"Stormy Weather" - Pentecost 10A

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Our Saviour Lutheran Church

Saint Matthew 14:22-33

“Stormy Weather”

Every great once and awhile I decide to scroll through television programs I have recorded to see which ones are worth savings and which ones can easily be deleted.  What always amazes me is the number of programs I actually have watched but, for some reason, believe I will watch again.

Take for example the recording of the New York New Year’s Eve Celebration from Time Square with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.  I think I recorded it in fear that I would not be awake to watch the celebration at midnight on the east coast. And, the team of the off-the-wall Cohen and the old, sobersides Cooper always make me laugh especially as the evening wears on and Anderson gets a little tipsy.

So, in the midst of the heatwave, I watched New Year’s Eve in New York once again.  It was sad and strange

to see the hopefulness with which 2020 was greeted.

I pondered the age-old question: What if we knew then what we know now.

Would there be the same kind of joy among the revellers who knew nothing of the term “social distancing”?  Would the hugs, kisses, and even handshakes from friends and acquaintances be greeted with the same terror they are now.

Would the crowd watch the giant Tiffany orb slowly descend with glee or would they be yelling, “No! Go back! Go back!”

Would their faces be all smiles, as they were that night, or would they look more like Evard Munch’s painting “The Scream”?  

No, 2020 did not live up to its billing.  In the hope department it may even be considered to be a spectacular underachiever. It certainly did not live up to the hype of that night when December turned to January and expectations were high.

This year feels like we have been hit by one storm after another. It’s been like a never ending hurricane. You know how those work, we saw it again this week on the east coast.  

First there the winds increase and the skies darken. Then the rains come. Pounding rains that are so heavy that you literally cannot see. Then trees are uprooted and powerlines are down and everything becomes pitch black.  Then there is the storm surge where water rushes in with a mighty force. 

This year is like being in a never ending siege of stormy weather.

First, the pandemic.  Can you believe that it was only 20 days into the new year, January 20th to be exact, that a 35 year old man from Snohomish County in Washington State, became the first patient to be diagnosed. “As of Monday, [February 4] there were 11 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., including six in California, two in Illinois – among a husband and wife – and one each in Massachusetts, Arizona and Washington. A total of 260 people were being monitored for infection in 36 states.” 1

This shower turned into a hurricane of mammoth proportions.

As of Thursday evening, more than 4,879,200 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 159,500 have died, according to a New York Times database.2

Then the senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police office brought Black Lives Matter movement into the national consciousness with the storm of unrest that came with it.  When protests are met with backlash we are sure to be in for a bout of stormy weather.

In light of all that we are facing the idea of Jesus walking on the water in the midst of a storm can not only be quaint but convey an image of God who is above it all, completely unaffected by the storms of every day life.  That’s the Sunday School image of a “drip dry Jesus” out for a stroll on the deep blue sea untroubled by the winds and waves.

That was not an image the first century church needed and it is not helpful for the twenty-first century church either.

 While we are facing a crises that has inextricably altered all of our lives the audience Matthew was writing for was “caught in the turmoil of a persecuted existence because of their belief in Jesus, and the reality of this fear is a reflection of the fear of the disciples.”3 Matthew emphasizes this by when he describes the boat as being battered which in the original Greek means: harassed, distressed, tortured.  Matthew isn’t talking about the boat he’s talking about the passengers!

Not only was the storm the disciples found themselves in torturous it had a very real potential for ending their earthly existence.  Experienced seafarers or not, no matter how hard they tried they were making no progress against the gale.

Isn’t that us?  For some our lives are being threatened which is why we have been staying home, keeping away from large crowds, social distancing, wearing our masks, washing our hands and it still seems like we not getting anywhere.  We fear that we might even be going backwards in this struggle the likes of which we have never seen before.   Many of us are rowing while others are partying.

While the disciples are paddling Jesus is away somewhere praying. 

By four o’clock in the morning they are cold, wet, exhausted, and afraid for their lives. By four in the morning they have had about all they can take. They are wearied, battered, and seasick from the rough waves. There hands are blistered from the struggle against the storm. It looks like it is curtains for them.

Just then one of the disciples looks up, and amidst the sea mist and clouds ... sees a figure coming closer on the dark waves.  As if the storm wasn’t scary enough, now they are all terrified by what looks like ghost walking on the whitecaps.4

 Most preachers and teachers give the disciples tons of grief for misidentifying Jesus as if they could have done better. Nobody I have read on this subject had ever experienced what the disciples were experiencing. We’ve had two thousand years to get used to this scene.  Had we been there in a small boat, in a storm, in the darkness, who knows what we might have said.  At least, “It’s a ghost!” is repeatable in mixed company.

