Stepping out of the boat - Redeemer Episcopal Church

Matthew 14:22-33 

Jesus Walks on the Water

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

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This sermon was originally preach at Redeemer Episcopal Church to a certain people in a certain context in a certain time. We believe in a God who transcends time and space, so I hope that the Holy Spirit might speak to you as well. You can read the sermon below, listen to it here, or watch the whole worship service here. 

Let us pray. 

God in Christ, give us the courage to step out in faith, leaving behind the comforts of security and peace, and following you into the turbulent waves of the unknown. Amen. 

I have an image of this passage in my office here at Redeemer. It is a big beautiful blue sea wit Jesus, in white, walking across it. There is no boat, no Peter, no storm even. Curious about other images of the story, I googled paintings of this passage. They are all fairly similar. Unlike my painting, they have Jesus, walking toward a boat and Peter is halfway under water, reaching out to Jesus with panic in his eyes. 

Perhaps you can see one of those paintings in your head right now. Maybe it’s the exact image you had when you heard this passage this morning. 

Peter, halfway under water, reaching out to Jesus, panicked and about to drown. 

I get it. It makes sense. It’s mostly what I think of too. After all, Peter is not exactly the model disciple all the time. 

He’s the one who denied Jesus, after all. 

He also seems to be easily distracted and maybe even a little doubtful in this story. 

That is mostly what I focus on in this story— Peter got out of that boat just to look around, get distracted, and doubt God’s power in Christ Jesus. Then Jesus chastises him and hauls him out of the water. Silly doubting Peter. 

But as I read the story over and over again this past week, I couldn’t help but notice something different. 

Peter had the courage to get out of the boat while everyone else stayed.

Peter saw Jesus out walking on the sea and he wanted so much to be like Jesus that he risked his life to step out of that boat and be on the raging sea beside him. 

Peter was willing to risk his life to be like Jesus.

This is kind of a theme of Peter’s as he does ministry alongside Jesus. He was also the one who misguidedly cut off the soldier’s ear when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden.

This continues in his life after Jesus’ death and resurrection, with his ministry and multiple arrests and even gets fussed at by Paul eventually. Peter is no stranger to stepping out into trouble for Jesus. 

Peter sees Jesus walking on the water, in the middle of a storm, and everyone thinks he is a ghost. But when Peter hears his words of assurance, he can’t help but call out to Jesus and move closer to him. He steps out of the boat into the crashing waves and walks toward Jesus. 

Unlike everyone else, he has the courage to get out of the boat, out of the safety and security, having faith that Jesus will lead him. 

And of course, then next part of the story is that he gets distracted and begins to sink into the water— the part of the story that everyone loves to depict in paintings.  

But no one else even takes the chance. Peter is the only one who has enough faith to step out of the boat, even when he doesn’t know what is going to happen next. 

This is the kind of risk-taking and stepping out that Jesus invites us into in the waters of baptism. This is the kind of faith that is required of us. When Christ bids us follow him, it is not an invitation into a comfortable, easy, care-free life. He invites us into the troubled waters with him, into the chaos of life and death. Jesus calls us out of the comfort of our life before him and into the storm. 

Because now that we know Jesus, now that we understand what his ministry is about and what it means to truly love one another and deeply care for one another, we know that it isn’t a delightful walk in the park. It’s a precarious walk on the sea. 

Instead of buying into the security of this world, with selfishness, greed, property, and wealth— Jesus invites us into something different, something much more risky. He invites us into the Kingdom, that promises true reconciliation, love, vulnerability and peace. And that’s scary. If you have ever loved anyone enough to follow them anywhere, you know that that is scary. Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. For most of the disciples, it meant following him to their own deaths. 

But the good news is that when the waves get too overwhelming around Peter and he gets distracted, he is not left to drown. Jesus is out in the middle of the storm with him. And Christ reaches out his hand and brings him to safety. God did not leave Peter alone. And then he takes Peter’s faith and builds the whole church from it. That tiny bit of faith that called him out of the boat was what God used to bring about the ministry of the church today. Because we worship a God who takes the tiniest things, the mustard seed and the yeast, and creates abundance. God takes our tiny faith and creates the kingdom. 

God has not left us alone. Despite our distance from one another, and this time when we have had to repeatedly step out of the comfort of our normal, comfortable boat— God has not left us. And when we become distracted and discouraged by the storm and waves raging around us— whatever the storm may be— Jesus is present to lift us out of the water and bring us to safety. So step out of that boat, beloved. Take a risk and follow Christ into that storm of love and vulnerability and faith. Because he is with you. Amen. 

Follow - Trinity Lutheran Church

My latest sermon at Trinity Lutheran Church in Jacksonville, Florida, was a prime example of what happens when I've had a long week, the gospel text feels more convicting to myself than anyone I might be preaching to, and the Holy Spirit catches me between the two worship services.

If I uploaded the sermon audio from both the 9am and 11am worship services, you'd be surprised by how different they sound. They are almost 3 minutes different in time and I'm honestly not even sure what I preached at the second service. But that's the work of the Spirit. Which is also why I don't have a manuscript to share with you from last week, and why I am posting it so late. I wasn't sure if I would share it with the world at all. But, alas, I'm a sucker for consistency and I will try to always upload my sermon and sermon audio for those who want to be a part of this community of faith.

You can find my sermon audio from last week at the link here and you can read the gospel lesson below. Peace to you.

Luke 9:51-62

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The Expedition

A friend and colleague shared this poem as we considered how to leave our congregations and say goodbye "well." I don't know if there is a way to say goodbye well to the people who have captured my heart and lovingly pulled me into their family so quickly and fully, but I will try and try again until I have expended enough words on these loved ones. So tonight I share not my own words, but the words of another, more poetic writer... 


The Expedition 

by Anthony de Mello

My time here has come to an end, 

And I think of the days that I have spent in these surroundings.

I see an image of myself as I was when I came here

And I look at my self as I am today

At the close of this time.

I think of the persons and places that have been a part of my time here.

To each of them I speak in gratitude.

And to each I say goodbye. 

Other places, other persons call to me,

and I must go. 

I think of the experiences I have had,

The graces I have been granted

In this place.

For each of these too, I am grateful.

I think of the kind of life I have lived here,

The atmosphere, the daily schedule.

I say goodbye:

Another type of life awaits me,

Other graces, other experiences.

And I say goodbye to persons,

places, 

things, 

events,

experiences,

and graces, 

I do so under life's imperious biddings.

If I wish to be alive

I must learn to die at every moment.

That is, to say goodbye, let go, move on. 

When this is done, I turn to face the future

And I say, "Welcome."

I think of the work that waits for me,

The people I shall meet,

The type of life I shall be living, 

The events that will take place tomorrow.

And I extend my arms in welcome

To the summons of the future.

A Reflection, a Farewell

Every Tuesday night I have the privilege of leading a bible study at the house of some of my wonderful parishioners. We start around 9pm and end as close to 10pm as I can get us without going too far into the night. Then we gather in the kitchen to continue to chat and eat whatever delicious food and sweets are present that night. By the time we leave (often somewhere between 10:30 and 11pm), I am so sleepy and stuffed that I zone out as another couple drives me home.

A few nights ago, we had bible study, realized that we only have a few weeks left together, and scheduled our very last bible study (which will end up being us gathering for food and possibly talking about Jesus a little bit). That evening as we drove home, I noticed the odd sound of country music coming over the Malaysian radio station. Thomas Rhett's "Die a Happy Man" washed over my ears and I smiled. Oo how I miss country music and seeing the stars at night and bonfires. I felt ready and eager to be "home" in the United States.

Then as I kept listening to the lyrics, I felt sorrow and maybe even regret. It's hard to name exactly the emotions that flooded into my heart, but it wasn't the joy of leaving, it wasn't the excitement of seeing my family at home.

