What Does it Take to Get Out of the Boat? A Sermon for an Instructed Eucharist

 

It seems perfect that the Sunday when I am preparing folks for our first bishop's visit since my ordination in January 2022, we have Matthew's tale of Jesus walking on water, and Peter trying to do the same only to find himself about to drown. 

I talk about leaving the boat as a sign of faith. And for me, leading an instructed Eucharist on a Sunday morning is a major leap of faith for me. I've done it with small gatherings but never on a Sunday. And it goes against my own preference not to do a lot of extra stuff like this in the service. But this is one of the key elements that I have included in my Inquiry 101 class, and I have at least one confirmand who did not attend the course, so now they'll get it along with everyone else. 

And since it's a Sunday where we are pulling back the veil and sharing all the secrets about the prayers, hymns, prayer book, etc..... why not also share what I go through to write a sermon. What do you think?

Text: Matt 14:22-33

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Good morning!

Since this is “Instructed Eucharist Sunday” I thought I’d first share a little bit about my sermon writing process.

Every weekday morning… I start with doing my own prayer…usually with the help of a service that’s online.

This has nothing directly to do with the sermon…and yet it does because it gets me into a dialogue with God.

On Monday… I take time to read through all the upcoming Sunday’s lectionary…the first reading from the Old Testament… the psalm… the Epistle or Second reading from the New Testament… and finally the Gospel.

I do this slowly.

I might even read them a second time to see if I am finding some things that might connect together.

Sometimes…I find myself drawn to a particular passage or some phrase.

Other times…it can be difficult to connect.

I let the readings kind of “cook” in my head for a couple of days… all while I go about life and seeing massage clients and listening to the radio.

It’s usually Thursday that I go back and re-read the scriptures…and start looking at commentaries and other resources.

And then Friday comes.

I know I should write my sermon.

I pray that I have something already brewing in my brain.

I get in several steps on my FitBit as I pace the floors of my house… or walk around outside.

I usually get a draft of my sermon finished at some point on Friday...hopefully before 6pm.

And if not… there’s always Saturday morning.

Isabelle kindly lets me practice my message with her.

We discuss it some.

If something doesn’t make sense…I’ll go back to work on it for another hour to fix it.

Even when she likes the sermon…I usually find something that doesn’t quite work for me and I’ll reword it.

All together… the sermon crafting process…from start to finish… takes me about six to seven hours.

I once heard about a priest who found out that his parishioners thought he spent about 45 minutes on his sermons.

Either his sermons were really lightweight…or more likely… his parishioners had a very skewed sense of time!

Even those of us who preach without a written sermon are not just winging it.

And unlike in some other Christian denominations…where preachers will pick a topic they want to talk about… the general practice in Episcopal churches is to work with the lectionary Scriptures that have been assigned for the service.

Our task is to hear the scripture… apply some reason to it… in light of our tradition.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Especially when presented with such a rich Gospel reading from Matthew.

There’s so much happening in these eleven lines!

I want to take a moment to employ a practice with you of reading and thinking about scripture.

We all heard Deacon Karyl’s reading of this Gospel.

Maybe it sparked a few thoughts in your head as you listened.

I’m going to read it to you again.

And as I read it… close your eyes…visualize the scene and pick up on what you hear….

(Read the Gospel)

What are some of the images that come to mind as you heard this?

(**Here give about a couple minutes for people to express themselves**)

So… thinking about the images… thinking about some of the words… is one way to enter the story.

Engaging in this way helps to draw connections between what’s on the printed page…and the threads of our own lived experiences.

Because the scriptures really are still speaking to us and touching on the human condition thousands of years later.

And as I said… there’s so much happening here.

Certainly  a LOT that I was looking at.

We hear that Jesus has gone off to pray and sent the disciples out on the water.

The winds begin to whip up a storm and the boat is rocking back and forth… and the disciples are rightly terrified.

Then Jesus approaches them… walking on the water.

Again… they’re terrified.

But Jesus… calmly without panic… tells them, “It’s me. Don’t be afraid.”

Peter says…”If it’s you, command me to come to you on the water.”

And Jesus responds…”Come on out here!”

Peter is fine at first.

He’s able to keep his eyes fixed on Jesus and walk.

But then the wind kicks up again.

Peter looks away…and that’s when he starts to drown.

Desperately, he cries out, “Save me!”

And Jesus… again… without fanfare and without panic… pulls Peter out of the water.

“You of little faith. Why did you doubt?”

