Matthew 14:22-33.                 Save me Lord !!                                              7/8/11

 22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid. 28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

 This reading that we have before us this morning is a most interesting one indeed. I believe that it accurately portrays the Christian life for most of us. As we are confronted with all the pressures and difficulties of life which threaten to swamp us, we often feel as though we are getting nowhere and even in deep trouble. But then on top of that we are urged to lift our game and be better Christians: to give more to church; to be better witnesses and to step out and do more than we have in the past. But we end up like Peter here in our reading: up to our armpits in trouble and perhaps even worse than that. We come to the point where we cry out; 'Save me Lord'; ‘Get me out this mess.’ Of course we are not willing to admit that we have failed; that we have gotten our priorities wrong; our attitudes and our motives are all up the creek.

                                  
But here in this whole story we are reminded of the most amazing thing. Jesus comes to the disciples in the midst of the hassles they are having - walking on water – and he even calls Peter to come and walk out to him; and he does. That is until he looks away from Jesus and focuses on himself. But, even then, Jesus doesn't let Peter drown, nor does he say something like, 'you stupid fool, you just haven't got enough faith.' However, he leaves the disciples and us in no doubt that he alone has the answers of life: That he has the power to do and enable us do what is beyond the wildest expectations of what we think is possible. He also reminds us that he still cares about us and is still willing to help us even when we fail. So he truly assures us that he is the Son of God, here to help us, despite ourselves.

 Now let us look a little closer at our text to see how this takes shape for us. At the beginning of this reading we see that Jesus sends his disciples out on the boat to go to the other side of the lake. For us here, we also have as God's people been sent out on the waters of life, so to speak. By the mere fact that we are Christians, we have to get on with life as his people; but always remembering who we are and what our task in life is. We are called to live and be people who are ever aware of the need to live according to God's will; and by the way we live, act and speak to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others around us. We are the people God is using to share that message with others and to help and encourage one another to be Christians, every day. The aim of the disciples was to get across to the other side of the lake; and for us it is to get through our life here on earth and to attain eternal life in heaven. Like Christ though, we also are to see to it that as many as possible get there.

 But there is a problem - isn't there? For the disciples; it gets dark and the wind was blowing hard against them. In fact, they were rowing all night and seemingly getting nowhere. They were tossed about and finding the going extremely difficult. Now I am sure that we could all identify with that. So often, on our path through life the going seems dark and difficult and we feel as if it is uphill going all the way. We are getting pounded by all sorts of problems and hardships: paddling our canoe against the tide and getting nowhere. Will we make it through life to the other side; or will the storms of life toss us and break us? The temptation is to give in or turn back. But we know we can't. So we sweat and toil, get frustrated and feel all alone, but we keep going; however the progress, if there is any, seems non-existent.

Here though, this reading reminds us of what happens in the midst of all of this. Yes, Jesus comes out there walking on water to them and to us - no hassles. While they, and we, are sweating it out and getting nowhere; with the waves crashing around our lives, here comes Jesus. Now of course the disciples were right - this has to be a ghost. Their minds were surely deceiving them - they must be seeing things. And for us, so often, those similar thoughts our cross minds. In the midst of our difficulties and hassles in life, we are tempted to think that Christ and Christianity is not for real. There are times when it all seems unbelievable and we wonder if we are deceiving ourselves. So are tempted to yell out along with the crowds: ‘it’s all a load of garbage: a lot of spiritual hocus-pocus.

 But Jesus comes, never-the-less, and speaks his assuring, comforting word, over and over again. “Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid.” You know, that is the great thing in all of this for us. Despite the mess and difficulties of life; our uncertainty and fears, Jesus comes to us. He walks into our world and rides the waves of bitterness, temptation, rejections and death; all the things that make life difficult for us. He comes to us in our troubles, helps us out and speaks his message of comfort, forgiveness and encouragement to us.

 We need to remember that Jesus walked on water as a human being - as one of us. He had put aside his godly attributes; and it was his trust and reliance on his Father that enabled him to do all the things that he did. We can see that Peter too was able to walk on the water, while he trusted that God could do what he had called him to do. That is why prayer was such a big part of Jesus’ life. He kept in touch with his Father; the source of power; and by doing this, he identifies himself with us in every way.

 So Jesus is not some Godly Spirit that comes to us floating over life. It was important for us that Jesus came be with us and do what he did as a human being; because now there is hope for us; now there is one who has overcome what would drag us down. This same Jesus comes to us again and again throughout our life to speak his word of encouragement to us. In worship, bible reading and through a fellow Christian he constantly reassures us that he is God and that he is for real. Because this Jesus is God come to us, we can take heart and not be afraid.

Yes, we can even be like Peter and step out to do the impossible, if that is what God is calling us to do. We can trust Jesus when he calls us do what goes beyond what we think is reasonable. We too can ‘walk on water,’ in that we can love our enemies, give generously, put aside selfishness and greed; and more. We can do the impossible when we like Peter trust what Jesus tells us; and as we focus on Christ our Lord: For it is he alone who enables us to do so.

 But like Peter, we will sink – time and time again. When we take our eyes off of Jesus, as we all so often do, we run into trouble. When we look at the difficulty and ourselves our faith so often gives out. On our own we find that we just can't do it; and all we can do in the end is to cry out: ‘Save me Lord.’ Our little attempts to live by faith: to do what Jesus did; end in failure. Then we either despair or cry out for our Lord to save us.

 However there again we see the greatness of Jesus Christ. In the midst of our failures to even live by a small amount faith, Jesus still reaches out and lifts us up. He pulls us back up from drowning in our failures: takes hold of us and helps us up and onward. And yes he even stills the storms of life. Anyone else would leave us on own: caste us aside as worthless. If our faith is so weak and our failures so great, others give up on us: But not Jesus.

 So we see again his love for us: His constant coming to us to help us out. He is always listening out for our cry for help – ‘Save us Lord,’ and he has and continues to come again and again as well. So in Jesus we have one I want to cling to and have with me throughout life. We can take courage. We don’t need to be afraid. Our Lord Jesus is with us now and always. AMEN.

 Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish