At the base of everything that we do in this life there is an element of faith. From the moment we rise in the morning to the moment we lay ourselves down to sleep. A faith that we will continue to move ever onward, toward, something. From starting our cars to eating our meals to loving our spouses, everything has an element of faith. And the same can be said for every aspect of a church service. We have faith that when we show up God will be there also. We have faith that when we lift our voices in song God will be worshiped We have faith that when we raise up our prayers that God will hear and that God will care. We have faith that there is knowledge to be gained from this really old book, which by and large isn’t the easiest thing to read or understand in the first place. We have faith that the pastor will get up here to preach and that what he has to say will be what God wants us to hear, as long as we can stay awake to hear it. We have faith that God is somewhere there at all.
And speaking specifically of sermons faith lies at the base of every sermon, and this one a little bit more so. As I said last week for the next three weeks I will be preaching about the six words at the end of each service outline. Real Faith. Real Love. Real People. So, today is about faith, because faith is at the base of everything we do and it should be at the base of everything that we are trying to be as followers of Jesus. Whenever I start thinking about a sermon I start with trying to figure out which scripture should be used. I immediately thought of Matthew 8 and the story of the centurion. You may remember it, a centurion has a servant, or perhaps a son, who is sick, dying, and he comes to Jesus and speaks of authority and asks Jesus to save his servant, son. Jesus says that he is healed and the centurion believes and goes on his way. Jesus responds by saying that no one in Israel has the faith that this gentile has. But as I was delving into the scripture I realized that it was not talking about the faith that I wanted to talk about this morning. It talks about the faith in Jesus to do something, which is a faith that we should have, after all with God all things are possible and we need to believe that. But what I really wanted to talk about was having faith, as in belief.
To that end I consulted the smartest person I know and Mary suggested that Matthew 14 may be a better text for what I had on my heart to say. Turns out she was right, which whether or not I like to admit it, she usually is. So this morning we are going to be looking at the 14th chapter of Matthew, specifically verses 22 through 36, feel free to turn there in your Bibles, if you would like.
Matthew 14:22-36
Jesus has just finished feeding more than five thousand people with a small amount of food. I assume that Jesus is tired, worn out by the miracle that he has just provided, so he tells his disciples to get in the boat and cross to the other side while he dismisses the crowds and goes up on the mountain to pray. Jesus prays for a long time, a common occurrence for Jesus, if you notice in the Bible whenever Jesus goes to pray a lot of things happen, so they couldn't have been just short prayers. Anyway, Jesus prays and by the time he finishes the disciples are quite a bit of ways from the shore and a storm has come up, a storm that, depending on the version, batters or even torments the small boat.
I believe that today’s scripture gives us a real faith road-map It lets us know how we get to a place of having real faith and it shows us the three things that real faith requires of us.
The first marker on our map is that there are times in life where you are going to be alone. Sometimes you will be alone even in the midst of a group. The first thing I want to point out to you is that this is the first time that the disciples have been sent out without Jesus. So for the disciples in the boat the God with us is no longer with them.
The second marker on our road-map the second truth is that when you are alone sometimes troubles will come. The next thing to notice is that the boat is battered; it is tormented by the sea. Jesus has left the disciples to fend for themselves and they are being beat up. This often happens to us as individuals and also to us as a church. We feel alone and battered upon the seas of life. We are abandoned by those who are meant to love and care for us. Our bodies which once gave us so much freedom seem to be becoming prisons for our souls. The dreams that once gave us hope lay as reminders of what we have never accomplished and most likely never will. Things are dark, the waters are choppy, the wind is rough and we are in the midst of being thrown overboard and we need help.
The third marker is that when you are in the midst of trouble help might come in surprising ways. It is in this midst of struggle that Jesus re-enters the picture, but not as you might first imagine. Jesus enters as a shadowy figure that the disciples don’t even recognize. The NIV tells us that it is during the fourth watch when the shadowy Jesus shows up, which means it is about 3 in the morning. It has been a long and treacherous night for the disciples, they have fought for their very lives and now they see what they first identify as a ghost. It is not surprising that they cowered in fear. Nor is it that much of a surprise that they don’t notice that Jesus is Jesus. After all this is the first time that they have seen Jesus walk on water, it has been hours since they last saw him, and he told them to cross over without him. If it was me I would expect Jesus to meet me on the other side, not out in the middle.
The fourth marker is that when the help comes you need to be able to recognize it. Maybe you’ve heard the following story before, but I feel that it is worth repeating it. A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says "Get in, get in!" The religious man replies, "No, I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle." Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in God and God will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again, because "God will grant him a miracle." With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grant me a miracle and I have been let down." St. Peter chuckles and responds, "I don't know what you're complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter."
The fifth marker is that when help comes, even if it is recognizable, we are allowed to question it. Jesus comes walking on the water and they are afraid, but then Jesus speaks. He tells them to have courage, that it is him, that they do not need to be afraid. And Peter opens up his mouth, and questions Jesus. Peter is the first one to talk a lot of times in the gospels. He is the one who puts his foot in his mouth again and again, at the same time he is the one that Jesus says he will build his church upon. Peter is the one that the Catholic Church considers the first Pope. Peter questions Jesus, is it really you, if it is let me come out there with you. Questions are all right to have. God is big enough to handle whatever questions you have for him. You may generally question why there is evil in this world. Or you may have specific questions about why someone died or what you should do with your life. You may not always get the answer you want, you may not get any answer at all, but ask the questions that you need to ask. There are over 30 thousand denominations in Christianity, that is a lot of people asking a lot of questions and coming to different conclusions, yet we still all believe in Jesus, all follow him as best we know how.
