Lessons from the Lake

Last Sunday’s reading from Matthew is very familiar to most of us. The story of Jesus walking on the water appears in three different gospels. Both Mark and the Gospel of John feature the story of Jesus striding across the freshwater Sea of Galilee where Jesus’ fishermen disciples made their living, eventually getting into the boat with his disciples. Only Matthew adds the piece with Peter getting out of the boat.

 “You Cannot Change the Laws of Physics…”

It’s hardly surprising that a story which requires the listener to buy into a suspension of laws of geophysics would stick in our memories. Everyone knows that the weight of the human body is more than enough to prevent anyone from being able to stand up on the surface of any body of water. Even in the Earth’s densest body of water, the highly saline Dead Sea some 88 miles down the Jordan River to the south, which allows human bodies to float without assistance on the water’s surface - even there human bodies simply cannot walk on water

The Gospel writers are clearly aware of this contravention of geophysics in their account. Matthew’s account is designed to feature a reckless Peter, determined to show his bravado if not his own holiness, climbing out of the boat to walk with Jesus. Of course, he doesn’t get far before becoming rightfully fearful of his situation, sinking into the waters, requiring Jesus to save him.

This provides the gospel writers an opportunity for a theological selling point: With enough faith, anyone can walk on water. But I think to get stuck at that initial level of consideration misses the point that Jesus intended, one of three points in this story that offer us an awful lot to consider today.

Letting G-d Get a Word in Edgewise

Given the beginning point of this week’s Gospel, the reader is not provided the context needed to make sense of these events as they occur. In all three gospel accounts, Jesus has just been informed that John the Baptist has been killed by Herod.

Reeling from that news, Jesus is called upon to feed the multitudes. He has been teaching and healing all day. It has been a very long day. The amount of psychic energy required to engage the masses of hungry, needy people he has encountered must have been very draining, indeed. And so, today’s Gospel begins at the point where Jesus has just dispersed the crowds, sending the disciples on ahead of him in their boat, after which he retreated to the mountains for some time alone with G_d.

This is a very common pattern we see in the life of Jesus beginning with his immediate departure from the transformative events of his baptism in the Jordan River to a 40 day retreat in the desert alone with G-d. Throughout his ministry, Jesus engages in teaching, healing and common meals with a wide range of people only to follow that up with down time, time alone with G-d. It is a rather classic example of the cycle of action followed by contemplation that we see in the lives of most holy men and women.

I think this pattern has something important to say to us today. We live in a world with a 24/7 news cycle ever ready to offer us “breaking news” and a social media that hums and crackles with not only the latest news but also the latest fabrications and distortions dressed up as news designed to misinform readers and inflame them. The cardinal concern of our technologically connected culture is the fear of missing out. And we are all well-trained consumers, indeed.

In a time of pandemic, economic insecurity and looming natural disasters, such fears make it quite possible to become overwhelmed with this tsunami of information and misinformation which can negatively impact our mental health, our relationships, our behaviors in public. Like the disciples cowering in a flimsy fishing boat in the midst of a storm, we run the risk of being swept away.

 But Jesus models for us a different option this morning. He recognizes that if we are to hear the small still voice of G-d amidst the tumult of all the constant chatter, we must seek out the places where silence prevails. G-d must have a chance to get a word in edgewise. That requires periodically turning off our cable news. It requires limiting our social media. And it means becoming very intentional about spending time alone with G-d. One of the measures of depth of spirituality is the time an individual can remain alone in silence with just themselves and the Holy One. Jesus could not have survived without his down time. And, truth be told, neither can we.

 

 

 Proving Our Faith, Putting G_d to the Test

A second consideration rises from today’s Gospel in the example of Peter. The community that produced Matthew’s Gospel was particularly focused on Peter. It is in this gospel we hear the reference to Peter as the rock upon which Roman Catholicism’s papacy will seek its legitimation. So it’s hardly surprising that of the three accounts of Jesus walking on water, it’s only Matthew that gives Peter a starring role. And, as is often the case with Peter, it will prove to be a morality lesson in what not to do.

