Year A

Matthew 14:22-33

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Power of Faith

We are well aware that water plays a vital role in our daily lives. Everything depends on it to survive. The meaning of water and its role in the scriptures has shaped its history from Genesis to Revelation. Since the beginning of creation there has been an association between water and life and water is mentioned in the scriptures 722 times, more than the four major Christian tenets of faith, hope, charity and prayer combined. It is a symbol of rebirth, fertility and the renewal of life. It is also a symbol of chaos and disorder and actually, it’s not just a symbol. Water can be chaos and disorder. Flash floods carry off cars, homes and people. Tropical storms and hurricanes can destroy cities and wipe out virtually every building and all services. This has happened to my home city in Florida twice in the past 20 years. Water is vital and its power needs to be respected.

The disciples would have understood the power of the sea, as the place of life and as a place where chaos reigns. The Sea of Galilee where they fished and lived is prone to sudden violent storms. It has been known to have had waves at least 10 feet high which makes our gospel story today of Jesus walking on the stormy Sea of Galilee that much more a miracle. Just as a side story, when I was 10 years old, my family returned to the states from Europe on an ocean liner and at one point during the journey we had up to 30 foot waves with the boat going side to side. 10 feet seems like nothing compared to 30. From what I remember, it was a scary experience one I hope never to repeat.

By Jesus strolling across the water in the storm as if it were a paved road, he certainly proved his dominion over the disorder of the sea as well as the winds as he beat down those chaotic forces. In the first verses of Genesis, God created and created order over creation when the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. The God of humans is the Lord of creation with the wind and sea obeying without a word being spoken. The whole point of today’s Old Testament lesson from the first book of Kings is that God is ruler of creation and therefore is to be served and adored. The maker of heaven and earth governs all that has been made and we are to behold the glory of God, who is our help.

After Jesus stills the storm, at the conclusion of today’s story from Matthew, he reports that “those in the boat worshiped Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” The disciples recognize and acknowledge the power of God in the person of Jesus. The Holy One is in their midst; thus fear is transformed into hope. This is the calm of God at the center of all our human storms. This is the peace that passes all understanding. No wonder the crowds looking for this hope and peace grew as they followed the young rabbi, Jesus. The story today follows the story of the feeding of the five thousand where the focus shifts from the wilderness to the sea- from God’s provision in the desert to God’ deliverance through the waters. Christ is not merely a human companion with us on our journey of faith, but is the source and sustenance of our faith through the troubled waters.

The irony of this story of the storm on the Sea of Galilee is that we would think that Jesus the carpenter would be looking to the experienced fishermen for advice in the chaos. Instead, it is they who look to him because let’s face it we often do suffer from too little faith. We have a tendency to focus more and more upon ourselves and less and less upon God. And the remedy is that we are saved, by love of and trust in Christ our companion on our journey of faith. Peter today demonstrates this trust and also his lack of faith. It is difficult not to love Peter and to be a bit hard on him. But we would do well to honor him for his attempt to at least try to make the walk. Over and over again he is the disciple who takes risks, who makes great leaps of faith and stumbles as often as not but keeps brushing himself off and trying again.

Faith is not a heroic act. It is simply trust. But that is the hardest thing to do for us. We like to point to the “heroes of the faith,” like Peter or Paul persons who by exemplary faith and service catch the attention of the church and others. But that makes faith seem illusive for those who do not see themselves as heroes. Genuine faith is a response that shows itself in what we do. Believe is not that complicated. It is simply an act that shows trust. In a sense, faith is as a desperate cry from the heart to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” when we are sinking and about to lose our grip on everything. Faithfulness is risking our lives on the trustworthiness of God and living accordingly but faith is also challenging. Like Peter, we have faith and we doubt, we try to walk with Jesus and we fail, we take a few steps and we sink, and when we cry out to Jesus, he gives us both his hand and his rebuke: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Barbara Brown Taylor in her book ‘Seeds of Heaven’ says, “What if all the disciples piled out of the boat after Peter, and all of them with perfect faith, had romped on the water while the storm raged? It would be a different story. Maybe even better but it would not be a story about us. The truth about us is that we obey and fear, we walk and sink, we believe and doubt. Our faith and our doubt both exist in us at the same time. This is why we need Jesus. Why would we want to be caught on the water without him? If we never sank-if we could walk on the water just fine all by ourselves-we would not need a savior. When we sink, as Peter does, as we all do, our Lord reaches out and catches us, responding first with grace, and then with judgment—but never with rejection.”

“He returns us to the boat, knowing full well that the only reason we are in the boat in the first place is because we believe, or want to believe, and because we mean to follow him though all our doubtful days.” And this is why Paul today compares faith with beautiful feet that bring good news. We believers and doubters are the ones who with our lips, mouth, heart, and feet are to confess that “Jesus is Lord” and explain God to those who have not heard. Faith Paul says, is an embodied realty. It is living out the word that is within and doing that in a way that makes sense in our context. Those who confess Jesus are to be messengers of the good news of faith.

Peter today becomes a symbol for the whole church, representing the call to take the step of faith, to venture out on the waters, and to trust in Jesus as our hope. If we are to be the church of Jesus Christ, we have to return to the foundation of our faith: Jesus, the one who was born, lived died, and rose for us. And as we witness to this truth and identify God’s love again and again, faith springs forth within us and flourishes. No longer are we those of little faith, and “the wind ceases, and the waves hush, and in the awesome silence of that night becoming day, all of us who are in this boat together worship him, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”