Web-footed Discipleship

Matthew 14:22-33
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. Having dismissed the crowd, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone.

Now the boat was already many yards distant from the land, being harassed by the waves because the wind was against them. During the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. Seeing him on the sea walking, the disciples were terrified, saying, “It’s a ghost!”, and they cried out with fear. But immediately Jesus said to them, “Pull yourselves together; it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.” So he said, “Come.” Getting out of the boat, Peter walked on the water and came to Jesus. But, seeing the strong wind, he became afraid, and as he began to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand, grasped him and said to him, “You of little faith; why did you doubt?”

As they got into the boat the wind stopped. The ones in the boat worshipped him saying, “Truly, you are the son of God.”

As many of you know I spent the last two weeks in Texas. I was teaching students at the Course of Study School at my old seminary, Perkins School of Theology. Every morning from 7:45 until almost noon I was talking about church history and theology with local pastors who serve churches throughout the southwest.

But in the afternoons, when I wasn’t grading papers, I was seeing old friends and remembering the things I liked about Dallas. I was a student at Perkins in the late 80s and early 90s and while I was there I developed a lot of good habits but I also developed a very bad one: I became a fan of the Texas Rangers. Now that the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series I think the Rangers can lay claim to the mantle of futility that they wore for so many years. To be a fan of the Rangers is to suffer, but we suffer in hope and for Christians this is a very natural thing to do. Our lives are about hope and we know, because Paul tells us, that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. [Rom. 5:3-5]. Paul was talking about the love of God poured into our hearts through the working of the Holy Spirit, but it’s a good reminder for Rangers fans as well.

I was in Dallas during the Nolan Ryan years. When you would go to Rangers games at old Arlington Stadium you would enter the main gate beside this huge 5-story poster of Saint Nolan. When he pitched the place was full and I still have my certificate that says I was there when he struck out Rickey Henderson to get his 5,000 career strikeout.

But one game that really sticks out in my mind was a game in Nolan’s last year of pitching. Everyone knew it was his last year and they came out just to see him. He was still as full of fire as he ever was and just as intimidating. I think Roger Clemens has been learning a lot from Nolan’s later years. But in baseball terms, he was ancient, and, as I said, a saint.

In this particular game Nolan was facing off against the Chicago White Sox and one of the batters was Robin Ventura, who, at that time, was a young, promising player and a good hitter. Well, Nolan was not going to give any ground to this young whippersnapper and he was throwing brush back pitches to get him off the plate. And they would come flying in there at close to a hundred miles an hour so they were intimidating pitches, but Ventura wasn’t giving any ground. So Nolan hit him.

Now this brought about a huge moment of decision for Ventura. And he paused. You could see him pause and I know just what he was thinking. The informal laws of baseball dictate that when you are hit like that you must charge the pitcher to defend your dignity. It’s a stupid rule, but it’s definitely there. So Ventura was thinking this, but he was also thinking, “Hey, this is Nolan Ryan. Am I really going to rush the mound and attack Nolan Ryan?” That’s what the pause was about.

There was no winning for Ventura if he rushed the mound. Either he was going to beat up an old man or he was going to be beaten up by an old man. Being young and foolish he didn’t heed his better judgment and he ran to the mound and was beaten up by an old man. As Martin Luther said, “If you’re going to sin, sin boldly.”

There is something profound about that pause that Ventura took before rushing the mound. I see in it the condition that many of us find ourselves in. We are confronted daily by moments when the messages we have about what we should do in a situation are conflicting and we are sometimes paralyzed. How do we make the right choice when we are fully immersed in life? What do we do when we feel lost at sea? Perhaps there’s a message for us in the story of Peter.

Peter is a familiar character for us. You know Peter. He’s the one who, when Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?”, says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Peter is the one Jesus calls his rock. Peter is the one on whom Jesus says he will build his church. Peter is the one who says, “Even if everyone else falls away, I will never fall away.” You know that Peter.

But we also know the Peter who does fall away. The Peter who fears and doubts and finds it so hard to live up to the words he says. The Peter who looks so familiar because he is so much like you and me. Peter is at the heart of this story.

It’s an uncertain time. O, Jesus has been drawing great crowds and doing great miracles, but it is a dangerous time. He has been teaching and healing and he had just fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish just before this episode begins. The ministry is going well.

But Jesus is seeking some time alone. He had just received word that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been beheaded by Herod. There are threats and warnings and enemies on the horizon. Jesus has been hinting to his disciples that down the road there will be suffering and persecution. In a few chapters he will tell them about his death. It is a dangerous time.

Jesus goes off the pray in a lonely spot and sends the disciples ahead in the boat. Late in the night the boat was struggling against the waves and wind in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus comes to them walking across the waves and the disciples are terrified. They call out, “It’s a ghost!”

But Jesus is used to the disciples not being able to comprehend what’s going on. He calls back, “Pull yourselves together. It’s me! Don’t be afraid.”

This doesn’t seem to do it for the disciples. They’re still not sure what they’re seeing, so Peter devises a test. It’s not a very good test, but it’s the best he can come up with on the spot. He says to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.” You can see why it’s not a very good test. If it fails Peter drowns, but O.K., that’s what Peter’s got. And Jesus says, “Come.”

