Sermon: “Ghost!” to “Son of God”

Lectionary: Year B, Proper 14

Text: Matthew 14:22-33, (34-36) (Extended the supplied reading to include the epilogue.)

I’m sure most of us have been told at some point that public speaking is most people’s top, or close to the top, fear. There is an actual survey done by Chapman University[1], and in their fifth survey done in 2018, public speaking was not even in the top 50. It ranked number 59. Fear of one’s own death only made it to number 54.

The fears at the top of the list are things that are concerned with government, politics, the environment, the economy, and those things that we tend to encounter more readily and frequently. As a point of interest, pandemic was number 32 down the list two years ago. (I’m curious where that item would land today.)

And, in case you were wondering, the disciples’ fear of ghosts is only number 88 in the 21^st century. This fear might have placed a higher in the first [century]. 

These are turbulent times, indeed, in nearly every aspect of life. There are plenty of potential sources vying for our fears, and it might be easy to let fears overwhelm us. Some might say we shouldn’t fear at all, but fear is an important emotion that alerts us to genuine harm and danger, and we can respond to such fears by taking appropriate actions and precautions. 

Perhaps one of the problems is that when we are bombarded by almost innumerable negative stimuli and stressors, it becomes difficult to sort out and distinguish those things that we ought to respond to appropriately vs. those things that we should not pay attention to. One response might be overreaction in which we try to respond to everything. Another response might be to becomes so anesthetized that we ignore everything, even genuinely harmful ones. 

Jesus had just recently heard the devastating report about the gruesome murder of his cousin, John the Baptist. When Jesus tried to get some time to himself, he was bombarded with a huge crowd that took all of his efforts for the entire day. At the end of the day his disciples presented him with another problem which Jesus had to again take the initiative to provide a solution. 

We have to remind ourselves that Jesus is fully a human being here. He is not operating from his divine essence. Jesus gets tired, he experiences stress, he has enough of being around other people, he has griefs, he feels frustration and anger, and he feels fear. I think that sometimes Christians portray Jesus’ perfection in such a way that these very human emotions get erased. It is good to be reminded that Jesus experienced and struggled with the same emotions that every human being does. 

Jesus sends the disciples away on their boat and he dismisses the crowds. He goes up the mountain to have some time for himself — to spend time in prayer and recharge and restore himself through God. He spends the entire night in prayer. 

An important point for us as we live in our time is to find time to recharge and restore ourselves. Prayer doesn’t look the same for every person. For some it may be literally sitting in prayer. For others it might be meditation outdoors, bathing in the wonders of God’s creation. Others might find things like journaling and writing helpful. How did God wire you to connect back to God? 

Early in the morning, Jesus senses that his disciples are in trouble and goes out to meet them. In the midst of storm and turbulence, with wind blowing and waves crashing, Jesus walks out to them on the water, to approach the disciples in their boat. Metaphorically, Jesus might represent those who have such unequivocal trust in God that they are a picture of solid calm whatever might be outside. They are able to find solid footing, even on what to everyone else is tempestuous water. The ideal picture for which we strive. 

What appears calm and certain, Jesus on the water, is anything but, to the disciples. When they see Jesus, the only explanation they come up with is that it is a ghost. We shouldn’t be too hard on them, since I doubt any of us would have responded too differently if we saw a figure approaching us in the middle of the sea. 

We expect Jesus in certain places and to show up at certain times. A lesson here could be that we might overlook Jesus or misidentify God’s presence in the world because it doesn’t look like what we expect, or they are in places where we don’t expect God’s presence to be found.

Jesus immediately announces his identity to his disciples and assures them that there is no reason for fear. It should be noted that Jesus’ identification of himself, “It is I”, is the “I AM” that Yahweh used to identify himself in Hebrew history. The image of a being walking on water is associated with God and the divine in the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps the disciples’ exclamation that what they saw was a ghost was preferable, at least to them, than the alternative, that it was God approaching them. Which could also explain why Jesus was so quick to identify himself and to calm their fears. This was Jesus whom they had been in the company of for quite some time now — someone they should know. Yet very different. 

