Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ 28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’32When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Last week, our family spent some time at my parents’ cabin. They just bought an older boat that is new to us, so we are still learning about all of its quirks. Before we went out on the water, we checked the gas gauge and it said it was 2/3 full. But after a brief time of fun pulling our boys around the lake on an inner tube, the engine stopped abruptly. It turns out we had run out of gas and we were right in the middle of the lake. (Now before I continue, I have to explain that neither Mark nor I grew up around lakes, so some of the boating basics have provided a steep learning curve for us. So, since we were stranded without our phones, we looked around at the sparsely populated lake.

While people had been out earlier, there was no one around at that point. It had been windy earlier, but at that point there was no wind, so we weren’t drifting toward shore any time soon. It was also late in the day and it would be getting dark soon. So Mark and I got out the small emergency oars that were in the boat and began to paddle, but the boat was too big for these tiny oars to move it.

Well, after talking it through, Mark thought he could swim to shore and bring back another gas tank in a kayak. So he started swimming to shore and I stayed with the boys in the boat trying to entertain them. They decided it would be fun to time the length of the swim and yell out every time a minute went by. So during the minute-long silences, I sat there in the middle of the lake and began thinking about the disciples in the boat from our gospel reading for today. I had just read the lesson earlier that morning. So I thought more and more about it as I marveled about our predicament.

There was one question I just couldn’t get out of my head: Why would Peter decide to walk on the water toward Jesus? Now his action has been interpreted to mean a lot of different things like he was taking a risk of faith and all of that, but I wasn’t convinced of that explanation. I ended up thinking that part of the story must have been left out. You know, that part of the story where Peter turns to look at the other disciples in the boat and says, “OK guys, Watch this. Look what I can do!” 

Maybe this interpretation was shaped by a book I was reading by Parker Palmer. It is an older well-known book entitled “To Know as We Are Known.”  In the first part of the book, Palmer looks at the development of the first atomic bomb. It was only on the day after the first bomb exploded that scientists stopped to analyze the implications of their work. He cites some of the comments made by scientists—how they knew the extreme dangers of what they were creating, but how they continued even though there was a slight possibility that the atmosphere and the entire world would “disappear.”  Palmer names two underlying human forces that drove them to such lengths: curiosity and control. In other words, they wanted to be like God and control creation—the scientific equivalent of “look what I can do!” Parker laments that all of their curiosity and intelligence was put to use for destructive purposes. 

Sometimes it’s not just curiosity though, but control and desire for power over others that is the driving force. Another example that comes to mind is the Enron scandal. You remember--the company that took 16 yrs to go from $10 billion in assets to $65 billion in assets and then only 24 days to go bankrupt. The film about the fall of Enron is called “The Smartest Guys in the Room.”  In it, they say the fatal flaw was pride, arrogance, intolerance, and greed.  There is one section where the guys responsible for cutting off power to much of California to make a huge profit say why they did it. Their general response was because they were creative, smart and because they could. All of their intelligence was used for a self-serving, controlling charade. That’s the energy trader’s rendition of “Look what I can do!”

The underlying problem, Parker says in his book, is that they and we are all detached from one another, trying to carve out something for ourselves without a thought for our neighbor, the larger creation and the long term affects of our actions. When we feel alone and without hope, we turn toward taking care of our own little piece of the world regardless of how it affects others. I think we see in our gospel text today that this kind of “Look-what-I-can-do” behavior has been around for a while. After the feeding of the 5000 which was this great community celebration and demonstration of what Jesus does, we have this contrasting individualistic scene.

Jesus sends his disciples away in the boat to the other side. Later, at the darkest part of the night, he does something that seems impossible. He comes walking to them on the water. Peter, frightened at first, sees Jesus doing this cool thing and instead of being in awe says, Huh, I wonder if I can do that? Hey Jesus, command me to walk toward you! So Jesus says, “Come” and Peter begins to walk out a bit. “Look what I can do!” But then Peter gets frightened and sinks saying “Lord save me!”

