23-10-2011 Marshland St James
Sermon: If you want to walk on water, you better get out of the boat!
Let us open in prayer
Father, I pray that you will anoint my words this evening that they may be words for each of us from you. I ask what I say may be relevant in our Christian lives. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
As some of you will know Maddy and I moved from Leicestershire a year ago, where I had been running 16 churches.
Story: As we were taking the bedroom apart, I was surprised to find a small basket underneath our bed with three eggs and £1000.
I was a bit puzzled and so I called Maddy and asked her what this was all about.
She said: “Well I have to be honest with you. Every time you preached a bad sermon, I put an egg in the basket.”
I thought – well three bad sermons in 3 years – not bad going.
But I was still puzzled – “Well, what is the £1000 about”
She replied, as all vicar’s wives always do : “Every time I got a dozen, I sold them”.
I hope this evening won’t be an egg sermon!!
1. Introduction:
I would like to focus on two particular verses from our Gospel reading today.
They occur in the middle of the story of Jesus walking on the water.
The disciples have run into a storm on the middle of the Lake of Galilee – and Jesus comes out to them – walking of the water.
Peter sees Jesus and asks him if he can come out join him.
And Jesus replies: “Come”
Then Peter got out of the boat, walked on water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink.” (Mt 14:29-30)
When people preach on this passage they almost always seem to focus on Peter’s lack of faith.
But I want to talk about Peter’s faith because I think Peter gets a bad press on this.
I’d like to look on Peter’s actions in a more positive light.
I know of ONLY two people who have walked on water – and one of them was Peter.
PETER WAS PREPARED TO GET OUT OF THE BOAT AND WALK ON WATER.
2. Peter’s Experience of Walking on the Water
When I think about it - what amazes me was that Peter had faith to get out of the boat IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
Having been on the Lake of Galilee in a squall, I know I would not have wanted to get out the boat in a gale.
I know I wouldn’t have the guts – but Peter did.
NONE of the other disciples joined Peter on the Lake!
3. Are we prepared to get out of the boat?
The question I would like to ask today is:
If Jesus called you to walk on water in the storm, would you be prepared to get out of the boat.
Now for the Anglicans here – that’s what I call Apostolic Succession!!!!
John Ortberg wrote a book with the wonderfully intriguing title:
“If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat”
Story: On 28th August 1963, Martin Luther King gave his famous speech “I have a dream” at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
Who then would have dared to dream that 50 years later we would have had an African American President.
Yet Martin Luther King’s dream, I believe, had much to do with Barak Obama becoming the 44th President of the United States.
We need people who are willing to swim countercurrent to the popular mood, when inspired by God.
We need those who dream of God’s Kingdom coming here on earth.
Quote: It was the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who wrote:
"If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away. "
Who is the drummer that WE are listening to?
Dreaming dreams is quite biblical actually
God often gave new directions as a result of dreams in the Bible.
1. Jacob
Jacob had a dream after he has conned his older brother Esau out of his birthright and his blessing. He was on the run from Beersheba and is fleeing for his life towards Haran when he encounters God at Bethel (Gen. 28:10-22).
He is alone, travelling towards his mother’s relatives. But he has to stop to sleep, as it was sunset and he was exhausted.
In this condition, he is a good candidate for an intrusion from beyond.
It is at Bethel that he dreams of angels coming and going, messengers and promise-makers.
He hears God’s voice of promise.
The God who is rooted in his family promises Jacob an inheritance.
This odd holy voice of the night also promises to be with this fugitive and to bring him safely home.
2. Pharoah
The next dream is the one that Pharoah, the mighty king of Egypt had: a dream that troubled him (Gen. 41:14-24).
Who would have thought that this powerful king would be so vulnerable?
His dream involves a confusing scenario featuring cows and shocks of grain.
He has no clue to the meaning of the dream.
After Pharaoh’s magicians and wise men, his "intelligence community," fail him, he summons an outsider, an Israelite, someone with no credentials at all
As we know Joseph tells Pharaoh the meaning of his dream: there will soon come a time when the empire will be destabilized.
