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Strange Exchange Part 4
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2:Welcome here, everyone. It's so good to have you in the livestream. My name is Bobbie, and last week, I signed a work email, Bobo, by accident. But I want to assure you that my real name is Bobbie, and it is casual enough, so no nickname is required. I really hope that you are keeping well.
Speaker 2:This is a season of taking care of our bodies and looking out for the wellness of others. And it can be annoying, but there's still some sweetness in the struggle. There's the slowing down, the ways establishing your cohort invites you to examine whom you keep close. There's the global hope that we can find a way through this and maybe even be a more equitable society on the other side. I mean, we can hope, right?
Speaker 2:And speaking of statements turned into questions, we're about halfway through our series called Strange Exchange, where we spend time with questions Jesus asks disciples and seekers and powerful people of his day. And in my life, I have had a longtime romance with questions. As a teenager, I thought about journalism as a career, and I know, I know there are all kinds of feelings and opinions about the media these days, but the moment of getting at truth through inquiry has always fascinated me. How does one question lead to another? What space is opened or closed all on account of how a question is framed?
Speaker 2:Can a question bring enough illumination to change a life? Well, so far in the series, we've looked at the questions, who do you say I am? Do you want to get well? Why are you so afraid? And today we're spending time with the question, Why do you doubt?
Speaker 2:In Matthew 14. And if you take notes in your journal, your outline is this: Part one: Alone Together Part two: Dynamic Encounter Part three: Reach for Bafflement Part four: What Do You Believe? Now let's catch our breath and pray together. Join me. Loving God, we take a moment to reflect on our week.
Speaker 2:The moments that brought us life where we felt rested, joyful, energized by the beauty of the world around us. Christ with us, we thank you for these moments of life and renewal. We also take a moment to reflect on what drained us this week, where we were weary, unwell, stressed out spirit who holds us. We thank you that you are always with us, giving us wisdom in all situations. Today, as we listen and reflect, will you move in our minds and our hearts?
Speaker 2:We pray. Amen. Now, we consider the question within the story of Matthew 14, I want you to consider your relationship with belief. Like, if you could picture the status of your belief on a faith o meter, you know, like an applause o meter, with the low end being I'm not even hanging on by a thread, moving up to like, I'm at 35% with this faith stuff going further to I've done some tearing down and I'm rebuilding, finally arriving at it's all for me. I can't imagine my life without Jesus at the center.
Speaker 2:What does your faith o meter read today? I want you to know as we read the story and make our way to why do you doubt that you are in this story, whatever your imaginary faith o meter reads, this story includes you. Okay. We find today's question in Matthew 14. And to get there, we begin in verse 22.
Speaker 2:Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. And when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.
Speaker 2:It's a ghost, they said, and cried out in fear. First, as you have been taught, a story that starts with immediately needs to be seen in context. So here's the drama contained in chapter 14. Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, has killed John the Baptist. And I'm always, like, pretty surprised how quickly we move over this event.
Speaker 2:This is Jesus's relative, the one who prepared the way of the Lord. He's been murdered by the state. And as soon as Jesus hears the news, he needs a minute. He leaves on a mountain, on a boat to be alone. But he's not alone for long.
Speaker 2:Word spreads. People follow on foot from several towns away, and Jesus has compassion on them, heals them. And that evening, when their tummies are grumbling, he feeds them. Somehow, a basket of bread and a couple of fish feed thousands. Now let's sit with the range of the story so far.
Speaker 2:There's a murder. There's a moment alone. There's sickness transformed into wellness. There's hunger. There's humble offerings.
Speaker 2:There's feasting. And sometimes it can seem like the scriptures describe a reality that's hard to get on board with. But when we pull up to a chapter like this one and see ourselves in the drama, the violence of our time, the tug of solitude to sort out your grief, The sickness that makes our bodies so vulnerable. The hunger in the world, our own humble offerings, the times we come together, albeit on a pretty small scale right now, but still we come together to celebrate. Jesus keeps step with the human experience showing us the divine is found right here in our drama too.
