Pentecost 10A

How’s YOUR Faith doing?

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

How is your faith doing these days? That’s the question I can’t help but ask myself when I hear the news. I’m frequently tempted to just turn if off and ignore everything that’s happening, but I don’t believe that God calls us to ignorance. So, I’m trying to stay informed. And when I see what actually *is* happening, I can’t help but have some doubts.

The pandemic has been tough on all of us…some moreso than others. It’s quite a test of our character and our patience. And I cannot believe the hubris coming out of the mouths and keyboards of people that I call “friends” as they demonize those who have a difference of opinion about wearing masks. Holy moly. And these are people who tell me that they are Christians spewing this nastiness.

And now since the pandemic, now we have riots involving a variety of different groups. Before I go any farther, I want to draw a distinction between peaceful protesters and violent rioters. Not the same people. The violent rioters are destroying buildings and statues, burning and looting businesses, threatening homes, hurting and even killing law enforcement officers… there are parts of our nation that now look like scenes that I’ve only ever witnessed in war-torn 3rd-world countries. On Friday, I got a message from a colleague in Oregon, telling me that a Lutheran Church near him has been vandalized by one of these violent groups and thousands of dollars of damage has been done to their building. It’s absolutely insane.

And even more recently, now there are certain individuals in positions of leadership in our government who are making statements that sound remarkably similar to statements made by the violent extremists who are causing so much destruction in our cities. You heard that correctly: there are government officials - some of them elected - who appear to agree with the violent extremists. If you look at the ideology of the groups behind this violence, you’ll see that their written vision and goals include the undoing of the foundations of our country - our Constitution, our Judaeo-Christian values, even the nuclear family - they want all of it obliterated. And when you take off their masks, you’ll find Marxism at the core of their beliefs; if you want to read it, look for the group’s websites - their goals are spelled out.

We all know Marxism - it was the fundamental ideology that led to the deaths of over 150 million human beings in the 20th Century. That same ideology is now gaining ground here in our country. And instead of standing up against it, people and companies are taking a knee and bending to its will.

This is hard for me to watch. There are days when I can only think about how we got here so quickly. What happened? Who fell asleep on the job? And the question I don’t want to ask, but I know many of us are thinking: how could God let this happen? I don’t think I can answer “what happened” or “who fell asleep on the job”. But as for that last question, I think we need to break that down a little more.

Remember that God did not create us to be automatons who had no choice but to love Him. No, He made us with free will, the will to be able to choose to love Him…or not. Luther teaches that without the Holy Spirit’s help, we will only EVER choose to NOT love God. Now, with that in mind, with so much of western society telling Christians to keep our “religion” to ourselves and not to bring it out in our day-to-day lives, is it any wonder that God seems far removed from this situation? Or that we have an entire generation of children who were raised outside the church, or whose parents decided that once a kid was old enough to pick out her own clothes, that she could pick her own faith as well? Is it any wonder that society seems so godless right now?

I think the first thing we need to do is to reframe the question. It’s not “how could God let this happen?” Rather, it’s “where is God in all of this?” I’m shamelessly plagiarizing one of my seminary professors - this is his question. He always challenged us to ask the question that way. Where is God in all this?

Brothers and sisters - the answer to that question is found in our Gospel lesson for today. All this insanity and chaos going on around us - that’s the storm that’s rocking our boat. So where is God? Well, He’s walking calmly across the water toward us.

But let’s back up. I want to make sure we all understand exactly what’s going on in the boat. Jesus had sent his closest disciples across the Sea of Galilee in a boat, and he stayed behind to dismiss the large crowd. Remember: this is the crowd of over 5000 that he had just fed with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. They were all amazed at that miracle. Scholars tell us that Jesus was trying to calm down a frenzy, so he separated the 12 from the crowd, and told them he would meet them on the other side. Now this lake is not THAT big: 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. So it shouldn’t have taken very long to sail across. Unfortunately, their boat got caught in a storm, and they had to lower the sail and put out their oars to keep the boat from capsizing. So they got rather stuck in the middle.

Verse 25 tells us that Jesus came to them during the 4th watch, which basically means sometime between 3 am and 6 am. Based on when they left, that means they fought the storm for somewhere between 6 and 9 hours. They must’ve been absolutely exhausted! So their strength was gone, and that probably meant that their hope was nearly gone, too. They were just drained - physically and emotionally. And it was precisely then that Jesus came to them.

