Ever Get That Sinking Feeling?

This is a sermon that was preached on Sunday, August 13, 2017 at United Presbyterian Church, Sterling KS. Listen to the sermon here.

Read Matthew 14:22-33 and Psalm 119:30-39 here.

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A boy had grown up hearing the stories from his grandmother about an amazing family tradition.  His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been able to walk on water on their 18^th birthday, and on that day they’d each walked across the lake.  So on the boy’s 18^th birthday, he and his friends went out on the lake in a boat, and when they got to the middle, the boy carefully stood up and stepped over the side of the boat….and sank into the water.  His friends quickly pulled him to safety.  Furious and confused, he went to see his grandmother. 

“Grandma, it’s my 18^th birthday.  Why can’t I walk across the lake like my dad, and his dad, and his dad?” 

Grandma looked deep into his troubled eyes and said, “Because you were born in August. Your dad, and grandfather and great-grandfather were all born in January.”

The boy looked puzzled. “Why does that matter?”

“Because, my dear, in January the lake is frozen.”[1]

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You’d think the kid might have figured this one out and known not to even try.  We might expect Peter would have known better than to try.  Then again, Peter and the disciples have just seen Jesus feed 20,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread, so it was natural for Peter to be ready to try something big.  But soon Peter got that sinking feeling.

So let’s look at what was happening.

It is evening.  Jesus has fed the crowd and they’ve collected the twelve baskets of leftovers.  Jesus tells the disciples to take the boat and head across the lake to their next stop.  He sends the crowd away, and heads up the mountain to pray.

Out on the lake, the wind and waves became rough and the boat was being battered by the waves.  They were going against the wind.

This reminds me of kayaking in Morro Bay, going against the tide. The tide is strong in the harbor there as it flows in and out of the estuary. I think I spent the entire time rowing and rowing and rowing and rowing.  I thought I’d never get anywhere. By the time I finally got back to the dock, I was exhausted.  Maybe the disciples felt like that.

Jesus comes to the rescue.  He comes walking across the lake looking like a ghost upon the water.

This reminds me of Genesis 1 which says the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters of creation.  When we talked about God’s work in Genesis a couple of months ago, we talked about how God was organizing.  He was making order out of chaos.  God separated the water from the sky, and separated the water from the land.  In Proverbs 8:29 it says that God set the boundaries for the water. Water is like chaos. God is Lord of the chaos.

Then Peter bravely steps out on water. How amazing is that?  I wonder how that felt?  I wonder if, before he got scared by the wind and waves, he had a moment to appreciate how it felt to be standing on top of the water?  

Speaking of wind and waves….

What did one ocean say to the other ocean?

 . . . Nothing, it just waved.[2]

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One thing that has been bugging me about this scripture all week...

Why does Peter need Jesus to tell him to come? 

He says to Jesus, “If it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”

“If it is you…”

Matthew tells us that the disciples thought what they were seeing was a ghost.  The disciples were terrified and cried out in fear.  Jesus immediately calms their fears and encourages them by identifying himself.  “It’s me!”

The words he used may have triggered memories for the disciples of the scene in Exodus when God speaks to Moses.  When Moses asks God, “How will I tell them who sent me?” God says, “Tell them I AM has sent you.” (Ex. 3:13-15) Those words in Greek are the same as what Jesus says.  Eigo Eimi.  It is I. 

But even if those words don’t help the disciples recognize that Jesus is God in the flesh, the fact that he’s walking on water should. 

• God created the world and is the one who told the waters where to go. 
• God parted the waters of the Red Sea for Israel to escape from Egypt. 
• God parted the water again when Israel crossed the Jordan River to go into the Promised Land.

Maybe Peter IS remembering all of this when he says, “If it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

Peter is asking for proof. 

This is reminiscent of Gideon putting out the fleece and asking God to make it wet, another event in which we see God’s power over water. (Judges 6)

Moses also asked to see proof.  In Exodus 33 & 34, God tells Moses to keep heading for the promised land, but Moses is tired.  He’s been leading the people through the desert for a while.  Things keep going wrong, and in anger he’s smashed the ten commandments.  God’s giving him a new set, but Moses still needs assurance that God’s going to be with them as they go forward.  God promises that he will go with them (Ex 33:14), but Moses still has that sinking feeling.  He needs something more, so he asks God to show him God’s glory.  God does, and Moses goes back to the people encouraged and ready to keep walking forward.

The disciples probably needed some encouragement, too.  They’d only recently learned that Herod had killed John the Baptist.  They were probably sad and afraid.  Might Jesus be next?  What would happen to them?  Jesus had sent them away on this boat, and all night long they’d dealt with the wind and waves.  Now it’s early in the morning, just before dawn.  They haven’t slept.  They’re tired.  They’re pretty sure they’re seeing things.

