"In the Boat, Out of the Boat, In the Boat"
August 7, 2011

Matthew 14:22-33

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.

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So here’s Jesus, in the passage from Matthew that we just heard. He and the disciples have just miraculously fed the five to ten thousand people on just a few table scraps, and apparently the crowd had finally gone home. After another long day of teaching and healing and being surrounded by mobs of people, Jesus could finally be by himself, alone with his thoughts and in communion with God, which, if you remember, was what he had been trying to do to begin with when the crowd found him. But now, he wanted to be even more by himself in prayer and meditation, so he sent the apostles to the other side of the lake in the boat they’d all arrived in. And then Jesus spent the bulk of the night praying, having his Sabbath, having his communion – recharging his spiritual, emotional, and physical batteries.

And then, of course, all the fun begins. We’ve all heard this story so many times; it’s as common as a worn nickel in our experience of the faith, so much so that we have to make a real effort to keep the images of the story stay alive, so we can really experience it. A bunch of men, some seasoned fishermen, some not, trying to make it across the lake in a strong headwind and waves that are threatening to capsize the boat. Trying to keep the water out of the boat and their dinner in their stomachs. Doing this for hours, all through the night without any sleep, and then, just as the light of morning is starting to push the night out of the sky, they see some human-looking thing actually walking across the choppy water toward them.

What would you be thinking if you were in that boat? I mean, just imagine you were out on a boat up on Buckeye Lake, and the same thing happened to you? That combination of fatigue and confusion and fear that you’d be feeling was the exact same thing the disciples were feeling. They aren’t sure if it’s really Jesus. Before this, they never knew that Jesus could walk on water, so how could this really be him? It must be a hallucination from lack of sleep, or a ghost actually bearing down on them.

Ever since this story, with Peter starting out across the water toward Jesus, and then starting to sink, was first put down in ink on papyrus, preachers have delivered sermons about it, and nine out of every ten of them have said the same thing about it. Many of you probably already know where I’m going to go with this sermon, the same as all those others. I’m going to say that Peter’s problem is our problem, that he stepped out of the boat in faith, keeping his eyes focused on Jesus. But when he got distracted, and took his eyes off of Jesus, he got into trouble and started to sink. So just as Peter needed to keep his eyes focused on Jesus, we need to recommit ourselves to keeping our eyes and our thoughts focused on Jesus, too. That’s the conventional wisdom about what this story should teach us.

Except that isn’t where I’m headed with this sermon at all. As good a thing as it might be to encourage us to refocus on Christ, I think there’s something more, maybe something even more important, to this story. Two somethings, actually.

The first thing is that it doesn’t matter how many preachers in how many pulpits, with however a moving and powerful sermon, encourage us to keep our focus solely on Jesus and nothing else, we aren’t really going to pull it off. Not me. Not you. Not the Pope. Not the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. None of us. To be honest, I’ve come to think that’s a good thing. Don’t misunderstand me. I think that focusing on Christ is a good thing, I’m just not convinced that any of us has a clear enough, complete enough understanding with Christ to be able to perfectly, correctly filter what is Christ, and what isn’t. I’ve come to see that so many of the things in the world that creep into our consciousness that we might dismiss as distractions, are nothing less than a subtly camouflaged Jesus, poking at us for our attention. And that sometimes, what we might focus on, assuming it to be Christ, might in fact be nothing of the sort.

Since we don’t have the ability to truly know every angle of Christ’s wishes, there will always be some degree of uncertainty – some degree of faith needed – that what we choose to believe and focus on is Christ. I believe that ultimately, when we’re in Christ’s presence face to face, we’ll learn that we’ve actually gotten more of our understanding of him wrong than we got right, and that our only saving grace – literally – is that it was our deep-seated *desire* to please God, rather than our actual actions, that actually *did* please God. That’s why I think that taking note of some of those supposed “distractions” that we’re supposedly told not to think about, is actually important, and even good. It’s considering those other things that challenge our assumptions, and possibly correct mistaken attitudes that we might have about what it really means to follow Jesus.

And that’s also why I think a more important point of this story isn’t that Peter needed to keep some kind of laser beam-like focus on Jesus across the waves, but rather, that as soon as Peter started to get in trouble in his attempts to walk out toward him, Jesus’ hand was immediately there to save him, and pull him up out of the water. That’s important. Because when we find ourselves in a similar predicament, when we start to feel like we’re sinking, or we’ve done the wrong thing as we try to follow Christ, we can be confident that his arm is immediately there to pull us up and out of the trouble, too. Whatever is threatening to drag us down under the waves in our own lives, Jesus is there – seen or unseen – ready to reach out to us.

But if you notice in this story, something interesting happens next, after Jesus pulls Peter up. Did you notice that; did you notice what he did? This is the other point that I think is important in this story. Jesus didn’t stand Peter up on the water, beside himself. He put Peter back in the boat. Headed back in the direction that Jesus himself had put Peter on to begin with, not on the other path, out on the waves, that Peter chose for himself.

So where a lot of preachers have argued that this story teaches us we have to have enough faith to get out of the boat, like Peter – in fact, *I’ve* preached that sermon myself – I think that sometimes, the real message of this story is that we’re supposed to have enough faith to stay *in* the boat. Not to get distracted from the path that Jesus has actually placed us, from what Jesus has actually called us to do. No matter how appealing or noble the other direction might look. No matter, actually, if the other direction is even Christ, working and doing other things that he hasn’t called us to be part of. Jesus called the apostles to go to the other side of the lake. And he didn’t call them to walk across the water to the other side, he told them to use a boat. He had a specific purpose for them, and a specific way for them to achieve that purpose, as just one piece of the whole jigsaw puzzle that is the Church, and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus has called us, as a congregation and as individuals, to be our own specific piece in that same jigsaw puzzle. We’re called to have enough faith to stay true to that call – to be the physical expression of Christ, and his love – his good news – to the people of this community. We don’t have to save the world. We don’t have to stray over here and do this part of the work of God’s Kingdom, or over there to do that part of it, no matter how good and Christlike it might be. We’re called to remain faithful to the particular call that Christ has given us. We’re called to have the faith to stay in our boat. To keep rowing our little boat, even against the wind and the waves. To bail out the water from the bottom, and yes, frankly, to come up with the funds needed to keep it maintained and afloat and equipped for the mission Christ gave us. Keeping it on course for our goal of sharing the gospel – being the gospel – for our children, our grandchildren, and especially for those who wouldn’t today even dream of climbing into this boat of ours – but who, tomorrow, just might. So we’d better make sure our boat is here for them when they need it.

See, that’s the kind of focus that I think this story teaches us about. And that’s the kind of faith I think it calls us to have. And it’s that kind of faith that God’s Spirit makes possible within us, so we can stay in our boat, and stay on course. The Holy Spirit strengthens our faith and equips us for our journey across our lake, through events and occurrences that might sometimes seem like chance or coincidence – or even, sometimes, like distractions – that all eventually come into focus, if we really listen, as the voice of God. Once we see the course God has set for our little boat, and the Holy Spirit has strengthened our faith to ride it out even in the face of storms, then our job is to stay in the boat – and to leave the walking on water to Jesus.

Thanks be to God.