13th Sunday after Pentecost 8/10/08 Text Matthew 14:22-33 Title: Lord, Save Me!
13th Sunday after Pentecost
08/10/08
Text: Matthew 14:22-33
Title: Lord, save me!
Our Gospel reading for this morning starts at verse 22, just after Jesus fed over 5000 men, plus women and children. We read that as soon as the people had been fed and the place cleaned up Jesus immediately made, actually in the Greek it says compelled his disciples to get into the boat for it was getting late. It would be dark soon and they needed to be on their way to the other side of the lake. Their job was done and it was time for them to move on. The crowds needed to go home and Jesus needed some private time to pray.
At around 4 in the morning, the darkest time of the day, for generally the moon has set and the sun has not come up yet. Jesus shows up. The disciples were no doubt exhausted. They had been up all day taking care of the crowds that were following Jesus and fighting against the waves all night. It is interesting to note that in Mark’s Gospel Jesus was walking past the boat when the disciples saw him, but that is another topic for another time.
It was a stormy night and when they saw Jesus they thought he was a ghost. Now that is not unusual for the common belief of the day was that evil gods lived under the sea and caused havoc with those on the water from time to time. The disciples were fearful of what was happening. Jesus did what he does best. He spoke words of comfort as he said, “Take heart; it is, in the Greek, not I, but I am. That is significant for the readers of Matthew’s Gospel, for Jesus to say that he is I am means that he is God, for that is what God calls himself in the Old Testament.
In verse 28 Peter’s words are reminiscent of Satan’s words in the desert when said to Jesus each time he tried to tempt him, “If you are the Son of God.” I bring this up because when you think about it Peter is saying the same thing to Jesus as Satan said to him, “Lord, if you really are God, prove it by some physical evidence.
Jesus, unlike his response to Satan in the temptation where he quoted God’s Word simply gave Peter the command to come. Come on Peter, just get out of the boat and come to me. And Peter did. Everything was going well. There he is going over the water. He is almost to Jesus when the wind, the same wind that was blowing when he first got out of the boat caused him to take his eyes off Jesus. And when he took his eyes off Jesus his life went into the dumpster, or it might be better said into the lake. He began to sink, in the Greek it is more of a sense of being sucked down, as he cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” That little prayer, the shortest in the Bible was powerful, for it not only saved his life, but focused his faith back on Jesus who immediately stretched out his hand taking hold of Peter as he walked him back to the boat.
It is important to note that it was Jesus that grabbed hold of Peter, not the other way around. Peter did not reach out his hand. He was too terrified. He was desperate. He was going to drown, so he did the only thing he knew to do, he called out to Jesus to help him. This was not just a simple, “Jesus help me”, but a cry that would remind one of Jesus’ cry on the cross or the cry of a woman giving birth without the help of medication. It was a cry of agony. Peter knew that it was all over for him unless Jesus helped.
Out of all the disciples Peter is one of the most loved, for in Peter we all see ourselves. Peter is a combination of courage and cowardice, reverence and disrespect, selfless devotion and dangerous self-love. Only Peter could solemnly swear that he would never desert Christ and then turn around and deny Him the first time he got in a tight place. Only Peter could fall at Jesus’ feet and acknowledge his own sinfulness and then rebuke his Lord for suggesting something with which he did not agree.
The two natures that struggled for control within him made him say and do things that appeared to be in direct contradiction to each other—and all within a matter of hours. Peter was a “rock,” yet he wavered, and so, I suppose, managed to become the only wavering rock in history. And he surely was the only man in the world who had faith enough to walk on water but not enough faith to continue to do so because the wind was blowing. And because of that we love him because we see ourselves in him.
Let’s take a look at his prayer, to see what we can learn from it. First it is straight to the point. Thanks goodness he did not pray as some are inclined to pray, for if he had he would have been 25 feet under the surface of the lake by the time he got through. In that instant of wavering faith Peter found his faith, for in that instant Peter knew he was lost and could only through himself on God’s mercy. In that instant he did what Jesus wanted him to do. In that instant, in that short prayer, “Lord, save me!” that was screamed out in terror, Peter’s will was brought into line with the will of God, so that God could do what he wanted to do all along; that is save him from death.