"If I never get to see the Northern lights
Or if I never get to see the Eiffel Tower at night
Oh, if all I got is your hand in my hand
Baby, I could die a happy man"

The premise of the song is that this man has some "bucket list" items, but he sings that even if he doesn't get to do all of those things, he would "die a happy man" just because he gets to spend his days with this woman. I know this feeling all too well. Daniel and I used to move the furniture and dance in the living room. Or we would turn his small apartment into a movie theater. We went on some pretty incredible dates, but my favorite times together have been when we didn't have to spend any money at all. We were just together and happy. We have dreams and plans, but even if they didn't work out, we are still so happy simply being together.

But as I heard this song, I realized that we did get to see our metaphorical Northern lights this year. We did get to see our metaphorical Eiffel Tower at night. And while it's true that our love would be just as incredible and we would be just as happy without these experiences, the truth of the matter is that we have done things this year and seen things that we never could have imagined in our wildest dreams.

And I don't think I've been as grateful as I should have been. I took a lot of it for granted. I think part of it is because I never could have imagined being here and seeing these things this year - or maybe everything happened so quickly that I haven't had a chance to digest it- but I won't use that as an excuse. Until I started to hear that song play over and over in my head, I don't think I fully realized how amazing our first year of marriage has been. Every once in a while we would turn to one another and say, "We are living in Malaysia. How odd the way life turns out," but I don't think it all sank in the way it did the other night.

We saw the famous tea fields of the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.
We dipped our toes into oceans and seas that I never would have thought we'd visit in our lifetime.
We rode a 40 year old elephant and fed an eight year old elephant!
We watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat.
We watched the sun set on a beach in Bali.
We rode on a crazy cable car in Langkawi and walked on a long curved suspension bridge.
We spent part of Thaipusam at Batu Caves.
We saw the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.
We ate authentic pad thai from a street cart in Bangkok.
We watched a storm roll into the city, sweeping over the Petronas Towers and KL Tower, on the helipad of a skyscraper.
I've preached in three countries and had my sermons translated into several languages.
We went to Universal Studios in Singapore.
We also went to the rooftop pool at Marina Bay Sands and rode the Singapore Flyer.
We had dinner on the rooftop of the #1 restaurant in Phuket.
We shared many of these memories with my parents and Daniel's brother.

And last, but certainly not least, we spent the entire year being welcomed and loved by people who knew nothing about us and committed to helping us grow in ministry, in life, and in love.

This past year has been more incredible, difficult, and surprising than we could have ever imagined. And I think I am just now realizing that this isn't normal. This life is a privilege and an honor. This year has been such an unfathomable blessing from God and I know that we will not soon forget the beautiful memories we have shared in this first year of marriage.

It also gets me excited about what God has in store for us next. We are ready- where will our next adventure lead us?

The Trinity & Why It is Important

The Trinity is arguably the most important piece of theology that we talk about in the church.  The doctrine of the Trinity is the starting place for all other theology.  The doctrine of the Trinity is inherently biblical, was developed through many years of reflection and theological debate, and is relevant insofar as it is our salvation.    

The doctrine of the Trinity is biblically based.  The correct and only non-heretical way to speak about God is to say that God is “the sovereign Lord of all creation who has done a new and gracious work in Jesus Christ and who continues to be active in the world through the power of the Spirit.”  This truth is revealed throughout the bible.  We know through the creation story of Genesis, the Old Testament, and the first chapter of the gospel according to John that God is the the God of all [human]kind (Jer 32:27).  Throughout the Old Testament, we hear that the God of Abraham is one God, the almighty and all-powerful God (Deut 6:4).  As Christians, we profess our faith in the God of Abraham, a singular God.  

However, the language of God becomes confused with the New Testament writers.  Paul is first to help us truly understand that there is “a new meaning of the word ‘God.’”  With the revelation of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Spirit, we now understand the proper name of God to be “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  We hear in much of the New Testament that Jesus and God are one (John 1, 10:30; Phil 2:5-8; Col 1:15-17).  Scripture also reveals that the Spirit is Lord (2 Cor 3:17).  Although there is talk about the “two-ness” (Father and Jesus) and even “three-ness” (Father, Jesus, and Spirit) of God in the New Testament, it remains that “there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6).  It is through this and other biblical evidence that God is revealed as the Triune (three-in-one) God.  The doctrine of exactly how God is able to be three-in-one has been disputed for many centuries in order to come to a profession of faith that is slightly more understandable and non-heretical.

