Last week we celebrated the Feast of
the Transfiguration. And while that was a good and proper thing to
do (or, as the people in the BCP study learned, it was “very meet
and right so to do”), it took us out of our normal cycle of gospel
readings. So I'll take a minute here and get us back up to speed.
Two weeks ago we heard the last set of
kingdom parables. The kingdom of heaven is like a lot of different
stuff – the discovery of buried treasure, finding one thing you do
well, a tree full of beautiful, messy birds. That is followed by two
stories not told in the lectionary, one being Jesus' difficulty in
his home town, and the other being the beheading of John the Baptist.
Today's gospel follows immediately
after the feeding of the 5000 men plus women and children, which we
would have heard last week had it not been for the Feast of the
Transfiguration. After hearing the news of John's execution, Jesus
goes off alone only to be tracked down by the crowds. Once gathered,
he spends the rest of the day healing those who were sick. As the
day is coming to a close we are given the story of the mass feeding.
And this is where we pick up the story today.
Immediately after the leftover food is
collected, Jesus makes the disciples get into a boat to cross over to
the other side while he dismissed the crowd and goes up the mountain
to pray. There he spends the night alone. The disciples, meanwhile,
have spent all night on the water battling a storm.
In the morning Jesus comes to them
walking on the water, terrifying the disciples. Peter demands Jesus
bid him to come out of the boat. He does, Peter walks on water,
begins to sink, is saved, gets put back in the boat, and the storm
ceases.
As usual I could talk about all kinds
of things in this story – Was it a theophany? Is it a misplaced
post-resurrection story? Is it a testing of God? And on and on.
But wrapped up in all of these interpretations or understandings or
explanations is the ultimate question for us today and for all
Christians in all times: What does this story have to say to me
today? So I'm going to skip talking about the miraculous aspect of
this story and focus on three things that have value for us today.
First should be the obvious fact that
following Christ is not always easy. As disciples, we may be asked
to do any number of things for which we feel we aren't prepared,
qualified, or even remotely ready. We also may be asked to do
something for which we believe we are well-qualified, but once we
undertake the mission we discover we weren't as ready as we thought
we were.
Jesus sent the disciples out on ahead
of him. Some were experienced sailors. Most were probably not. As
the boat heads out onto the water a storm erupts; and the disciples,
fighting a losing battle, are taken further away from shore. Doing
what Jesus asks us to do can be hard, and it can feel like we're
fighting a losing battle. Have you been asked to participate in the
life of the church only to feel like you're being battered by a
storm, not able to do what you were asked to do? Or maybe you've
been asked to participate in the life of the parish only to decline
because you are afraid of the unknown? Discipleship is hard, but
Jesus is commanding us to get into the boat.
The next point comes from Peter.
“Lord,” he said, “if it is you command me to come to you on the
water.” This touches on the idea of discernment.
As disciples we are all called to use
our time, talent, and treasure for the good of the kingdom.
Sometimes that's relatively easy – it doesn't take much effort, for
instance, to contribute from our surplus to the life of the church.
Sometimes it's self-evident, such as a gifted musician sharing their
talents with the music ministry. Other times it can be difficult –
creating an intentional line item on your personal budget as a pledge
or taking a risk and participating in something in which you've never
participated before. And other times we need to be called by Jesus.
That calling can be as terrifying as
asking Peter to get out of the boat in the middle of a storm. We
need to pay attention to these calls, though. We need to make sure
that it is indeed Jesus who is calling us to step out of our comfort
zone. If we don't, we may simply be confirming our own desires, such
as the Mormon missionary in “Book of Mormon” who was absolutely
convinced that he was called to serve the people of Orlando, or
anyone else, for that matter, who makes God to be a perfect replica
of their own desires and hatreds. But there's another reason there,
and that is that if we don't discern a calling from Jesus, we're
likely to sink without ever walking on water or being rescued. In
other words, we need to spend time determining if this is really what
Jesus is asking us to do, or are we trying to make our wishes come
true? “Lord, if it is you . . .”
The final point is to notice the chaos
of the storm and when it ceased. Please note that this does not mean
that as soon as you welcome Jesus to be in your midst that life gets
easy. That is not the point and that is certainly not true. Here
are a two biblical examples and two real world examples for you.
Jonah boarded a ship to escape God.
The problem with that is that God is everywhere. A storm arose
nearly sinking it. When the crew finally agreed to heed God by
tossing Jonah overboard, the storm ceased. Today's story is a
reverse Jonah where the storm ceases after the man in the water and
God, in the person of Jesus Christ, board the boat. There's
something about the calm of God's presence.
The first real world example is from my
own life. Once upon a time a priest took me to lunch and said, “You
need to go to seminary.” I won't give all the details here, but
immediately my life got very chaotic, like I was in the middle of a
storm. That storm quieted down after I agreed to heed this call.
The second real world example comes
from just down the road, right here, right now.
The gospel story features the disciples
in a boat. Traditional church buildings are built as upside down
boats. This building is a boat full of disciples. The disciples in
the gospel faced a fierce storm, the storm of chaos, that threatened
to overtake them and drown them. In our world right now, a storm of
chaos rages around us. In our world, that storm is threatening to
destroy the goodness that overcame the raging waters of chaos in the
first place.
Not far from here on the campus of the
University of Virginia a group of right wing, anti-Semitic, white
supremacists gathered to spew their chaotic storm of hatred. That
storm has been brewing for hundreds of years and it has once again
been whipped to life by the winds of hate and exclusion.
Jesus may have walked n the stormy
waters of Galilee and calmed that storm; but Jesus is also God
incarnate, the great I AM who is and was and will ever be. And right
here, right now, Jesus is walking through the chaotic storm raging
around us and this boat.
Jesus has boarded this boat. This boat
will not be capsized by the storm of hate. This boat will not be
sunk by the sin of white supremacy and exclusion or any other sin
that tries to destroy the goodness of all God's creation. Jesus has
boarded this boat and it will sail in peace.
But we still have far to go. Jonah
spent three days in the belly of a fish and still had to fulfill his
mission. The disciples still had to cross over to the other side of
the water. I still had to go through the process leading to
ordination. And we, as followers of Christ, as people who follow the
God of love, as people who vow to respect the dignity of every human
being still have much work to do in making that vision and mission a
reality.
We are being called by Christ in the
midst of a storm to offer our selves, our souls, and bodies for the
good of the kingdom. Some of that will be done through our time,
talent, and treasure. Some of that will be done by being called to
new ministries. And some of that will be done by standing up to and
naming chaotic storms that threaten to overcome and sink the people
of God by saying, “Not in this boat.”
Because in this boat the peace of God
through Christ is more powerful than the forces of any hate-driven
storm. In this boat, Christ reigns. In this boat, love wins.
As with Peter, Jesus is calling to us
over the noise of the storm and the raging waters of chaos. How will
we respond?
Amen.
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