And Jesus said, “Take heart, I am with you.” May I speak to you in the name of the G-d who [+] who creates, redeems and sustains us? AMEN.
Today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew is familiar to many of us. The disciples are in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee and a storm arises, threatening to breach their vessel and drown them all. In the midst of that fearful scene, Jesus suddenly appears, walking on the water toward them. They are saved.
This story appears in two other gospels besides Matthew’s. Mark’s version includes the boat, the storm and the appearance of Jesus but as quickly as he climbs into the boat, the storm suddenly dissipates. Mark says this leaves the disciples completely dumbfounded. Little wonder. In John’s version of the story, the minute Jesus appears, the boat suddenly arrives at the far shore safe and sound. These are your basic miracle stories.
[Image: Ivan Aivazovsky. Walking on Water, (1888)]
Matthew’s gospel will add an additional scene in this story in which Simon Peter will dare Jesus to prove himself by asking him to command Peter to walk on the water to him. Jesus takes the bait, calling Peter to him only to have Peter freak out about halfway there and sink into the water, screaming out for help. This gives Matthew’s Jesus a chance to turn what is otherwise a miracle story into a moral lesson: “Oh you, of little faith! Why did you doubt?” And at that moment, Peter confesses once again, “OK, Jesus, you really are the Son of God.”
Translation is Everything
It’s hardly surprising that Matthew added this chapter of the story starring Peter. The authors of Matthew’s gospel always seek to promote Peter thus creating the leading role for him in the rise of what will become the Christian church. It is Matthew alone who will ultimately declare Peter to be the rock upon which Jesus would build his church, a line long used to validate the apostolic succession of popes and bishops, albeit that Jesus was not a Christian and had never heard of an institution called a church.
But this is a rich story, complete with Matthew’s addendum. It provides a number of points for us to consider. Certainly, it is tempting to read the final lines of this scene this way: If you just believe enough, you can do anything, even walk on water. Conversely, if your faith is weak, you might drown. But I think there is much more here than that.
Part of the problem with this understanding is translation, I think. The word pisteuo in 1st CE Greek, the language in which the gospels were written, is frequently translated as “belief.” For 21st CE ears, that has a lot of cognitive resonance. In the modern world, belief is assent to a set of propositions. One believes in capitalism, socialism or one of many other possibilities for political and economic systems. One believes that a particular candidate is better for elective office and casts their vote for them or, often, against the other candidate. But in all these cases, belief is a matter of the head, rarely of the heart, much less the soul.
The better translation for pisteuo is trust. Note as you think about that word how it moves the focus from the head down into the heart and ultimately into the gut. Belief is cognitive. But trust is existential. Belief is temporal. We do not believe the same things we did at earlier points in our lives and we are always capable of changing our minds. Trust is what remains when all of our understandings fail us.
Don’t Be Afraid
So let’s go back to the story. First, in all three gospels, when Jesus appears to the disciples in their storm tossed fishing boat, he says two things. First, Jesus reassures them it’s him. It’s me, he says in Matthew. But second, he quickly tells them “Don’t be afraid.”
[Image: Edward Burne-Jones, "The Morning of the Resurrection" (1886)]
The exhortation not to fear is found over 300 times in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Jesus is particularly prone to say this when he appears to his disciples after the resurrection. An encounter with the Holy can often be terrifying. As religious scholar Rudolph Otto puts it, human beings find the Holy simultaneously terrifying and fascinating. So there is a reason that when we human beings are confronted with something that overwhelms us and proves well beyond the range of our experience, we need reassurance that we will make it out of this encounter alive.
But here is where the distinction between belief and trust really appears. Jesus is not asking his disciples to believe in him. Jesus is asking his disciples to trust him. In this case, it is with their very lives. What they believe about this encounter is, at some level, beside the point. Their willingness to trust Jesus and the G_d he reveals is what Jesus seeks from them.
[Image: Yongsung Kim, “The Hand of God” (2017)]
Perhaps Matthew added this part of the story because, in truth, we all have a little bit of Peter in us. Peter doesn’t get Jesus’ call to trust him immediately. His faith journey throughout the New Testament is one of hard earned lessons. So it’s not surprising that in this story from Matthew he is seeking yet again to be convinced that Jesus is the son of G-d. Peter is stuck in his head. Seeing is believing. So he puts Jesus to a test – if you call me to walk on the water to you and I’m able to do so, I’ll believe. And that works but only for a moment.
Peter’s plunge into the waters of the Sea of Galilee speaks to what happens when our best thinking fails us. We find ourselves trapped, overwhelmed, in over our heads. And while Matthew’s Jesus uses this opportunity to scold Peter about his human failings, at a very basic level Jesus is asking a very different question from the one we commonly come away with from this story. He is not asking “Peter, why didn’t you get the belief system right?” He’s asking, “Peter, why won’t you trust me?”
Is Buying Into Propositions an Easy Out?
I think it is apparent that simply agreeing with a set of propositions is a lot easier than engaging another with absolute trust. In a society where we have been trained to see ourselves as atomistic individuals whose interests are potentially adverse to everyone around us, trust is not the way most of us engage the world. Consider the way we talk about our commercial exchanges: Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware, an understanding that lets the seller off the hook for being honest with the public at the same time we agree to let paranoia be the lens through which we see others.
But as I see it, faith cast solely in terms of cognitively buying into a set of ideas is an easy out for those called by Jesus to existentially trust the G_d he reveals. And yet, that is what Jesus asks us to do. As he said to the disciples, Do not be afraid. I am with you. Note that the most important part of Jesus’ statement to his disciples is simply, “Hey, guys, it’s me. I’m with you.” It’s only then that he tells them they don’t have to be afraid. And it’s only then that they are able to even consider letting go of their fear.
If there is anything that we should take away from this Gospel today, it is that. The Holy One is with us. Always. Everywhere. Even at the moments when we find ourselves in over our heads, flailing away in fear of drowning, G_d is present. And while that may or may not take away our justified fears at the moment, it is a comfort to know that even as we suffer, we do not do so alone. The presence of G_d often comes to us in completely unexpected ways, in the kindness of strangers, the reassurance of loved ones, the unexpected rescue from danger and the occasional experience of the band of guardian angels who circle around each of our heads.
It was Jesus’ custom to teach using parables, stories which pose questions for his listeners but does not provide them with the answers. This is a pattern which demonstrates great confidence in his listeners to hear, reflect and come to understandings of their own that will allow them to wrestle with the points Jesus was making. So here are some questions that I think naturally arise from this lesson that I would leave you with.
· Can you identify times when you have opted for simply believing a set of ideas about Jesus rather than trusting in his presence in your life?
· What might it take for you to enter into an existential trust of the Holy?
· When we refuse to trust the others we encounter in the world around us, what are we presuming about them and why? How do those presumptions impact our lives and theirs?
· And finally, can we come to hear the Gospel stories of Jesus with new ears, holding our inherited understandings at bay long enough to consider what Jesus might be calling us to hear at this time?
I close with an adaptation of today’s collect that I hope will give you some fuel for the fires of your own reflections. Let us pray:
Holy One, we pray for the spirit to trust you in all things, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[Sermon preached on Pentecost XI, August 13, 2023, St. John’s Episcopal, Saugus, MA]
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.
Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi
For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston, 2023
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1 comment:
Thanks, Harry. This one really hit the spot with me.
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