So Peter gets out of a perfectly good boat and starts to walk across the water. His test is working. He’s walking. He’s looking at Jesus. He’s on his way. He’s starting to think about fishing without boats.

But then three things happen. First, he notices that the wind is pretty fierce and that’s a little unsettling. Second, he gets scared. A natural response but that leads to the third thing: he starts to sink. As long as Peter was focused on Jesus things seemed to be going…swimmingly. But now he’s gotten beyond the command. He’s in uncharted waters. And he starts to sink. So he cries out, “Lord, save me!”

Jesus stretches out his hand and he grabs a hold of Peter, and he says…as he has said to the disciples before and as he will say to them again in the future…he says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

“Why did you doubt? You were doing it, Peter. You were walking on water. When you threw caution to the wind…when you stepped out in faith…when you believed my command could change the way the world as you know it works…when you took a risk and trusted that I am who I say that I am, you could walk on water.

“But when you listen to your doubts and fears, Peter, when you hear the fierce winds…when you are overwhelmed by the waves…when you believe the voice within that says, ‘You can’t…he’s not…the world doesn’t work this way!’, then the world doesn’t work that way.”

Then something pretty remarkable happens. The winds stop. They stop not, the scriptures say, not when Jesus alone gets into the boat, but when Jesus and Peter together get into the boat.

This is a sign of what is to come. At this moment the disciples are living by sight, following Jesus, living day by day by his teachings and his commands. They’re not doing a great job of it, but they’re learning. But the day is coming when they will no longer have Jesus’ physical presence with them. The day is coming when they won’t be able to face their fears and the decisions they have to make with a clear word. The day is coming when they will have to walk beside Jesus, as people formed in the way, as partners with Jesus in the amazing work that God is doing in redeeming the world.

One of the other things I did when I was a student in Dallas was to work as a youth coordinator in West Dallas, an inner-city area that has always been a home to troubled youth dating all the way back to the 1930s when it was the home of Bonnie and Clyde. I worked in that neighborhood doing things I was totally unqualified to do. I was a basketball coach, an organizer for a teen pregnancy prevention program, I even helped out coaching boxing. Most of all, however, I was a mentor to a rag-tag group of Hispanics and African-Americans. My experiences at Wesley-Rankin, a United Methodist community center, during that year convinced me that when the church is in touch with the deepest needs of the world around it, the church is close to God’s redeeming work.

It didn’t look like it when I came to work and the gang graffiti was still on the walls and the drugs were still on the streets and kids were still neglected and abused. But I knew there were a few kids who had an opportunity to do something different. And some of them did. Some of them got out. Some of them got to college. Some of them came back and became leaders at that very same community college.

A few years ago that community center gave birth to a new summer internship program. Partnering with United Methodist churches throughout Dallas, Project Transformation started bringing in college students to work with children in these very same neighborhoods. For eight weeks during the summer the college students led camps for children that were part Vacation Bible School, part reading programs, part nutrition programs, part recreation. And they were transformed. Not just the kids but the college students. And not just the college students but the local churches. And not just the local churches but the communities that they serve.

I checked in on the program while I was there this week because we have started the very same program at my old campus ministry in Charlottesville. This year in Dallas there were 72 students from all over the nation working in nine sites. Some of the children they began to work with eight years ago are now going to college and some of them will be coming back to work as interns with a new generation of children.

I love Project Transformation because it is the kind of program that goes to struggling churches that are having trouble reaching out to the struggling communities around them. Project Transformation goes into places where the prevailing story is, “We can’t. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the means. We don’t have the people. We don’t have the will. We can’t.” But this program, fired by the gospel of a Messiah who will not take ‘no’ for an answer, takes that “We Can’t” and turns it into a “O, yes, you can. You do have the resources. You do have the means. You do have the people. You do have the will. If you are really following me, you need to step out of the boat and live a risky, wind and wave-defying life like me. Don’t say you can’t because everything the resurrection tells you is that you can because God can. Why did you doubt?”

There’s a simple message in Peter’s story…a traditional one. In the midst of change and threat and fear and possible death, the constant for him was Jesus. When Peter could look to and trust in Jesus rather than listening to his fears and doubts, he could walk on water.

But there’s a more radical message. Peter wasn’t able to be truly web-footed, to truly feel at home on the water until he did something else. Don’t just keep your eyes on Jesus, walk beside him. Don’t trust the status quo because your natural home just might be outside the boat. Don’t be afraid of the change, afraid to confront the wind and waves how ever loud or frightening they may be. Because you just might discover that Jesus really is changing the world and inviting you to help and that’s far more miraculous than walking on water.

How many of you know that God is changing the world? How many of you know that you can participate in that if you put your faith into action? How many of you know that you can’t become a Christian by sitting in church any more than you can become a car by sitting in a garage? How many of you know that it takes practice and exercise of those spiritual muscles you’ve got in order to be a web-footed Christian? How many of you know that even if we are not trying to get alongside Jesus that Jesus is trying to get alongside us? How many of you know that there is within your heart a melody Jesus whispers sweet and low? Fear not, I am with you, peace, be still, in all of life’s ebb and flow? How many of you know that you do not have to be deadened by doubt…you don’t have to be paralyzed by fear…you don’t have to wonder if your salvation and the world’s salvation will come because it already has come? God has come in Jesus Christ. God is changing the world. God is waiting for us to get out of the boat!