Speaker 2:But if you thought chapter 14 was dramatic, just wait until the fourth watch. And in verse 25, the Greek reads in the fourth watch of the night. This is between three and six in the morning. And while I am not from a fisherman's family, I am from the farm. And I grew up with stories of all kinds of strange things that happen out in the field during the fourth watch.
Speaker 2:The stories on our farm weren't the stories of ghosts or phantoms, but they were of the unidentified flying object sort. Now, the men in my family are rational and hardworking, But when you catch them in a rare moment talking about what they saw in a field as the first light was about to break, they scratch their heads and say, This is what I saw. I can't explain it. Fast moving lights, circles in the dirt, hovering objects following from afar. The fourth watch is when your brain plays all kinds of tricks on you, but something is there.
Speaker 2:You really do believe something is there. So when our fishermen look out and see their friend, they are freaked. It's gotta be a ghost. But even so, what's it doing? Walking on water.
Speaker 2:Now, I wrote a whole section of this sermon making all kinds of cool Moses Jesus comparisons, and that's fun. You can see how Matthew reworks the Exodus story to greater heights of deliverance through Jesus. Jesus is the new Moses. Ta da! The scriptures speak in layers as Jeremy mentioned last week.
Speaker 2:But something was bugging me about this Moses Jesus section. What does it mean that Jesus comes to them on the water? Moses didn't walk on water. A wind blew, and he and the Israelites walked through that sea on dry land. Well, Ulrich Luz, who spent most of his theological career working on the Gospel of Matthew, argued that walking on water is actually not that common in the scriptures.
Speaker 2:So while you won't find much walking on water in the Old Testament, you do find a lot of walking on water in the literature and oral tradition of the ancient world. Like all around the Mediterranean Sea, stories about walking on water tell of the power of gods and kings. And some of them go like this. Walking on water is not something humans can do. Walking on water is reserved for the gods or the sons of gods, so says Gilgamesh.
Speaker 2:Walking on water is what a great king can do when he builds a marvelous bridge as Xerxes had done in the April. No one else in his empire could quote, stride over the sea. And walking on water is what happens in dreams. It is an omen for a good sea journey, as explained in Artemodorus' The Interpretation of Dreams. So in epic storytelling, walking on water is for gods and kings and dreamers.
Speaker 2:Now put a pin on in that. We will come back to it. But for now, one thing seems so clear to me about the story so far. It contains so many opposites. There's life and death.
Speaker 2:There's a mountainside unmovable and a lake always moving. There's the end of the night and the start of a day. There's what's real and what feels like make believe. There's alone and together. And these opposites can be a comfort because you contain opposites too.
Speaker 2:I mean, do you have trouble holding onto your feminism and the fatherhood of God? Trusting the science and the simple stories of faith? What about your sense of your own body and its limitlessness alongside the limits of that same body. As Jesus dismisses a crowd and goes up a mountain to pray, taking time to be alone before he walks out on water to be with his friends, he makes sure that we can see all of it. All of it belongs.
Speaker 2:Jesus's humanity reaches for divinity. The opposites form the whole. It is baffling being you. Then as you face one opposite from another thinking you need to keep what is different apart, know that you don't. The tensions of what's probable and what's mysterious are so sacred.
Speaker 2:And maybe you regulate that not with simpler answers, but with contemplation and prayer and awe. It sure seems to work for Jesus. Liz Gilbert said in her Instagram post this week, Our spiritual practices prepare us for the impossible. And sure, she was talking about getting through the pandemic, But little did Liz know, it could also mean walking on water. So after Jesus goes to his friends in the earliest light of a new day and the disciples are so scared they think they see a ghost, Jesus says to them, Take courage.
Speaker 2:It is I. Don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
Speaker 2:But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me. The Greek phrase for Jesus is, it is I is ego e mi. And it doesn't have a predicate, meaning Jesus doesn't say, I am this or I am that. He simply says, I am. And this is where we can turn to Moses and recall how the divine was introduced to him that day he walked alone in his father in law's field.
