The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” ( Mt 16: 21-28)

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I was preparing to do a communion service at a hospital once, and as I waited for the chronically ill patients to be brought in, I found myself standing next to a man immobile, in a wheelchair.

I knew him as a retired United church minister.

Although he wasn’t able to move, I could see from his face that he was bothered about something so I leaned over to hear him whisper, ” Now you won’t leave me out there not knowing what is going on, will you?”

I wondered what he meant at first, then I realized that the noise and bustle of preparing the service, people talking, the organist quietly practicing a hymn – all these sounds had taken him back to when he was a minister.

And the feeling of having to participate. And of being unprepared!

It is everyone’s worst nightmare isn’t it,.to be in front of people, to have to address them, and to be totally unprepared.

In a study that was taken, the top of the list of what people feared the most, was speaking in public. The second item on the list was a fear of dying.

So people would rather die than speak in public.

At that moment, this man, he must have been ninety if a day, and a stroke victim, was ready – albeit nervously – to serve his God, as he had for goodness knows how many years, if only he were prepared.

The phrase `faithful unto death,’ comes to mind, doesn’t it?

Jesus says in today’s Gospel that those who want to become his followers must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.

I imagine that old man had taken up his cross many, many years ago and never put it down.

You must deny yourself, Jesus also says.

To be a Christian means to deny what “we” want and do what “He” wants.

In my home town there was a woman doctor by the name of Dr. Skelly. She didn’t look like a doctor. She wore laddered nylons, and broken down shoes, and I imagine her car was older than she was.

Some people used to laugh at how she was, behind her back.

It turned out that Dr. Skelly only took out of her salary enough for the bare essentials. She gave the rest to those who had nothing. She didn’t care what people thought about her appearance.

That’s what it means to deny what “you” want, and do what “He” wants.

Then Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

When Matthew wrote this Gospel, the church was in the midst of a terrible persecution. Christians were being killed just for being Christians.

But you could save your life by renouncing Christ.

An eighty year old bishop of the church was told he was to be questioned the next day about his faith, and that if he didn’t deny Jesus, he would die.

His friends begged him to do as he was asked.

He said, ” In all these years I have known Jesus he has never let me down. I can’t let him down, now.”

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? It’s something that we have never had to face.

But there are pressures in this world to renounce Christ. Admittedly not as extreme as those.

We can’t get children into Sunday School because of hockey, baseball, skating, or whatever. People can’t make church because of having to work on Sundays. A late night on Saturday, means missing church next day. You can’t fill a Bible-study class because people are too busy.

Television, movies on video, computer games, even the internet – I read somewhere the other day that the biggest problem with the internet is that there is just too much material available – there’s not enough time in the day, the article said.

A million things compete for our time, and call us away from Christ.

We just don’t see it. Because it’s just natural to do what everyone else is doing, isn’t it?

Jesus faced temptation to do what the world expected.

You will remember that in the wilderness, Jesus was tempted by Satan to take the way of power. ” Give them bread ,” he said, “Give them, sensation. Give them wonders and they will follow you.”

Jump from the height of the temple. You will live, and imagine how people will turn to you after something like that.

“Compromise with the world, reduce your standards, and they will follow you.”

Jesus didn’t give in to temptation, of course.

But when Satan ended his efforts to tempt Jesus, there in the wilderness, Luke said,” He departed from Him until an opportune time.”

Satan would be back.

And there were opportune times. I imagine.

Like in the Garden of Gethsemane.

When Jesus was looking toward the cross.

Let’s face it, no-one wants a cross. No-one wants to die.

And now not too long before that Gethsemane moment Satan uses Peter to try to talk him out of doing what his Father asked him to do.

I don’t think Jesus said, “Get thee behind me Satan,” in anger, but rather in sorrow.

But Jesus could call Peter, `Satan’ because anything that deflects us from the way of God….. is Satan – the Adversary,

Anything that makes us turn back from the hard way that God has set before us…… is Satan.

Any power which seeks to put human desires in front of wanting to serve God….. is Satan.

Satan used Peter’s love of Jesus to try and turn him away.

Peter wanted to protect Jesus, as we all want to protect the ones we love.

I am sure that most of us with grown up children have tried in our love, to protect them from the world, even if they are old enough to go out and look after themselves.

Real love encourages us to fulfill our destiny. Not to protect us unnecessarily.

What really wounded Jesus’ heart and what made him speak as he did was that the tempter spoke to him through the fond… but mistaken love… of Peter’s impulsive heart.

