Sermon for August 9, 2020 Pentecost 10 A House of Prayer Lutheran Church
Matthew 14:22-33 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
I recently learned that the son of a school classmate of mine is a sailor aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier--and that last week this aircraft carrier (along with the USS San Jancinto, a cruiser that accompanies it) passed 200 consecutive days at sea without making a port call. That’s almost 7 months. The previous record was 160 days! It is unusual for a ship to run that long at sea--but this extraordinary record was made necessary because of the coronavirus pandemic. They didn’t want to unnecessarily endanger any of the sailors with covid exposure. And the Eisenhower is still at sea--although they are finally on their way home, somewhere off the coast of Spain. They have been allowed no onboard visitors, none of the sailors has touched land, and they won’t until they reach their home port in Virginia.
200 days and counting at sea is probably not a record anyone wants to make, though I’m sure they are proud of achieving such a challenging accomplishment. But how do you make it through something like that? Bruce Krakau told me that sailors are issued 2 beers for every 100 days at sea--but that is probably not enough of an incentive. It’s only by working together, following their Captain, each person counting on the other to do their job, to stay united, to keep their eyes on the goal and, through all the unpredictability of waves and wind, doing whatever needs to be done to get there.
The ship or boat is one of the earliest symbols of Christianity, which makes sense when you consider that many of the first disciples were fishermen. But beyond that, it’s a powerful symbol because of what a boat does. It is a vehicle that, in the hands of a crew working together, can safely bring you to the “other side”, through the adversity of life, the unpredictability of waves and winds, as the people of God carry the grace and love of God to others.
The Sea of Galilee itself has a reputation a bit like Lake Michigan’s--fierce winds and waves can whip up quickly and unexpectedly. So after the feeding of the 5,000 (which we heard about last week), when Jesus asks the disciples to get in a boat and sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, he knew the challenges that lay ahead of them--and he had faith in their ability to work together and do it. So when the storm struck and they were battered by the waves, the disciples kept at their posts all through the night. They counted on each other and did their jobs. Well, that is, eleven of the twelve disciples did--all except Peter.
Because when Jesus appeared in the morning, walking on the water toward them on the sea, all the disciples were terrified. Wouldn’t you be, if you saw what they saw?!? They cried out in fear. And Jesus spoke to encourage them: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” More to the point he was saying “take heart, I AM”--using the way God describes himself in the Old Testament, as the Creator who is in ultimate control: I AM WHO I AM.
And for eleven of the disciples, that heavenly encouragement was enough to keep them doing what Jesus had asked them to do--that is, sail the ship. But not Peter. Peter echoes the words of Satan who tempted Jesus in the desert: “IF IT IS YOU, command me to come to you on the water.” He’s putting the Lord to the test. Surprisingly, Jesus says, “Go ahead!”
Unsurprisingly, things don’t work out well for Peter. He starts walking on the water, immediately gets frightened by the strong wind, and begins to sink. He’s put himself at risk and calls out, “Lord, save me!” SOS! And Jesus saves him; he reaches out his hand and catches him. Not only had Peter put himself at risk--he put his fellow disciples at risk, too. They were depending on him to pull his weight to keep the ship sailing in the storm. And he was the head disciple. What would have happened if they had followed his lead, and they all tried walking on the water toward Jesus? They might have lost the ship! It might have swamped in the storm! But thankfully, the other eleven disciples kept their faith in what Jesus had asked them to do, until eventually they made it through. The wind ceased, the waves calmed, and--for the very first time in the gospel--they worshiped Jesus as the Son of God, the One who is more powerful than even the winds and waves and sea.
These past several months, maybe we feel like we are at sea, and can’t quite reach land. Sometimes maybe we feel like we’ve got things under control, but the wind and waves of this pandemic keep whipping up and making life more challenging. This pandemic is dragging a lot longer than we hoped or realized, and it can become a whole lot easier to be like Peter than like the other eleven, to lose sight of the encouragement Jesus has for us, to forget about the faith Jesus has in us. This is understandable. I actually think it’s kind of amazing that only Peter lost focus when Jesus walked on water during this storm. They were all terrified, but only Peter stopped doing what Jesus asked them to do.
Peter is someone a lot of us can identify with in a time like we are living through, because there’s a lot of people who are really struggling. Some statistics I recently read tell the story: Last summer 1 in 12 Americans reported symptoms of anxiety disorder. Now it's 1 in 3. 53% of American adults believe the pandemic is taking a toll on their mental health, including 68% of African-Americans. 36% of Americans report that coronavirus-related worry is interfering with their sleep. 18% more easily lose their temper. 32% say it leads them to over or under eat. [New York Times, We’ve Hit a Pandemic Wall by Jennifer Senior, 8/5/20]
That’s a lot of stuff people are dealing with--and these statistics almost certainly include many of us who are gathered here today. So I want you to know that you are not alone. Jesus is here with you; your brothers and sisters in Christ are here for you; and your pastor is here for you. Christ has made us to be “every person for each other”--so we can support one another, we can be gracious and merciful with one another. Like those disciples on the Sea of Galilee, or the sailors on the USS Eisenhower, we’ll get through this together.
And I want to encourage you with the promises of Christ, the One who is more powerful than the wind and waves and sea, the One whose cross and resurrection have even defeated the power of sin and death forever. He is here to meet you when you think you’ve got to try walking on water but instead fall into the sea of life. He’ll reach out his hand and catch you with the grace of God--and then you can share that same grace of God with someone else.
Our faith does not require us to try walking on water. Leave the walking on water to Jesus--I mean, he’s the only one who can do it, anyway. What we learn from Peter is that when we’re in trouble and cry out for help, Jesus hears us and reaches his arm down to save us. What we learn from the eleven disciples who stayed in the boat is that our faith doesn’t ask us to do the impossible--it simply asks us to look to Jesus, and do the little things day by day that Jesus asks us to do. These little things have the promises of God in them: stay connected to your brothers and sisters in Christ; pray; worship; listen for how God’s Word is speaking to you; remember that God has claimed you through Baptism as a beloved child forever; receive the presence of Christ in bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
These little things are all in the boat Jesus has built for us, the boat that we call the Church. We’re all in this boat together, and it will carry us to the other side. Amen.