It did not take much time after the writing of the New Testament for early theologians to recognize the complicated traits and relationship of God.  Tertullian was the first to use the language of “substance” and “person,” arguing that the Father, Jesus, and Spirit (the persons) are distinct from one another in terms of their relationship to one another but are of the same substance.  Tertullian also taught that Son is subordinate to the Father, a teaching later rejected by the church.  

Arius’ teaching emphasized monotheism and wanted to protect God’s “one-ness” by teaching subordinationism: Jesus is a demigod or an angel.  Arius rejected the idea that Jesus was present as the Word when God created the universe (John 1).  

The work of Athanasius is where we see the most distinct beginnings of the Nicene Creed, which we profess today.  Athanasius taught that Christ was “eternally begotten” and not created, being of one substance with the Father.  Unlike his predecessors, Athanasius argued that Father and Son are homoousias, or of one substance, and not of a “like” substance as other theologians thought.  The Council of Nicaea adopted Athanasius’ teachings, but still needed to solve the issue of the Spirit.  

Following the Council of Nicaea, the Cappadocians developed the doctrine of the divinity of the Spirit and taught that God is “one being, three persons.”  The Council of Constantinople affirmed and elaborated on the teachings of the Cappadocians and the result was the Nicene Creed.  We profess a version of the Nicene creed in many churches every Sunday without much thought.  

Knowing that it took hundreds of years to come to a decision about the nature of the Triune God, we must recognize that something is “at stake in affirming that God is triune, that God is communicated to us in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.”  In essence, we acknowledge that we worship a Triune God, but what does this mean for our faith?  It means a great deal about our faith.  What we “claim about God impacts the way we think about our relationship to divine life and to each other.”  

It is only through belief in the Triune God that we have hope in salvation.  It is through the monotheistic God of the Old Testament that Judaism claims salvation.  We, too, share in that salvation because of God’s work in Christ Jesus and the continuing work of God through the power of the Spirit.  God made the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 and 17 that God would bless all the nations of the earth through the offspring of Abraham.  We are told in Romans 11 that Gentiles, thus we, are grafted into this promise through Jesus Christ.  We know that in Christ Jesus there is no longer a distinction between the people to whom salvation belongs (Gal 3:28).  If God and Jesus are not one being, then this grafting of Gentiles into the promise makes no logical sense.  It is only “through our Lord Jesus Christ” that we are to “obtain salvation” (1 Thess 5:9).  

Moreover, it is the overflowing love that joins and unites the Trinity into one being that brings salvation to the world.  God, in God’s very nature as the Triune God, is communal and relational.  God is the perfect example of communion and mutual indwelling that is found nowhere in creation.  Each person of the Trinity is completely of the same substance and completely distinct from each other person.  

God created humanity and all of creation to be in communion with all the rest of creation and with God.  Because of the Fall, creation is no longer in complete communion with God.  It is God’s inherent desire, as a relational God, to be in communion with creation and thus demonstrated God’s self-giving love in the person of Christ Jesus on the cross.  Our salvation is the very essence of God’s triune and relational nature.  We find that in the Trinity there is “difference without division, self-giving without self-loss, and eternal life in ceaseless harmony and peace.”

Our only hope is in the Lord of all creation, the God that promised to Abraham blessing for the entire world.  It is through God’s fulfillment of God’s promise in Jesus Christ and the continuing work of God through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to witness the incredibly self-giving love that defines the Triune God.  It is only through our belief in this Triune God that any other doctrine or theology is grounded.        

                  

Sources: 

Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publihsing Co., 2004), 66. 

N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publihsing Co., 1997), 67. 

Dr. Daniel Bell, “Doctrine of God: The Trinity” lecture, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University, September 22, 2014.

Kathleen A. Cahalan, Introducing the Practice of Ministry (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2010), 156.