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.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

 “Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Mt. 14: 13-21)

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One day my dad came home from work, tired and hungry, after a shift underground in the coal mine, to find no dinner waiting for him. My mother was in tears. A man had come to the door, ragged, and unkempt, and she took such pity on him that she gave him my dad’s dinner.

Now you might think that there would be enough food for more than one person anyway, but this was wartime, when food was rationed, and ours was a poor family, where meat and potatoes, and veggies, and Yorkshire pudding came along very rarely.

Food is important.

One of the ways that people hereabouts show how much they care when tragedy strikes, is to bring food.

It’s a fact that food, eating, sharing bread, have quite a meaning to us all, even though we would say that we were merely being neighborly.

In Jesus’s day, in a strictly hierarchical society, who was invited for a meal, and what was served, and where people sat, indicated much about the host and the guests.

Higher ranking guests would be seated near the host.   If the host were reasonably well off, he would have servants whose job was to keep guests fed, and those guests, spared from having to get their own food would recline on couches during the meal.

Higher ranking guests would also get the better food, while guests who were rated as lesser mortals would be served not such choice food.

Imagine if you were to give a dinner party with rules like that. The local mayor, reclining on your right  hand would be served the very best lean meat, while others might be lucky to get a piece of that fatty stuff – the stuff which is so hard to chew.

And if you don’t think a system like that is fair, then how would you feel about poor people paying taxes, and the rich paying nothing? Because that’s how it was in the Roman Empire.

Jesus’ ministry quite deliberately included eating with all classes of people, and using those occasions to bring lessons on equality to the host and guests alike.

You will remember hearing the Pharisee’s asking the disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax gatherers and sinners?”

You will remember Jesus telling assembled guests that they should not take the best place at a feast, but take a lowly place. Taking a higher place and then being asked to move to a lower, would be embarrassing to say the least.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man who invited many guests to a feast and was turned down by many of them, so he sent his servants out along the highways and byways to bring in any who were hungry.

Eating, dining together, breaking bread together was an occasion where Jesus could highlight class differences, and their unfairness, in his ministry of bringing God’s kingdom to bear, here on earth.

At the table, he could point out how people are hurt, rejected, used and manipulated by those who know  no God except their own appetites.

On the other hand, the table, was also where equality could be shown. The table was where those who had could share with those who hadn’t.

The table was where friends could get together and enjoy each other’s company.

The table was where people interacted with each other.

Things haven’t changed too much, have they?

We ‘ do lunch.’  A lot of business gets done over lunch.

We invite friends over for dinner, or to barbecue, to drink, and laugh together.

Politicians use dinners as a prime way to raise funds.  You might pay as much as a thousand dollars to be in the same room as a leading politician.

No, things haven’t changed.

No wonder feasts figure so much in Jesus’ parables. No wonder he used such moments to bring home his message.

Eating with people outside your class was a radical thing to do, so when Jesus ate with tax gatherers and other sinners, he was deliberately making a radical statement about the way things were in his world, and how they should be better.

He was deliberately demonstrating how it would be when the kingdom was realized – there would be equality, brotherly love, a communing one with another, and a coming together of people despite their place in society, free or slave, Hebrew or Greek, man or woman, rich or poor.

No-one would be higher than another.

No-one would be exploited by another.

No-one would be abused by another.

The leader would be the one who served. Not the one who sat back waiting for others to serve them.

And this was shown most amazingly in the story in today’s Gospel of the feeding of over five thousand people.

Jesus took the bread and the fish, blessed it, broke it, and shared it with all who were there. No-one was left out. Everyone ate. All sat down together, right where they were –no placing by rank – everyone ate the same food, in peace and in amity, and in brotherly love.

Some writers hold that this event was the first Eucharist, and that bread and fish were the first eucharistic foods.

Whatever we think, this momentous event was something that had a spiritual component to it – other than the words they heard from Jesus – and foreshadowed the meal that Jesus had with his disciples on that Thursday night, before he was betrayed.

That meal, shared between more than five thousand people, is echoed in the meal we share in our Eucharistic feast.

You know, we talk about a eucharistic feast don’t we? But that little wafer and a sip of wine hardly comprise what you would call a feast. You tend to think of a feast as somewhere where you get lots of food.

But cast your minds back to the most enjoyable evenings you ever had; the times you look back upon with a smile, the times when tears of love come to your eyes, and I bet what made that evening great was the people, or person there, and that the food didn’t matter, really.

You may remember, in the year 2002, Pope John Paul the second, celebrated mass in Downsview Park, Toronto. Some 800,000 people were said to have attended.   

There have been big events before. Large stadiums are regularly filled by rock groups.  And sports events.

One major  difference between those secular events and the religious events of that  week, was that there was no rowdiness. No-one was hurt. There were no reports of drug taking.

The newspapers reported that in the clean-up, afterward, numerous things were found in the garbage. Wallets. Bibles. Flags. Rosaries. Shoes.

No mention of  needles, or other drug paraphernalia.

This was a feast – a feast of people coming together to be with one another, to share equally in the blessings that were to be had, and to worship and praise God together.

We don’t serve big portions at our Eucharist.   It is true that if you wait to the end you can get more wine, because we like to have the last few people finish off what is in the chalice, but you could hardly say you are sated when you attend this feast.