Jesus was going to give up his life and Peter wanted to stop him.

Brooks Philips was a man, famous for many achievements who was even better-known for the help he extended to many people – he was always there, and had always been there – a phone call away – and he died an early death.

Someone said that he could have lived much longer except that he gave so much of himself to others. They asked why didn’t somebody stop him so he could have a longer life?

The response was, “Ah but he would not have been Brooks Philips then, would he?”

You might say that Brooks Philips had taken up a cross, and never put it down.

Jesus talked about taking up a cross didn’t he? He didn’t mean it literally, of course, it means to take up a life of sacrifice.

Joel Osteen, the current popular television evangelist doesn’t preach a life of sacrifice. He preaches a life of good things which come from following Jesus. A prosperity Gospel!

Follow Jesus and you will be prosperous and happy, and so on.

But according to Jesus himself, the Christian life is a life of sacrifice.

Anybody who has been a warden, a treasurer, a Sunday School teacher, a fund-raiser, a group leader, and so on, knows that.

You have often had to sacrifice a quiet hour by the fireside, or time with family to do what had to be done.

It’s a good job there have been, and are, real Christians like that, ready to sacrifice, or many a church would have been gone years ago.

It shouldn’t surprise us, that the Christian way is the way of sacrifice, should it? After all, we are called Christians because we follow Jesus…… we follow our leader.

Do you remember that game we played as children, called Follow the Leader? You had to do everything the leader did. Remember that game? There’s a grown up version, did you know?

I remember once, standing in line in the service club, when I was in the Air Force. I played a silly game of follow your leader.

A young lady, standing behind the counter was talking to a friend and waving her arms as she talked. I copied what she was doing. And my friends laughed, waiting to see what she would do when she saw me mimicking her.

Isn’t that annoying, when someone does that? Mimic you?

But she didn’t get angry ……… she just struck a very sexy pose, and I of course, red-faced, didn’t mimic that in front of my buddies.

The laugh was on me!

There’s no fear of being caught doing something that’s not right when we follow Jesus.

But being a Christian does call for us to follow a leader who sacrificed all. We know that don’t we?

Was it the opportunity to sacrifice that brought you to your church?

And what about those who don’t attend church? What would attract them?

Should we tell them that yours is a nice easy church and you can sit back and don’t have to do much. Just show up on Sundays and drop your envelope onto the plate. That would be the extent of your involvement.

Or should we say: It’s a church where you are expected to attend, and, as far as you can, to make an offering to support your church, but that in addition, you will be asked to help in a ton of other ways: teaching Sunday School, reading, carrying a chalice, providing coffee hour, serving around the altar, right through to helping clean up the grounds.

Oh, and not to mention providing a casserole when a family needs help.

Or to drive someone to the doctor’s office.

Because church is family, and everyone in a family helps, don’t they? It’s not much of a family where no-one helps.

I wonder which type of church would bring in more people? The one which doesn’t ask for that sort of commitment or the one that does?

I know what that old minister, in the wheelchair would say, if he could. Even at ninety years old.

I think he’d tell us that that the church which has expectations of its members is one that breeds commitment. And that commitment breeds growth.

So, pray with me, that we can follow Jesus in a life-long… and life-giving…. commitment. Sacrificing, and following, and resisting the temptation to take the easy way.

“For the Son of Man is coming in great glory and he will repay everyone for what has been done.”

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others,

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter,^[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^[b] will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^[c] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[d] loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. ( Mt. 16:13-20)

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Some missionaries in the Philippines set up a croquet game in their front yard. Several of their Agra Negrito neighbors became interested and wanted to join in the fun. The missionaries explained the game and started them out, each with a mallet and a ball.

As the game progressed, opportunity came for one of the players to take advantage of another by knocking that person’s ball out of the court. A missionary explained the procedure, but his advice only puzzled the Negrito friend. “Why would I want to knock his ball out of the court?” he asked. “So you will be the one to win,” the missionary said.

This short-statured man, clad only in a loin cloth, shook his head in bewilderment. In a hunting and gathering society, people survive, not by competing, but by sharing equally in every activity.

The game continued, but no one followed the missionaries’ advice. When a player successfully got through all the wickets, the game was not over for him. He went back and gave aid and advice to his fellows.

As the final player moved toward the last wicket, the affair was still very much a team effort. And finally when the last wicket was played, the ‘team’ shouted happily, “We won! We won!”

