Being Fed: Having Faith

…Gracious and loving God, as we come into this time of reflecting on your words for us today, we ask that you would guide our hearts, minds, and spirits to focus solely on you. May we be able to hear words of love and encouragement in these troubled days, Amen.

This morning’s story from the Gospel of Matthew invites us to reflect deeply upon what it is that we believe and more importantly what we fear in believing. It is another call to action and doing but this time it is not only about what we can do for others but also what we need to do for ourselves. As we delve into the idea of trusting and having faith today, I invite you to contemplate what it is that you fear most in your life…and I am not talking about spiders or mice here, I am talking about that deep rooted fear that keeps us from moving forward with God’s instructions in our lives.

I know I have shared this before but I want to emphasize a really important idea with this scripture…it is fear that holds us back from some of the greatest opportunities to share God’s love with others. Take for example those, like Peter, who are called to lead in our lives of faith. One of the things that really struck me about the people I encountered in seminary was how many of them resisted following God’s call on their lives to step out and follow the promptings that God placed in their lives to become ordained ministers. What I have come to realize is that I am not much different than those I encountered who fought God’s call on their lives for years. For the majority of my life, God was prompting me to do what I do today…I was just too oblivious to recognize it until one day, I heard it very clearly in my ears. Here’s what I want you to hear from these stories, the one common theme that emerged from all of them was about fear. Whether that was fear of what others might think, fear of what following the call in their lives might mean, or just a plain old fear of standing in front of people to speak about God. Fear got in the way of their faith and trust of God…they and I were not alone in this battle against fear as there are several stories about fear and faith in our Bibles…but before I get into those stories, let’s remember what the definition of faith is...

Faith:

So, according to Merriam Webster, the definition of faith is a firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Now, we can prove many of the things we believe because many have done so throughout the years. I think a more appropriate definition for our understanding this morning is a firm belief in something that you cannot sense, meaning something that cannot be seen, felt, heard, smelled, or tasted. So faith is about believing in something so strongly that you cannot be deterred from believing in it.

Hear this clearly...I wanted to give you this definition because in the coming moments, we are going to discover some folks that did not have really strong faith at moments in their lives…these individuals let their fears come between them and what they knew was the truth...

Some Great Fears...

Now, I am only going to spend a moment on these stories so stick with me here as we very quickly go through a few of the founders of our faith who let fear get in the way of their faith…the first is Abraham

Genesis 17:17 NLT

Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?”

Abraham had not had any children of his own, yet God continually reminded Abraham that he would have as many children as the grains of sand or the stars in the sky. Abraham was 100 years old before he had Isaac with Sarah. In this passage, we see how his fear invaded his faith and allowed him to doubt what God had promised. Abraham and Sarah did have a child as God had promised and we are living proof that Abraham had as many descendants as the grains of sand or stars in the sky…

Sarah

If we talk about Abraham, we also need to talk about Sarah…in this next passage, we hear the results of Sarah’s unbelief...

Genesis 18:13–14 NLT

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

This piece takes place just after Sarah eavesdropped on Abraham talking with God’s messengers when they came to tell him that Sarah would have a child in her nineties. For most folks, I think it is easy to see how your faith could be shaken by this news. But yet, God fulfilled the promise that she would have a child despite her disbelief that she could.

I want to take us through one more pillar of our faith who doubted and feared and then get into our story for today...

Moses

Moses is the man who led the Israelites away from tyranny and oppression. He fought with God on many occasions about what it was that God had asked of him. Much like my counterparts in seminary and some of us today, the fear of being called to lead brings about a lot of doubt and fear. Moses argued that he could not speak and so God provided Aaron to speak. Moses argued that he was not strong enough to defeat the Egyptians, to lead the Israelites, or to overcome their fears. But God provided a response to all of the objections that Moses lifted up against being the one to lead the Israelites. And so, he eventually leads the Israelites out of Egypt. Unfortunately, the people are not happy about anything that had happened and they began to grumble about the food that God sent every night for them to consume. This is where we find ourselves in this next passage…Moses is bringing some of the Israelites’ concerns to God...