And then when the two of them get back in the boat… the wind calms down.

Those who had watched this whole scene from inside the boat…  “worship” Jesus.

In so many ways… the “boat” could symbolize the church.

Think about it.

The deacon… or if there is no deacon, the priest… sends us out at the end of worship to “love and serve the Lord” into places with store clerks… peer groups…co-workers…teachers…and bosses.

Jesus sends the disciples out into the water… away from the certainty of the dry land… and into the turbulent sea.

That water often is an archetype of emotions… and the storms of life.

When waves are flooding the boat…when things are getting to be too much… Jesus comes to the rescue.

When matters in our lives get to be too tough for us…that’s the most common time that we cry out to God for help.

Jesus comes to us…and in this instance he comes to the disciples in the boat.

And then… almost on cue… Peter with his “if it’s really you” demonstrates to us what it means to be a person of faith.

Our tendency…when challenged to step out in faith… is often some hesitation.

We question… and then our faith pushes us out of our comfort zone…the boat… and onto the sea…this great watery representation of the unknown.

Such is what happens to Peter.

Out of the boat…he has nothing to orient himself but Jesus.

I was talking with a client recently about the time when I was driving on the Seven Mile Bridge from Miami heading to the Florida Keys at night.

It was spooky.

The water and the sky were dark.

The radio station I had been listening to… began to break up and I couldn’t tune in to another one.

All I could do was stay focused on the road and trust that I would make it to Key West in one piece.

I imagine that’s how it must’ve been for Peter.

He’s striding out of the boat and on top of the water.

With his eyes affixed on Jesus… he was fine.

But then… a gust of wind...blows against his body…and Peter takes his eyes off Jesus.

He gets distracted… realizes he’s out of the boat… out of his place of safety in numbers… sameness… protection.

Distracted and frazzled he begins slipping under the waves of chaos.

And just like before…he cries out…and Jesus lifts him up.

This is what it’s like for people of faith.

To have faith requires us to step out of the boat…into uncertainty… and sometimes stormy situations.

But as long as we center ourselves on God… keeping our eyes of our heart open to the source of love and light… we’ll be alright.

In the words of our psalmist:

“Search for the Lord and his strength

Continually seek his face.” (Ps. 105:4)

God will show up.

Finally… there are all the others who were watching this scene from the boat.

Having seen Peter take that chance of faith… having watched how even as he lost his way… Jesus came to him and pulled him up… now they know that God is not going to let them drown.

This is true for all of us.

When we take chances… when we venture out into the unknown in faith… we aren’t alone.

God is with us…ready to be there for us.

And by living into that faith and trust… we may be unwittingly helping others to have the courage to step out of the boat… and search for God’s strength as well.

Don't be afraid to get out of the boat.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.

 

Transfiguration: Let the Light Shine

There's been a lot of heaviness in the news lately. The prior occupant of the White House has been indicted now for a third time, this one dealing with the very serious crime of attempting to thwart the peaceful transfer of power. 

There's been the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Niger. 

The war in Ukraine continues. 

The climate is no longer experiencing "global warming but global boiling" according to a United Nations report. 

And, closer to home, I'm sensing an uptick in the "othering" of the LGBTQ+ community...again. 

I guess I needed some good news, and words to encourage me. I hope I did that for others with this message. 

Text: Luke 9: 28-36; 2 Peter 1: 13-21

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Sometimes…the church calendar…the lectionary… and our lived experiences as creatures walking on the face of the earth all seem to come together in a wonderful and fortuitous way.

For Episcopal Church nerds like me… this is one of those cool times when one of the feast days actually lands on a Sunday… and mixes things up in our lectionary readings.

No Jacob.

No Paul.

No parables about what the kingdom of heaven is like.

Nope. We’re not even in Matthew’s Gospel.

Instead, it’s Luke…and the drama that took place on a mountain top…with Moses and Elijah flanking Jesus and talking to him.

With all the things happening in the world and with school having started or about to start for so many…it seems like perfect time to interrupt our normally scheduled readings and join with the three disciples inside the cloud on the mountain top.

Because this mountain top moment is a beginning.

It’s the beginning of Jesus’ mission to confront the corrupt and the self-centered powers of his day in Jerusalem… as he takes a stand for God’s love, justice, and mercy.

As I was looking at this Gospel lesson… I thought about Peter.

For me, Peter often stands in as the near-perfect archetype of any of us who believe and want to follow Jesus.