That’s how Paul tells us the church, the body of Christ should be.

A team. We all play and we all win together.

Paul’s favourite thought is of the church as a body. The members of the body neither argue with each other, nor envy each other, nor dispute with each other as to their relative importance.

Paul was sure that was what the church should be like. Each member has a task to do and it is only when each contributes  the help of her own task, that the body of the church functions as it should.

We are urged first to know ourselves, and our gift: to assess our capabilities honestly, without conceit or false modesty.

Then we are urged to use the gift that God has given us. 

Paul is saying that even if the contribution we can make is going to be unseen, without praise, and without glory, that we should still make it, and that without the offer of that gift, the world, and the church, can never be what they are meant to be.

Because whatever gift we have comes from God. And it comes for a purpose.

Paul  calls a gift from God charismata.

Some people have charisma.

You could practice playing the violin for a lifetime and yet would never be able to play like Yehudi Menuhin. He had more than practice going for him. He had something plus. Charisma  – a gift from God.

Similarly, you might toil for a  lifetime and still be hopeless in the use of wood and metal – like me, and yet, another person fashions wood or metal effortlessly. The tools become a part of the artisan. A gift from God. A charisma.

You might practice speaking for ever and a day, and never acquire the presence and the special something that makes people listen to you. A gifted speaker, on the other hand comes to the podium and soon has the audience in the palm of her hand.

Try writing.  You can try and put words onto paper and never get them right, whereas someone with the gift of words, can see his thoughts take place, flowing effortlessly from  mind  to  paper.

My thoughts flow effortlessly from mind to paper, or rather computer, then I need someone with gift of translation to correct all the typos.

Everyone has their own charisma. Their own gift from God.

It may be for writing sermons, for building houses, gardening, fashioning wood, working with figures, playing the piano, singing songs, teaching children, playing football, or golf.

And gifts are not given to be used solely in the church. They are given to be used in a wider context.

The gift of healing, for example.

A physician who has studied, and has found the balance between medicine as a science, and medicine as an art, is truly a healer.  Using that gift for healing, that charisma, to make the lives of people more bearable, is truly serving God.

At the other end of the scale, my mother was a relatively uneducated woman. She left school at age fourteen. She worked as a maid for the local vicar.  

Later, as a married woman, with four children, she didn’t have much time to develop whatever gifts she might have had.  But there was one gift she had in abundance. Compassion.

I remember her going to the homes of two elderly members of our church and getting down on her hands and knees, and  cleaning their homes.  Regularly. And no thought of being paid.

No-one at the church knew what  she did.

It was what she could do, and her use of that gift – of compassion for others – was just as important in God’s scheme for the world, as the use of the gift of healing by the physician.  And it had nothing to do with the church.

All of us are gifted by God, and He expects us to use our gift.  Because in using our gifts we are acting as members of the body of Christ.

Imagine if Jesus were here now.

Wouldn’t he be healing people?

Wouldn’t he be helping the old and infirm? 

Wouldn’t he be teaching? 

Wouldn’t he be feeding people? 

Wouldn’t he be teaching us how to forgive?

If he were working in a company, wouldn’t he be trying to make sure that the business of that company was done honestly?

If he were working in a job that involved meeting people, and handling their complaints, then wouldn’t he be loving and understanding?

Of course he would, if he were here.

But he is not here.

He is not here in body.

He is here in Spirit. And he is here in the gifts that we have.

So doesn’t it make sense for us,  in whatever job we have, or in whatever way we live, or in however we work for our church, or in whatever we do, to act like him? To be his body here in the world?

And being members of his body here in this world, each doing what we are gifted with, and called to do, we don’t fight with each other, or expect to be placed higher than another, or envy what others do.

It’s kind of like – it is like – being on a team.

Isn’t it?

You know we don’t always act as if we are on a team – at least not as if we are on the same team.

There is sometimes dissent. There is sometimes disagreement. There is rivalry. Because we are human. And we haven’t all reached a state of perfection.

But you, know, the church at large will never be a church that effectively reaches out to those who are lost, if we shoot our wounded, and enter into big battles about small things.

Instead of becoming fishers of men, we are, as often as not, keepers of a shrinking aquarium.

Next Fall, when you see geese heading south for the Winter, flying along in a ‘V’ formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in ‘V’ formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater  flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

Christians who  share a common direction, and a sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they travel with the  shared strength of each other.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of those immediately in front.

When the lead goose gets tired, he or she rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

It pays to take turns doing hard jobs with people in church, just as it does for geese flying South.

