On the sea of life, Matthew 14

I greet you, brothers and sisters, on this eve

of the Feast of Dormition coming up tomorrow.

School's starting, as all of our students know.

So I was thinking about how poorly I did in algebra

when I was a student. And I'll confess, it was

Algebra 1 in 12th grade, so I was pretty bad.

And the problem was, is that I might have got

the first principle down, the first formula,

but after that, they kind of went by me. And,

you know, it's cumulative. If you don't apply

what you learn this week, or this day, and then

the next day, and keep it fresh, then you snowball

into chaos. But if you do apply, then you snowball

into understanding. And I was with chaos. Went

to college and took general math. So not so good.

I did have successes later. It wasn't all failure.

But this reminds me that when we hear the Gospels

every Sunday, it's cumulative. The church is

trying to teach us something week by week. It's

not just a random story. Oh, Jesus is so great.

He healed these people. Then he went to the next

place and did something else. There's a lesson

that's being given to us to strengthen our faith

because we need that. Without faith that is strengthened

by God's grace, We'll snowball into chaos. What

did we hear a few weeks ago? And Father James

alluded to this last week in his homily, so I'm

just reminding myself about it. Two weeks ago

we heard about Jesus healing a blind man. The

blind saw Christ with their hearts, not with

their eyes. While the Pharisees, seeing the amazing

healing and the healing of the man who couldn't

speak, could not rejoice with the people. But

the people rejoiced in that they saw this wonderful

work of God taking place. And last week, Jesus

had thousands and thousands of people follow

him, it says, in a desert place. Because the

desert, if you've been to the desert, I really

haven't been to the desert, I've been to Phoenix

a couple of times, but... If you've been to the

desert, you know that if you're not prepared,

you are going to perish. God sent his people

after his overcoming Pharaoh and the chariots

and drowning them. He sent them into the desert

because he was going to feed them and nourish

them. And so we have this gospel, the fresco

you can see right there. The feeding of the 5

,000, the only count of the men in that number.

So there were probably 15 or 20 ,000. This is

telling us that God is in our midst. Doing what

God does, which is to care for us. To heal blindness,

not only of the eyes, but especially of the heart.

To give us true speech, as Father spoke last

week so wonderfully. To feed us. Not with bread

and circuses, but with himself. And this week,

to show us as he walks out upon the sea, and

in the Old Testament, the sea is the place of

chaos. If you've been in a boat in a storm, it's

extremely frightening. It's chaos. Where does

Pharaoh and his chariots end up? At the bottom

of the sea. everything is going to be poured

into that chaotic place at the end, says the

book of Revelation. And there'll be no more sea,

no more chaos. And Christ comes to the apostles.

It's maybe 4 a .m. They've been out there all

night. He told them earlier, get into a boat,

go to the other side. They didn't want to. And

he would meet them. I don't know what they thought,

how he would meet them on the other side. and

they were in the midst of the storm crying out.

They think they see a ghost. There's somebody

on the water. You know, German Bible scholars

of the 19th century would say, well, Jesus probably

stepped on a sandbar or something like that,

or they were really close to the beach, and so

it just looked like he was. What's the point

of telling the story if it's not miraculous?

If it's not telling us that God has power over

death, power over sickness, power over illness

of all kinds, the ability to feed us, and power,

because he is the creator of all things, over

nature, too. And Peter sees him, and they cry

out, and Jesus says this incredible, fear not,

it is I. Now, you can read lots into that, it

is I, but if you go back, To the gospel of John.

I think it's the gospel of John. When Jesus is

arrested. They're looking for Jesus of Nazareth.

He says it is I. They all fell to the ground.

Not dead. But in fear. Because he uttered the

words. Of the name of God. Exactly what's on

this icon. And the disciples were comforted.

And Peter yells out. Well if it's really you.

Let me come out there. We should never tempt

God. We should never ask God to let us do something

we are not capable of doing. He will make us

capable of many things, but not something like

that. Oh, sure, there's saints like Mary of Egypt

who walk on the water. There's saints like Lawrence

of Salamina in Greece that walked on the water,

and many others. But Peter was just a beginner.

And he took his eyes off the Lord. He forgot

what he knew. And he was afraid of the storm.

And he sank. And he cried out, what? Lord, save

me. This is what we don't do, brothers and sisters.

When we're surrounded by trouble. When we're

afflicted by anxiety and uncertainty. and doubt

we've stepped out of the boat in the midst of

a storm and we forget to say lord save me reach

up and be pulled back into the ship the account

from saint matthew of saint peter's failed attempt

to walk on the water is a cumulative story given

to us with the others and with the one next week

where we're going to hear the man say, Lord,

I believe, help my unbelief. These stories are

given to us to strengthen our faith, to make

us firm in our faithfulness. When we are faced

with a storm that doesn't drown the body but

drowns the soul, remember this. The place of

peace and calm. as this gospel shows us, as all

the gospel shows us, is the person of Christ

in the midst, not just me and Jesus, no, the

person of Christ in the midst of the disciples,

in the midst of his people, in the church, where

he is, there is perfect peace. Maybe not on the

outside. Listen to this phrase from this beautiful

Akathist, glory to God. Kentucky in number five.

The dark storm clouds of life bring no terror

to those whose hearts by lamp is burning brightly.

Outside is the darkness and the rain, the terror

and the howling of the storm. But in the soul,

in the presence of Christ, there is light and

peace, silence, and the heart sings, Alleluia.

Where he is. There is perfect peace. Where he

is, there is the kingdom of God. Where he is,

there is eternity. Where he is, storms no longer

matter to buffet us. We may be sorrowful. We

may be troubled by them. We may be hurt by them.

But there is peace in the heart, and we sing

by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Alleluia. And

the storms only remember... cause us to remember

the baptism that we had in the water. The scriptures

teach us many, many things. They guide us each

week. Don't miss a Sunday, because you will miss

an important element, and like me with algebra,

you're not going to know the next equation, how

it works. And you'll only find out when you hit

that wall. And you'll throw up your hands. You

may step out of the boat. We must not. We must

not put Christ to the test like Peter did. We

must not make our active participation in the

church conditional upon any preconceived notions

of how orthodoxy should fit into my life. Because

that's what happens when we step out of the boat.

It's not conditional of what we want and get

from God. The point is not that we fit God into

our lives, but that we offer ourselves to participate

more fully in his. He comes to us in the storm,

but brothers and sisters, sometimes we have to

go to him when we're storm tossed. Father Sarah

from Burroughs of Blessed Memory said this, Christ's

kingdom is not of this world. The world cannot

bear it. That's true. Christ came to give peace

to the heart, but a sword and division to the

world. We constantly rebel, try to make life

easier, try to be half Christian, try to make

the best of both worlds. We fail when Christ

is not in the heart. We must ultimately choose.

Our felicity lies in one world or the other,

not in both. Again, I'll leave you with this

amazing verse. The dark storm clouds of life

bring no terror to those in whose hearts thy

lamp is burning brightly. Outside is the darkness

and the rain, the terror and the howling of the

storm. but in the soul, in the presence of Christ,

in the midst of his people. There is light and

peace, there is silence, and the heart sings,

Alleluia. Amen.