You see the power of prayer is not to manipulate God, as much as we would like to think we can manipulate God, but to allow God to change us. Prayer has been given to us to remind us that God is God and that, well, how can I say it, we are not God. Now I know that everyone sitting here this morning, those who will read or listen to this sermon on the internet, do not think they are gods or that they know what God knows.
We know that, yet, if we were honest what are we thinking when we pray “thy will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer. Are we praying that God’s will and his will alone will be accomplished in our lives or are we praying that his will be done in our lives if his will matches our will?
We say, “Oh we know that God’s will is perfect and always best for us. We know that, but if we know that why is it that we pray for God to give us patience when the only way God can give us patience is for us to learn patience.
If we truly believe in God’s will to be done in our lives, why then do we pray for specific things to happen in a specific time in our lives? Why do we come to God with a list that we expect him to answer?
We pray the way we do because we don’t trust God as we should and because we don’t trust God as we should we live in fear; the fear of God doing something in our lives that we will not like. We need to really work on our faith, for the heart of Christianity is faith. Not just faith as believing something, but faith as trusting and accepting God's Grace for faith depends on our trustful acceptance of this free, loving gift of God's Grace.
Our Christian faith offers us no illusion that we are exempt from ordinary human pain and suffering. It holds no promise of a trouble-free life of easy comfort. It grants us no immunity from evil and its consequences. Rather, our Christian faith provides us with the spiritual stability and the moral stamina
we need to face up to the burden of the evils and the fears that overtake us. Most importantly, our Christian faith enables us to see our own responsibility for things as they are. The story is told of a missionary who went to a far off land to preach and speak the Good News of the Gospel. He began the difficult task of translating the New Testament into the language of the people. He quickly realized he had a problem for there was not a single word in their language for faith. One day while grappling with this problem, the missionary sank into his favorite recliner.
It felt good to lean back in that chair knowing that it would support him. In that instant he realized that the word he had been searching for existed in their native language. That word he found, in English meant to trust in something so much that you could lean against for support. Trust in God and your heart will cure you of your useless fears. Ordinary fear makes us believe the worst. But trusting in God enough to lean upon him will make a person to believe the best in all things.
That is what Peter learned and that is what we need to learn. Amen.
08/10/08
Text: Matthew 14:22-33
Title: Lord, save me!
Our Gospel reading for this morning starts at verse 22, just after Jesus fed over 5000 men, plus women and children. We read that as soon as the people had been fed and the place cleaned up Jesus immediately made, actually in the Greek it says compelled his disciples to get into the boat for it was getting late. It would be dark soon and they needed to be on their way to the other side of the lake. Their job was done and it was time for them to move on. The crowds needed to go home and Jesus needed some private time to pray.
At around 4 in the morning, the darkest time of the day, for generally the moon has set and the sun has not come up yet. Jesus shows up. The disciples were no doubt exhausted. They had been up all day taking care of the crowds that were following Jesus and fighting against the waves all night. It is interesting to note that in Mark’s Gospel Jesus was walking past the boat when the disciples saw him, but that is another topic for another time.
It was a stormy night and when they saw Jesus they thought he was a ghost. Now that is not unusual for the common belief of the day was that evil gods lived under the sea and caused havoc with those on the water from time to time. The disciples were fearful of what was happening. Jesus did what he does best. He spoke words of comfort as he said, “Take heart; it is, in the Greek, not I, but I am. That is significant for the readers of Matthew’s Gospel, for Jesus to say that he is I am means that he is God, for that is what God calls himself in the Old Testament.
In verse 28 Peter’s words are reminiscent of Satan’s words in the desert when said to Jesus each time he tried to tempt him, “If you are the Son of God.” I bring this up because when you think about it Peter is saying the same thing to Jesus as Satan said to him, “Lord, if you really are God, prove it by some physical evidence.
Jesus, unlike his response to Satan in the temptation where he quoted God’s Word simply gave Peter the command to come. Come on Peter, just get out of the boat and come to me. And Peter did. Everything was going well. There he is going over the water. He is almost to Jesus when the wind, the same wind that was blowing when he first got out of the boat caused him to take his eyes off Jesus. And when he took his eyes off Jesus his life went into the dumpster, or it might be better said into the lake. He began to sink, in the Greek it is more of a sense of being sucked down, as he cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” That little prayer, the shortest in the Bible was powerful, for it not only saved his life, but focused his faith back on Jesus who immediately stretched out his hand taking hold of Peter as he walked him back to the boat.