Numbers 11:21–22 NLT

But Moses responded to the Lord, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, ‘I will give them meat for a whole month!’ Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?”

Again, Moses is allowing doubt and fear to cloud his faith. He, just like the Israelites, had seen what God could do on their behalf, yet the question he raisd here just reminds us of our human desire to live by our physical senses rather than by our faith…that should give us a glimpse of how, throughout history, people have allowed fear to dictate their faith and these are just a few examples of how doubt and fear prevent us from following our faith. I want us now to jump forward several hundred years and encounter the rock of the church following his faith but also allowing his physical senses to interfere...

Peter…and his faith

Our story from Matthew this morning is a deep reflection on faith, fear, and doubt. The short of the story is this…Jesus has sent all the people he fed last week away and has sent the disciples out onto the Sea of Galilee to cross over to the other side of the Sea. A great storm has blown in and the boat upon which the disciples find themselves is probably rocking with the waves being created, and Jesus has taken himself up the hillside to a solitary place to pray.

I want to stop here for a moment to reflect on this piece of the passage…Jesus is providing us a glimpse of what keeps us grounded and connected to God. That being prayer. It is important for us to understand that prayer is the best way to stay connected to the God that gives us everything that we need. Prayer is also the foundation of our faith. In doing this, Jesus gives us the example of not only how to stay connected but to connect with God and strengthen our faith. Jesus is feeding us the basis of everything. Prayer is our lifeline.

But this is not the most important thing to get out of this story...the most important piece of this story is Peter and being able to walk on water. Hear this clearly...Peter’s faith is strong enough to get him to move out of the boat, but his physical senses lead him into fear. To set this up, remember what you heard a few moments ago…Jesus has finished praying and he was in prayer long enough for the disciples to have traveled a couple miles from shore. It is about 3 in the morning and the disciples are fighting a storm, in a sailboat, on the water. Jesus has called out to them and told them not to fear for it really is him. In order to verify that it is truly Jesus walking on the water toward them and not a ghost, Peter asks Jesus to call him from the boat and to allow him to walk on the water too. Listen to this piece of the narrative again...

Matthew 14:28–30 NLT

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

Imagine the faith that Peter had to have to step over the side of the boat and start walking on the water?!?! It takes a great amount of faith to believe enough to listen to God when God calls to you to do something and an even greater amount of faith to actually step out and do the thing that God has called you to do. Here’s the thing though, I know many people will read this story and see that he began to sink as a lack of faith. However, today, I want to argue that it took more faith to believe that Jesus would keep him safe as he walked on the water. It is only in Peter’s doubt and fear that he begins to sink. In my mind, as I have spent time reflecting on this passage, Peter allowed what was happening around him to cloud his faith just enough that he began to doubt what he was actually doing.

There is this great image that comes to mind…think back to when you were a child and not afraid to do anything. When you wanted to try something new or different, did you consider the consequences or what could happen stop you from trying? No, of course not. You had the childlike faith that you could accomplish what you set yourself out to do. I read somewhere or heard somewhere, probably in a movie…think about a child who is able to ride their bike on the thinnest of rails, mostly because they do not know about gravity. They go on doing this amazing thing, until the time that they learn about what gravity does and then their doubt of their abilities happens and they begin to fear falling. Just like the child who learns about consequences, Peter, allowed his doubts and fears to cloud his faith and so he begins to sink as he recognized the waves and winds blowing around him.

I believe this story of Peter on the water shows us what we can accomplish if we allow our faith to dictate rather than our fears. Peter had enough faith to step over the side of the boat and that Jesus would be right there with him to allow him to walk on the water. Peter had enough faith to step out, period. When God calls out to us to do something, we have to believe that whatever it is that God desires for us to do, can be accomplished because God called us to do it. Like Abraham, Sarah, and Moses, God provides what we need when we need it. It is about having the faith to believe that God goes before us and stands beside us through all things. As we move into the coming months and years together, there are going to be many things that God calls us to do. Some will seem ridiculous at the time, but we need to have faith that if God is calling us into it, then God will provide all that we need to make it happen. So, I challenge you this week, to listen for God’s prompting and then have the faith to do exactly what it is that God leads you to do…Amen.