Walking on the Water Fr Damian Kuolt

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This past week, and

therefore all week until the leave -taking yesterday,

we celebrated the transfiguration of our Lord

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This occurs in

the gospel just a few chapters after today's

scripture, where in Matthew we hear, these are

just a few excerpts, but we hear these words.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and was transfigured

before them, his face shining like the sun, and

his clothes became as white as the light. Moses

and Elijah appeared. And a bright cloud overshadowed

them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud,

saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am

well pleased. Hear him. And before that, and

during his whole ministry, he healed the sick,

the blind, the crippled. He cast out demons.

He raised the dead and he commanded the seas

and the wind. All of this was certainly part

of his preparation of mankind for his coming

sacrifice. And this preparation was essential

that he show him who he was so that when He went

to his crucifixion and all the things that happened

from that entering Jerusalem forward to this

glorious day, even today. All of it, all of it

was prepared by him showing us who he is while

he walked amongst us. Today is another one of

those occasions where Jesus shows us who he is.

And Metropolitan Herotheos Vlachos has this to

say about today's scripture. Christ, after the

miracle of the five loaves, ascended the mountain,

leaving the disciples in a storm -tossed boat.

When he came to them walking on the sea, this

was not some magic trick or human technique,

but the very outcome of his God -manhood. And

when their fear overtook them, he cried, take

courage. It is I. Do not be afraid. With that

word, he imparted divine energy that banished

their terror and calmed both wind and waves.

Now these words from the Metropolitan encourage

us to take a deeper look. at this profound event

where Jesus reveals himself as God. You see,

constantly he was revealing himself. I've contemplated

often how little he actually, or we have the

recorded words of what he taught, but it's prolific

with who he was and what he did. If ever there

could have been someone who didn't give lip service,

but walked his walk, it was our Lord. Jesus reveals

himself to us through revelation. And every prophet

that we honor, the apostles, the fathers, holy

ones through the centuries, he shows them by

revealing himself in their hearts. But here's

an instance where he's coming forth in and as

the kingdom of God to command all creation. A

magnificent revelation, this scripture today

of him walking on the waters, calming the fears

and calming the sea. But we must be more than

bystanders, standing in awe. Going, wow. Whoa.

Can you believe it? How did it happen? We have

to take it in in a different way. We must allow

the fathers and the saints, through who God continues

to reveal himself, help us to see the meaning

for each of us personally. Yes, this was a cosmic

event, these things like transfiguration and

his command of all creation, his command over

sickness and over the elements of the earth.

But we need to find the ways to take it personally

and to incorporate into who we are and what we

will become. The life of the church points us

To contemplate on how we participate in the scriptures

that we read. The fathers gave us whole sermons

on the elements of this particular passage. I

did a look and I found 20 different commentaries

on this scripture. Things are said about it like

this. Like they emphasize how Christ's mastery

over the elements reveals his dignity. Which

we've been talking about. And his divinity. and

his place in the Trinity. The Fathers talk about

how the words, that single invitation by Christ,

come, where he's encouraging Peter to leave the

boat and walk to him, is the Gospel's call, where

Christ is constantly saying to us, come. And

so the sea mirrors the turmoil of our passions,

the tumult of worldly cares, and of course the

waves of temptation for which all of us know.

Peter's sinking, they say, is more than just

losing his nerve. It teaches us humility in the

face of divine power. No matter how proudly we

accomplish anything, no matter how firmly we

stand on a great understanding or a mystery or

an experience or a blessing or a grace, we, like

Peter, sink from it. So in all humility, we must

learn. who we are in relationship to God and

where all of it comes from and what we must do

to have any of those wonderful events and successes

and blessings of our lives mean more than a passing

comfort. We have to incorporate all of God's

experience into who we are and make it real.

in all humility. The disciples' fear contrasts

with Peter's boldness and his courage. It kind

of demonstrates a core... Well, I forgot which

father said this one, but trust me on it. It's

one of them. Their fear contrasts with the courageous

step that... Peter took, showing that Christian

maturity moves from worldly cares and distractions

and anxieties and sometimes even terror. It moves

from there to faith -filled action, which culminates

in the confession that we hear in Scripture.

Truly, you are the Son of God. And everything

we experience is designed to bring that up out

of our own heart, whether it's struggles or blessings

or the combination of both. But given all of

this analysis of what these things can mean,

we've got to remember that we don't analyze our

way to salvation. Not even using scripture. Yes,

the head is the place that we can find our thoughts

and contemplations, but it's through the heart

that we are first called to the church, which

is for us the ark of salvation. And this ark

of salvation in some ways is like that little

ship tossed on stormy seas. We are here. in the

calm of the ship, amongst a world that is a stormy

sea. We climb aboard this ship when we're baptized,

and we remain in the ark, which is where he comes

to us, here in the ark of salvation. Here we

witness one another's struggle, like Peter and

the other disciples, but we also strengthen one

another. I'm just barely getting to know you.