It is important to note that it was Jesus that grabbed hold of Peter, not the other way around. Peter did not reach out his hand. He was too terrified. He was desperate. He was going to drown, so he did the only thing he knew to do, he called out to Jesus to help him. This was not just a simple, “Jesus help me”, but a cry that would remind one of Jesus’ cry on the cross or the cry of a woman giving birth without the help of medication. It was a cry of agony. Peter knew that it was all over for him unless Jesus helped.
Out of all the disciples Peter is one of the most loved, for in Peter we all see ourselves. Peter is a combination of courage and cowardice, reverence and disrespect, selfless devotion and dangerous self-love. Only Peter could solemnly swear that he would never desert Christ and then turn around and deny Him the first time he got in a tight place. Only Peter could fall at Jesus’ feet and acknowledge his own sinfulness and then rebuke his Lord for suggesting something with which he did not agree.
The two natures that struggled for control within him made him say and do things that appeared to be in direct contradiction to each other—and all within a matter of hours. Peter was a “rock,” yet he wavered, and so, I suppose, managed to become the only wavering rock in history. And he surely was the only man in the world who had faith enough to walk on water but not enough faith to continue to do so because the wind was blowing. And because of that we love him because we see ourselves in him.
Let’s take a look at his prayer, to see what we can learn from it. First it is straight to the point. Thanks goodness he did not pray as some are inclined to pray, for if he had he would have been 25 feet under the surface of the lake by the time he got through. In that instant of wavering faith Peter found his faith, for in that instant Peter knew he was lost and could only through himself on God’s mercy. In that instant he did what Jesus wanted him to do. In that instant, in that short prayer, “Lord, save me!” that was screamed out in terror, Peter’s will was brought into line with the will of God, so that God could do what he wanted to do all along; that is save him from death.
You see the power of prayer is not to manipulate God, as much as we would like to think we can manipulate God, but to allow God to change us. Prayer has been given to us to remind us that God is God and that, well, how can I say it, we are not God. Now I know that everyone sitting here this morning, those who will read or listen to this sermon on the internet, do not think they are gods or that they know what God knows.
We know that, yet, if we were honest what are we thinking when we pray “thy will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer. Are we praying that God’s will and his will alone will be accomplished in our lives or are we praying that his will be done in our lives if his will matches our will?
We say, “Oh we know that God’s will is perfect and always best for us. We know that, but if we know that why is it that we pray for God to give us patience when the only way God can give us patience is for us to learn patience.
If we truly believe in God’s will to be done in our lives, why then do we pray for specific things to happen in a specific time in our lives? Why do we come to God with a list that we expect him to answer?
We pray the way we do because we don’t trust God as we should and because we don’t trust God as we should we live in fear; the fear of God doing something in our lives that we will not like. We need to really work on our faith, for the heart of Christianity is faith. Not just faith as believing something, but faith as trusting and accepting God's Grace for faith depends on our trustful acceptance of this free, loving gift of God's Grace.
Our Christian faith offers us no illusion that we are exempt from ordinary human pain and suffering. It holds no promise of a trouble-free life of easy comfort. It grants us no immunity from evil and its consequences. Rather, our Christian faith provides us with the spiritual stability and the moral stamina
we need to face up to the burden of the evils and the fears that overtake us. Most importantly, our Christian faith enables us to see our own responsibility for things as they are. The story is told of a missionary who went to a far off land to preach and speak the Good News of the Gospel. He began the difficult task of translating the New Testament into the language of the people. He quickly realized he had a problem for there was not a single word in their language for faith. One day while grappling with this problem, the missionary sank into his favorite recliner.
It felt good to lean back in that chair knowing that it would support him. In that instant he realized that the word he had been searching for existed in their native language. That word he found, in English meant to trust in something so much that you could lean against for support. Trust in God and your heart will cure you of your useless fears. Ordinary fear makes us believe the worst. But trusting in God enough to lean upon him will make a person to believe the best in all things.
That is what Peter learned and that is what we need to learn. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 12:29 PM
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