This sermon was delivered to Holy Trinity in Ayr,
Ayrshire, Scotland on the 13th August 2017
(a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
1 Kings 19:9-18 Psalm 85:8-13 Romans 10:5-15 Matthew 14:22-33
Psalm 19:14: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.
1 Introduction
Good morning … today’s Gospel reading is very familiar to us all, so familiar in fact that it is one of the most iconic stories of Jesus outside of the crucifixion. … Almost everyone, whether race or religion has heard of this story, and so as always, to give you something new presents a challenge however … I believe I have that something … something different, but before I start I must state that I take these sermons very seriously, and I really worry about their accuracy and how they are received. …
Today’s sermon really pushes the boat out, if you excuse the pun … you may love it, you may hate it, you may disagree with me, … but I feel I have something worthy to pass on, something I hope will touch your hearts, something that may explain why things have went so wrong in our lives, so please bear with me until the end before you judge. As usual, I will be following scriptures throughout.
2 The scene
Today’s story occurred immediately after the miracle of the feeding the 5,000 … verse 21 says, “And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children” … that is a large crowd … and the disciples had just helped Jesus do that with only five loaves and two fishes … so we can conclude that the disciples were on a high … full of adrenaline and excitement … and we do not know how it ends because verse 22 go onto say, “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds”.
Now we are going to stop right here, do you notice anything wrong with this verse? … I will say it again, “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side”. … I didn’t see it at first either, but then I remembered that some of these disciples were hardened fishermen … they knew the sea and its moods, and they must have known a storm was brewing … so I have no doubt what-so-ever they would have said this to Jesus, however Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat”. The King James said, “Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship” … that is strong wording, and that is the crux of today’s sermon that Jesus did not ask them, he ordered them to get into the boat and then, he left them to their own devices.
3 Elijah had a similar experience.
Before continuing, let us dive into our Old Testament reading from where we heard Elijah in fear, say to the Lord, “… for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away”. … This verse is really a summary of the situation: … that a group of prophets, preaching the word of God, have been rejected and killed by the Israelites. … They were killed for undertaking God’s word, and now they seek Elijah. … No wonder he is afraid; … and for why? … He was only carrying out the Lord wishes, not and his own.
4 A Sudden Storm will erupt as just that; a sudden storm.
Let us take this a stage further, have you every decided to do something calmly and rationally, something you know to be right and true, … only to find that all of a sudden, you are in the middle of a disaster? … I have, and I do it regularly, and it worries the life out of me. …
So where then did this antagonism arise from? … Suddenly from nowhere a storm has developed in our lives, and is trying to destroy something honourable that we were trying to do. … John 6 verse 18 says, “And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew”, … does that sound familiar? … If it has, you will know that is not pleasant, in fact it can be frightening … and you end up saying … “Why is this happening to me”? … And the disciples must have thought the exact same thing that night … “why did Jesus send us out here … he knew there was a storm coming”? … Jesus has sent his devoted followers, his trusted men, the men who would carry out his mission after his death, into the most dreadful of storms ever on that sea? … Why, it makes no sense?
… Now the wind is usually a reference to the Holy Spirit, but we will ignore that for now, but sometimes a great wind develops in our lives from nowhere, and our human senses, everything we have been brought up to believe tell us straight away that this is bad, … turmoil and conflict is bad, and that peace and harmony is good. So if it is bad, then we somehow go into a program of self-destruct.
5 Walk by faith and not by sight.
Are we fundamentally wrong in thinking this way? … I would say no, but let us examine now our New Testament reading and we read in Romans 10 verse 5 “Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things shall live by them.” … But the righteousness that comes from faith says in your heart … who shall ascend into heaven” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)”.
This is basically saying that the law requires an actual and complete fulfilment, and it is based in our good deeds which are, labourious and impractical. … It is the exact opposite of the being made righteousness under the grace of the New Covenant which is based on faith. … However 2nd Corinthians 5:7 puts it much more simply, that “… we walk (or live) by faith, and not by sight”. … Ephesians 2:8 & 9 clarifies this further that, “… by grace are we saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: … … Not of works, lest any man should boast”.