Now Jesus didn’t come to them with a lot of fanfare. There were no angels or heavenly choir to announce his arrival. He didn’t have a bright light shining down on him in the darkness. He was just walking on the water, coming toward the boat. It probably goes without saying, but let’s think about it: did the storm affect Jesus? No, of course not. He shows us in just a couple of verses that he is in complete control of the forces of nature itself. So in the middle of this raging storm, the howling wind, the crashing waves, Jesus is most likely walking on a calm path in the water. He’s not getting tossed about. He’s just walking toward the disciples just as though he was walking on solid ground.

Of course, the disciples didn’t exactly welcome his approach, did they? At first, they think he’s a ghost or something. They don’t believe it’s their master…at least, not until they hear his voice. And that’s when he tells them that they can stop being afraid. There’s no reason for fear now; he is with them.

Peter, as is his habit, jumps from one extreme to the other. First he was cowering with the rest of them, sure that they were doomed to a watery grave. Now, he recognizes his Teacher. And the way he says it in Greek, he’s CERTAIN that it is Jesus. “If it is you (and I know that it is), command me to come to you on the water.” Peter wants to show Jesus his faith…that he really believes Jesus is out there on the water. I read one scholar that describes Peter’s faith this way: “This was true boldness of faith on Peter’s part, that strength of faith which knows and trusts that even natural impossibilities yield before the will, word, and power of Jesus.” [R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 573.]

So what does Jesus do? He accepts Peter’s faith and JUSTIFIES it. You might even say he amplifies it. If it wasn’t true faith, Jesus wouldn’t have accepted it, because he would have known that it would have been wrong or foolish for Peter to act on it without true faith. But Peter’s faith WAS true, so Jesus called him to come out, which Peter did.

I *SO* appreciate Peter. He goes from being such a wonderful example of faith that seems impossible to live up to, and then he just falls flat on his face, like I do so very often. Yeah, I appreciate Peter. There he is, following His Lord’s command, doing the impossible - walking on water! And then all of a sudden, reality sets in, and instead of focusing on Jesus, Peter becomes more aware of the storm and less aware of Jesus. He saw everything that threatened him in the storm - the wind, the waves, the deep water…and fear caught hold of him. What’s the opposite of faith? Fear. And once fear had him, his faith failed. He forgot Jesus, who was only a few steps away from him…and he started sinking.

That’s where I’m at. I’ve been looking at all this chaos that’s threatening us, and I stopped looking at Jesus. Why do I do that? Because I’m flawed. Because I’m fallible. Because I still have doubts and fears. Because I still NEED a savior. I’m trying, but I still need a lot of work, and a lot of the Holy Spirit’s help.

But in his fear, Peter did exactly what Jesus wanted him to: he cried to Jesus for help. “Lord, save me!” That’s all that Jesus needed to hear. I want to caution you not to read Jesus’ response as him scolding Peter. That same scholar said this “Jesus never humbles faith but always encourages it.” Let me read you the rest of that paragraph: “Jesus never humbles faith but always encourages it. He encouraged that of Peter mightily when he told him to come. The trouble was that, instead of holding to his faith, Peter let go of it. This often happens even to men of strong faith. The things that faith has to overcome are such as, when they are looked at by themselves, are bound to create dismay and depress faith. The will of Jesus made the water solid only for Peter’s faith and only in response to that faith.” [R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 575.]

That same scholar goes on to say this: “Jesus’ word to Peter is usually regarded as a rebuke. In reality it - in a gentle way - points out to Peter just what caused his trouble: too little faith when he looked at the wind, and doubt crowding out faith at the thought of danger.” (Ibid., p. 576)

When we look at the things that challenge our faith by themselves, “they are bound to create dismay and depress faith.” That’s the key. We should never look at these things BY THEMSELVES. That’s why how we ask that question is so important: Where *is* God in all of this? We have our answer: He’s only a few steps away, waiting for us to call out His name and ask to be helped.

So let’s agree to remind each other of this in the weeks and months ahead. It looks like things are going to continue to be crazy for quite a while, so let’s agree that we’re not going to let ourselves look only at the chaos. If you catch me falling into that trap, please remind me of this passage. Please remind me that I’ve stopped looking at my Teacher and I got distracted by the storm. Remind me that I just need to keep focused on Him, and when I’m doing that, miracles can happen, and I’m not really in any danger. Because Jesus is never far away from us. In fact, I think we’ll find that He’s ALWAYS been a lot closer to us than any of us dared to think. We just get distracted. So yes, let’s help each other to stay focused on Him, and we’ll let Him calm the storm and sail our boat to the other side.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.