What I see as one of the key themes in today’s reading is the disciples making a dramatic change in the identification of Jesus: from “It’s a ghost” to “Truly, you are the Son of God.” It should be noted that even though walking on water was dramatic and miraculous, that in itself was not what convinced them. After all, walking on the water made them initially think that Jesus was a ghost. 

What was it then, that caused such a marked shift? 

I believe the answer is found in Peter’s response to this “problem of Jesus.” The problem is that Jesus is familiar to the disciples, yet his present appearance is quite foreign. What are they to make of it? Are the two really the same?

Peter takes the initiative to verify that the being out on the water is really Jesus. Peter’s faith is not in his next act of stepping out of the boat, but in the very asking that he be invited to step out of the boat. Peter trusts that if Jesus commands it, Peter will be able to accomplish it. Jesus commands, and Peter steps out. At least for a short time, Peter’s trust in Jesus overcomes all doubt and fear. 

But as is often the case, initial success is met with strong winds and frightening waves. Yes, Jesus called Peter out of the boat, but is Jesus enough to keep Peter above the water? Notice that the wind and waves do not calm when Peters steps out of the boat and onto the water. Faith falters, doubt creeps in and Peter suddenly starts to sink. 

Peter calls out again, “Lord!” But this time it is not to step out in faith, but to be saved from certain drowning. 

Immediately (that’s a word repeated in this short section describing Jesus’ actions) Jesus appears next to Peter and lifts him up and holds him steady. Together they walk back to and into the boat. The winds cease when they enter the boat. 

It is at this moment that the disciples together identify Jesus as “Son of God.” Throughout Hebrew history, Yahweh has acted to save his people, the Israelites. The center of today’s gospel reading is the saving of Peter. The name Jesus is the Greek rendering of Joshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation. In the saving of Peter, Jesus is acting literally according to his name. Peter asks for salvation, and Jesus responds. 

If it were wonders and miracles that could convince the disciples that Jesus was the Son of God, it surely could have happened before this. If mastery over nature was a sign of divinity, Jesus had already calmed the seas once before [Matthew 8]. 

Up to this point, only Satan and demons had identified Jesus as “Son of God.” But now the disciples have finally seem to have understood, although they still don’t know what that really means. 

This story and the Feeding of the Five Thousand story from last week form a pair. The pair of stories begins with a crowd and healing, and the pair ends with an epilogue that is about a different crowd and some more healing. 

Perhaps I might be reading too much into some of the words used here, but I find it interesting that this latter crowd is said to “recognize” Jesus. The first crowd merely heard that Jesus had gone to a different place and followed. But the crowd at Gennesaret “recognize” Jesus. The healing of the first crowd is just a curing (Gk., related to our word ‘therapy’) of their illnesses. But when the crowd in Gennesaret are healed, the Greek word used here signifies restoration and salvation [sozos]. Where the first crowd merely experienced some physical cures, the crowd at Gennesaret experiences a restoration to wholeness. Perhaps these choices of words are Matthew’s way of showing how much more Jesus is able to offer when we see him as Son of God. 

We should not dismiss the positives that the world has gained from seeing Jesus as a great teacher, a moral and ethical example, a great prophet, and perhaps someone who worked wonders and miracles. But a restoration to wholeness can only come when Jesus goes beyond all that and is recognized as the Son of God, the savior of all humankind and the world. 

To know that Jesus is our savior is the antidote to fears that this life throws at us. Jesus beckons and calls us into the storm, the turbulence, and the crashing waves. That is where ministry happens – in the storms of life. That’s where Jesus is. He knows that our faith will falter and we will begin to sink. But he also promises that he will save us. 

It was just one disciple, Peter, whose faith allowed him to ask Jesus to command him to walk out into the storm. It was Peter’s actions and subsequent saving by Jesus that gave the remaining disciples insight into Jesus and their correct identification of who Jesus was. 

Was Jesus’ words to Peter, “You of little faith; why did you doubt?”, a reprimand as it frequently is interpreted? Or was it an encouragement? “You had enough faith to step out of the boat. Why did you doubt that you could continue? The faith you had to step out was enough to take you through.” 

All it takes is one person with a mustard seed sized faith to step out of the safety of the boat and into the wild uncertainties and storms of life. This one person and one act can inspire others to follow. 

