NEW TESTAMENT LESSON - Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” 28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON - Jonah 1:14-2:10
14 Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, O Lord, we pray, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not make us guilty of innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 17But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?’ 5 The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head 6at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God. 7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the
Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” 10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.
Well, since we're in the thick and the heat of the summer and all the lectionary texts this week are extremely difficult, I thought it might be fun to look at two stories that are set on the water. One is on the lake (the one that Natalie read) and one is on the sea. And they're both truly miraculous, but kind of hard to believe. Both of these stories are well known and they're a part of every good Sunday School curriculum. They have been frequently depicted in art throughout the centuries, set to music for children's choirs and have made it even into mainstream knowledge, and even some content for a few jokes. Here's one you've probably heard:
So a rabbi and a priest and a Presbyterian minister are in a boat and they challenge each other to walk across the water. You know where I'm going with this one, right? Right. And so the rabbi immediately sinks. And then the priest tries and he sinks. And then the Presbyterian minister walks on the water all the way to land. And they said, “How did you do that? Are you such a man of faith that we're, we're not as good as you?” He said, “No, I just know where all the rocks are.”
But all kidding aside, we need these miracle stories. We need miracle stories for a number of reasons. We need them to help us shore up our faith in times of doubt. We need them to give us hope when we are hopeless. We need them to give us direction when we have lost our way. The most important part of miracle stories is that they redirect and remind us that there is a presence, a being, a power, a force far greater than ourselves to get us out of the jams and the binds and the forces of life and nature when our faith is weak and even when nature is not on our side.
So let's first look at the story of Jesus and Peter. Chances are that most of us hear or remember this story with scant detail and are left just remembering two things: Jesus was able to walk on the water, because, of course, he's God; and Peter--and we--can't because we are of little faith. And I'm willing to bet that most of us hold on to that and continue to judge ourselves “not having enough faith.” Certainly, not everyone but most of us struggle just like Peter; and, as a text says, Peter asks Jesus to identify himself and challenges, really requests that Jesus command Peter to walk on water to meet up with Jesus. And Jesus does. But as soon as the wind starts to whip up, Peter immediately becomes afraid and he starts to sink. Jesus immediately rescues Peter, but what we're often left with is the potential damaging refrain of “Oh, ye of little faith” and that actually misses the whole point of this story. The beauty and the value of this story is not to highlight Peter's and our weakness, but to highlight the divine power and presence of Jesus to be with us and to overcome not only our fear and our lack of faith, but the forces that drive us even beyond ourselves into difficult and threatening places. But faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin. It's actually a marker of the Christian life. And, by the way, doubt in the Greek in this particular text does not mean skepticism. It means vacillation. Vacillation!
So, we all have places in our lives where we have no doubt that God is aware and sorting and acting and healing and saving us. But if we're honest, there are also places in our lives where we're just not quite sure what God is up to. The message, from Peter's perspective is not get it together and just have more faith. The message is that the one in whom we live and move and have our being has our backs, most especially when we are consumed by fear and doubt.
In 2011 Michael Packard was on a plane in Costa Rica and the plane crashed. The pilot and the co-pilot and one other person died and Michael Packard and four others survived the crash. They were in the jungle for three days and nights. Michael Packard had all sorts of wounds to his chest and to his abdomen. And when they were found, the rescuers felt that had they been there just another half day, they would not have survived. I wonder if he was praying some of the prayers in the Matthew story or in the story of Jonah.
Although in this case the details are actually almost reversed. Jonah's running from God and the only way to quell this angry sea is to throw Jonah, the unfaithful, overboard. The sea immediately calms, which does not increase the sailors’ faith, but exacerbates their own fears. But not Jonah--he's literally inside the belly of the fish. It says fish here, doesn't say whale, says fish. And Jonah's faith gets stirred. He prays not only for immediate release, but he worships God, acknowledging the power of God, the preciousness of God's holy temple, the gratitude for being touched to the depths of his inner being, and acknowledging his own disobedience! What incredible a model
of faith and worship while in the midst of crisis! Scholars assess his prayers and they purport that each line of his prayer is actually an echo of lines from a number of Psalms. And, as we know when we want to find words to express our gratitude or beg for God's mercy or God's help, the Psalms are a wonderful place to go. Scholars are also in agreement that Jonah, which is one of twelve of the minor wisdom books, is allegorical. It was written to display what happens when we run from God until we realize God's call in God's power and realize it's greater than our greatest fear and that both fasting and repentance are marks of faithfulness. And the story is one that helps give voice when we wrestle with God's invitations and God's actions. But is it allegorical?
Six weeks ago, the same Michael Packard, who dives for lobsters off of the tip of Provincetown, was swallowed by a whale. He was in the whale's mouth for about 30 minutes. Initially he thought that he is swallowed by a shark, but when he felt around inside the whale (And you can read this story. Just Google the story on Cape Cod Times.) he felt around and realized there were no teeth, but it was pitch dark. Thank God he had scuba equipment on. He thinks he was in the whale for about 30 minutes. And then the whale realized he was not good food and spit him out. The story went national. I'm sure many of you have heard of it already, but it does beg the question…
These miracle stories, my friends, they're not allegorical. They're real and God just showed us how serious he is about rescuing and saving us! Thanks be to God. Amen.