August 9, 2020: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Whenever I hear today’s gospel about Jesus walking on the water, I end up with this in my head.
[singing] “So you are the Christ. You’re the great Jesus Christ. Prove to me that you’re no fool. Walk across my swimming pool. If you do that for me, then I’ll let you go free. C’mon, King of the Jews.”Now, if you are still listening after that rendition of “King Herod’s Song,” from Jesus Christ Superstar, which likely made Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice want to sue me for destroying their intellectual property, then you are a person of great courage, which, as it happens, is important to understanding what was really going on here in the gospel, and why it matters to us…and I promise – no more singing.
So, here’s the basic story we just heard: Jesus sent his disciples away on a boat, while he went up the mountain to pray. A storm was blowing through the night, and as the light of dawn begins to break, Jesus walks across the water toward them. They were terrified. Jesus tells them it is he, and Peter challenges him, saying that if it is really Jesus, then command him to walk to him on the water. He does, Peter tries, then Peter looks at the waves, starts to sink, and Jesus has to rescue him. When they are all in the boat, the disciples proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God.
First of all, did you notice that the disciples were not afraid because of the storm? These were experienced fisherman, or at least some of them were, and they also understood that these storms were not unusual in the region. They knew what to do, and were likely more concerned and cautious, than afraid. You could hardly call yourselves fishermen if you were. But then they see something or someone walking toward them on the water. It says that they were terrified, but the Greek is more like they were “stirred up.” Sort of the biblical inverse of a James Bond martini – stirred, not shaken. They think they are seeing a ghost. So, it was when they saw Jesus, the image of someone coming through the sea in the morning light, that they were shaken to the core. I think it would terrify the best of us too.
I was watching a NY Mets game the other night (because I don’t have enough bad news to watch apparently), when one of the sportscasters, I think it was Keith Hernandez (the former Met first baseman) was lamenting how the St. Louis Cardinals had to quarantine in the Phister hotel in Milwaukee – the haunted one, he said, adding that he wouldn’t stay there, even when he played years ago. They talked a bit about the storied hotel, and Keith, a large, athletic, Hall of Famer, continued to be adamant that he would never stay there. In fact, if you look up the history of this grand hotel, it is filled with stories from sports team members, celebrities, and other folks who encountered unusual happenings in their rooms. Some ball players absolutely refuse to stay there, opting to pay their own way at another hotel. Because the Phister is one of the most haunted hotels in the world!
I totally get how they feel. Every year, the clergy in our diocese gather at The Shawnee Inn on the Delaware river in Pennsylvania for our Clergy Conference. The Shawnee is also known for being both quaint and haunted. One year, I was given a room on the first floor. It was a large suite, with a separate bedroom and living space – not the usual small rooms we typically get assigned. Now, the main ghost of the Inn is supposed to be a lady that walks around on the first floor, particularly the ballroom. Anyway, I was sound asleep the first night when at about 3am, the TV in the living room came on. Yup – all by itself. Annoyed, I got up, walked in there, turned it off, and said “Alright, listen up here ghost – I am trying to get some sleep. Go someplace else to watch TV.” I went back to the bedroom got into bed to sleep. And then my eyes popped right open and I thought – Whaaaaaatttt???? I flipped on the light in my bedroom, and slept with it on the rest of the night. Needless to say, I have since insisted on a room on a higher floor from then on.
The point being, I think a person would be lying if they said they wouldn’t have been frightened by seeing in the light of dawn what must have appeared to be a ghostly apparition coming at them across the waves. Remember, we know who it is because we have heard the story before, but put yourselves in their wet sandals for a moment. Scary, right?
Still, none of that is why they proclaim him the Son of God.
It’s kind of odd, don’t you think, that Jesus feeds 5,000 people with a few fish and loaves, but it is only after they see him walking through the storm that they claim him to be the Son of God? Remember though what Jesus said to them as he walked toward them “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” This is when knowing a little biblical Greek and Jewish history is helpful, because what he is really saying is more like “Take heart, I am, do not be afraid.” I am – that is the divine name of God – Jesus is telling them who he really is. It is what is called a theophany – a revealing of God – and THAT, THAT is the miracle that prompts the declaration from the disciples.
Yet as incredible as even that was, there is still another important thing we must not allow to get lost in the waves, particularly in the time in which we are all living today. We so often focus on the dramatic nature of Jesus walking on the water. Yet, while amazing, it isn’t the miracle we need to take to heart.
But if that isn’t the point…what is?
Did you notice that the storm didn’t go away just because Jesus was there? See – that is one thing we need to pay attention to. The presence of God, the enormity of our faith, doesn’t mean storms won’t happen. And to really get at what that means, we need to strip away what we think we know about this story. This is not, as some have thought through the centuries, about faith vs. doubt – that it’s an absurd dichotomy. As I have preached about many times, you can’t have faith without doubt. They are inseparable. No, this is about so much more. It’s about how we move through storms, and about seeing the Jesus standing in front of us in the midst of the chaos – trusting that whatever happens, for good or for bad, that we are not alone.
