One day a man went out walking in the woods. He really wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around him or to where he was. He was just walking aimlessly through the forest. As he walked he came to the edge of a sharp cliff. Like I said, he wasn’t paying much attention to where he was going and he walked off the edge. Now, if you ever watched any of those Saturday morning cartoons where Bugs Bunny or some other such creature walks out onto the air and sees where he is and turns around and walks back, that’s a lie! There isn’t anything out there but down, as our hiker found out. He went down. But, to his surprise, much like some of the old Saturday morning cartoons, there was a big branch sticking out on the side of the cliff. Some how, he managed, as he was falling, to stick a hand out and grab that branch. It must have been a really funny sight; this guy was just hanging there from his branch. He realized that he was in a real bad bind and wouldn’t be able to hang onto the branch indefinitely. He started to yell, “Help! Is anybody out there?” Soon a soft voice from the sky answered him, “Yes, I am here.” The hiker says, “Who are you?” The voice says, “I am God.” The hiker then asks, “Can you help me?” God says, “Yes, I can help you. Let go of the branch.” The hiker hangs there for another minute and then yells, “Help, is there anybody else out there.”
It sounds funny, but that story is far more like us than we care to think. Far too often we are more focused on what we want, or what we think is best than to listen to what God is saying to us and doing what God asks us to do. We spend more time worrying about how things look than about how things are. Way too much of the time we only go through the motions, we really don’t respond out of our faith.
The disciples were on a small boat out in the middle of a lake or a sea or whatever, depending on the translation you read from. The weather started getting rough. I don’t know how many of you have ever been out on the water when the weather turned bad, but it is a frightening experience. I have a hard time imagining how frightening things must have been on that fishing boat.
As the disciples were bouncing around suddenly they see something that their minds know to be impossible, even in good weather. A man was walking toward them on the water. If you are already a bit scared because of the rough seas and now you see this? The disciples knew that they had to be either dreaming or seeing things, or this was something beyond the natural laws of the world around them. That little bit of knowledge would be enough to scare most any of us.
Then Jesus tells them not to be afraid. That statement probably came at least a minute or two too late.
Somehow, Peter, however, even from his fear, manages to say, “Lord, if it is really you, call me out to you on the water.” Jesus then tells him to come and Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water toward Jesus.
That is our first lesson for this morning. It is also the title for the message today, “Get out of the boat.” For our purposes this morning, this is the boat.
Many church buildings, ours included, are shaped like an upside down boat. You might even here it called the “Nave” at times, the Latin word from which we get our word Navy.
We live in a stormy world. The church offers us a bit of refuge from the tossing and bouncing of the world. But, we can’t stay in the boat forever. I think all of us understand that. Sooner or later this message is going to come to an end and we will move on to the conclusion of the service, which will probably make most everybody happy, and we will then go out into that stormy world. By the way, by stormy I don’t mean literally. It is a spiritually stormy world.
But all too often we don’t step out and walk on the water. Instead, we go swimming. We do real well at church. We walk in here on Sunday morning and we walk to our favorite place to sit and pick-up our faith and put it on like it is some kid of life jacket and as long as we are here we wear it. Then, when the last amen is said and we get ready to go home we take that faith off and set it down on the pew and leave. We wear it on Sunday, while we are sitting in the boat, but when we try and walk on the stormy waters for the rest of the week, our faith isn’t a real part of our lives. So we get out of the boat and instead of walking on the water, we either try to swim or we hang onto the side of the boat.
Our faith isn’t alive or real. Our lack of faith doesn’t allow us to step beyond where things are safe and easy and comfortable to do the work that God calls us to do. We cannot manage to step out in fait and walk on the water the way that God calls us.
Once a man was hunting. As he was walking down a dirt road, he heard a ruckus in the woods. That was a bit puzzling but not really unusual. The man stopped for a second. He saw a jackrabbit run from the woods. It ran straight for the hunter and stopped between his feet. That was a very unusual thing to happen. Wild rabbits just don’t do things like that. He wondered why, but he didn’t have to wait for very long to see the answer. Coming from the woods next was a badger. The rabbit and the badger had been involved in a life and death struggle. That struggle had caused the rabbit to do something that under ordinary circumstances it never would have done. It trusted the hunter. That trust was well founded. The hunter took his gun and shot into the ground in front of the rabbit and the badger turned and ran into the woods. The rabbit sat there for a few seconds longer and then it hopped off into the woods, in a different direction from the badger.