And we all know that God wants us to walk in faith, … and we all know that it is easy to walk in faith when there are no waves, or storms, or no pain, or no loss, nor conflict … but that is not good enough, God needs to develop faith in us that will endure … he wants us to grow strong in faith; … and the only possible way that he can do that, is to teach us to weathering these storms that appear from nowhere in our lives. …
Now I am not saying for one second that we go out and look for such a storm, I am saying these storms will arise in our lives when we least expect, nor want them, because John 3 verse 8 tells us that “The wind blows where ever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from, and where it goes: … so it is with … everyone who is born of the Spirit”, and that is us, his believers.
That verse is telling us that it is not our fault that these storms arise, … and we must not take the disasters that we have had to endure in our lives as being our fault as many would lay blame … in fact these very disciples this morning were following the orders of Jesus, … Jesus ordered them into the boat against their own good judgement and common sense … and they carried out his wishes. … They had not upset him, rather they had probably pleased him, and so this dreadful storm was not a storm of judgment upon them as they were in the centre of his will.
And so from this we can clearly see that God will not shelter us from all turmoil and distress in our lives; … yes he will protect us, Hebrews 13 verse 5 even tells us very clearly that he will “Never leave us, never will he forsake us. … So that we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid” … but the Lord will use these storms in our lives to teach us to be calm and confident through the faith that he is developing in us. … Now I don’t like this any more than you do, but can you see, how we need to view these storms as something to embrace and overcome, rather than view them as something designed to defeat us. …
What I am trying to say is through these storms we are being developed into the likeness of God, or … developed according to how God wants us to be. … We are being designed by God to move us on unto victory his victory … but more so for the next world rather than this. … Now that is pretty strong stuff, because it puts our lives directly into context with his, … that God is developing us for when we meet with him … although, his faith certainly comes in handy in this life.
6 And I can prove this …
And I can prove this, think for a moment of all the problems you have had in your life … then think of the problems of your friends and colleagues; even your enemies have had. … Have their problems been as extreme or as strange as yours? … Have they been remotely similar to what you have experienced? … If you are like me, you will see that none of them have ever came close to what we have been against or have had to overcome … yet we know deep down, that we are richer and wiser because of them. …
And we can accept that, but it is the why, that bothers us … and I believe that the why is because we are growing in these storms, and that the Lord is taking us to an even higher spiritual level of involvement, in him. … A level where he is doing his best to exhaust our reliance on ourselves; … and teaching us to rely on Him.
6 Storms in my life changed me intensely.
Sometimes a storm will follow a great spiritual event just like these disciples had witnessed. … Many years ago, I was having great difficulties, and that is when I turned to Christ, and then I knew that everything in the bible was true, that Jesus was alive and that he was my Lord, and with this great revelation, I stupidly assumed that life for me would become much easier, because I knew that God was on my side. … I couldn’t have been further from the truth, and it wasn’t for many years to come that I realised that had my life become easier as had I wished … that my old self, the me who I was, that horrible person that who had failed, would have become worse … and my faith … the little I had of it … would have diminished rather than grown.
Now if you think I am bad now, you wanted to have seen what I was like before … I am so ashamed that I can never to go back to what I was, because I have become a different person. … All those old beliefs I had when I was young that were so wrong have long been discredited, because I have grown in faith … faith developed through those storms of life, and years of hardship, pain and confusion. … And so we read this morning about these disciples too, hardened fishermen, men used to the sea and all its temperaments … yet crying out to the Lord for their lives.
7 The waves are used as a highway.
Verse 24 says, “But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary” … and verse 25 goes on to tell us that it was not until the fourth watch of the night, (that is between 3:00 and 6:00 am), that Jesus finally “went unto them” … which tells us that Jesus purposely waited to allow the disciples … to come to the end of their own wits or tether, their own resourcefulness … before intervening. … That way they would recognise and be able to draw on power from a greater source and be able to survive. … And that is the same with us … that when we are at our worse: broken and helpless that we can call upon the power of the Lord, and his faithfulness to get us through. …
And I love the next bit, I really do, that Jesus used the mighty waves that were trying to destroy them, as a highway to walk upon. That those sudden storms that are supposed to destroy us … can be used to make us … and subject to our will. … I just love that part as I have seen it so many times.
