Out of the Boat

The first lesson that I taught as the preacher for the Southeast church was about walking on water. I was encouraging our people to step out in faith as they were leaving what was comfortably known into an adventure with Jesus.

I still believe that the adventure ‘out there’ is worth the risk. God’s mission in the world, as I see it, is bringing order out of chaos. We are invited to participate in the mission of God in the world. Of course that means that we are going to have to GO out of our little circles of safety, out where the chaos is happening!

Then today I was reading one of my favorite preachers. He always makes me re-think. Re-thinking is a virtue, I think (is that as funny to you as it is to me?)
Here is what Fred Craddock says,

Only God can walk on the waves. That is what the Bible says. In Job, in Isaiah, in Habakkuk, in the Psalms, it is God who walks on the storm, God who makes a path in the sea. Why? To show a miracle? To say, “Hey, look, I’m walking on water.” No, don’t be shallow. In ancient times the sea was the place of evil. The evil monster was there; the Leviathan was there. The enemy of all that we know as good and right is there in the water. In the Bible, the water is the abode of all the forces that are against us. And God walks on the sea. In other words, there is no power, no storm, no wind, no force in the world that God cannot conquer, no evil over which God is not superior, nothing that can destroy your life because God loves and cares for you.

Jesus’ walking on the water is not to be understood as a miracle. Look at it, listen to it. Jesus comes in the storm on the sea and says, “Take heart, I am?” These words are translated, “It is I” or ’I am he?’ but what Jesus actually says is, “I am.” “I am”-- that’s the name for God. God has come to them in the storm in the person of Jesus, and what happens? They cannot believe it. At first they say, “It’s a ghost, it’s a ghost!” From a distance Jesus does indeed seem like a ghost. I know a lot of people who have never made friends with Jesus, and he is still out there as a ghost-like thing.

But Jesus gets closer, and Simon Peter says to him, “If you are . . . if you are, tell me to come to you on the water.” Do you recognize those words? Do you remember hearing those words before? When Jesus was tested in the wilderness, the devil said, “If you are the son of God…” The words of Simon Peter are the words of the tempter. I am putting you to the test, Jesus. If you are really the son of God…

It is no wonder that two chapters later Jesus says to Simon Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” So the fact that Simon Peter could walk on the water is just not a little thing. I’ve heard all those piddling little sermons that say that Peter tried to walk on the water but he took his eyes off Jesus and so he began to sink. Do you understand what is really happening here? Simon Peter doesn’t believe. He wants to put Jesus to the test, and in the attempt to test Jesus, he ends up testing himself and sinking. You don’t test God. Jesus got in the boat and everything was all right. It was quiet, and the others fell down in the bottom of that little boat and worshiped Jesus. (Matt 14:22-33)