Walking on the Sea

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

of the Holy Spirit. This week, I received a phone

call from a journalist doing a story on a survey

about Orthodox churches and coming out of the

pandemic and how they fared, how they operated.

I saw the article yesterday and... 90 % is right,

pretty close to what I said. Most of it was pretty

close to what I said. I was asked in the discussion

and the conversation about if our parish grew

during the pandemic, despite the fact that we

had worship outside on the front porch and limited

when we came inside. And it's somebody like John

Robert knows who came. On the Sunday when we

were having baptisms outside for the first time,

he came. Yes, the church, I said the church did

grow. And she asked me why. And in my discussions

with, for example, John Robert and a few other

people, my assessment was that when your life

has fallen apart, when the foundation... of what

you know is crumbling. And the fires in 2017

had a lot to do with this as well. When your

foundation is as St. Paul says, hay or stubble,

and it's not stone, it's not precious gems, it's

going to be burned up in the fiery experience

when everything, your whole support system falls

apart. No more distractions. No more entertainments.

All the things you knew pretty much gone. Your

house burned down to the ground. And then lo

and behold you have a pandemic and you can't

see other people and so forth. So people started

to think about eternal realities. About their

life in this world. About the life of the age

to come. What does it all mean? Well this has

to do for me with this gospel that you heard.

Because we, as Orthodox Christians, have been

given the most magnificent gift. Not just the

knowledge of the kingdom of God, that Jesus,

our God, the word of God, became man. He was

crucified. He took our sins and nailed them to

the cross. He entered into death itself. He destroyed

the meaning and the prison of death. and he rose

from the dead, and we get to share in that victory

even now in our baptism, and in each and every

liturgy when we receive communion at the Divine

Liturgy. What a gift! But in our life, we have

to be careful that what we're building in between

Sundays, what we're building that life on, has

to be solid ground of the Gospel. Last week,

we heard about Jesus feeding the 5 ,000. Fresco's

right there if you need a reminder. And the magnificent

sermon Father James gave on that account. But

right after that, Jesus constrained his disciples.

He made them get into a boat and basically said,

I'm going to meet you on the other side. And

he went to a mountain to pray. They were nourished.

But then they had to face something which they

felt was on their own and impossible. I read

a meditation by a religious author named Hans

Boersman. I want to read a section of that for

you because it touched me very deeply and hopefully

will mean something to you as well. Speaking

of the disciples in the boat in the terrible

storm, you just heard about that. Have you ever

been in a boat in a storm? If you haven't, just

take a look at one of those reality TV shows

about fishing, you know, like The Greatest Catch

or whatever it's called. It's scary. It's absolutely

frightening. Here's what Hans Bormann says. He

says, this is a horrifying situation in this

account of Jesus walking on the water along with

the disciples. For many dark hours, we too have

rowed, so to speak, so as to reach the other

side. But our headway is painful. We're getting

tortured, literally. The wind is howling. The

monster Leviathan is on the prowl, coming up

from the depths. Our human strength obviously

falls short when devilish winds are torturous

and the monster tosses up the waves. The powers

of hell below seem in control. We cannot reach

the other side. But Jesus reminds us. The world

is comprised of more than the chaotic sea. Look

elsewhere. Look up the mountain. There in darkness

someone is kneeling, praying all alone. The crowds

are gone. They're filled with loaves and fishes.

The disciples too have left where Jesus made

them, constrained them to get into the boat.

The Lord is in his holy temple. All the earth

keeps silence before him, writes the prophet

Habakkuk. Note the contrast. The disciples down

below fighting wind and waves, dreading jaws

of Hades, demonic powers dragging them down.

Jesus, our God, high in his holy dwelling atop

the mountain, serene and peaceful in his father's

house. Does he not know? Does he not care? Why

did he make us get into this boat? Why has he

left us rowing all alone? It is nearly morning.

We have been fighting all night long. Does he

not realize that we have reached the very end

of our rope? So wrote Hans Borsman. And yes,

perhaps this sermon is the same message that

I gave to you a couple of weeks ago about the

persistence in God's grace and hope and trust

in him. Because that's what the scriptures teach

us. In our weakness, he is made strong. The disciples'

questions are your questions. They're my questions.

The disciples' fear in that moment are our fears.

The reality check, says Hans Bormann, is Exodus

14. Do you remember Holy Saturday? Standing in

the middle of the church? Moses stretched out

his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the

sea back by a strong east wind all night and

made the sea dry land and the waters were divided

on this side and on that. He's telling us the

Redeemer controls the chaos and drowns the enemy.