At a very basic level, Peter’s self-invitation to walk on the water with Jesus serves to demonstrate his own bravado if not his own holiness. There is no small amount of ego involved in presuming the ability to walk on water. Amidst the disciples huddling in fear, Peter alone gets out of the boat to walk to Jesus. And it works for awhile. Then the wind begins to blow and Peter realizes the danger in which he has placed himself. He quickly sinks into the deep waters, only to be rescued by Jesus. 

The common translation of what Jesus says to Peter next reveals a lot about the writers of Matthew: “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” It’s difficult to miss the implication of this statement – if you just get your beliefs right, even you can walk on water. Note that faith and doubt are both cognitive words. They speak to our thinking processes. But in the end, they prove inadequate to relay what Jesus is saying here.

The Westar Scholars’ translation of this passage offers us another insight. In their translation, Jesus says to all of disciples, “You don’t have enough trust!” This is a much more existential understanding. He doesn’t ask the disciples to get the concepts right. And he certainly doesn’t ask them to prove their faith. He simply asks them to trust the G-d that Jesus reveals.

Again, Jesus readily models what he is teaching. He has trusted his entire life to a G-d he calls Abba, Daddy. And he will continue to trust that G-d right up to his last breath on the cross: “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”  Here in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, he is asking his disciples to follow his example.

It is human nature to desire a faith in which we really don’t need to trust our Creator with our lives. It’s a lot easier to buy into a set of beliefs that will give us a sense of existential security, however contrived it might be. But, Jesus is asking us for more here – trust me, trust G-d. You don’t have to prove anything.

 Rumbling around in the background of Peter’s failed demonstration of holiness we can also hear the words of Jesus - borrowed by the gospel writers from Deuteronomy - from his encounter with Satan in the desert: “You shall not put the Lord your G-d to the test.” Such words have a lot of salience for our lives during a pandemic. They readily apply to those of us who engage in unsafe social interactions and reject the use of masks we know reduce the chances of becoming ill from the COVID virus under the rubric that even if I am exposed to the virus, G-d will save me. Peter’s example today suggests to us that putting G-d to the test is not a good bet.

 

But it is the third point in this gospel that is perhaps the most important. The words of Jesus when he encounters his disciples in the storm-tossed Sea of Galilee are words we hear throughout the New Testament: “Do not be afraid!” We hear it from the angel who appears to Joseph to tell him not to abandon his pregnant fiancé and to become the father of Jesus. We hear it when Jesus asks his listeners to consider the sparrows of the air and how G-d loves them, concluding “So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.” We hear it in today’s lesson spoken by a Jesus walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee to his terrified disciples. And we hear it in virtually every appearance of the resurrected Christ to his followers after the crucifixion.

 

Trust is Our Ultimate Calling

 

In every case, Jesus is trying to reassure his disciples that the G-d who created them is present with them always, as close as the very breath they breathe. And if G-d is with us, we ultimately have nothing to fear.

So I offer you these three considerations that today’s Gospel raises for us. First, while it is true that G-d is always present with us, we must make the effort to be fully present with G-d if we are to hear that small still voice. That means taking a break from the chatter of our daily lives, turning off our media, and engaging in some silence. Trust me, whatever breaking news we fear we may miss will certainly be waiting for us when we turn our technologies back on.

 Second, we do not have to prove our faith to G-d, to anyone else, even to ourselves. Putting G-d to the test with actions that place ourselves in unnecessary danger all in the name of demonstrating our faith rarely comes to a positive end. 

Finally, our deepest calling as followers of Jesus is to trust the G-d who is always present with us. It is perhaps the simplest thing we could do even as it may often prove the most difficult. Letting go of the need for tangible reassurance of G-d’s love for us and clinging to G-d’s presence in our lives is a life-long calling. And yet, that is exactly what Jesus calls us to do. For it is our trust alone that G_d seeks from us and, in the end, that alone will be enough. 

Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, 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.

 (Collect for Proper 14, Year A)

 

 

A sermon preached at St. Richard’s Episcopal Parish, Winter Park, FL

August 9, 2020, Proper 14, Year A (RCL) - Matthew 14: 22 – 33

 

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Harry Scott Coverston

Orlando, Florida

 

frharry@cfl.rr.com

 

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

 

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, 2020

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