Speaker 2:Moses says, who am I to do all you have asked me? And while we're at it, who are you? And the voice says, I am. Not I am this or I am that. Something more like I am everything.
Speaker 2:I am all of it. I am borderless and boundaryless. So when the disciples out in the storm hear that the figure is not a phantom, it's their friend, they are told in no uncertain terms that their friend is so much more than they thought he was. Now, Matthew formed his gospel using parts of Mark. But Mark, he doesn't say anything about Peter here.
Speaker 2:He just says Jesus climbs into the boat. The disciples are amazed, but they still have a hard time taking in the truth of who Jesus is because their hearts are not open. So where does Matthew get this story of Peter? Well, some suggest the story comes from a resurrection appearance, like Jesus' encounter with Peter by the sea in John 21. And others say it is drawn from a popular story that circulated in Matthew's community, perhaps even a story that Peter himself shared with his closest friends.
Speaker 2:And so some scholars suggest Matthew adds the account as a homiletic expansion of what Mark thought was important. In other words, Matthew has something more to add to the conversation about discipleship and what it was like to have a dynamic encounter with Jesus and let that encounter shape your life. So Matthew takes Mark's story. Fishermen fighting a storm, check. Rowing with all their might, check.
Speaker 2:Crashing into the truth of God in their midst, check. But then he adds a little more. Peter being invited to step into the wake of divine presence. Enough of that presence to hold him up on the top of the sea. Now, the point of the story isn't like, wow, look at Peter.
Speaker 2:The point is that you, a disciple, can actually be like him. I am is with you. Or in the words of the Apostle Paul, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Mark, he throws shade on the disciples when he tells the story. He says the disciples are heart of heart, and that's fine.
Speaker 2:The disciples deserve that too. I'm heart of heart. I'm full of doubt. I'm not likely to reach towards such an invitation when I'm afraid. Are you?
Speaker 2:But Matthew, Matthew lets disciples shine. He says, You're more than heart of heart. You've got faith, even just a flash of it. Going back to reworking the ancient stories of gods and kings, Matthew says, Just being human makes you capable of baffling triumphs. But of course, we can grasp the truth of what we're capable of in Christ, but it's hard to hold on to that truth for long.
Speaker 2:Backing up to verse 30 and on to 31: But when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You of little faith, he said, why did you doubt? As Peter reaches for the Lord, Matthew's audience would know right away that Peter embodies Psalm 69. Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck.
Speaker 2:Deeper and deeper, I sink. And you might be thinking, Nice one, Peter. You did this to yourself. But then you'd be missing the opportunity to pray with Peter rather than stand back and judge him. You can feel like you're sinking.
Speaker 2:You can actually be sinking and prayers can still rise up in you. Maybe you took a risk and it didn't work out. Maybe you abandoned your convictions and felt anything but free. Maybe you chose to leave your comfort zone and you really don't know how it's going to work out. Peter is your prayer here.
Speaker 2:He risks his life to experience the mystery of walking on water. I mean, can you imagine it? What it could feel like to be more than human in this moment? And maybe Peter didn't stay standing, but he experienced something so beyond what he thought possible, all because he dared to try. Now, what Peter does here is show us what discipleship looks like.
Speaker 2:And I've used that word a few times already today. Honestly, the word discipleship can get a bit tired if you've been around Christian circles for a while. It can mean falling in line and believing all the same things and asking Jesus into your heart and waiting to go to heaven. And I'm not saying those things are so bad, but they do get a little bit boring. Peter shows discipleship is a less predictable path.
Speaker 2:I mean, has anyone ever asked you, Come follow Jesus. Sometimes it feels like walking on water. Yeah, me neither. Well, the writers of the scriptures use all sorts of sacred metaphors and stories from their time to make their points about the God they came to know in Jesus. And there is an ancient parallel to this walking on water story found in the Rig And the Rig Veda.