The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

What does it mean when we hear honking from behind?  

Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by a shot, and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with the wounded goose until it is either well enough to fly, or it dies.   And then they launch out on their own, or join another formation going in the right direction.

If people outside knew that we would stand by them like that in church, they would be pushing these walls down to get in.

You see, all we have to do to attract those who are missing out, is to demonstrate to the world that here at church, we have as much sense  – as geese!

That seems a small enough price to pay to win the lost and minister to each other.

Even a goose knows it makes sense to work as a team.

Amen.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:
 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.
For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” (Matthew 15: 10-20.)

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A priest visited another church during his vacation, and was impressed that at the very beginning of the service everyone turned around in their seats and greeted other worshippers seated nearby.   He liked this. And thinking about it, he decided that his own church was a bit stuffy, and that he would introduce the practice there.

The first Sunday he was back, he told the congregation that the following Sunday they were going to initiate this custom.

At the close of the service, a man turned around to the lady behind him and said, Good Morning.”  She looked at him with shock at his boldness, and said, “I beg your pardon!  That friendliness business doesn’t start until next Sunday!”

Now next week she was going to be real friendly, as her priest requested, and no-one – except the unlucky fellow who had started too soon, would know the difference.

This woman from next week on, would greet someone sitting nearby with a lovely smile, and a cheery good morning, but in her heart of hearts wasn’t nearly so friendly as she would appear to be.

In fact in her heart she could be just poison.

Jesus in his discourse in today’s Gospel is making a point about the same stuff – what’s on the surface, as good as it may seem, isn’t nearly as important as what’s in the heart.

The example he chose to make this point was the food laws. And he held up to ridicule, Pharisees because of their devotion to the food laws.

In the statement he makes  – “The food that you put into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.” – this statement attacks the way then Pharisees parade their righteousness, and cancels all the food laws in the Old Testament.

Some of the  laws could still be valid in terms  of health and hygiene, and common-sense and medical wisdom,  but they could never again be valid as part of religion.

No wonder the Scribes and Pharisees were shocked. He was undermining their whole theological rationale, the whole way in which they lived their lives.

They identified pleasing God with the observing of rules and regulations which had to do with cleanness and with uncleanness, with what a person ate and with how they washed their hands before they ate. Jesus tells them these rules have nothing to do with religion.

In fact he says, that Pharisees and the people who followed them were like the blind leading the blind and they could expect to fall into a ditch.

Their way – the way of the Pharisees – was too easy. It was much easier to refrain from eating certain foods, and to remember to wash their hands before meals, than it was to love the unlovable, and to help the needy at the cost of one’s own time and money and comfort.

For us, the lesson is that  coming  to church, and giving liberally, and attending Bible study, are all essential as a path toward religion. But they are not religion.  Religion consists in personal relationships and in our attitude toward God and our neighbour.

Like you don’t want to confuse the externals with the internals.

There are lots of people who have faultless lives – externally – but whose hearts are filled with evil thoughts.

Jesus was telling his listeners that all the observances in the world cannot make up for a heart that is dominated by pride and bitterness.

We can all put up a good front, but there has to be substance behind it.

I am reminded of the story of two Texans who were trying to impress each other with the size of their ranches.

One asked the other, “What’s  the name of  your ranch?”

The other replied, “The Rockin R, ABC, Flying W, Circle C, Staple Four, Rolling M,  Rainbow’s End, Silver Spur Ranch.”

The other guy was really impressed with this, and said, “Wow, that’s sure some name. How many head of cattle do you run?”

The rancher answered, “Well, not too many. Very few survive the branding.”

Putting up a good front is alright, but if there is nothing real behind it, then you might as well give up trying.

It is clear from what Jesus is saying that what matters most in our relationship with God is what is in our hearts.

What matters to God isn’t what we do so much as why we do it.

Thomas Aquinas explained it this way, “Man sees the deed, but God sees the intention.”

Here’s the scary thing.  We can’t declare ourselves good because of the external things we do – obeying the rules – careful about regulations – making sure that we look right – look good to everyone – we can only call ourselves good when our heart is pure.

That’s the end of all pride, isn’t it?

That’s why God has to live in our hearts.   

It means being vigilant about the attitudes of this world, and the demands of living in a consumer society, and the effects of less than wholesome media messages that are aimed at us daily.

It means knowing that there are influences in society that gradually and insidiously work to lessen our awareness of what is evil.

