Sermon - August 13, 2023 - The Rev. Jack Alvey

I speak in the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I forgot to tell the AV crew that I would not be in the pulpit,

so I'll give Ryan a second to find me here.

Good morning. Welcome. So glad to be with you all here on Rally Day.

We're going to do something a little different during

the sermon and you'll find out why in a second.

But before, a brief reflection on today's passage from Matthew,

one of the more familiar lessons that we read.

It appears in all four gospels,

at least some version of this story.

Matthew, however, is the only one that talks about Peter walking on the water,

who's the linchpin of today's message.

I think sometimes we get caught up in trying to understand

the literal meaning of this passage that we lose sight of the deeper,

the deeper theological implications here.

So if we can get past the literal and just take it by faith that Jesus walked on the water,

we can start to dig deeper and look at the allegorical implications here.

So we might look at it like we might look at a parable.

So the water for the Judeo-Christians represented chaos,

it represented evil, it represented the unknown.

Jesus represents God and God is sovereign even over the chaos,

even over the unknown.

There is nothing outside of God's control.

So Jesus walking on water personifies this truth.

Then you have the boat that the disciples in and you might think of the boat

as their way of protecting themselves from the storm,

as their way of keeping evil in chaos at bay.

It's sort of their man-made effort.

And then finally you have the wind.

Think of the wind as all the distractions that we have in this life,

those things that take our gaze off of God.

So sort of think about it in that way.

So here we have Peter in this boat, this relatively safe boat.

And for some reason, he wants to go to Jesus.

He wants to get out of the boat, go into this storm, walk on water and go to Jesus.

At first he's really excited about it.

Peter is sort of known to be impulsive.

I can relate to Peter.

It's probably an Enneagram 7.

He just gets out without thinking.

And then all of a sudden the wind comes up, he doesn't know what to do.

And this is the moment we hear the word doubt in this lesson.

I think Peter is actually doubting himself.

And the minute he starts to doubt himself is when he finds the faith to say,

Lord, save me.

The minute he starts to doubt his ability,

he can finally find the faith to say, Lord, save me.

That's that mustard seed of faith.

And that's sort of the ultimate proclamation of our faith.

Lord, save me.

I can't do it all by myself.

He needs to experience his human limitation.

Peter's a pretty confident guy.

He needs to be humbled.

And when he is humbled, he finds the faith to reach out for Jesus.

Peter's walking on water, his attempt to walk on water,

is sort of representative of our human tendency

to think that we can get to God.

We heard that in Romans.

Like, let's just go down to the abyss and pull Christ up.

Or let's go up to heaven and pull Christ down.

But Paul's actually saying, well, God's actually already here.

He's on your lips.

And that's the whole Christian story is that God has found his way to us.

God keeps on finding a way to us despite our inability to find our way to God.

And that is the good news of Jesus, that God has found a permanent way to us in Jesus.

And that is what we celebrate each and every Sunday.

So I want you to think about, for a minute, the boats that you've

created in your life through your peer groups, through your homes,

through your jobs, through, what else did I say, your leisure activities.

All of these sort of represent the man-made or human-made boat

that you've built to sort of keep your head above water in this chaotic world.

Think about those boats.

Some of them are more stable than others, but we all have them to some degree.

We all depend on them to some degree.

But even if you have the nicest boat in town,

that can't completely save you from the evil and the chaos

and the winds of this world.

They're all going to distract you from God.

And I also want you to think about that image of Jesus getting into the boat.

He's not there to pull him out, to take him out.

Jesus is getting in our boat with us.

Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus is coming to us again.

He's coming to save us.

He's coming to get into our lives and to calm the storms.

His presence in our lives is calming the storms that are raging around us.

And so the church is here to help you to invite Jesus into your boat,

quite literally, to put you into a relationship with Jesus,

to find that peace that passes all understanding.

When the world around you is swirling, at least you

can find peace in that vessel that will not drown,

in that vessel that will not be deterred by the winds and chaos of this world.

And so we believe that that relationship with Jesus

is something that doesn't just happen on a personal level,

but it happens in community.

And that's what we're doing here, is inviting you

into community with each other.

We are formed in wonder, love, and praise.

We're not simply spectators, but we are active participants

in the body of Christ, in that vessel that is saving us

and the world from the winds of change and chaos.

And so I want to invite you to join me in this conversation