Truth in the night is spoken to the one who has power in the daylight.
3. The Magi
Perhaps the best-known biblical dream appears at the conclusion of the visit by the Magi to Jesus and his parents:
St Matthew records that "having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road" (Matt. 2:12).
Jesus life is threatened by Herod’s power and so in order to secure a future for the child, the voice of the Holy One intervenes in the night when the royal menace is at rest.
4. Acts 2
We read in Acts 2 (based on Joel 2:28) that dreaming dreams is part of the Christian community
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
And it is to this passage that St Peter alludes when explaining the Acts 2 phenomenon.
Can you imagine if Barry preached such a powerful sermon next Sunday that 3000 people decided to become Christians as on the Day of Pentecost.
What would you do? Where would you meet
We couldn’t help you – since we no longer have a Church in Marshland St James!!
Could you handle it?
The Church needs people who will dream dreams.
Today, we live at a crossroads in our society
It seems that a storm has broken out on our little lake and the waves seem to be lapping up all around us.
We see waves such as
- The problem of maintaining buildings (and in our case listed Medieval buildings
- Financial problems (we call this paying the quota)
- Aging congregations
- Falling numbers in church
Yet, in our Gospel today, it was the very waves that caused Peter to look to Jesus and to ask Jesus if he could come to him on the water.
I think it is these very concerns that should cause us to turn to Jesus for advice as to what to do next.
Story: English Charismatic Fellowship
In 1989, I was involved in grounding the English Charismatic Church in Basle, that still continues to work among the refugees in Basle today.
We would regularly have more Muslims and Hindus in church than Christians.
When I first shared my visions with my Christian friends all of them refused to believe it was from God. Indeed a number stopped being friends with us.
However I shared my vision with one Swiss Reformed pastor Johannes Czwalina, who ran the Alban Arbeit, a church of about 1000 people that met in the Elizabethenkirche in Basle.
Johannes asked me to come his church, sing an English song “El Shaddai” and share my vision.
At the end of the service a young man came up to me and said: “God has given me these three verses for you” – and stuck a post it on my guitar.
The first verse was Isaiah 43:19 which reads:
“Behold I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up – do you not perceive it. I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland”
The second verse was John 4:38 which reads
I sent you out to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard labour and you have reaped the benefits of their labour”
The final verse was Ex 14:14: I will fight for you when you are silent.
We didn’t get everything right – we made mistakes – but we saw people become Christians.
Nothing is more exciting than baptising a young African by full immersion once he has come to faith
If I had listened to the advice of my Christians friends, I would never have got out of the boat.
And the fellowship would never have got off the ground
Peter got out of the boat – the other eleven didn’t.
When God calls he can turn our fears into mission in our communities
We need to stop looking at the waves and start to look at God instead
What is he saying to us>?
Martin Luther King had a dream that black and white would work together.
Do you have a dream of Methodists and Anglicans working together to extend the kingdom of God on the Fens.
I do – and I intend to work on it if I can
Conclusion
When we look at the waves crashing around our churches – both Anglican and Methodist - how are we going to respond?
Are we going to go on manning the pumps to try to keep our comfortable boat afloat
Or are we – when Christ calls us to get out of our boat – going to walk to him on water?
Do we follow in the footsteps of the great apostle St. Peter – or do we remain, like the other eleven in the boat bailing the boat out.
Because we will only do great things for God when we get out of the security of the BOAT.
God doesn’t just call the Good and the Great in the Church to get out of the boat and join him on the water.
It shows us two things
1. the power of prayer and
2. that God’s Will will be done in this place.
Jesus calls you and me too! And sometimes it feels as if we are walking on water.
You don’t have to be anyone special for Jesus to call you to come out of the boat.
God is calling his church to change, especially the rural church.
If we are going to be effective witnesses to Christ, we need to stop looking at the waves as obstacles and see them instead as a call to get out of the boat - as an opportunity for mission. Amen