It means being aware of being under attack by the dark forces of this world.

You know, I don’t think we are alert to how much things around us gradually erode our sense of what is right and what is wrong.

I don’t think that most of us are aware of how our mind-sets may have changed. We don’t know how much we have absorbed of this world’s foolish ways. How much do we tolerate now compared with some years ago?  And is that right?

The way to know this is to examine your heart, your beliefs, the way you are in the world,  and ask, “ Is the way I am, OK with Jesus?”

“If  I were to face  Jesus right now, would I be comfortable with who I am?”

Is  there room in my life for Jesus?

Because if  I allow things in my heart, and in my life that I just can’t reconcile  with following Jesus; – even if no-one else knows about them – then just maybe I have allowed those things to crowd God out.

It is infinitely easier to obey a few rules than to make drastic changes in the way my heart works.

It is easier to go through the motions,  than to actually open myself fully to God’s will.

It is easier to look good than to be good.

That’s why each and every one of us can say only, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

It’s when we make that plea that false pride falls away, and our heart can be emptied of all that distracts us from knowing God.

It’s when we can begin to be humble, and genuine, and have room in our hearts only for God.

There is a time in the marriage service when rings are exchanged.  First the husband, places the ring on his bride’s finger, and says these words, and then the wife places a ring on her husband’s finger and says the same words, “ With all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you in the name of God.”

That is a holy moment. It is when the couple give themselves wholeheartedly to each other. 

With all that I am and all that I have.    Those are beautiful words aren’t they? 

That’s how we need to come to our Lord.  With a heart and a life completely open to his will.

“Lord Jesus, with all that I am and all that I have, I come to you, a poor sinner, and accept your gracious love. Live in me and make me wholly yours,”

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:22-33)

Someone who knows me well, said to me, “You have had one heck of a year, haven’t you?” And I thought about it, and I realized that yep, it hasn’t been an easy year for me.

In fact it hasn’t been an easy four years.

Now I am not looking for sympathy. I know that for some of you this has not been an easy year either. In fact I know some people who can’t remember the last time they had an easy year.   It’s the way things are, isn’t it?

Life has its ups and downs. Life has a way of catching you when you are feeling good and bringing you face to face with something bad.

It was like that for the disciples. They had just been with Jesus as he preached to thousands of people.   They had heard his words, and seen his face, and must have been  excited just being with him, seeing how the crowd reacted.

It must have been really uplifting, and inspiring, and made them feel sure about the man they had chosen to follow.  

Not only that, but they had been part of the action, so to speak – when he had fed over five thousand people with the contents of one lunch box. They had seen how God worked in this man Jesus to do things that seemed impossible.

Anybody normal would have been flying high, don’t you think?

Then Jesus commanded them to take the boat and to start back across the lake.

Jesus may have done this because the crowd was in a mood to forcibly make him a king, and he didn’t want this, and the disciples, not yet realizing his true nature, and goals, might have helped the crowd.

So he sent them on ahead and he climbed up the mountain to be alone to pray.

So they took the boat, and set sail for the other shore.

Fine.

But as is known to happen with that lake, the wind suddenly comes up  and  the sky darkens, and  they are in the midst of a storm, and  can’t control the boat, and are dead scared.

They go from being confident and excited, to helpless and frightened in just a few minutes.

You know, those who sail will tell you that sailing is ninety per cent boredom, and ten per cent sheer terror.

And these guys were experiencing terror!

Maybe from where Jesus  was, on high ground, he saw the disciples in that little boat,  and he went to help them.

But at first, when they saw him, instead of being reassured, they were even more frightened, thinking they had seen a ghost.

But Jesus did eventually calm them down, and then, after he got into the boat with them, the storm subsided.

Even though they were doing what Jesus had told them to do – and surely he wouldn’t put them in danger – they panicked.

They had seen his awesome power, been there when a marvelous miracle had been performed, and they still panicked when that storm had hit.  Their faith had dribbled away.

When you are trying to live your life right, living it according to the way you think Christ would have you live it, you don’t expect to have to deal with storms, do you? 

But storms come up in life, just as unpredictably as they did on that sea of Galilee.

Storms hit us hard sometimes.

All of a sudden, the settled life we are enjoying is shattered – shattered – in such a way that it seems that life will never be the same again.

Why? If we have been living right?

Well…..the weather changes because we live in a dynamic environment.  Winds, high and low pressure ridges, humidity, pollution, all play their part. We understand that is why storms come along.