The sixth marker is that after our questions are answered we must be willing to get out of the boat. Yes Peter asked the question, but once its answered then you still have to get out of the boat. Believing in Jesus is nothing if you don’t start following Jesus. Claiming Jesus died for you is nothing, if you don’t then start living your life the way he has shown you. Knowing Jesus is nothing if you aren't willing to put your money where you mouth is and start moving. If you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat. The question then, is what is your boat? John Ortberg lays it out this way “Your boat is whatever represents safety and security to you apart from God himself. Your boat is whatever you are tempted to put your trust in, especially when life gets a little stormy. Your boat is whatever keeps you so comfortable that you don’t want to give it up even if it’s keeping you from joining Jesus on the waves.” Maybe you boat is a job, or a relationship, or success or secrecy or this church. What is holding you back from following Jesus just a little bit closer? If you know the answer, get out, move on, and walk on water. It’s dangerous; you might fail, but walk anyway.
Which brings us to the seventh marker, which is that if you are willing to get out of the boat you still might fail, but failure is not a period, just a comma. Failure is not a period, just a comma. Failure is not a period, just a comma.
I spent my teen years in West Virginia. We got quite a bit of bad weather in the winter and so I was used to driving in less than ideal conditions. Point of fact the year I got my learner’s permit there was a mid March blizzard and so I partly learned to drive in snow. I know that if you drive a little slower and are a little more aware you will be just fine. But then a weird thing happened a few years ago. Mary and I were planning on visiting her family in Ohio, and we ended up getting a weekend with a snowstorm. The conditions were awful, snow and wind and ice and we started on our way after I got off of work. Before we even set out I didn't want to go, I was concerned about the weather and driving conditions and felt very uneasy.
As we set out in a snail’s pace we would pass car after car that had run off the road and each time I would feel a little worse and a little worse, my stomach started going crazy, my breathing was short, in other words I was having a panic attack, for the first time in my life, I wasn't even the one driving. After almost two hours we arrived at the Gas City exit, normally the trip takes about 20 minutes from Anderson, and we decided to stop for the night and set out the next day. The next day wasn't much better for me, so Mary once again drove, the roads in Indiana were awful, but as soon as we hit Ohio the roads were perfectly fine. It was the worst car ride of my life, and if it hadn't been for Mary being there trying to comfort me, I don’t know what would have happened. Since that day I have had quite a few more times when I was quite concerned getting behind the wheel during bad weather.
My point in bringing this up is that Peter has been in a boat a lot of times over the years. Jesus called him from a boat, he saw Jesus command the wind and the waves in a boat, but here he is and things have taken an unexpected turn. Peter is out of his comfort zone right in the middle of his comfort zone. And then he gets out on the water and things at first go just fine. But if you ever risk something it is possible that you may not get what you want. Peter gets out of the boat and wants to walk with Jesus, but then he focuses on things that are not Jesus. Matthew writes that Peter noticed the wind…it’s a storm and Peter notices the wind. What’s more amazing that Peter notices the wind when he is walking on the water or that he didn’t notice it when he was paying attention to Jesus? I would say the latter, when you are walking in the midst of the storm it would be hard to not notice the storm. So Peter notices the wind, and he starts to sink.
But, then you have the eighth marker, which is that if you end up failing, ask for help. I think that the smartest thing that Peter does in this whole section is that when he starts to sink he cries out to Jesus for help. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that when I started to pray about having to lead worship I felt a little better about it. I must confess that the entire time I was panicking in the car I don’t remember praying, I wasn't smart enough to know where to turn, I wasn't smart enough to ask the right person for help. I tried to close my eyes, tried to block out the storm, instead I sank. If you’re in trouble ask for help. If you are in pain, go to a doctor. If you are lonely call a friend. If you are lost, consult a map or ask for directions. If you don’t know the answer, call a lifeline. There is help all around us that we never reach out for.
The ninth, and last marker is that if/when help comes name it. Peter was smart enough to ask for help, and of course Jesus gave it. And Jesus, being the teacher that he is uses the moment to ask Peter a question of his own, why do you doubt? We don’t get the answer, but we do get the response from the group as a whole. They worshiped him, saying that truly he was the Son of God.
As I said at the beginning these markers, this scripture, is a road-map It is the directions that we need in order to have real faith. Because real faith requires three things, it requires vision, it requires movement, and it requires trust.
If we are to have real faith we must have vision. When we are in the midst of struggle we must have a vision that exceeds our circumstances. It is not enough to know that we are in trouble; we must also recognize that we have been in trouble before and gotten past it. We must recognize that the God who has gone with us before continues to go with us today. We must see that there is help, and sometimes it comes in the form of a boat or a helicopter, not in a 'miracle'. We must look for Jesus in every circumstance, because if you aren't looking for him, you just might miss him.
If we are to have real faith we must have movement. We cannot be willing to stay in our boat, to stay where we are comfortable. We must be willing to risk a lot in order to gain so much more. Our little church will only ever be a little church if everyone of us is not willing to get out of the boat for the chance to walk on water. What traditions are you willing to give up so that this church can reach our world in a better way? What songs can we stop singing, what clothes can we stop wearing, what actions can we start doing, what love can we start showing?
Finally if we are to have real faith we must have trust. Trust that God will continue to walk alongside, to lead, to show, to guide us to the place he has for this specific church in this specific place at this specific time. We must also trust each other; trust that what we all want is for this church to be God’s church, for this people to be God’s people, for this time to be God’s time.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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