In the part of St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans that we heard this morning, he writes “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.” In that short sentence, St. Paul is saying quite a lot about who we are…about the very miracle Jesus hoped to reveal to his disciples. The very thing this gospel is trying to tell us, and we need to hear it now, perhaps more than ever before.
I suspect many of us feel as though we have been battered about by the worst of storms lately – proverbially, and even this week with Tropical Storm Isaias, quite literally. Just this week as many were picking up the pieces after the storm, the world remembered the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the people of Hiroshima August 6th1945, and today, August 9th in Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands in the blast, and more later from radiation poisoning.
We also heard about the explosion of a large store of ammonium nitrate in the port city of Beirut, Lebanon, an accident killing over 100 with many more missing or injured.
We continue to see more cases of COVID-19 as the death toll rises, while the economic picture for working people in this country grows even more dim, with as many as 40 million facing eviction in the wake of our country’s enormous job losses.
Here in our faith community we are in the proverbial boat staring at the waves of economic uncertainty for our parish amidst the storm of the coronavirus and its impact on our Nursery School.
There is also our constant need to fight for justice on behalf of those who suffer from the systemic racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other forms of hate and bigotry that permeate our national landscape.
And of course, many face their own personal storms – illness, depression, addiction, loss of employment, poverty, divorce, death of a loved one, and other trials that plague our very human existence, on top of all the other things.
We are in one heck of a boat in a stormy sea, and we have been for quite awhile now. Yet the miracle of the story we heard today is the good news we need to hear most in this time, and it isn’t what we may usually think. Because the miracle isn’t so much that Jesus walked on water, but that he was there!
The greatest miracle of all wasn’t that he walked on stormy seas, but that he walked on the earth! God did not dwell among us so we could be amazed at breathtaking acts…but so we could know the truth about ourselves, the truth that Jesus was revealing to them that day, the truth that Christ is always near us – always a part of us – deep within our heart, if only we stay focused on his presence – no matter the storms that abound around us, no matter the things we see that frighten us to our core.
And there is another thing too. As strangely as it worked out for Peter in this story, well, in a lot of stories about poor Peter, he and the other disciples had a lot of courage, and courage is all about faith. In the same way that faith is only faith if there is doubt, courage is only courage if there is fear. If we remember that the root of the word courage is from the Latin for heart, and bring to mind Jesus’ words “Take heart, I am…” Essentially, he tells them to “have courage, God is here.”
So, I think Jesus was really saying to Peter, “why did you get out of the boat?” because faith isn’t about doing the spectacular, but about knowing we don’t have to. We just have to have the courage to keep rowing amidst the storm with our eyes focused on the Jesus who is with us, rather than on the waves rising up around us. Remember that Peter left the others in the boat, walking on the water successfully, one foot in front of the other, until he turned his attention to the storm, and forgot about Jesus or his companions. In that moment, he lost sight of who he was, and who was with him on the journey, and the fear of facing it alone overtook him. All he had to do was to stay in the boat with his friends, and take courage in the knowledge of the presence of God with them. It wouldn’t take away the storm – and neither did Jesus – but it would make it possible to endure it with hope.
The lesson for us all is that storms are a part of our human existence. Sometimes we will have lots of them, sometimes we won’t. Yet through it all, in the still or the wind, in the storm or the calm, in the chaos or the peace – God is with us. We just have to remember that Jesus is near – on our lips and in our heart – and we will have the courageous faith we need to weather whatever comes.
And when it all just seems to be too much, and we are having trouble seeing God in our midst, that is when we need to remember the other lesson this gospel brings us. That is when we need to do as Jesus did before he met those disciples on the water – go someplace quiet to pray and reconnect with God. After feeding the 5,000, Jesus needed to recharge and rest in God’s grace. Sometimes in ministry, and life generally, we can not only think we are doing it all alone, but we get so caught up in taking care of others that we forget that ministry requires self-care. Jesus knew the crowds would not give him this, nor his disciples – he had to make it happen. If he did, then so too will we from time to time. Because only when we are rested and connected with God can we ever hope to be the body of Christ we are called to be in our lives. Only then will we be able to summon the courage he asks of us, to steadily move through the storm, knowing that he is with us.
I opened this sermon with the words of a musical number from Jesus Christ Superstar, but I would like to end with these words from the musical Carousel, written by the fabulous team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. I promise I won’t sing it.
“When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky, and the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind. Walk on through the rain, tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.”
Rodgers & Hammerstein were not writing about the presence of God, but the presence of human love – a very powerful force for good in our lives to be sure. How then more powerful is it for us to know that God’s love is always with us too?
So in the days ahead, as you walk through whatever storms abound in these turbulent times, take rest from time to time, and remember that you never walk alone.
For the miracle for us all is that Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us – and he is near to you.
He is walking with you.
So, “Walk on, walk on, with hope [and courage] in your heart” for you never walk alone.
Amen
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
August 9, 2020
Tenth Sunday After Pentecost – In A Time Of Separation
1st Reading – Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b
2nd Reading – Romans 10:5-15
Gospel – Matthew 14:22-33