Life is dynamic too! Events, other people, economic change, normal bodily wear and tear,  the time of the year, the job, the family, – you name it – all contribute to our life environment, as it were, and contribute to the storms that hit us.  

It seems like our little ship of life is close to sinking sometimes.

Even if we have been doing what we think God wants us to do.  

Like if I am living my life right, how come things go wrong?  Eh?

It doesn’t sound right, does it?

But you know, Jesus was right there for his disciples in that storm. No sooner had a need arisen than he was by their side. To help and save.

When we are up against it; when life is a desperate struggle, with ourselves, with our circumstances, with our temptations, our sins and our weaknesses, and our decisions,   Jesus is there with a hand outstretched to save, and with his calm clear voice, bids us to take heart and have no fear.

And we realise that we have been drifting without him. We have forgotten his promise to be with us to the end of the age. We have been trying to do it alone.

And as we have just drifted along, and our faith has dribbled away.

And then sometimes our problem has a different complexion. 

Maybe we weren’t just drifting. Maybe we took some risk, stepped out, reached for something that would normally be beyond our grasp – with confidence, and with a sure sense that we could make it – just to find that confidence dribble away at the first sign of trouble, and panic set in.

That’s what happened with Peter, isn’t it?

The endearing thing about Peter was his eagerness, his brashness, his adventurousness.

But sometimes he was too eager. Sometimes he jumped in without having really thought things out.

You know what I mean. I have done that. I am sure most of you have, too.

Like you leave one job for another, without having checked out the new company well enough, and within a week of being  there, you regret it. 

Or you decide you can afford to redo the bathroom and go ahead, and it costs twice as much as you thought, and when you look into it more closely, you realise you missed out just one or two big items.

How are you going to pay for it all?

Or you take a chance in a relationship, allow it to develop just a bit faster than you should, and finish up getting hurt.  How is your heart ever going to heal?

Or in a moment of rashness, you get involved in something not quite on the up and up,  and have a hard time getting out of it.

So here is Peter.  He jumps into the lake and begins walking toward Jesus.

On the water!

His faith is such that he can do it  ………. but wait a minute……… he looks down, and sees the waves, and realizes it is just too stupid to be real, and he has no life-jacket, and he starts to go under. 

The rock, as Jesus called him, has become  a lead sinker.

But Peter,  no matter how brash, how confident – no matter how often he leapt in without thinking –  knew who his Saviour was. And he reached out for Jesus.

And was saved.

Isn’t that what is needed in life?

Isn’t that what we need in our lives? Someone who knows as soon as we  are in trouble and is there to help. Just as Jesus was there for the disciples? 

Isn’t that what we need? 

Someone who, when we lose confidence in ourselves, and come a cropper, is there to help us up  – without judging us, without condemning us?

Someone who understands?

Someone who has been there?

You know we are not supposed to succeed the first time in everything we do.

I have had my eyes opened over the past years as I have seen my grandchildren going from holding their head up for the first time, to taking their first steps. From gurgling as babies, to trying to put sentences together.

The thing that’s astonishes me is how many times they try a thing,  before they actually make it.

I am amazed that any child gets to be three years old when you consider how many times they fall down, or   when they get under the table, stand up and bang their head.  Again and again.

Until they learn.

Nothing comes without travail. No success ever came without failure on the way.

But just as a parent understands that when a child is trying to walk,  that child needs comforting when she falls, and encouraging to try again, Jesus understands that we need encouraging in our walk in faith, and he is ready to reach out a hand to pick us up, and is there to encourage us when we have fallen just too many times.

I challenge anyone who has had great trauma, and has made themselves open to the love that God sends, to tell me that they were left alone.

There is no ‘alone’ when you follow Jesus.

You don’t see a big hand coming through the ceiling to grab you and stand you up, or pat you on the head.

But you will find someone at your door with a casserole; you will find uplifting messages on cards, in your mailbox, and you will feel the love of God as people help you to get on your feet again.

Where does this come from?        What do we have to do to deserve this?

How do we get this great and wonderful love that surrounds us and delivers us?

Paul tells the Romans, You don’t have to go to heaven to find Jesus, nor down into the depths. You don’t have to live strictly according to the law, because it’s not possible to live that rigidly.

All you have to do, is say, ‘Jesus is Lord’. And believe that God raised him from the dead.

In other words, all you have to do is accept the love he has offered so graciously in Jesus.

And take a hold of that outstretched hand.

Grab it!

Grab life!

And live!  

Amen.