A sermon by Associate Minister Elsa A. Peters, August 10, 2008
Matthew 14:22-33
Have you ever tried to share the mystery of some wonder you have found with another? Have you stood there beside this person – perhaps your child or your grandchild – waiting? You wait impatiently. Why don’t they see what you can see so clearly?
So…? (Exaggerated chiding.) You don’t want to force it – but you want them to get it immediately. It’s obvious. And you are standing there beside this person, whom you love, waiting for them to see what you have already seen.
For Barbara Kingsolver, it was a river. Kingsolver wants her daughters to understand the magic that she found in the Mississippi when she was only nine. But, she doesn’t take them to the banks of the Mississippi, but a little closer to home to “recognize in the San Pedro the might and consequence of that splendid word river.” She stands beside her two daughters on the banks of the San Pedro. So…?
There is no immediate reverence – as her youngest daughter “hurls herself toward the sandy shallows, crying, ‘Clothes off!’” Immediately, her youngest daughter cracks the surface of the river with a splash. Immediately. This is how Matthew characterizes the appropriate reaction to Jesus. In the calling of the disciples, Peter and Andrew leave their nets immediately. James son of Zebedee and his brother John get out of their father’s boat immediately to follow Jesus. Ironically, it’s only the call of Matthew that is not immediate. But, in every other moment of discipleship, it is immediate – like a child yelling “Clothes off” and plunging into a river.
Of course, Peter isn’t a child. Even if Matthew is the only Gospel author to tell this story, it’s clear that Peter doesn’t strip his clothes off and plunge into the sea.
That’s not in the text. In the text, it’s Jesus that responds with immediacy. It’s Jesus that made the disciples get into the boat. Immediately. It’s Jesus that spoke to the terrified disciples who thought they had seen a ghost. Immediately. It’s Jesus that reached out his hand and caught Peter. Immediately. In the text, it’s Jesus that yells “Clothes off!” and plunges into the water. Peter follows after Jesus. Peter got out of the boat, after being asked. But, it is Jesus that first walks on the water.
Not this Mississippi. Not the San Pedro. Not even like the Saco River that has recently risen six feet above its normal level after an unusually wet summer. But, the sea. Jesus walks on the waters of the sea. This “[w]ater is not only water. Water is the chaos that kills people. And Jesus is walking on top of it.”
Think about that for a moment. This is the water that kills people. That might sound extreme, as we try to find enough sunshine to enjoy the seaside at any one of the beautiful beaches in Maine – but there are no sand castles or boogie boarding in this story.
The sea in Matthew’s Gospel is one that needs to be calmed – even if that was several chapters ago. But, Jesus doesn’t calm the storm here. The waves are beating on the disciples boat and the wind is against them, but it is not the storm that Jesus calms. It’s the water – but not just water. It’s the sea that Jesus walks on. Jesus walks on top of all that kills us – on that wave of poverty, on the swell of war, on the ripple of global warming. Jesus walks. Jesus walks on top of this chaos.
Now, don’t get it in your head that Jesus goes from being alone praying to running down the mountain yelling “Clothes off!” and plunging into the water. I don’t think that’s what Matthew wants to illustrate about Jesus here. I don’t think that it’s the immediacy of his actions that is surprising here. I think what surprises Matthew about this story is how immediate God can be in the midst of chaos – when the winds are against us and the waves are beating on you. God walks there. Right there. Immediately.
I think that’s why Peter gets out of the boat. Immediately, he knows that this is not a ghost. The other disciples in the boat figure it out after this unique scene with Jesus and Peter. Matthew ends this story with their realization, “Truly you are the Son of God!” But, Peter manages to figure it out before the rest of the disciples. Immediately, it seems. Peter knows. It’s God and he wants to be there with God. He wants to do his part to walk on top of what kills his sisters and brothers. He wants to be there. Immediately.
So even though he hesitates a moment and asks Jesus to invite him out there onto sea, he steps out of the boat. The only plunge in this story is this conviction. Peter gets out of the boat, not because he has “little faith” but because he has enough faith. Peter is stupid enough (maybe even brave enough) to believe Jesus when he is told that with his “little faith” about the size of a mustard seed, “nothing will be impossible” for him.
Nothing will be impossible. Not even walking on top of all that kills us. Who doesn’t want that kind of faith? Who doesn’t want to be right there with God sharing in the wonder of what you have found? Who wouldn’t want to be there immediately?