Matthew 14:22-33<\/p>\n\n\n\n
August 18, 2002\u201410:05 Worship<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was in seminary and as students preparing for the ministry, we often thought about the challenges in serving a difficult church. My home church pastor warned me one time, \u201cIf you are going to serve this church that is over 300 years old, boy, you better be able to walk on water!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wow! What a warning! Here, I was getting my degree. I thought I had prepared myself well by taking a little longer time and doing more field education. I expected to be a better-than-average new preacher. But walk on water! Be a spiritual superhero, the great savior of this historic testy congregation? Was I up to the challenge? As you can see, I didn\u2019t go there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, with many years into ministry, I know that that\u2019s not the requirement to be an effective pastor of any church. I don\u2019t need to be a Superman who can walk on water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s gospel lesson is a story of a hero, or at least a risk taker. The disciples are out at sea in a boat on a dark and stormy night. Sounds like a cheap novel, right? And early in the morning, there is Jesus out walking on the water. At first, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But after Jesus reassured them that it was he and that they didn\u2019t need to be afraid, something strange, surprising, and unexpected happens. Impulsive and spontaneous Peter cries out, \u201cLord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus does and Peter ventures out from the boat and started walking on water toward Jesus. Wow! Peter trusts Jesus enough to jump out of the boat and into the storm. He wanted to be that Super Disciple to walk on water!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when Peter noticed the strong wind blowing, he became afraid and started to sink. It seems that Peter\u2019s faith wasn\u2019t enough after all. Even at the beginning of this story, Peter didn\u2019t have all <\/em>faith but just a little<\/em> faith. Peter calls out to Jesus, \u201cIf<\/em> it is you, command me to come to you on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter was trying to see how much of a Son of God Jesus was. Lord, if you are<\/em> the Son of God and can do anything for us that we want, call me out on the water and prove it to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or perhaps Peter was saying, \u201cLord, if you think that I\u2019m the premier disciple, the real rock of your church as you have said earlier, then show it to everybody else by keeping me safe on the waves. Prove that I\u2019m special, better than the rest. And that the rules of life don\u2019t apply to me because I\u2019m a good Christian. In fact, I\u2019m a super Christian!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We like Peter a lot because he says what we are saying or at least thinking about when it comes to our faith in God. We blurt out what Peter says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have all said in our life, \u201cLord, because I\u2019ve served you all my life and have tried to do right, make me exempt from the storms of illness. Show the world that I am your special child by enabling me to rise above the storms of life that bedevil less faithful people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, \u201cLord, since I\u2019ve gone to the trouble to be here at church, and in the middle of the summer, no less, show me some irrefutable sign that you really are who the church claims you to be. Do something to prove to me that my faith in you is justified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, \u201cLord, look at me! I\u2019m a spiritual warrior, a hero of faith! Watch me show the world how good I am in believing! Watch me now; here I go out into the waves. Watch me glide untouched over the foam! See? I really am a Super Christian!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we said these things like Peter did, Jesus is utterly justified in saying, \u201cPeter, sit down and shut up. You are embarrassing yourself. You\u2019re nobody special, just another beloved disciple. Forget the heroics and get back in the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus doesn\u2019t do that. Maybe Jesus knowing what Peter really needs calls to him, lets him venture out, then sinks, then let Peter cry out. Maybe that was all that Jesus needed to hear from him all along, not \u201cHere I am, Super Christian, on my way out to you!\u201d But simply, \u201cLord, save me! I\u2019m sinking. What am I doing out here? Save me like you would anybody else who\u2019s going down for the third time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Jesus does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jesus reached out his hand to save Peter, he said to Peter, \u201cYou of little faith.\u201d After once calling Peter \u201cthe Rock,\u201d Peter\u2019s little faith sank like a big rock in the sea of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point of this epiphany of Jesus is not as much about how Peter began having doubt once he felt the wind and the waves. Rather, the point is Peter\u2019s initial demand of Jesus to let him walk on water toward Jesus. He wanted to be that Super Christian above everyone else. He wanted to show off to the other disciples that he was more of a risk taker than they were. He felt that he should be immune and exempt from all dangers and threats in life especially since Jesus named him, \u201cThe Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of having all faith in Jesus to eventually come to him, Peter thought that he was capable of getting out of the boat and to meet Jesus half way. He didn\u2019t have enough faith that Jesus was coming out to rescue them from the stormy sea. Jesus was saying, \u201cPeter, you of little faith, why didn\u2019t you have enough faith to stay seated in the boat with the others and let me come to you in my own good time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus was saying to Peter, \u201cHaven\u2019t you learned enough of me to know that in the storm is when I most love to come to you and love you? You don\u2019t need to jump the gun and dash off after me. Just wait in the boat and have some faith that I\u2019ll come in good time to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wow! As human beings, all of us, one time or another, will find ourselves caught in the stormy times of life. Perhaps it\u2019s being laid-off during this period of a weakened U.S. economy. It is not your fault but we worry about making ends meet. We allow our frustrations and disappointments seep into our inner thoughts and we begin to lose confidence that we are lovable and capable. We want our pastor to be able to walk on water and you want to be able to walk on water too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe the storm and battering waves are coming at us in the form of cancer. \u201cLord, if it is you, how long will I need to be uncertain about my future?