Stay in the Boat
Whose idea was it to walk on the water anyway?
One of the few certainties of life is that we will all face storms. Sometimes those storms will be of the kind that comes from nature, like the ones we think about this time every year and all that goes with them1 … and then there are what we call the storms of life. These are the times when we deal with loss, heartache, and confusion. These types of storms can come in the form of things such as illness, or war, or even death. One reason why we call these times “storms” is because of the chaos they bring. It’s easy for us to feel that our life has been blown off course, and our plans have been swept away.
In our Gospel today, we find ourselves in the middle of a bit of story arc where the disciples are learning what it means to be witnesses and ambassadors of the message of the Gospel and also of Jesus. They are learning about this thing called the “Kingdom of heaven” which Jesus keeps preaching and teaching about. As part of this story arc, we hear parables, we witness miracles, and in one of those miracles, the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples actually get to help by distributing all the food!
And then today … we find the disciples in a storm, or at the very least, a strong wind. (If it’s not a storm, we can at least say it’s storm-Y.)
It’s one of the Gospel’s more familiar miracles and we have probably heard more than one sermon about it. My guess is one of those sermons probably went like this.
The disciples are in a boat on the sea when the weather turns bad. Jesus sees them from the shore, calls out to them, and begins to walk on the water towards them in the middle of that storm and all the strong winds that go with it. He tells the disciples to not be afraid, and Peter says, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come out!” Jesus says, “well all right then come on out.” And then Peter walks on the water towards Jesus. When Peter begins to take his eyes of Jesus and focuses on all the chaos around him, he begins to sink into the waves. Jesus says, “oh you of little faith why did you doubt” and lifts him up out of the water. So, keep your eyes on Jesus and all will be ok!
One problem we might find with this kind of sermon (and don’t get me wrong, keeping our eyes on Jesus is a Very Good Thing!) is that many times it fails to take into account the complexities of life and the human experience. It’s a sermon that could easily become a trap for the preacher and tempt us to say things like, “You just need to have a little more faith,” or “the right kind of faith” and then the storms of life will disappear, or we can just walk right through them clothed in the “full-armor-of-God-and-the-grace-of-Jesus Christ-Amen.” The trap that is set by this sermon is that it promotes a type of faith which says that if we are just strong enough and confident enough … we can just walk right past everything the world throws at us.
But what if that’s not the kind of faith that is expected of us, at least not all of the time or even most of the time? What if the faith we are called to as the people of God is less about walking on water and more about staying in the boat? Let’s review the first part of the Gospel again and see what Jesus did before all this happened. “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side…Early in the morning, [seeing they were in trouble, he came walking toward them on the sea. [The disciples were terrified and] Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’”
When we take all of that into consideration, when Jesus asks Peter “why did you doubt?” we might be able to come to the conclusion that perhaps Jesus is asking him why he didn’t stay in the boat since they all saw Jesus coming for them. After all, didn’t Jesus still another storm not just a few chapters ago? Didn’t the disciples ask themselves, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”2
Peter’s cry to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come out!” seems more like something Jesus was asked at his temptation when the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread,” or “throw yourself down from the mountain.” And what was Jesus’ response? “Do not put the Lord your God to the test!” That seems a little like what Peter is doing isn’t it?3
Now, to be clear, while there are similarities to Peter’s plea and what happened at the temptation, they are not the same thing at all. I want don’t want to be critical or judgment of Peter. Peter is not the devil. Not by a long shot.
I see myself in Peter all the time when I wish I could have a sign I’m making the right decision. I see Peter in others who want to shoulder all the burden and work their own miracles.
I don’t think that Peter’s doubts led him to take his eyes off Jesus and cause him to sink so much as Peter’s doubts compelled him to ask something of Jesus in the middle of bad situation. Who among us would do anything different?
Peter was just being true to who he was at the moment, which is really all God can ask of us at any given time.
As I’ve mentioned before and I will say so until I am laid to rest, Doubting is not bad. It is a perfectly natural human response, especially when there seems to be no good options.
A greater miracle than Jesus and Peter walking on water is that one of the places where Jesus likes to meet us is in our doubts. Jesus did that with Thomas when Thomas asked for proof Jesus had risen from the dead. In the case of the Peter, Jesus meets him on the water and brings him to safety.
At some point, all of us have been, are, or will be Peter asking for a sign that Jesus is there and to please “do something” so we can have assurance that God is still with us and we are doing the right thing. That is a very human response and nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes we need that. Sometimes all the faith we can muster is the kind of faith that asks for a sign … an affirmation we are on the right track. And that’s perfectly fine.
In every case … with Thomas and with the Peter and also with us … we might find when God meets us in our doubts, God is also at work to bring us from one kind of faith to another. A kind of faith that doesn’t rely so much on signs and wonders, but a faith that rests in the assurance that Jesus is always with us. It is a faith that moves from a desire to escape the storms of life to the confidence that we will get through them because Jesus is coming for us. It is a faith that moves from one that is dependent on our circumstances to a faith that is dependent on the everlasting arms of God: our rock, our strength, our deliverer. It is a faith that moves us from an anxious need to get out of the boat, to a faith that encourages us to stay in it and to keep rowing.
A faith that allows us to stay in the boat is a faith that knows God will never abandon us to any of life’s storms. It is a faith that remembers the words of Jesus that say, “Take heart! It is I! Don’t be afraid!” The miracle is not so much that Jesus … and later Peter … walk on water, but rather that the Son of God cares for us so much, that he gets into the boat with us and the storms cease.4
One of life’s certainties is that we will face many storms. And in our lives of discipleship … whether it’s on any part of the walks in our faith and walks in our doubts … there is also the certainty that with Jesus in the boat, we will pass through the all the storms of life to the other side to times of smooth sailing.
This sermon was delivered in mid-August, just when hurricane season is picking up in earnest.
This actually did happen in Matthew Chapter 8 vv 23-27.
Matthew Chapter 4
Today’s stormy weather did, in fact, subside when Jesus delivered Peter back to the boat and he got into the boat with him and the other disciples.