Speaker 2:Veda is a sacred Eastern text dating back to anywhere from 1,500 to 12 100 BCE. And in the Rig Veda, there's a story of a young man who travels to see his master. And when he reaches the edge of a river, the ferry pilot is no longer there to carry the disciple across. And so, driven by joyful thoughts of the Buddha, the brother went across the river. But when he was in the middle, he saw the waves.
Speaker 2:Then his joyful thoughts of Buddha weakened and his feet began to sink. But he evoked again stronger thoughts of Buddha and continued on the surface of the water. Where this ancient story offers the wisdom to dig deeper within yourself, Matthew says, Reach out further from yourself. And like Peter, you will find God when you put it all on the line. What if discipleship happens when you reach for what you don't understand?
Speaker 2:When you push past what makes sense into what makes you stand in awe? What if discipleship is more about being baffled by God than thinking you've nailed down all that might be true? Questions, after all, this very strange exchange invite you to reach for bafflement, and then you might just find that the one who baffles you is reaching out to you. Verse 31. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed Peter.
Speaker 2:You have little faith, Peter. Why do you doubt me? And here's how you know you are a disciple. Your faith is little. And you should know that Jesus is perfectly okay with little.
Speaker 2:The story immediately before the storm on the lake was that of Jesus feeding thousands of people with a little bit of bread and a little bit of fish. In addition, Jesus will say in a few chapters, If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here and it will move. So welcome to it. And the way of Jesus where you walk on water and sink into the sea and hold onto your itty bitty faith and hope it will grow into a tall, tall tree. And that question, why do you doubt?
Speaker 2:Is just another way of saying, what is it that you believe? Verse 32. And then they climbed into the boat. The wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped Jesus saying, truly you are the son of God.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk about the title Son of God. It's a favorite of Matthew's. It's also the Messianic title in the Dead Sea Scrolls. So it has this central place in the first church and in their worship. And theologian Anna Case Winters makes the point that Son of God functions as a confession for the early church, and it's so loaded.
Speaker 2:When the first Christians confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, they subvert the powerful empire. They recall the humble Savior who died and rose from the dead. And they know something of that story lives on in them. The Greek word for son is huos, and it can also mean kinship, connection by way of membership. And if this story of Jesus walking on water and inviting Peter to do the same means anything, it means we share in the kinship of God too.
Speaker 2:That's the confession of the church. When the storm grows calm and later when their savior is gone, something of the divine lives on in them. Walking on water is not just for gods and kings and dreamers anymore. The Son of God walked on water and invites us to walk there too. I wonder if what makes us finally worship after a big storm is the simple truth that we share in the life of Christ.
Speaker 2:One that's as boundless as I am, dynamic as a high seas encounter, one that's never going to stop surprising you by what you are capable of. Jesus isn't just strutting around so we can stand in awe. He's strutting around so we can follow in step and strut too. Do you believe it? What is it you believe?
Speaker 2:I genuinely hope you never fully answer that. The disciples in the Gospels get it one moment and forget it the next. That faith ohmmeter, it fluctuates like the applause of a fickle crowd. So don't let your faith be defined by how much you know. That's kinda boring.
Speaker 2:Let your faith be defined by how much you don't, all the questions you still have, How much more you still want to explore. That's living without fear. That's stepping out of the boat in a storm. That's walking on water. Let us pray.
Speaker 2:Loving God, who's to say you can't shuffle some atoms around to help a couple of bodies stand up on the moving sea? So what if we don't always get it? That's just a slice of the mystery of what it means to be here on this planet, circling the sun. What we can say is that we are people of belief and doubt, of curiosity and certainty, isolation and incredible interdependence. And Jesus, may we never quit marveling at your love, your humanity, your playfulness in it all.
Speaker 2:And Spirit of the Living God, present with us now, enter the places of our pain, our fear, and our stuckness and heal us of all that harms us. Amen.