"When the Storms of Life are Raging" - Sermon from August 13, 2017
Community UMC,
Quincy
“When the Storms
of Life are Raging”
Pastor Andrew
Davis
August 13, 2017
Matthew 14: 22-33
One of the things about visiting the
mountains throughout my life and now living in the mountains is that the wind
can often come up out of nowhere and come up very strong in the late morning to afternoon. I remember from my many years of fishing the
Truckee area lakes how things would be relatively calm when my dad and I got
there, only to see the wind start creating riffles on the lake, then by
mid-afternoon, whitecaps. It’s one of
those moments I would not really want to be out there in a kayak, raft, or
small aluminum boat like our old 12-foot SeaNymph we used to have. In fact, I remember how windy it was when my
dad and I first went up to Eagle Lake when I was almost 13. Even though we went ahead and launched at
Spaulding and got out onto the lake, it was like being on a rough sea. And to compound the rough water, our old
Evinrude outboard didn’t want to cooperate by cutting in and out, making it a
little more scary. However, as the
evening went on and once we got the motor going by making a long run, the wind
began to subside and before long, the lake was as smooth as glass and would be
that way the next day as well. Even
though we had dreams of landing one of those large, legendary Eagle Lake
rainbows, we didn’t catch anything, still managing
to have a good time despite a few tense moments that first evening. ---
I
invite us to imagine being on the water in the boat with the disciples in the
evening, as they are sent by Jesus to go to the other side of Lake Gennesaret,
aka the Sea of Galilee when the wind suddenly comes whipping up during the
night, creating these huge waves and white caps on the lake, much like some
days at Eagle Lake, Lake Tahoe, or Lake Almanor. Depending on the size of the boat, which at
that time probably was not very big, or stable, that boat could have been
rocking hard enough to make even the hardiest of ocean travelers seasick. On the other hand, this particular passage
from Matthew kind of reminds me of the George Clooney film from 2000, “The
Perfect Storm,” minus the massive wave that ultimately leads to the loss of an
entire crew. Although the filmmakers
took liberties with the actual story of the Andrea Gail off the coast of New
England to make it more thrilling, just the idea of being out in the middle of
the lake, the ocean, or river when in a small to mid-size boat can be quite
frightening, especially when the boat is rocking violently to-and-fro. It’s no wonder why the disciples cry out in
fear!! I would too if I felt like I was
going to capsize and sink at any moment.
Nevertheless, Jesus shows up at the
right moment, coming up to the boat while
walking on the water. Now if I saw
someone coming towards me while walking on water, I too would think I was
seeing a ghost or something paranormal, just like the disciples did. I'd even want to call the guys from Ghost
Andventures to come investigate. However, Jesus is not a ghost, and reminds the disciples and us
that when the storms are raging around us, “take heart, it is I…don’t be afraid”
(Matt. 14: 27, NRSV). In other words,
Jesus’s words are like the cover of this little pack of inspirational cards I
keep in my office that say, “Keep Calm and Trust God.” Jesus is more or less telling the disciples, “don’t
worry, I’ve got this…keep calm and trust me.”
Of course, Peter being Peter, the man of action
and oftentimes overconfident in his own abilities, wants to try walking on
water too, as he wants to make sure that it’s really Jesus and not a
ghost. Instead, Peter learns a hard
lesson, that only Jesus can walk on water because the minute that Peter becomes
scared when the wind comes up, he sinks, then gets admonished by Jesus who
says, “you of little faith, why did you doubt,” otherwise implying “silly
Peter, walking on water’s only for Jesus to do” (Matthew 14: 31).
When the storms of life are raging, there are
days where it’s so much easier to be afraid and doubt, especially in times when
there is rapid change, natural disasters, the threat of war that is escalating
as tensions rise between the US and North Korea, or increasing acts of
violence, racism, bigotry, and hatred such as what we are seeing manifest
itself in Charlottesville, VA this weekend, oftentimes clashing with those who
are trying to witness in love and with those trying to be peacemakers. It’s also easy to equate or even blame the
storms of life we face for a lack of faith or other factors in society;
although I believe that it’s healthy to wrestle with doubt and faith during the
storms of life. As we saw over the last
couple weeks during the Minerva Fire, we kept hearing the message to stay calm,
stay positive, and don’t panic, even though it’s often our first instinct to
panic and think of every worst-case scenario that can happen (something that I
am often guilty of doing too!!). Amidst
the fear and uncertainty we faced, we did very well staying calm as a
community, and even for an anxious person like myself, it was reassuring to
know that we had thousands on the ground fighting the fires all night long and
from the air during the day. That's
where faith came into play as that storm of life was raging.