We each need to have that kind of faith in God, faith that allows us to let go of the branch and to trust God in ways that perhaps we haven’t trusted God before. We need a faith that lets us do things that years or months or days or even moments ago, we would never have imagined ourselves doing. We need a faith that allows us to share and to live, even in the most difficult and frightening of situations. How do we get to that kind of faith?
Peter shows us in our lesson. He kept his focus on Jesus. Things in life may not be easy. They may be down right hard. We may be in things and positions that we would never have imagined ourselves in. The ride that God takes us on can be unpredictable at best. But, if we keep our focus on the cross and on the one who died for us, we can accomplish whatever God calls us to do.
In the November 1997 of the Upper Room Ann Spier wrote that on a particular Sunday her body was in church but her mind was not. After four years of her daughter’s being treated by psychiatrists, therapists, and psychologists and five days in a hospital for the mentally ill, she, her husband, and her daughter, had finally accepted the fact that she had schizophrenia. The daughter was a junior in college and a good student. She had begun having problems when she was 20. Now she and her husband realized that they would have to care for their daughter for the rest of their lives. Suddenly she became aware that the preacher was preaching about Peter walking on the water to Jesus and how as long as he kept his eye on Jesus everything worked. Everything was OK. In a moment of crystal clarity she realized that she too needed to keep her eyes on Jesus. So do we.
Unfortunately, for us and for other good Christian folk like us and like Ann Spier, things happen in life. We can have the best of intentions for keeping our faith strong. We can want to keep our focus, we can will our focus to stay on Christ, but even the best of us will be distracted sometimes. Look at Peter. I really don’t think that Peter got out of the boat looking at Jesus and yet thinking to himself that as soon as I get out of the boat I am going to look away. But that is what happened. He was looking at the Lord one minute and he felt the waves beating at his feet and the wind whipping around him the next. Those simple distractions, in the middle of a not so simple situation, got Peter’s attention and caused him to look away from Jesus.
The same kinds if things can happen to us. We can be going along just fine. We can be doing what God wants us to do, we can be focused on Jesus and then something happens and we look away. It is in these situations too that we can learn from Peter’s experience in our lesson for the morning. When Peter looked away, he started to sink. Then he cried out to Jesus, “Master, save me.” And, that is just exactly what Jesus did. Jesus reached out his hand to save Peter.
Even when we are doing the work of God we can be distracted. Maybe I should say that especially when we are doing the work of God we can be distracted. We can feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that is before us. There always seems to be so much work to do and so little time to get it done. That happens to just about all of us and we start to lose our focus on the big picture because we are distracted by the storm of details and we have quit focusing on God.
I read a book a few years ago for a seminar that the United Methodist Church requires of its seminary graduates. The book was not spiritual in any way. It is titled, The Ten Natural Laws for Time and Life Management or something like that. A Christian man named Hyram Smith wrote the book. In it he talks about writing out a personal mission statement or personal values. These are personal things that matter most to us. From that personal statement we are to plan our goals and daily tasks so that we get done the things that matter the most and letting the rest take care of itself. Now, I understand that at least to some degree that sounds a bit naïve, but that is because you probably haven’t read the book. I truly believe that if we place Christ and the things of God first that will help us to maintain our focus. Then when we do lose our focus and we cry out to God for help, God can use those same things to help us find ourselves and our focus once again. When we feel ourselves sinking, if we cry out to God, God will save us.
I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore.
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more.
But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry.
From the waters lifted me now safe am I.
Love lifted me.
All my heart to him I give, ever to Him I’ll cling.
In His blessed presence live,
Ever His praises sin.
Love so mighty and so true merits my soul’s best song
Faithful loving service too, to Him belongs.
Love lifted me.
Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves.
He will lift you by his love out of the angry waves.
He’s the master of the sea, billows His will obey.
He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.
Love lifted me.
Friends, we need to get out of the boat. We are called to go out into a stormy world in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Service of God the Father. It is a call that we can do. It is a call that we can live. But, in order to live out our call we have to get out of the boat. Once we are out, we need to keep our focus on the one who calls us out of our comfort zones. We have to step out into the world in the faith of Jesus Christ, keeping our focus on Him. And, we have to remember that when the distractions come, and they will, when we feel our faith waiver, and sometimes it might, to cry out to Him. He will always answer.
So, I say to you, Get out of the boat.