Peter too doesn’t escape criticism of the arm chair quarterbacks who have had over two centuries to review the tape.  They are all fairly certain that the last thing they would have done was want to get out of the boat.  Most are convinced they would have been begging Jesus to hurry and join them so that he could do something about the stormy weather.

To understand what Peter did “you have to have understand a little about the background of Jesus’ world.” Peter was a disciple and back then

A disciple wanted to do what his teacher did. A disciple wanted to talk like his teacher talked. A disciple wanted to walk like his teacher walked. A disciple devoted his entire life to being just like his teacher. 

So Peter is just being a good disciple when he asks to walk on water with Jesus. He wants to do what his rabbi is doing.5

 The first amazing thing for me in this encounter is that Jesus says, in effect, “give it a try.”  Jesus doesn’t say, “No Peter! You’ll sink like a stone and drown!” Jesus says, “Alright!  If you want to. Give it a whirl!

After Peter has taken a few steps he begins to sink and here is where the traditional interpretation of this story leaves me cold.

In this picture  Jesus seems absolutely fine, unfazed by that is happening.  Notice that his hair is still perfectly quaffed, his clothes are not even damp, as he gently, ever so gently, reaches out to an adoring Peter.

My brothers and sisters, that is not the way it went down!  That is why I have fallen in love with the painting by Yongsome Kim called “The Hand of God”.  It is from Peter’s perspective!  It is the perspective of a drowning man searching the surface and looking for help.  Kim shows us  Jesus reaching down for Peter even looking a bit bemused at his friend’s predicament.

Much as I love that picture even it probably gets what really happened all bullocks up.  I say this not from years of studying theology but from my time as a lifeguard and a water-safety instructor.

I know that if you are going to save someone in heavy seas you are going to have to throw yourself in after them and I believe that is exactly what Jesus did.  I believe that Jesus dove in after Peter and grabbed him. In good Red Cross fashion I believe he managed to get one arm around Peter’s chest, placed his free hand in the small of the disciple’s back, and pushed him to the surface.  Once that was accomplished, I believe, he dragged him back to the boat, and with the help of the other disciples hoisted himself and Peter back on board.

I also believe that when he asked, “Why did you doubt?” They both were dripping wet and breathing heavily.  “Why did you doubt?” Jesus sputtered.  “What got into you?” 

Then after another gasping breath, “Didn’t you believe I would get you, save you?”  Then with chest heaving, “Didn’t you have faith enough in me to know that I would never let you drown?”

What happened to Peter, with his mixture of faith and doubt, is what has been happening to all of us through this very difficult.  

Many of the hopes and dreams of those New Year’s Eve revellers have been drown out by the reality of having to face a global pandemic that nobody in the crowd that night could have predicted.  We have spent most of the year that dawned with such hope just hoping to survive.

What people remember most about this story is that Jesus walked on water and when Peter tried it he sank like a stone.  But this is really a story about Jesus who not only saved Peter but got into the boat with the rest of the disciples and gave them the faith to sail on.

Jesus is present with us just as surely as he was with the disciples. In this “stormy weather” he is with us in our boat.  

That is our hope! In the midst of pandemic, economic downturns, and social strife Jesus is with us.  In the midst of any adversity while we are looking up through raging water and raging times afraid for our lives he is not just reaching out but diving in after us to bring us to safety.

In The Living Bible Matthew concludes this miracle story which has become a story for our times with the words: “And when they had climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped.  The others sat there, awestruck. ‘You really are the Son of God!’ they exclaimed.”6  And they worshipped him.

Only Jesus, the Son of God, who is willing to ride out our stormy weather with us is worthy of our praise, and worship, and devotion.  Only Jesus, who promises to be with us in our  New Year’s Eve celebrations is and during the darkest days of our year can be counted on to in fair weather and foul.

Only Jesus is worthy of this kind of praise.

____________

1. Gaby Galvin, “First U.S. Coronavirus Patient Released From Hospital,” U.S. News & World Report, February 4, 2020), https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-02-04/first-us-coronavirus-patient-released-from-hospital.

2. “Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count,” The New York Times, March 3, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html.

3.  Gennifer Benjamin Brooks, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox|Westminister Press 2020), pp. 222-234.

4.  William H. Willimon, “Just Like Jesus,” Pulpit Resource 36, no. 3 (2008): pp. 25-28.

5. ibid.

6. St. Matthew 14:32-33. (TLB) [TLB= The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL:  Tyndale House Publishing, 1971)]