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“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:22-33
Have you learned how to walk on water yet? On Tuesday, Tropical Storm Isaias delivered 8 inches of rain to Collegeville and Phoenixville. My husband John went out in it and dug a trench in our front yard, diverting a small river from pouring into our basement. It’s not just the Tropical Storm, it’s everything. We’re in the sixth month of COVID, of wearing masks, keeping distance, washing hands, being careful, not visiting family and friends. It’s become our new normal for we are very aware of the tragic and deadly consequences of the virus. Add to it the protests and political turmoil taking place because of 400 years of racism, for our nation continues to judge others, not by the content of their character, but by the amount of melanin in their skin. Given all this, a night boat trip across the Sea of Galilee seems like a vacation.
After a demanding day of healing, blessing and feeding 5,000 men plus women and children, Jesus tells his disciples to get in a boat and head across the Sea of Galilee. He then dismisses the crowd and climbs a mountain for some alone time with God. The disciples are about half way across the sea, when the wind picks up, battering the boat about. Throughout the night they fight for control, reefing sails, struggling at the helm, bailing, and when the gale shifted, redistributing their weight to help the boat take the swells without capsizing.[i]
We can feel their fear. We make plans and set a course, only to have it change, not once but over and over again. Try this, try that. Do what worked yesterday, only to find out it doesn’t today. In the past six months we have had to figure out a whole new way of living – of being family, church, and community. Many are doing this all alone, isolated from family and friends. Others are caught in a financial free-fall and still others have gotten sick, or are grieving the death of beloved ones. I have to brace myself when I turn on the news. You too?
That night, on the sea, Jesus’ disciples first think he’s a ghost, perhaps coming for them as they drown in the deep. But then he calls out, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” The whole gospel is wrapped up in his words. Jesus is with them. Jesus is with us in the storm, in the pandemic, in the fight for justice, in all the challenges and changes that seem overwhelming. Do not be afraid.[ii]
Then there’s Peter. You gotta love Peter. He blurts out what many of us are thinking, “If it’s you Lord, let me in on the miracle, let me walk on the water too.” His is a bold request which comes from Peter’s profound recognition that whatever Jesus commands, Jesus makes possible. Jesus tells Peter, “Come.” And Peter steps out of the boat and begins to walk toward him. Of this Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Peter had to leave the ship and risk his life on the sea, in order to learn both his own weakness and the almighty power of his Lord. If Peter had not taken the risk, he would never have learned the meaning of faith…The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus.” Bonhoeffer goes on: “Only the one who believes is obedient, and only the one who is obedient believes. Faith is only real where there is obedience, never with out it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”[iii]
Over the years I’ve witnessed this interconnection of faith and obedience with our Confirmation students. When they did something – stood up and preached, fed the hungry, cared for a brokenhearted friend, served on the Bible School Staff, went on a mission trip – in other words when they were obedient to Jesus’ command to love one another – that’s when their faith blossomed. They were learning how to walk on water.
Jesus tells Peter to step out on the water, he obeys, one step, then another, but then he looks down, sees the waves churning beneath his feet and begins to sink, crying out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus reaches down, grabs his hand and says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When his disciples falter, Jesus saves them, saves Peter, saves you and me. Jesus is like my mother who when I was a child and fell, scraping my knee or a friend hurt my feelings, and I went running home. She’d listen, wash the tears, clean wound, put on a band-aid and then sent me back out to play. She had faith in me when I didn’t have it in myself.
I was ordained on August 10, 1980, 40 years ago, at my home congregation, St. Paul’s Lutheran in Allentown, a most wonderful day. A month earlier, I’d begun serving at St. Bartholomew’s in Trenton. It was a hectic time. So, it wasn’t until August 11th, that I took a good look at the church including the worn-out furnace, the uneven sidewalks that were a lawsuit waiting to happen, the dirt parking lot which became muddy mess after every rain and the ancient mimeograph machine. Then I looked at the finances and discovered there wasn’t enough money to pay my salary at the end of the month. I panicked, called my internship supervisor, Pastor John Cochran, who listened to my fears, let me go on and on. Then he said “Do the mission. The money will come.” He was teaching me how to walk on water.
That’s what we’re called to do. But we’re not walking on just any water, we walk on the water of our baptism, on the seeds of faith planted by God’s grace, nourished by God’s love, that grow in obedience to God’s commands, and bear fruit far beyond our expectations. Trusting this, having faith is the way through the storm, the pandemic, the turmoil, through times of transition and change, whatever the challenges and difficulties we face. Martin Luther wrote, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that we can stake our lives on it a thousand times.”[iv] One step, then another, and before even we realize it, we’re walking on water. Amen.
[i][i] Thomas H. Troeger, The Season of Pentecost, New Proclamation, Series A, 1999, Easter Through Pentecost, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999, 180
[ii] Charles B. Cousar, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year A, Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, 440-441.
[iii] Dietrick Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, New York, MacMillan Publishing, 1963, 68-69.
[iv] Martin Luther, Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, http://www.fwponline.cc/v1n1/v1n1luther.html