So Peter asks.  Knowing Peter as we do from other stories in the gospels, this is another example of Peter being impulsive.  Peter is the one who blurts things out.  He makes a logical request, though.

If this is Jesus, and if Jesus is the Son of God, and he isn’t just a ghost and we aren’t imagining this, then he is Lord of all creation and has the ability to make a path on the water, just like he made a path through the water for Israel.

Jesus says, “Come!”  And Peter does it.  Peter walks on water.

But then Peter gets inside his own head.  He starts thinking too much about what’s actually happening.  He looks at the wind and the waves and he gets scared.  And he sinks. 

Anxiety sets in.  Along with the literal feeling of sinking down into the water, he may also have the funny feeling in his stomach that we describe as a sinking feeling.

Peter realizes he’s out of control of this situation, and focuses on that instead of focusing on the one who is in control.

Thinking too much gets us in trouble, too.

Take playing music, for instance.  There’s a lot of practicing involved to learn how to play, to learn a particular technique or piece of music, and that involves lots of thinking.  But when it comes to performing that piece, all that thinking will get in the way.

This is also true for Samurai fighters.  There’s a scene in the 2003 movie The Last Samurai in which Tom Cruise is being trained to be a Samurai fighter.  He’s having trouble, and the trainer tells him he’s got “too much mind.”  He’s thinking too much about what he’s doing, instead of letting things happen naturally.[3]

We’ve been watching a show on the Food Network called Food Network Star.  The contestants on this show compete to demonstrate their abilities as chefs and as on-air personalities.  The winner will get their own show.  One problem they all have to work to overcome is thinking too much when they’re on camera.  The coaches want them to respond naturally to what’s happening in the moment.  If they “get in their heads” and start thinking too much, they get hung up and can’t speak, or sound too stiff.

This is like what happens to Peter.  At first he’s fine, but then he gets to thinking too much and he can’t do it anymore.  He sinks.

Peter’s response to sinking, though, is just right.  He cries out to Jesus.  “Lord, save me!”

And immediately Jesus reaches out and pulls him up out of the water.

Then Jesus asks Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Peter DID have faith – enough to get him out of the boat in the first place.  And as Jesus himself has pointed out, it only takes faith the size of a little mustard seed to do great things, like walking on water.

But Peter did what we all do sometimes – we get distracted by the difficulties and we start to question. 

• · Maybe I shouldn’t have tried this.
• · Maybe I didn’t hear God right.
• · Maybe this is too hard for me.
• · Maybe I’m not strong enough, smart enough, good enough.

What we forget in those moments, like Peter did, is that it never was about our capabilities, it was about God.  God is strong enough, smart enough, wise enough. 

That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy, and sometimes we think that because it’s not easy, then we must be doing the wrong thing.  God doesn’t promise us that it’s going to be easy.  In fact, he tells us quite the opposite.  Jesus says in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.”

What about you?  In what ways have you been stepping out in faith? 

• · Maybe you’re about to start a new job, a new school, and new project. 
• · Maybe you’ve made a big move. 
• · Maybe you’re running into challenges, or you’re starting to think about the potential for challenges.

If we look at the difficulties and the challenges, we will lose heart.  The wind and the waves are scary.  We will get discouraged.

I’m here to tell you to be encouraged.  God has promised us his presence and his strength.

So many scriptures tell us about this.  I like how Paul says in Romans 11:33: 

Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgements and his paths beyond tracing out!

That morning on the lake, Peter was ready to let go of control and let God lead him, and then he started thinking too much, trying to regain control, and that’s when he lost it.

The problem is that when we’re looking at ourselves or our situations, we’re focusing on the trouble. 

But when we’re looking at God and remembering his strength and his promises, then we can put things in perspective.

How do we keep looking at God?  How do we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus instead of the wind and waves?

One way is prayer.  Like Peter, don’t hesitate to call out for help.  We may not always see how God responds to this right away.  Looking back often we can see that God did help us.

Another way is to keep reading the Bible and being reminded of God’s ways.  Next week during our Sunday school kick-off, we’re going to have an opportunity to share favorite verses from the Bible.  I’m betting that many of us will share verses or stories that have encouraged us in times of trouble, and helped us to remember God’s nearness and God’s strength.

One of the best way to keep our eyes on God is to worship.  That’s what the disciples do at the end of today’s story.  How could they not after all they’ve seen?  They worship Jesus and say, “Truly you are Son of God!”  It’s the first time in Matthew that they say something like this.[4]

When we worship God, we acknowledge God’s presence and God’s greatness.  We remember God’s promises.  We renew our trust and commitment.

