Grace and Peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I really enjoy this congregation. Everyone here sits kind of light in the saddle. For example, I was impressed that the adult Sunday morning class was reading a book called “Everybody’s Normal Until You Get To Know Them”. Isn’t that a great title? It recognizes the fact that being a human being involves being at the very least, a wee bit idiosyncratic, or peculiar. I then learned this same guy wrote another provocative little book called “If you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat”.
I love that title, it says so many things. First, it says to me that you can have all the faith in the world but if you never do anything with your faith, how does it bless the world and bless you? Secondly, it says to me that faith has to be put to the test sometimes. You have to not just talk about following Jesus and doing his will, you have to actually do what it is that he is calling you to do. So today’s question has to be: Why do we want to stay in the boat? And what would it take to get you out of your “safety boat,” zone?
Today’s lesson talks about Peter. Peter is one of those “normal” people who, as we get to know him has an abundance of quirks. He is a lot like me or you. I think that is why I like him so much. He is courageous, yet he can deny Jesus when his safety’s threatened. He is a contradiction. He is inconsistent. He is proud and confident, even boastful. Yet, when he is out on the water walking like Jesus, he looks around at the storm, knows that he is in over his head and starts to sink. But realistically, at least he got out of the boat and had the exhilarating thrill of walking on water by sheer faith in Christ. More than that, he knows the joy of being certain that Jesus’ hand will reach down to him with saving grace.
So much of our lives are determined by our fears aren’t they? We stick to a job we really have grown to despise because we need the benefits, or we fear we won’t get a job that is as good. We are stuck in a rut, a deep rut of complacency, fear, anxiety about the future or perhaps just plain old inertia – it’s easier to stay stuck than make the change.
It is true not only with jobs but with relationships. We say to ourselves. “I miss the relationship I had with my sister when we were younger. But we had that fight and have managed to patch things up so that we are at least speaking to one another. I miss the closeness we had. I am sure she does, but I don’t want to risk making thing worse”. We stay stuck in the boat, thinking that we should trust God to work things out, we should lean on God’s promises to be there and as scripture says “all things work for good for those who love the Lord”, but we stay stuck. Faith wavers. The swell of the waves of past troubles or the possibilities of troubles in the present looms too menacingly before us. We stay stuck, immobilized by fear, we want to walk on water with Jesus but we can’t seem to get that first foot over the edge.
It happens in ministry too. We have a neighbor or a co-worker who confides in us and shares deep concerns. We want to commend to them the faith that is in us, but we aren’t sure how. We don’t want to get preachy, be misinterpreted or invade their space but the Spirit seems to be calling us to share our love for Jesus and our faith in him. We don’t want to fail, we don’t want to sink so we hold back and stay in the boat of our comfort zone.
We have been edging up to a new “get out of the boat” venture as a congregation. At the service committee meeting, we were talking again about the needs of an at risk group of young Harford countians. The kids in foster care particularly between the ages of 15 and 21 have some major needs. Often they are placed in group homes, or with families whose hearts are in the right place but they also need the additional income that the state gives to folks who serve as foster parents and are short on time. Some of these kids have lost their parents to drug addiction, incarceration or untimely accidental death.
Imagine being 15 and having no functional Mom and Dad to take care of you. These kids have to get jobs for themselves and educate themselves. The state may help them get an old clunker car to help them get to work, but they have to get a license and that requires 40 hours of supervised instructions. Often their foster parents can not provide that support. Sometimes they need tutoring. They frequently need a crash course on basic car care and maintenance. More than anything, they need to know that they are not alone, that there are people near to them who really care for them and want them to succeed. Many are easy to love and deeply appreciative every effort made to them. Some are so wounded by life that it is much harder to help them.
I believe that God is calling to us to get out of our safety zone and out of our boat to walk on the water with Christ. Ministry is always risky, always costly, always requiring some kind of sacrifice. But there are amazing rewards too. St Francis of Assisi wrote a beautiful prayer – Lord make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us slow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
As we ended our service meeting on Monday night, Bea reminded us that we needed to ask God to guide us in this, as in all things. God will show us how. We just have to get out of the boat and walk to him
In Jesus’ name Amen
Who We Are