Even in the other storms of life, there will be
questions to wrestle with...am I going to have enough money to cover my rent
and pay my bills and have enough to eat?
Are the doctors going to be able to find a cure for what’s ailing
me? Am I going to be able to get into
the class that I really, really need in order to graduate? Are we heading to war soon? When will all
violence, anger, animosity, racism, and other forms of hatred in our world come
to an end? Will we ever see peace in our
world and nation? And so on… We need
Jesus to appear, to come up to the boat that's rocking more than ever before as
we face these present storms of life. We
need Jesus’s assurance, even in the midst of doubt.
Similar to this morning’s lesson, the disciples
face another storm in the boat on the same sea in Matthew 8, although unlike
today's lesson, Jesus is right there with them in the boat. But the result is the same, the disciples
become afraid in the middle of a storm just as they are afraid in the storm
without Jesus in the boat. However,
disciples get the same admonishment from Jesus to have faith in Matthew 8 as
they do in this morning’s Gospel lesson.
In the times we have to wrestle, there are times and storms of life when
having faith is all we can do. And there
are also times where our faith needs to lead us into the places we don't always
want to go, or speak up when we know what we have to say may not always be
popular with everyone, or when what we have to say meets resistance, or ruffles
some feathers. Even being the
peacemakers that Jesus called us to be back in the Sermon on the Mount even
earlier in Matthew’s gospel involves stepping out in faith and even wrestling
with doubt. We may be afraid in some
situations, but that's where faith helps us get through and where faith holds
us together as a community. ---
Now, there is some caution we do need to take
when it comes to talking about faith or doubt during the storms of life. Just simply telling someone to have faith and
to not doubt can come off as a platitude, which two of my former seminary
professors, Drs. Michael Koppel and Denise Dombkowski Hopkins define as “a
superficial comment that stifles further story explanation.”[i] One thing I always caution people in pastoral
care situations and was cautioned in pastoral care class is to never equate the
storms of life with a lack of faith, or equate it with not praying hard
enough. Everyone will experience Jesus’s
message differently. While wrestling
with our text this morning, I know that Jesus’s message to not be afraid and
have faith during the storm is a reassuring message when the storms of life are
raging, as this reassuring message is something I had to keep reminding myself
and being reminded to do during the scarier times of the fire and other storms
of life. Many of us will struggle with
our faith at one time or another in our lifetime, and the storms of life will
come up and rage, as not everything is necessarily sunshine and rainbows. While we might not or see it right away, or
when we see it in retrospect, God is still present when we do turn to our
faith, and we can receive hope and assurance from God in the hard times, except
it doesn't mean that we won't wrestle either. Think about the disciples on that boat in the
middle of the storm. Although they were
scared and crying out,
Peter hears Jesus’s claim [that Jesus is here and
not to be afraid]…Jesus is the one who makes God present. In a chaotic world where such a claim often
appears false, hollow, or meaningless, many would like some experiential,
spectacular reassurance that it is really so.
Peter knows that Jesus has been left back on the beach, just as [we]
know that that Jesus has been left back there in history**. In both cases, it is clearly impossible that
he could come to us. So when he appears,
walking on the sea, it should be good news...
We can resonate with Peter, the typical disciple, when he proposes a
test.[ii]
**(to clarify as pointed out by some after
worship this morning, Jesus still lives on in each of us through the Holy
Spirit, even though Jesus is not physically with us…it was not my intention to
make anyone upset for the exegetical error and for not unpacking this point
more).
