On Sunday - Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "Weathering the Storm "
Date: August 7, 2005
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Matthew 14:22-33

A couple of confirmation classes back—it might have been 2002 or even 2000—in one session I asked the teens what they would change about our church if they could.  One replied, “Build a bridge across the street from the senior high room to the Youth Center!”

Now you need to know the senior high Sunday School class is on the second floor in the far back southeast corner of the Christian Education wing, over the nursery.  Technically, it would be possible to build a bridge over to the Youth Center.  Actually, it would be more cost-effective to put a tightrope between the two buildings.  You could have someone on the other side yelling, “Don’t look down!  Keep your eyes on me!  Look up!  Look ahead.”

Which is very similar to what happened in the middle of today’s Gospel lesson.  Jesus, trying to get a little time by himself for prayer and meditation and rest after feeding such a huge crowd, retreated up into the mountains.  During the night, he became aware of the fierce winds, which had caused the disciples’ boat to be carried farther out to sea.  So early in the morning—defined in the Greek texts as being between 3 and 6 a.m.—Jesus walked across the water toward the boat.  The disciples were terrified.  Who of us wouldn’t have been if we had been in a fishing boat being tossed to and fro on a restless sea? 

Then Peter steps out of the senior high classroom on the tightrope and says, “Jesus, if it really is you, prove it.  Let me walk across this rope—which I’ve never done before—and you rescue me on the other side.”  But halfway across the rope, Peter looks down.  “Oh my God!!  That street is two stories below.  And look at the cars and trucks parked on it!  If I fall down, I’ll be killed!  Oh, there goes my balance!!”

Of course, Peter was trying to walk on the water like Jesus, not across a tightrope, but the end result is the same.  He wasn’t able to accomplish it on his own, so “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him…”

Many commentators over the years, and more sermons than you and I have heard together, have talked about this story being one of Peter’s little faith.  Why, Jesus even says that himself:  “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Personally, I think Peter had it all wrong.  I would never have asked Jesus to prove anything by letting me walk on water, or across a tightrope.  Once Jesus said to the frightened disciples who thought he was a ghost, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid”, I would have said to Jesus, “Come on the rest of the way.  Get into the boat with us.”  Because that’s what ultimately happened.  The wind ceased when Jesus and the sinking Peter entered the boat.  “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

A major concern of this episode appears to be a continuing concern throughout Matthew’s gospel.  Who is Jesus?  By the end of the story, by watching Jesus work with Peter to first calm him, then the others in the boat, by observing Jesus’ command of the forces of nature, the disciples are moved to confession of faith.  The identity of Jesus is seen through his actions.  He had the power and authority to handle the situation, make the winds to cease, and calm the disciples.  Truly, this was the Son of God, a statement echoed by the Roman centurion at his crucifixion.

The question for us today and any day that we are being buffeted by the forces of the storm is, who do we want in our boat?  Family and friends might assure you.  Medical and mental professionals can provide wonderful support.  But who is the ultimate being we would want to be with us in every storm of life?

One of the resolutions approved at the United Church of Christ General Synod last month is one which I hope would be pleasing to you.  It is entitled “Reaffirming Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior.”  Apparently the presenters of the original resolution did not feel enough credence was being given to Jesus, so the resolution recognizes that the United Church of Christ Constitution “acknowledges as its sole head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior,” and the General Synod “celebrates and affirms our Church’s faith in Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, whose true humanity and divinity are declared in our Constitution, liturgies,…” etc.

Nearly two thousand years after Jesus walked across the water to the boat in the storm and rescued Peter from sinking, after the disciples confirmed that truly he was the Son of God, we make the same proclamation in 2005.  This is who we want in our boat.

The storms will come up, make no doubt about that.  Strong faith in Jesus as the Christ is no guarantee you will escape unscathed. 

• When the doctor comes out of surgery to talk to the family in the waiting room, or, when the doctor walks up to your hospital bedside and you look up imploringly.
• When you get the phone call from the police after you’ve already gone to bed about your teenager or college student.
• When the boss calls you in with a somber face, and a half hour later you find yourself packing your office belongings in a cardboard box before you head home.  (I once had a church member stop by here to see me before he even told his wife.)
• When your spouse tells you all the little differences you thought the two of you were working through really aren’t, and he or she wants to live separately.  And the kids can stay with you.
• When you find out your supposed best friend is telling others things you had told in confidence, or the friend is telling absolute untruths about you.
• When you stand at the hospital bedside of your beloved parent, sibling, spouse or child, and watch the bellows on the respirator rise and fall as they are incapable of breathing on their own.

That’s when you look across the water and sometimes don’t have the strength to get out of the boat to walk across to Jesus.  That’s when you need Jesus to come to you and enter your boat and bring whatever calm he can to your tortured and troubled situation.

“You’ve just got to have faith,” well-meaning friends sometimes urge upon us when we are faced with some storm in life.  “Venture forth.  Be a hero.  Dismiss your doctors and have faith that prayer will heal you!  Don’t plan what to do next, just close your eyes and jump and demand that God catch you before you fall.”

But maybe faith, great faith, is that calm, unheroic, but still impressive conviction that enables you to stay at your place in the boat, even though there’s a storm, confident that you don’t have to come to Jesus.  In good time, he’ll come to you.

He stands there.  And you’re aware of his presence.  He says simply, “Hush!” to the waves.  And they do.  And at that moment, when all is strangely still and your faith is vindicated, you are able to say, “Truly you are the Son of God.”