Whenever we get that sinking feeling – whenever the doubts and fears start to take over –

Cry out to Jesus for help.

Reach out to God through his word.

Remember it’s God’s power that has us walking on water.

     God promises that he will never let us down.

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[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/5278vo/walking_on_water/

[2] https://cecas.clemson.edu/ladnergroup/blog/water-jokes/

[3] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/black-belt-brain/201202/stop-thinking-so-much

[4] A commentary pointed this out, but I don’t remember which one.  I looked it up doing a word search in BibleGateway.com and sure enough, before this point in Matthew only the devil and demons have called Jesus the Son of God.  (Mat. 4:3 “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  Mat. 8:29 “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”)

What's in your basket?

This is a sermon that was preached on Sunday, August 8, 2017 at United Presbyterian Church of Sterling, KS.  To listen to the sermon audio, click here.

Read Matthew 14:13-21 and Isaiah 55:1-5 here.

Follow along and take notes using the YouVersion Bible App Event page here.

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There is a chef who runs the kitchen of a big hotel in Abu Dabi.  During Ramadan he has to be prepared to feed 20,000 people.  To accomplish this, the chefs in his kitchen chop up 15,000 lbs of vegetables, boil 11,000 lbs of rice, and roast 10,000 chickens.  Can you imagine?[1]

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus feeds 5000 men, plus women and children. So maybe as many as 20,000 people. All of them fed from five loaves of bread and two fish.  How is this possible? Maybe this was like when we take communion and everybody just gets a little piece of bread?  But, no, the text says that they “all ate and were filled.”  And then there were even leftovers.  Twelve baskets full of the leftovers.  That’s even more than they started with.

It’s a miracle.  A really big miracle. 

Other than the resurrection this is the only miracle that is recorded in all four of the gospels.[2]

Why is this miracle the one that all four writers made sure to tell?  Because it shows us something important about the nature of God, our generous, faithful, loving God:  He longs to bless us.[3]  The more we are participants in that blessing, the more we are blessed.

How do we become a part of this blessing?  

How can we receive and share God’s blessings?

First we have to show up.

Jesus had just heard about John the Baptist’s death and he went off by himself – probably to grieve and to pray.  He’s out in a fishing boat, and as he’s coming in to shore he sees that crowds are there waiting for him.  He could have turned around and stayed away from the crowds, but he didn’t.  He had compassion on them, and came anyway. 

Jesus showed up.

What about those crowds?  They heard that Jesus was there so they came.  Some probably came out of curiosity, just to see who this was.  Some, though, came hungry for the life and healing that Jesus offered.  Whatever their reason for coming, they were there, and because they were there they got to be a part of this miracle. 

Paul tells us in Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

We come to Jesus and find through him that God blesses us.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (5:6).  Come hungry and be filled.

So come, and come hungry, and receive God’s blessing.

Those crowds came having heard what Jesus had already been doing – preaching the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God, healing the sick, and speaking with authority unlike anything they’d heard.  Many came with expectations.  God was doing something and they expected to see it.

Psalm 145:15 tells us that waiting on the Lord with expectation is the right thing to do:  “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.”

So come, come hungry, and come with expectation.

What do you think it might have been like to be in that crowd that day?  In my mind it’s like a crazy scene from a Monty Python movie, with lots of dirt and grubbiness, and jostling and pushing and yelling.  Maybe it wasn’t so crazy, but with so many people all trying to see Jesus, how could it not be?

Imagine if this was today?  Somebody would post a Facebook event:  Jesus will be at Sterling Lake tomorrow.  Come see the messiah!  Maybe the Facebook ad would include some of Isaiah’s words:

All you who hunger and thirst, come!  You who have no money, come! (55:1-2)

Some of us would come.  Some of us would avoid the crowd and send Jesus a private message or text instead.  But not Snap Chat…Jesus wouldn’t Snap Chat…or maybe he would.  A discussion for another time.

Some of us would be the ones organizing the event – like the disciples.  Maybe trying to manage the chaos, and protect the Messiah.  The disciples were keeping a good eye on things, and they were being fairly insightful to realize that the people were going to need food.  So they offer a solution – send the people away to go buy food in the villages.

I’m not surprised that Jesus didn’t like this idea very much.  They might not all have been able to find or afford food.  Some would surely have gone hungry. 

But Jesus has another plan:  “You give them something to eat.”

“Us?  But all we have are five loaves of bread and two fish.”