What you might expect me to say at this point is that Peter just didn’t have enough faith and that is why he started to sink and flounder. Don’t be like Peter. But I don’t think that is the main point. I think there is something else being communicated in this story.

First, Peter is a mirror for all of us. We focus on Peter because we all—albeit reluctantly—identify with him. We want to prove how faithful, successful, smart, whatever we are in front of others. Like the scientists, we are curious and want to prove what we can do. And like the Enron folks we, too, tend to do things from time to time just because we can. From Peter’s perspective, it was obvious, he was the leader of the group. The smartest, clearly Jesus’ favorite disciple……even if only in his own mind. We have the same thoughts. Let’s show everyone what we can do. Even when we try and hide it in appropriate ways we want to be the ones to walk on that water and show others, “Look what I can do.”
But then we begin to have our doubts about faith about God about everything and sink into despair or into our own self-made hell. Yes, Peter is a mirror for us. 

Second, when we aren’t relating to Peter, we relate to the other disciples in the boat—fearful and wondering what in the world our leader is doing. Perhaps we can relate to this today when we look at our own political leaders. Why are they messing around so much saying, “Look what I can do?” when it is such a dark and scary time? Doesn’t Peter--and don’t our leaders today--care about those of us in the boat who are scared and frantic? When the unemployment is so high and the market is plummeting, could we please find some agreement and focus on the many problems at hand?
 
Regardless of who we relate to, we have still missed the most important thing about this story. Our focus needs to shift its gaze from Peter, the disciples in the boat, our leaders and ourselves, to Jesus, the Son of God. The focus of the entire Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus is present and reaches out to us in our times of trouble. The beginning of Matthew starts out by saying that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, and the end of Matthew says, “I will be with you always.” And over and over in between Jesus says that the Kingdom of heaven is near.

The first community that read this gospel must have felt terribly alone in the midst of political and ecclesial unrest. These words, the power of the Son of God, calmed their fears in the midst of their turmoil. This is the timeless promise communicated to you and me today as well. The good news is that we can shift our focus and gaze off of the problems we may face and trust that Jesus, the Son of God, is reaching out and saving us.
 
So last week at the lake, Mark finally reached the shore at the 13th minute. At the time, it seemed like it was much longer. I had begun to get nervous about how tired he was. Did the extra gas tank have any gas in it? Would the tank be too big to fit into the kayak?  It would be dark soon and the boys were getting scared. Keep your calm. You don’t want to frighten the boys. I was so focused on all of my worrying that I almost missed the sound coming from the other direction.  Breaking through the silence, I heard a faint call, “Do you need a tow?!”  I turned around and saw two guys on the shore walking toward their boat. “Yes….please! I yelled out into the echo-y silence. It sounded a bit like, “Lord, yes, save us please.”  They came shortly after that and got us back to shore safely.
 
No matter how big or small the worries, Jesus promises to meet you and me. The fact that Jesus walks on water is one of the signs that there is nothing that can separate us from God. Nothing is impossible for God.  Even in the darkest hour of the night, even in the midst of loneliness, despair and storms, Jesus promises to meet you, calm you and reach out his hand to you when you are crying, “Lord save me.”  Jesus reaches out his hand not only to those of us fearful in the boat, but to those of us who have said, “Look what I can do” and then find ourselves drowning in fear and anxiety as well.
 
This is not only a message for us as individuals, but for us as a community, nation and global family. In the midst of economic downturns, local and national government turmoil, wars, famine and natural disasters; this message of hope comes to us especially when things seem so bleak and hopeless. Heaven promises to meet us and sometimes it meets us right in the middle of hell.
Nothing is impossible for God. God is with us, Jesus comes and meets us, sometimes giving us a tow and sometimes pulling us out of the water when we feel like we are in over our heads. Jesus will lead us back into the boat--with all of our other brothers and sisters—so that we can continue on God’s journey and save others together.

Just watch. It’s not about what any one of us can do, but about what God does, and what God continually promises to do. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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