When we are following Jesus to the places where he is asking us to work, we need have no fear of failure, because even if our faith falters, he will be faithful to lift and steady us, bring us back to where we can regroup and recover, and then follow him out again into the storms of this world.

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[1] https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/research-centers/babbie-center/_files/fear-2018/americas-top-fears-2018-ranked.pdf

Sermon: You Give Them Something to Eat

Feeding the Five Thousand

Lectionary Year A, Proper 13

 

Matthew 14:13-23 (extending the traditional grouping of texts, because I think verses 22 and 23 are part if the inclusiothat properly closes the preceding section. It does also introduce the next passage.)

Sermon

Our gospel text begins with “When Jesus heard about John…” What was it that Jesus heard? In the section of text immediately before today’s reading, Jesus was given the grim news that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been murdered on the orders of Herod Antipas in order satisfy the wants of his wife, who hated John. This took place at a lavish and sordid banquet entertaining the wealthy and influential in the region of Galilee. Although Herod did not want to kill John, he also did not want to appear as going back on his word, so reluctantly gave the order. 

 

Who here has not experienced loss? For some of us, it may be quite recent where we’ve lost a dear friend or family member. For some others it may be a loss of something that used to define us: perhaps a job or other livelihood. And for pretty much all of us in 2020, we’ve lost a sense of what used to be. Even though these are different types of losses, our bodies and minds process them in the same way. We go through the same process of grief and grieving. 

 

Jesus gathers himself away from the crowds to try to be alone, to process this devastating news and, in modern parlance, do some self-care work. Jesus needs some time to work through his grief, his anger, and undoubtedly some fear at what awaits him should he continue with his divine mission. 

 

The text does not say if he got any time alone, but reading the text it seems as if as soon as the crowd learned that Jesus was crossing over on a boat, they hurriedly began their trek on foot. By the time Jesus arrives at his intended destination, the crowd is already there to greet him and press him with their needs.

 

It certainly would have been reasonable for Jesus to ask the crowd to wait a while, but Jesus instead is moved immediately by compassion and begins to heal (Gk., cure) the sick that are brought to him. A commentary I read noted that the text did not say that Jesus taught or preached, or gave the people systematic theology, but that he simply healed those who needed healing.

 

Perhaps a lesson here for us is to ask ourselves why we are Christ-followers in the first place? What motivates us to do what we do? Are we more inclined to disseminate knowledge, and perhaps to argue about beliefs? Or is our first response to relieve the needs that come to our attention? Do we do so out of compassion, or for some benefit that might accrue to us? 

 

The story continues. It appears Jesus spends the entire day ministering to the sick. As evening falls, the disciples clearly note another need: that everyone needs food. Their solution is to send the crowd away. It seems like a reasonable solution. Jesus has been working all day, and the disciples alongside. They are tired and the disciples know that Jesus hasn’t had the time alone that initially prompted this journey. Perhaps there’s a little bit of concern for Jesus mixed with the disciples’ own feelings of tiredness and exhaustion that prompts them to ask Jesus to send the crowd away. 

 

Jesus’ response catches them, and us, off guard: “There’s no need to send them away. You give them something to eat.”

 

Jesus is asking a group about the size that is assembled here to provide food for a crowd size that is larger than the entire Petersburg population! Just the numbered men approaches double our population. 

 

We would be taken aback and shocked if Jesus were here telling us to meet the needs of all of Petersburg and then some. Yet I would dare say that he is asking exactly that of us and of every one of his churches in this town today. 

 

The disciples’ response is probably given in stunned shock, “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish…” 

 

“This is all we have…” is the voiced part. The unspoken portion is, “And what do you expect us to do with this? Do you really expect us to feed the entire crowd with this?” 

 

We too, hear Jesus’ command for us to meet the needs of the people around us. But we too, are tired and our resources so meager. How in the world could Jesus even think that we could meet the needs of everyone around us? Maybe we could meet the needs of a handful of families here and there… 

 

Jesus commands his disciples to bring what they have to him.