The disciples couldn’t see any way in which this little bit of food would feed 20,000 people.  Maybe they forgot who they were with?

We don’t know for sure whether this came before or after the wedding in Cana, the story in John’s gospel in which Jesus turned the water into wine.[4]  If the disciples had been at the wedding before this, maybe they would remember what happened and expect that Jesus might do something similar here. 

If Matthew is telling these stories in the order they happened, then the disciples would have just recently heard the parable we talked about last week about the mustard seed, the tiny seed from which big things grow.[5]  Maybe they didn’t connect that idea with this situation.  After all, that was just a parable, right?

Surely they would remember the stories of Elijah and Elisha.  One day a man brought Elisha twenty loaves of bread.  Elisha told him to pass it around so everyone could eat.  The man pointed out that there wasn’t enough for hundred people there.  Elisha said, “God says there will be plenty.”  So they passed the bread around and there was enough with some left over. (2 Kings 4:42-44)

Maybe the disciples didn’t see how five loaves and two fish could do the job because Jesus said, “You do it.”  You give them food.  If Jesus had said, “I’ll do it.  I’ll give them food,” they might have had higher expectations.

They hadn’t yet heard what Jesus told the disciples during his last night with them, described in John 13 through 17.  In John 14:12, Jesus says: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

If you were there that day, standing with Jesus among the disciples, looking out at the hungry crowd, what would your response have been?

What about now? In your own life, where are you seeing a situation, noticing a need? Maybe you’re saying, “Somebody needs to do something about that”?

What if Jesus were to be saying to you, “You do it.  You do something about that.”

What would you do?

Like the disciples, we tend to underestimate our resources and abilities.  We tend to forget that we aren’t working alone, we’re working with God.

If we will show up, and if we will come hungry

with expectation for God to be present

and to help us do whatever he’s given us the vision to do,

who knows what might happen?

We tend to underestimate our own blessings.  The disciples said, “All we have are these loaves and fish.”  They hardly thought they had enough to even mention.  We too have things that don’t seem like much to us but with God’s help could be of great help to someone.  We have abilities we might not think worth mentioning because they are easy for us, but to someone who doesn’t have that ability, we might be an answer to prayer. 

Wherever we see a need, with whatever we have, and whoever we are, Jesus says to us, “Bring them here to me.” (Matt. 14:18)

I read this week about a church that saw a need in their community that they could meet, so they are offering free oil changes to single moms.  To those who have the ability and resources to easily do oil changes, that may not seem like such a big thing.  To those single moms, those oil changes are such a big blessing that some are moved to tears.[6] 

What do you have?  How might it be the blessing someone else needs? 

What’s in your basket?

We’ve been talking about physical things – bread, fish, oil changes.  Our reading from Isaiah today reminds us that our deeper needs are spiritual.  Physical things meet physical needs, but spiritual things have lasting effect and bring life to our souls.  We may be discounting our spiritual blessings even more than we discount our physical blessings.

Years ago there was a woman in our church at the time who was battling breast cancer.  As the fight wore on, she made it to church less and less.  There were many days when she was too exhausted to even make it out of bed.  Those who went to visit her were always happy for an opportunity to go visit her again, because their own spirits were lifted so much from spending time with her.  As her physical strength waned, her spiritual strength grew, and her faith was an encouragement to us all.

Our spiritual blessings are worth more than we often realize.

A monk found a precious stone one day. A short time later, the monk met a traveler, who said he was hungry and asked the monk if he would share some of his provisions. When the monk opened his bag, the traveler saw the precious stone and, on an impulse, asked the monk if he could have it. Amazingly, the monk gave the traveler the stone. The traveler left quickly, overjoyed with his new possession. However, a few days later, he came back, searching for the monk. He gave the stone back to the monk and made a request: "Please give me something more valuable, more precious than this stone. Please give me that which enabled you to give me this precious stone!"[7]

It is the love and grace of the Holy Spirit living in us through our faith in Jesus Christ that allows us to be generous.

Ephesians 1:3- All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

We worship a generous God. He longs to bless us.  The more we are obedient participants in that blessing, the more we are blessed.

Whatever we have, whatever we are, wherever we are, we can be a blessing to others if we are willing to give thanks for all of it and use whatever is in our basket.

What’s in your basket?

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[1] http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/02/business/ramadan-gottschalk-marketplace-middle-east/index.html 

[2] Douglas R. A. Hare, Interpretation: Matthew (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993)

[3] Isaiah 30:18

[4] John 2:1-12

[5] Matthew 13:31-32

[6] https://www.presbyterianmission.org/yearbook/August-3-2017/

[7] http://www.sermonsplus.co.uk/Illustrations.htm