As I
shared with you last month, I’ve had my own storms of life in dealing with
depression and anxiety, and there are many others I know who deal with similar
storms of life. I can’t speak for all of my friends or others I know who are
dealing with their own storms of life, but I know that from my own experience,
there are times I just want to throw up my arms and say the heck with faith and
let my doubt take over because doubt is the easy way out; on the other hand, it’s
in those moments of doubt when it’s like the boat is tossing violently to and
fro where I find that I have my most profound encounters with God during the
storm. I feel like Jesus is coming to me
on the water like he does with the disciples in both scenarios, saying “do not
be afraid.” On the other hand, I have also gotten myself in trouble and have
made people angry when I have implied that they don’t have enough faith,
something I don’t always catch myself doing until it’s too late and the damage
is done, then have to do the equally challenging part of repenting for implying
so. It's also one of the many
occupational hazards that we clergy have to face in our conversations and
sermons, although there are other things we may talk about, actions, our
involvement in causes near and dear to our hearts, speaking on political causes
where faith and politics intersect, and other things that come with the
territory which might make people uncomfortable
or upset because we can't please everyone all of the time or because we may
have a difference in what we think our occupation is about, even the prophetic
role that we have as clergy. However, we do it on faith, and like Peter, we
step outside the boat and we sink because we don't walk on water either, and
quite honestly, none of us should try, kind of like that ‘don't try this at
home’ disclaimer. Walking on water is
something only for Jesus to do!! ---
All of us are at different levels on this journey
of faith, with some of us having a little faith like the size of the mustard
seed, while others have a strong, steadfast, unwavering faith. Yet, each of us
will face storms of life at one time or another and will have different ways to
navigate those storms and rough seas, some with certainty and unwavering faith
while others will wrestle with doubt and cry out to the deep. However, nobody should ever be made to feel
guilty for not having enough faith because “faith is not being able to walk on
water – only God can do that – but daring to believe, in the face of all the
evidence, that God is with us in the boat, made real in the community of faith
as it makes its way through the storm, battered by the waves.”[iii] We the church, are the boat and we need each
other to navigate through the storms that come up in life, just as we have been
able to do at many different points in history and continue to do so today when
we believe that God is here with us, even though it may not be quite as
dramatic or as spectacular as Jesus walking on water or coming up to our boat
when caught in the wind, especially on one of the lakes up here.
While it may not always feel like it, I believe
that God is still with us, giving us a sense hope, and saw that God was still
with us during this fire, particularly through the crews who quickly descended
onto our town to keep it safe. God has
also been present through the overall community in our hospitality and care of
the fire crews, which caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times and was
featured in an article earlier this week.
The amazing part of living in a small town like ours is that we take
care of one another, and in the midst of high anxiety when our collective boat
is being tossed around in the sea of danger and uncertainty during the storms
of life, Jesus shows up at the right moment and reassures us that God is still
with us, assuring us that we don’t have anything to be afraid about. Amidst the moments of high anxiety last
Friday while seeing flames a little too close for comfort, I was able to feel a
sense of peace and reassurance from God after praying, especially knowing that
the ground crews were on it. Putting our
trust in God when when we pray can help give us a calm and sense of peace in
the midst of the storm, and that includes things that are going on in the world
around us beyond our community, but I am doing my best to trust God and not be
afraid in all of the chaos and will not stop trying to be a peacemaker or call
out injustice. When we got to last Sunday and the threat to our community was
abated, I kept hearing the saying of the theologian Julian of Norwich, “all
shall be well, all shall be well” playing over and over again in my head. And when the disciples were once again with
Jesus in the boat and the waters stilled, all was well once again. My constant prayer in the wake of escalating
tensions among nations and the constant uptick in violence is that all will be
well, even if it feels like being in a boat on the sea rocking violently about
in the storm.
The Good news is that in the midst of the storms
of life, all can be well by putting our trust, faith, and hope in Jesus who can
pull us up from the water when we start to sink, but gets in the boat with us,
and calms the storm by giving us a sense of peace and calm. Our fears and doubts will not necessarily go
away completely, especially right now with things we are seeing around the
nation and world, but we have this all loving, all knowing savior in Jesus who
shows up at the right time, and assures us not to be afraid, even in the
moments when it feels easier said than done.
We are all here together, staying in this boat together as we navigate
through the waters of the good, the bad, and the ugly just like we would still
navigate our boats through the calm or through the whitecaps on the many lakes
we live around. So as we go into this
new week, where have you experienced Jesus showing up at the right time when
the storms of life have been raging around you?
In the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let the church say, AMEN!!
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