Pharaoh, the monster of the sea, death and sin.

Drowned on the cross, if you can use that strange

analogy and metaphor. The creator and redeemer

is coming down from the mountain. Christ our

God, about whom we say, by whom all things were

made in the creed. That mighty one sees us in

every moment of our struggle. Maybe you haven't

had a struggle. You will. That's guaranteed.

He comes to us. He's walking on the sea. Psalm

77 says, O Lord, thy way was through the sea,

thy path through the great waters. The disciples

are scared out of their wits. But Peter, the

brave, impetuous Peter, so often as the spokesman

and figure of our own relationship with Jesus

Christ, isn't he? No, Lord, not the cross. He

finally believes. He sees Christ coming on the

water. He believes that it is his master emerging

in the darkness. He believes that Jesus is actually

walking on the water, and of course he would.

He is the creator of all things. All harmony

is restored in Christ and in the saints. A little

bit of paradise. He believes that Jesus is walking

on the water, and in his fervent desire to be

near him in this hour of trial and testing, he

believes that he will be allowed to go to him

on the waves. But he also believes, note, brothers

and sisters, this is important, this will not

happen without a blessing. Peter does not say,

I will come to you. He says, rather, command

me to come to you. Yes, that's impetuous and

probably not wise. But that's the difference

between arrogant pride and true, loving, humble

discipleship. Command me, O Lord, bless me. Jesus

says what? He says, come. And when Peter had

come down out of the boat, St. Matthew says,

he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when

he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid

and beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord,

save me. The Lord granted Peter that desire.

And maybe we ourselves, yes, know something about

that instance in our own life in a different

way. The biblical interpreter St. Theophilus

says, see how Peter prevailed over that which

was greater, the sea? but was defeated by the

lesser peril, the wind. Such is the weakness

of human nature. Jesus laid down the seas, says

St. Theophilus, beneath Peter's feet, revealing

his power. This means that Christ, the God -man,

has come to overcome the laws of fallen nature.

It means that Peter and all of us could prevail

over this fallenness, starting with ourself.

But St. Theophilus says it was the wind that

caused Peter to be distracted and to sink. What's

the meaning of that wind, he says? What kind

of winds do you think cause us the greatest collapse?

They're the spiritual winds, the logisme, the

intrusive thoughts, the obsessive thoughts. They're

crafty. They're subtle suggestions of the devil.

They're intrusive. They're persistent. They don't

come from within us. They're what the canon of

St. Andrew calls the elusive or deceptive thoughts.

The Lord empowered Peter to walk on the water

even though the wind, everything was against

him, was still blowing. It's because Peter allows

the wind to distract him. That's why he was rebuked

by Christ. The Lord grabbed Peter's hand. Kept

him from sinking. The wind was still howling.

Why do you doubt? He sees the Lord walking across

the world. Why do you doubt, Jesus says. You

see, faith is not just believing hard enough

mentally, but it's being faithful to what the

Lord has commanded and doing it. The logis me,

those deceptive thoughts. Someone described them

as monkeys jumping from tree to tree. That's

what it's like in our mind. They're swirling

about. They're sowing doubts. And Peter accepted

those doubts. And Jesus corrects him. And when

they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Great

miracle. Simply said. Take note, the wind ceased.

Let's include ourselves in that boat. Think,

if you will, dear brothers and sisters, of our

Lord's coming. We ask, when did God get into

the boat with us? Hans Bordsman says, when he

came down from heaven to take on the form of

a servant. When he hung upon the cross, forcing

death to open. like Jonah, to free those tied

down in death's domain, to give us the resurrection

of the body, our life, true life, not elusive

life where it's all crumbling beneath us and

we don't know where to turn. Jesus is in the

boat because the boat is a type of the church.

And the church is the safe place where our salvation

is obtained. And Jesus gets into the boat, and

in that little boat, crammed together with all

these other people, it says, they worshipped

him. Truly, you are the Son of God. Christ gives

us courage. He gives us grace. when he is with

us. This is not a psychological or some kind

of mental game. We feel better because we prayed

to God. No, it's the activity and the grace of

God. It's palpable in the heart that enters our

existence. And we feel that together with Christ,

we can overcome all difficulties. Just like the

apostle says, I can do all things through Christ

who strengthens me. Let's give our life to the

Lord and trust in those moments of the storm

that we have already been fed like the 5 ,000

and that Christ is with us as he prays to the

Father interceding on our behalf offering us

up even in our storm. To him be glory now and

ever to ages of ages.