I just barely arrived. And I'm struggling pinning

names to faces. And so please forgive me for

that. But one of the things I am drinking in,

even if I don't remember your name, is what a

blessing each one of you are. As it's said in

the epistle, you are the temple of God. You are

the temple of God. Pulled from a stormy sea into

this ark of salvation. The drama of this stormy

sea set aside, nothing could prepare them for

the resurrection. Who he is had to be shown,

and the world had to witness it. He spoke these

words to Thomas, who was stunned by the appearance

of his Lord. These words, blessed are those who

have not seen yet have believed. So you see,

belief is everything. And today's gospel shows

it. It certainly shows the difference between

that moment of pure belief when he could walk

on water and then after the doubts set in. For

Peter and for all of us who would be saved, belief.

Jesus' words, blessed are those who have not

seen and yet believe, are not just for Thomas,

but they're for you and me. Blessed are those,

those. We're the those. Did you know that? Jesus

was speaking directly to you when he said that.

It isn't just a saying. I'll read it again. Blessed

are those who have not seen yet have believed

is not just a byline to that scene with Thomas.

It's a promise to you and me. It's actually a

command. Blessed are those who have not seen

yet believe. It's an immutable reality. This

reality this outpouring of his grace that comes

through the church in his body is salvation itself.

Take the verse John 20, 31, where he tells us

that the gospel was written, quote, that you

may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son

of God, and that by believing you may have life

in his name. Do we keep this thought front and

center when we question faith and we wonder what

we believe and we wonder what things mean when

we're tossed around again? Do we keep front and

center the words in 17 .3? This is eternal life,

that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus

Christ, whom you have sent, to believe and to

know him. is a living reality passed down by

the church through saints and fathers so that

all may be saved. Our church, life itself, moves

daily through these lives of saints. Every time

we gather and all the days that we don't, every

day you read your scripture and look for what

the church is doing, it's there, whether you

do it or not. Somewhere around the world there

is this. web work of honoring all the saints

that have lived through the centuries. One of

them we commemorate today. We commemorate St.

Lawrence. He lived the gospel and what did he

do? He believed it to the point of being radiant

with the Holy Spirit, being martyred in that

radiance. He was so radiant the world could not

stand it. And everything he said and did belied

the fact that he, like scripture said today,

knew that he was the temple of God. And nothing

they could do mattered. Can we learn to live

like that? Read more about him. I'm not going

to recount his life. You can read a wonderful

little short, some words about him. Read it again

if you already read it in the bulletin. And I'm

going to quote part of it because I was really

struck by this. Someone who is radiant with the

Holy Spirit is in fact radiating. Does that make

sense? If you're radiant with the Holy Spirit,

you are radiating. That's what the saints did,

is they radiated to the point where they could

not be ignored. They moved the world. That is,

they do not function as a container or a closed

vessel of sorts, rather as a conduit, an instrument.

transformed by bearing it to others, by bearing

to others the overflowing grace of God. Now that's

the spiritual lifeblood of the faith and of the

church and of this very parish. It makes us partakers

of the same salvific life, witnessed firsthand,

the ones who got to see it, by the apostles,

by all the church through the centuries to those

who have not seen yet believe. Don't simply read

about it and wonder. Don't read these things.

Don't hear this scripture and just wonder about

it and let it drift away. So I'm going to do

something today that I normally don't do. I'm

going to give you three practical takeaways.

I don't know if anybody does that in sermons,

but what was the takeaway, of course, is the

buzzword in business and everywhere else. I'm

going to give you three practical takeaways from

this. And what I'd like you to do on your own

in the future is every time one of these blessed

priests or deacons gives you a sermon, grab on

to some takeaways. Because we must do what we

stand in awe before. So here's three. When life's

waves, temptations and everything else, overwhelm

you, remember his presence. Go find an icon of

him if you must. And remember that it is I, as

he said on the sea. He comes to us in the times

of tribulation. And remember him. A second takeaway,

cultivate the Jesus prayer. Let Lord Jesus Christ,

Son of God, have mercy on me. Why? You can't

be saying that without keeping him in front of

you. It helps you keep your gaze fixed on him.

And treat these trials, these waves, the stormy

sea, as an invitation to step out of your boat

of comfort, your boat of self -reliance, of being,

you know, self -deluded into thinking things

are going okay. And if you just do this, you

can put it behind you. Three things. When the

waves overtake you, remember it as I. Cultivate

the Jesus prayer to keep your gaze focused on

them and treat trials as an opportunity to step

away from your self -reliance. And rely on his

healing energies. Now I'm sure that all of us

here know that God continues to reveal himself.

If we search for him. And make ourselves available.

If we do that we partake in his promise. So that

without seeing we believe. Glory to Jesus Christ.