Wade in the Water

Yesterday was a fun day for me at Bethlehem.  I put a kiddie pool in front of the altar.

See:

Why did I do such a thing?  Well beside it keeping me cool as I was able to walk through the water during my sermon, I had it as a prop for my sermon.  The gospel text was Matthew 14:22-33 when Jesus and Peter walk on water.  Therefore I was going to try and walk on water.  I didn't spend the entire sermon in the kiddie pool, just part of it.  

Now I have a date with a bucket to try and get the pool emptied.  Meanwhile you enjoy the sermon:

As many of you have figured out by now about me, I often have questions about what was going on through people’s minds during these bible stories.  So therefore I have two big questions about this text.  The first is: Why did Peter think he could walk on water?  Have any of you ever seen someone walk on water?  Have any of you ever walked on water yourself?  People have tried many times, with different methods like special shoes or running in an arch.  There is even a video out there that shows some guys getting about 7 steps in before they sink, but that video is a hoax. But let's try it now.  I'm going to try and walk on water.

Was Peter just caught up in the moment?  Was he challenging this being that he thought was a ghost?  Or did he want to be like Jesus.  He had been a good follower of Jesus, obeying his commandments, well at least most of the time, so couldn’t he do the amazing things that Jesus has done?  Couldn’t then Peter be like Jesus and cure the sick, multiply food and probably the most impressive of all, walk on water? 

I think Peter did want to be like Jesus.  Don’t we all want to be like Jesus?  Don’t we all wish that we could perform the miracles that Jesus performed?  Don’t we all wish that we could be like Jesus?  Always doing what is right.  Never causing sin, hurt and pain in the people that we love.  Never having to worry about things like money, food, housing issues or gas for the car because we know God’s plan for our lives and can put such trivial matters aside.  Don’t we all want to be like Jesus so that we too can be put to death on a cross and battle the devil so that other people’s sins can be forgiven? 

Then let’s admit it.  We really don’t want to be like Jesus, at least not truly.  We just want the cool parts, the miracles, turning water into wine, making the blind see and walking on water.  We don’t want to be like Jesus when it comes to challenging ourselves, when it comes to giving up of ourselves in order to first care for others.  We don’t want to be exiled from our hometowns or thrown out of the temple when people don’t understand what we are talking about.  We don’t want to be like Jesus when it comes to giving up of our lives.  Let’s face it, we have a hard enough times just keeping our eyes on Jesus.  Peter took his eyes off Jesus and started to drown.  We take our eyes off Jesus, turning from our faith, and start to drown emotionally and spiritually as the cares of this world get in our way.  We want to be like Jesus in many ways but as soon as we are challenged, we start to take our eyes off of him and it is then that we start to drown. 

Which brings me to my second question about Peter in this story: Why did Peter think he was going to drown and needed Jesus to save him?  Peter is a fisherman, he grew up on the Sea of Galilee, we hear of him swimming to shore after Jesus rose from the dead.  Peter was not afraid of the water.  Peter knew how to swim.  He wasn’t going to drown.  He could have easily swam back to the boat, even with all the waves and wind tossing him about. Peter had as much of a chance of drowning in that water as I have of drowning in these 2 inches of water in this pool. 

And yet he relied on Jesus to save him. 

And Jesus was there, he immediately reaches out his hand and catches Peter and brings him into the boat. 

Peter did not need Jesus to save him physically and yet relied on Jesus to save him.  And in doing so, it was then that Peter realized that Jesus is God and he is not and Peter truly demonstrated his faith. 

Peter realized that he cannot be Jesus.  Most of us realize that we cannot be Jesus.  That we are not capable of completely giving up of ourselves for other people.  That we are not willing to die a gruesome death in order to save others from sin and death.

And that is okay.  It is okay that we are not Jesus.  It is even okay that we often take our eyes off of him.  Because we don’t need to be Jesus.  We don’t need to be God.  In fact, it is impossible for us to be Jesus because we are not like Jesus.  Jesus was fully God and fully human and we are not gods, we are not even partially God, we are just fully human.  Imperfections and all. And therefore we cannot save ourselves.

When we realize that we cannot save ourselves, we show great faith.  It is then, when we are sinking, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, that we call out to God to save us.  And it is when we call out to God to save us that we are most humble and are best able to see that we are not gods.  

And even though we are not gods, Jesus still saves us!  Jesus still reaches out his hand and catches us when we are not able to walk on water.  Jesus still heals us with his touch when we cannot heal ourselves.  Jesus still feds us with the food he as multiplied when we are not able to multiply food on our own.  We are fed and forgiven through Jesus.  We are fed and forgiven because we cannot be Jesus and because Jesus was sent by God to save us, even when we take our eyes off of him.