And yet, Jesus often goes unnoticed when things are going well for us … we all give credit to good luck and to good choices and good skill and ability and judgement … but it is only when we run into something that we cannot handle, that we truly turn to the Lord … which … somehow suits him fine, as it provides Him an opportunity to demonstrate to us his superior power, through mercy and grace.
Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. … In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”. … This verse makes it abundantly clear that Jesus promises us that we will have tribulation that in this world, which we all know … and we are not exempt from it because we are children of God … however, and it’s a big however … we are being taught to be like him, in overcoming the world. … 2nd Timothy 3:12 says, “… All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution” … so to entertain the notion that we can escape the storms in life is not only unrealistic, it is contrary to scripture and will serve only to diminish our faith.
7. Certain people
I am going to finish right here, I have ran out time, maybe I will get a chance to finish this reading another day, but it is so important that I put all this into context before I go. … … Now, we all know certain people, people who never seem to have had a bad day in their lives, or so they like to tell us. … Everything goes well for them, they usually have plenty of money, and they just love to let us know about their glorious lives. … Well, had they been put in that very boat, what do you think would have happened? … I would suppose that they would probably have reached their destination in comfort … with a gentle breeze at their back? …
No harm to them, God bless them but there is nothing in them apart from themselves … they simply have not been tried nor tested … and so they boast in themselves because they cannot display that grace and humility … that understanding for others.
In fact 2nd Corinthians 10:12 tells us the exact opposite that “… we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise”.
I sincerely hope this sermon has calmed any bad thoughts of any disappointments you maybe harbouring, it did for me. … You know those thoughts we get when we are down and when we are alone. … Thoughts that say that we have failed … or that what we have achieve has been limited. … Thoughts where we all had such high hopes and excitement for the future, and what we were going to do or what we were going to become; … … and then, we look around ourselves and see how little our lives bear that resemblance to those childhood, or even adulthood dreams. … And then we all wonder why it all went wrong, or it went the way it did. …
The world certainly does not help us answer those questions either, because the world has its own views of what is success and what is failure. … Our enemies or those against us also have their views of what is successful, and they like to remind us of our failings, particularly when they encompass a level of shame. … And our friends and families too, have their own ideas of whether we have been successful or not … and of course, the worst critic of them all … the worst … is ourselves when we are not in denial … full of disappointment, “if only I had”, … “if only I had not … “, … “if only I was supported or encouraged …”, “if only …”, “if only …”.
What I am trying to say this morning is that none of this matters because as we age, and we read our bibles, we realise that our lives are a journey between ourselves and our Lord, and no one else. … A journey designed to develop our faith in a manner that he wants, … (he being the “Alpha and Omega” after all), … so that we can all say regardless of our own condemnation like Timothy, that we “have fought a good fight”, and that we “have finished our course, and” we “have kept the faith”. …
… It is not what the world sees as a success that is important when we come to meet the Lord … it will be as what he sees as important, as he knows everything we have been up against and put through. … So again, in light of eternity, who are we to judge? … We can only do what we have been asked to do … and allowed to do … by God himself. … I certainly hope this relieves any fears or misunderstandings of failure; let us pray.
Let us pray.
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he made it possible for us to live under your grace instead of law, where we depend on our own ability.
Father there are many things in our lives that we didn’t want to happen. There are many things that we wanted to do, many of which we thought would help you and your kingdom, yet they did not develop; … in fact many of them went so wrong for one reason or another.
Father, we are truly sorry, but we tried, and we cannot hide our disappointment, despite knowing that you are aware of our failings and our good intensions.
Yes Father we want to grow in faith and meet with you, but ease the pain a bit, give up more hope for the future, a future with you, … leaving behind a legacy where you and our loved ones can be honoured.
Father we ask in Jesus name, Amen