\u201d We want and demand answers or we will dismiss our doctor and get a second opinion. We want our pastor to be like Jesus who would reach out his hand to catch us before we sink. We want our pastor to be able to walk on water and we want to walk on water too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, perhaps, you are consumed in the vortex of a dark, swirling storm in the middle of the night when depression and sadness set in. \u201cI want this depression to be over! I\u2019m tired of feeling this way! When will it be over?\u201d We are tired of seeing ghosts and want our pastor to be able to walk on water and we want to walk on water too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our story, Jesus only rebukes Peter for his lack of faith. To the others, seated in the boat, these disciples didn\u2019t even attempt any of Peter\u2019s spiritual antics. Jesus just comes. Jesus comes and gets into the boat with them and there is a great calm at the ending of the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe great faith is that calm, un-heroic, but still impressive conviction that enables you to stay at your place in the boat, even though there\u2019s a storm, confident that you don\u2019t have to come to Jesus. In good time, Jesus will come to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus says simply, \u201cHush!\u2019 to the waves. And they do. And at that moment, when all is strangely still and calm and your faith is restored, you are able to say, \u201cTruly, Lord Jesus, you are the Son of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even in this amazingly scientific advanced age, this pastor can\u2019t walk on water. I want to but I can\u2019t. And like Peter\u2019s experience, that\u2019s not only okay but it\u2019s what God wants. This pastor is better able to see the frightened, hurting, and doubting disciples this way. This pastor can see you like a child, coming to his parent with a nasty scrape on the knee, wanting to be kissed and made better, than the mature Super Christian adults that we tend to want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know that for me to be a good pastor, I will not attempt to \u201cwalk on water.\u201d I won\u2019t try giving you some pseudo-wise answers to unanswerable questions or quoting you Scriptures thinking that it has some supernatural magic about your condition or by telling you three easy steps to solve your problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather, I pray that this pastor would draw your attention to focus on God who in God\u2019s own time will come to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some years ago, we were on Long Island with Joy\u2019s brother fishing off the beach. Some of us were flying kites with a good wind blowing out to sea. Greg was little and wanted to hold onto the string of the kite. Suddenly, a great wind came up and pulled the spool of string out of Greg\u2019s little hands. With the spool of string dancing on the tops of the sand and then onto the water and with me chasing after it, I realized that I had my camera around my neck. To save the expensive camera over a kite that costs only a few dollars, I let the kite go. As the kite flew farther and farther away, Greg cried. At that moment, I wished I could have walked on water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing that I can\u2019t walk on water has led me to have faith in God. Although our faith will be tested and challenged when life becomes choppy and we become fearful, the point of this story is that we must not ask God to make us Super Christians but rather for us to implore that the supernatural Lord rescues us from the dangers that we cannot conquer on our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus Christ can walk on water because his faith in his heavenly Father permits him to walk above the chaos. Jesus knows that his father will not allow him to sink in the perils of life. So, too, if we take our eyes off Jesus, we will sink. Faithful disciples focus their faith on Christ, not on the dangers and threats surrounding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, all the disciples find that their situation is saved when Jesus gets into the boat with them. From very early times, the boat has been a symbol for the church. This story teaches us that the church\u2019s faith is not right when it tries to walk on water or raise the dead or save the world by its own zeal and strength. The church\u2019s faith is right when it gives Christ his rightful place, in its midst, and celebrates his Lordship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The true confession of faith is not, \u201cLook! I\u2019m walking on water,\u201d but \u201cTruly you are the Son of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us acknowledge the storm that rages outside, the peace and reassurance we feel inside, and let us worship, saying, \u201cTruly, Christ Jesus, you are the Son of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord, when life gets difficult and the storms of life rage around us, fill us with confidence that you are with us, that you come to us in the middle of the storm, and give us peace. Give us patience to wait for you, to allow you to come to us on your time rather than ours. Increase our faith that our salvation is not found in what we do, or think, or say for you, but in what you do for us. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 14:22-33 August 18, 2002\u201410:05 Worship Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. When I was in seminary and as students preparingSuper Christians<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Little Faith<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
In the Same Boat<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Church\u2019s Faith<\/h6>\n\n\n\n