 

In motions that foreshadow the Eucharist, the Communion Supper, Jesus has the crowd sit down and he raises the bread and the fish and offers a blessing to God. He then breaks the loaves and fish and hands them to the disciples. 

 

When we think about this story, the feeding of the five-thousand, I think we often imagine it as Jesus feeding the crowd miraculously. But the text doesn’t say that. It says that it was the disciples who took the bread and fish and it was they who distributed the food to the entire seated crowd. The text also does not specify how it was that everyone was given food. The “how” is unimportant to the story. Only the “what” matters in that everyone’s need was met. 

 

For those that are into geeking out with literary structures in the Bible, in this story the center is not the miraculous feeding, but it is where Jesus asks the disciples to provide food: where the disciples declare what they have, and where Jesus takes what is given to him by the disciples. This is the center of the story and where the primary theme is most likely to be found. (Next week’s gospel reading which immediately follows today’s also follows a similar structure. And to geek out even more, there are thematic and literary parallels between this story and next week’s.)

 

We’ll return to what I see as the primary theme, but first, let’s finish the story.

 

When everyone was given food and all had their fill, there were twelve large baskets of remainders. We aren’t told what happened with these. What is important about this is that what had seemed utterly insufficient had turned into something more than just merely sufficient. 

 

Now Jesus makes the disciples go back into their boat and go away while he dismisses the crowd. When the disciples wanted to have Jesus dismiss the crowd, Jesus said, “Not now.” But now that his work is done and the crowd’s needs are met, it is time for the crowd to be dismissed. 

 

Another lesson from this story for us may be that God will bring to our attention the needs around us. And it will be God who takes them away when the time is right. Our call is to meet the needs as long as they are in our midst. 

 

Finally Jesus gets the time to himself that he needs and longs for. But he does not merely relax, but he spends time in prayer, with God. Or perhaps that is Jesus’ way of de-stressing and restoring emotional balance: by entering into the presence of God. 

 

Now back to the center of the story and what I think is the key take away: 

·       We don’t do ministry on our own terms. Just as Jesus said to his disciples, “There’s no need to send them away,” God might bring needs to our attention that we frankly might not want to address or can’t imagine how we might. 

·       We are expected to be Christ’s hands and feet. Just as Jesus commanded his disciples, “You give them something to eat,” God asks us to be responsible for meeting the needs that are brought to us. Jesus did not directly feed each person in the crowd. He asked his disciples to do that, and the same is being asked of us.

·       We have resources. It may not be much — just a few bread and fish — but every follower of Christ, every congregation, the collaboration of churches, and the worldwide Church has resources. What resources do we have, however small and meager they might be, that could be used to meet the needs that we see? 

·       We must contribute what we have to God. Jesus asked his disciples to hand what they had to him. The disciples had no idea what was going to happen. In biblical hindsight we know what Jesus did and how the story ends, but the disciples didn’t have that benefit. They had never experienced a mass feeding from so little. So it would have been completely understandable if they had refused or expressed more reluctance. The most obvious use of the food was perhaps for Jesus himself to eat, or that it would be given to a few people with the most need. Likewise, we don’t know how God will use the resources that are contributed. Are we willing to contribute what we have, not always knowing exactly how they might be used? 

 

Ultimately, this story is about faith. For the most part the disciples don’t have a great degree of faith, but they trust Jesus enough to give to him all the provisions they had amongst themselves. And that faith might just be the greater miracle in the story. 

 

Later in Matthew’s gospel Jesus says, “I assure you that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Go from here to there,’ and it will go. There will be nothing that you can’t do.” [Matthew 17:20b]

 

The disciples are frequently portrayed as lacking faith and are chastised for it. But at the same time, they have a tiny bit — just enough for God to work with them. And in that respect, I don’t think we are that much different from them. We waver between faith and doubt. We look at the world around us and our own lives. We see the mess that we make and we see messes that others make. We see and experience the random tragedies and disasters that pummel us. It might be easy to get discouraged and lose hope. We get tired. 

 

Jesus’ command to us remains the same. Come together in solidarity, with compassion; and in faith, contribute what you do have to God, and God will return to you what you need to be effective ministers in this community. 

Matthew 14:13-23Matthew 14:13-23Matthew 14:13-23