But that is not what it’s about.

In his miracles, and through his parables, and through his healing, and eating together, Jesus intentionally places the people of his time, and us in our time, in physical and spiritual contact with God, and in physical and spiritual contact with each other.

He creates equality, brotherliness and sisterliness – community – or as Paul calls it –calls us – the body of Christ. He brings us close to God and each other

I hope that when you next share in the Eucharistic Feast, as small as the portions are, that you will find fullness – fullness of the Spirit.  I hope that you find your spiritual hunger satisfied. I hope that sharing with others, in equality and love, and sharing, and being blessed, and blessing in turn, you will feel that you have feasted.

For that is what it was all about then, and what it is all about now.

Amen.

                                    

Tokichi Ishii was a man with an almost unparalleled criminal record. He was way worse than Clifford Olson. He had murdered men, women and children in the most brutal way. Anyone who stood in his way was pitilessly eliminated. Now he was in prison awaiting death. As it happened, he was visited by two Canadian women. They were allowed to talk to him only through the bars of his cell. They tried to communicate with this monster, but  he only glowered at them like a caged and savage  animal. In the end they abandoned the attempt but they gave him a Bible, hoping that it might succeed where they had failed.

Strangely enough, he began to read it, and having started, he  could not stop. He read on until he came to the story of the Crucifixion. He came to the words, ‘ Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ and these words broke him. “I stopped,” he said, “I was stabbed to the heart as if pierced by a five inch nail. Shall I call it the love of Christ? Shall I call it his compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that I believed and the hardness of my heart was changed.”

Later when the condemned man went to the scaffold, he was no longer the hardened, surly brute he once had been, but a smiling radiant man.

Christ had brought Tokichi Ishii to life, and life to Tokichi Ishi. And this unlikely man, formerly dead, but now alive – ironically just when his earthly body is to be put to death – will inherit eternal life.

Seeing that………… we know that God too weeps for us, his children, even for those of us who have become dead to him. Even for Tokichi Ishii.

Incidentally, the Greeks, for whom John’s  Gospel was written, were astounded to hear of a God who actually cared for people.  We saw this caring exemplified in  the life of Jesus.  

We also saw a wonderful sense of purpose in Jesus, as in everything he did, he acted for his Father, was obedient to his Father, and allowed his Father to work through him.

How would it be in this world if we set God in his proper place in our lives, and instead of acting for ourselves,  we acted for God?

How would it be if we took the new life he has given to us, the empowerment with which we have been gifted, and did something wonderful for God?

……….if .. like a baby bird which has never flown before, we can step out into the world, trusting that the wings he has given us will hold us up, and do something that we have been scared to do to before …………

………because if we don’t use what we have been given, we will lose it.

What a shame if that came to be, after the magnificent sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf.

What a shame to have wasted our time here.

Far better to be alive, and vibrant  – noisy for Christ  – if you like –  and to let the world see his triumph – in the world, and in us.

Lord, make us pure; enrich our life

With heavenly love for evermore;

Give us thy strength to face the strife,

And serve thee better than before.      

                                                               

I once  read that 63% of all Canadians are taking some sort of supplement. Most take vitamins; but herbs, and other medications are being taken by people who want to be healthy, have younger-looking skin, maintain their youth, do away with aches and pains and so on.Some of these supplements are beneficial, and some may not be, and we should check with our  physician before taking them. 

But what does it profit a person to be physically fit if they are spiritually sick?

Some physically fit people commit suicide. Not too many sick people do. They know the value of life.

Plenty of  physically fit people live unhappy lives.

Many physically fit people get into trouble. (You don’t see too many people in wheelchairs being wheeled into court.) 

Being physically fit is fine, but it’s more important to be spiritually fit.

To keep ourselves spiritually fit, we need to stay connected to Christ through attending church regularly, daily prayer, bible reading, meditation, self-examination, Christian fellowship and so on.

It’s called  ‘abiding in Christ.’  

The evangelist John tells us that  when we abide in Christ  we find ourselves loving God and loving others. Others that we might not have loved normally.   

In fact he says, “ Those who say they love God and yet hate their brothers or sisters are liars. If you can’t love those whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?’”

The only way to become a loving person is by abiding in Him and being fed by Him. 

I have had a ficus plant for a long time. It has been there.  Barely. Although I dutifully watered it, and turned the pot around weekly, it never grew. It looked the same after fifteen years as the day I bought it.  Then I saw my wife using a product on her outdoor plants, called Miracle Grow. I tried feeding my ficus plant with it, and all of a sudden it began to grow like Topsy. We had to cut it back using garden clippers. It looked like it might take over the house.   

All the time I was just watering it, it was starving.  But once it was fed, there was no holding it back.

It’s easy to be a ficus kind of Christian, isn’t it?   Just kind of ‘there.’ Doing nothing. Just ‘there.’

I know Christians like that, as I am sure you do.

We all need to be fed don’t we?  

Because the truth is that God doesn’t need ‘ficus Christians’. He needs Christians who want to grow, and he offers to feed us with the spiritual food that will enable us to grow, and be fruitful.   

And that, my brothers and sisters, is the meaning of life. Christian life, that is. 

Amen.