Immediately before the reading we just heard this morning, a couple of things have happened.

Jesus has asked, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter has piped up with “You’re the Messiah.”

Jesus then tells them what happens to the Messiah in Jerusalem.

Basically, nothing good is going to happen.

To be the Messiah means to be rejected.

There will be a sham trial followed by a brutal execution.

And then resurrection.

Jesus goes on to say that this is the way things are for anyone who wants to be his disciple.

Take up your cross and follow me.

Follow me into hardship.

Follow me into suffering.

Follow me into those places you do not want to go.

Follow me into deliverance.

In other Gospels… we hear that Peter doesn’t like all this talk.

 He tries to get Jesus to take it back, but that’s not what happens in Luke’s telling of the story.

We don’t know how Luke’s Peter responds.

But we do know that he goes up with Jesus and James and John to the mountain to pray.

“Praying” is that opening for all kinds of revelatory things to happen.

And what could be a bigger thing for Peter and James and John than to suddenly see Jesus transformed into the biggest…brightest…most shiny object in the world?

Well… maybe something bigger is to see bright shiny Jesus AND the two major pillars of Judaism Moses and Elijah standing next to him and speaking with him.

For Peter…this is clearly such an amazing and unbelievable moment.   

It’s so huge that Peter wants to capture it…hang on to it… and never let it go.

“Let’s build booths…just like at the Jewish Festival of Sukkot! We’ll all stay up here and eat meals and hang out together!”

And then…the cloud descends and envelops all of them on that mountain top…and the voice booms out of the cloud…”This is my Son, the Chosen, listen to him!”

If seeing shiny Jesus with Moses and Elijah wasn’t big enough… having the presence of God…the cloud… and the voice come at them like a Dolby-surround sound system… must have been beyond comprehension.

And perhaps that’s why when it was all over and they only saw Jesus…they went silent.

How could they possibly describe what they saw, what they experienced?

Sometimes when we experience something so incredible…words fail to fully convey what happened, don’t they?.

 It’s like we’re reduced to a stumbling and bumbling, “you have to see this to believe it!”

But having seen it… having been in the presence of whatever it was that knocked our socks off… we are changed.

The changes might not bear fruit right away… but they will show up.

In the case of Peter… this mountain top moment planted a seed.

We hear in his second letter…which scholars believe were words a student of Peter’s gathered together from things that he had said while in Rome before his death… that this moment wasn’t some cooked up fantasy.

He remembered it.

But even Peter… the one who so boldly stated to Jesus… “You’re the Messiah”… didn’t fully grasp the depth of the meaning of what that meant.

Even having heard the voice in the cloud…seen the figures of Moses and Elijah at Jesus glimmering sides…didn’t quite make sense for Peter.

Peter would still have to undergo the grief and suffering of turning his back on Jesus at the time of the crucifixion.

 He still needed to go through the emotional upheaval at the word that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Then… after going through those rings of fire… Peter began to understand the meaning of a Messiah who is the Chosen One.

We hear in the Book of Acts that Peter grew even more bold and daring once the Holy Spirit blew open the minds and opened the mouths of all those people locked away in the upper room.

The change that happened on that mountain top came alive in Peter.

That seed that had been planted in him began to bloom.

The light to which he and the others had been a witness to… burned brightly in his heart…as Peter took his place as a leader of this movement toward more love…more justice… and compassion for all people…Jew and Gentile alike.

Having been enlightened by being a witness to the presence of Jesus… Peter… and even James and John… had what they needed to be a light to others at time and a place in their history when things were looking pretty bleak and dark.

In so many ways… that is what the role is for all of us in the church.

We come here week after week… we get fed through the words of Scriptures… through prayer and music… bread and wine… and even in the fellowship of the coffee hour.

All of it in the hopes that we will take what we have received here…let it light a fire in us… and let it shine through us when we encounter a world that too often looks for ways to snuff out that light through both active negativity and passive uncaring.

Brother James Koester of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge Massachusetts shared a reflection about letting our enlightened hearts shine in the world around us.

Brother James said, “ I wonder how differently we would live if we were conscious that the glory of God not merely shines upon us, but like an electric flash pulsates from within us, filling the world with the grandeur of God. For Jesus, and for us, ‘now’ is the time to shine with the grandeur and the glory of God.”

As we enter into a new school year… and as we go forth from here back to our homes and our jobs…may we carry the light that is within us and be a lamp to those looking for some kindness in their lives.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.