 2,000 years ago, it challenges the accepted wisdom for this faith is a faith that is so God centred that it affirms that God is so worth following that it is better to risk being drowned with God than crowned by anyone else. This faith whilst keeping a focus on Christ, doesn’t necessarily know where it is going or whether it will see success. But it does know that it is about our opening our lives to connect with God’s love and grace. And whether we discern it or not, that love transforms the world and us. And when it comes to those times when all around us seem to be too much, a voice within, speaks to us as it did to those on a boat some 2,000 years ago;
“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
And knowing he loves us unreservedly despite all the ways in which we mess up, we are able to take the risks of dabbling our feet into the water for God’s Kingdom.
Preached at Alwington on August 7th 2005. This sermon came at the end of two weeks holiday and is heavily influenced by notes from Sarah Dylan Breuer and a sermon by P. Brewer. They deserve the credit for any good points. The weaknesses are all mine!
The story we have heard this morning takes us away from anything that corresponds with our experience of life. We know that nature does not allow people to walk on water even if some Nottingham Forest supporters were some time ago prone to suggesting that Brian Clough was able to do so. We can talk the talk but surely this story takes us into a world with which we are unfamiliar.
And so it is that people often try to explain away this story. Some regard it as a misunderstanding for it does not fit in with our rational understanding of nature. Others see it as a psychic phenomena. Still others see as a parable that eventually got passed on as an actual event. Others though see this story as an event that demonstrates that Jesus is the Lord of all creation, the one who has authority over all the forces of nature including the sea which in those days was greatly feared as a force of chaos and destruction.
You will doubtless have your own conclusions but about one thing, we must be certain. Within the early church, this story of Jesus walking on the water was a cherished story, a story passed on by the people of faith with the result that it is to be found in three of the Gospels that are in our Holy Scriptures.
In part, the cherishing of this story would seem to come from how it spoke to the early community of Christians in their situations. They received from the apostles this story at a time when they were a small minority in a hostile environment. For living the Christian faith, many knew what it was to be beaten. Some of their friends were executed. The road to social advancement was blocked. And when disasters happened they were the most likely to be blamed. For in the Year 70, following the great fire of Rome, Nero was to use the unpopularity of the Christians so that they rather than he, the negligent Emperor, should take the blame, to be the scapegoats. And so from the on, for two and a half centuries, the response to times in which Rome’s fortunes were low, was for the cry to go up for the Christians to be fed to the lions. And so, many would perish in places such as the Coliseum for the entertainment of the majority who despised what was termed the ‘Christian superstition.’
Any battered minority looks for signs of hope. Today, we hear of Muslim women who since the bombings of July 7th are afraid to go out for fear of being abused, spat on or attacked for wearing the hijab. How much worse was the position of Christians in Rome during times when the fury of the mob was unleashed. And against that background, can we not see that the message of Jesus, spoken to frightened disciples, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” is a message of hope. And I would suggest that in our world today we need to hear that same message. In our world, battered by the waves of war, terrorism, authoritarianism and environmental neglect amongst other things, we need to that same soothing message of Jesus offering us cause not to fear. And whilst, we cannot in Britain envisage the sort of persecution experience by early Christians in Rome or indeed by some Christians on other parts of our planet, increasingly we find ourselves in a land in which secularism is expressed primarily by an indifference to matters of faith and religion with a result that Christian communities are increasingly becoming marginalized and adrift from the direction of society. And so as we seek to be faithful, we need to hear afresh those words - “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
But the story also has something to say about the risks of faith. And here, the figure of Peter comes into his own. God old impetuous Peter! Well, here we find Peter daring to take an outrageous step. He sees Jesus walking on the water and his immediate instinct is to go to Jesus. So often, we talk about faith as a mind matter. But that shortchanges faith. I rather like the description of faith that I read recently which describes faith as “like that function of the heart that gets blood to hands and feet.” In other words faith involves action with all the risks that action involves. And it is expressed in a range of ways in which people are caught up in the ways of God, even meeting God in the process. Now Peter was a man who sometimes got things wrong. That was not about to stop. He would still have his moments of failure such as when got frightened after Jesus’ arrest and he would sometimes get things wrong as Paul certainly felt he had done with regards to his attitude concerning the Gentile mission. But, he clearly has a passion for Christ. And in our Gospel Reading, we find him leaving the precariousness of the boat in order to take a crazy risk with his safety to reach out to Jesus.
Heat those words again;
“Lord, if it is you, command me to join you on the water.”
Crazy! But that is the nature of faith, not always bound by norms but daring to look beyond and to see hitherto unforeseen possibilities. It is about seeing the potential of what a rock song calls a “a crazy little thing called love” to bring about a greater and more beneficial change to our world that might or force could ever dream of!
But of course, there is no plain sailing in our story. Things go wrong. Peter begins to sink as in so many ways most of us have done at some time or other. For faith brings no guarantee against failure.
And yet, there is hope. And here the hope comes from Jesus. Reaching out to save the sinking Peter, Jesus responds to Peter’s desperate cry of “ Lord, save me” with a gentle, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
And there is the rub of the whole story. We are often far from giants of faith. Indeed sometimes I wish that people would speak less of giants of the faith for such an emphasis can only make us feel inadequate. Yet more importantly, it can take us away from the emphasis of Christ. For the message of Christ is not that we have to be giants of faith but it is that faith as small as a mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds, is faith that can be used to move mountains. And are there not a few mountains in our world and even here in North Devon that could do with moving?
So this story about Jesus is full of meaning. It’s an encouragement to us to dare to take the risks of faith for God’s Kingdom. Just as 2,000 years ago, it challenges the accepted wisdom for this faith is a faith that is so God centred that it affirms that God is so worth following that it is better to risk being drowned with God than crowned by anyone else. This faith whilst keeping a focus on Christ, doesn’t necessarily know where it is going or whether it will see success. But it does know that it is about our opening our lives to connect with God’s love and grace. And whether we discern it or not, that love transforms the world and us. And when it comes to those times when all around us seem to be too much, a voice within, speaks to us as it did to those on a boat some 2,000 years ago;
“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
And knowing he loves us unreservedly despite all the ways in which we mess up, we are able to take the risks of dabbling our feet into the water for God’s Kingdom.
Preached at Alwington on August 7th 2005. This sermon came at the end of two weeks holiday and is heavily influenced by notes from Sarah Dylan Breuer and a sermon by P. Brewer. They deserve the credit for any good points. The weaknesses are all mine!
posted by Rev Paul Martin at 2:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home