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The Gospel of Matthew Bible Studies
The Gospel of Mark Bible Studies
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
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Time After Pentecost – Lectionary 19 Matthew 14:22-33 August 10, 2008 This is a beautiful, likely a familiar story, which has a lot of details, and so there are a lot of things that we can take from it. But one of the things that I take away from it (as characterized by Peter’s attempt at walking on water) is… The Difficulty that we (each of us has) Walking by Faith. When I say this, “The Difficulty of Walking by Faith” what I mean is that there is a struggle that we all have when it comes to relying on God as we live our lives… Relying on God daily… what does it take? How do we do it? It seems as though sometimes we do it well for a while, but consistently we have trouble maintaining that trust… that so helpful reliance on God. And as Peter finds out in this story, it doesn’t take long for the security of faith to be replaced by other distractions… specifically by his fear of the wind. Peter, who asks Jesus, “if it is really you walking on water…” (you see, Jesus here has completely risen above the stormy sea) And Peter says, “If this is really you… of you are for real, command me to come up their with you.” When Jesus does just that, and beckons Peter, saying “Come,” it isn’t very long before Peter gets distracted. Matthew says, “Peter got out of the boat, started… walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed… the strong wind, he became frightened…” and then he began to sink. Now, I’ve been thinking about this story. I think it is so brilliant and so true. Peter is like me as a child, learning to ride my bike after graduating from training wheels—I was fine just as long as I knew my dad was there, but once I realized that I had left him, once I noticed the terrain that I was facing on my own… the gentle slope of our street suddenly became a sheer cliff in my minds eye. That’s when I panicked… and inevitably… that’s when I crashed and burned. And I think our whole lives long we probably do things like this when we’re out of our “comfort zones” – we panic; we loose faith; we fall down; crash and burn… and only by the grace of God do we get up for another try… There is a lot of grace in this world God made. Now, I’ve also been thinking about this story and another situation that could have happened—this also has to do with faith. What would have happened, say, if Peter had not panicked and had not fallen in the water? To me, this may have been even more frightening situation that people face from time to time. What if he had never fallen? Would we still have been speaking of faith, would we still have considered God’s part in the story..., or would we be talking about Peter, the one who can walk on water. Peter and his power. You see what I’m getting at here? It seems that often times we loose faith beforehand (as Peter actually does in this story) but sometimes I think we loose faith in retrospect. That is, sometimes after God has brought us through challenges of life, sometimes we can forget about faith then as well. Sometimes we can forget about God who brought us through the sea…, and congratulate ourselves. This is again the difficulty of walking by faith and relying on God as we live. The truth of the matter is that we can’t get were we want to be on our own AND we didn’t get here on our own either. Not you. Not me. Not us as a Church. As for faith / as for a life of faith, it is not something you look forward to finding, and its not something you look back at to recapture. No, to talk about faith is to talk about a life with God. The only life God has given to you to live in, is right now—this very moment. The only thing we can experience right now, is right now. Embracing faith means embracing the living presence of God right now. Remaining “Faithful” is embracing God in every now. Brothers and sisters, life will bring challenges – there will be things to strive for, speaking as people and as a Church–you know the type of person you want to be, just as we know the Church we want to strive to be. The surprise of today’s reading is that when Peter asks Jesus to do something extraordinary, Jesus, the son of God, doesn’t prevent him, discourage him or try to dissuade him. Rather, Jesus immediately encourages Peter to try the extraordinary… in the moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow… Jesus says, “Come.” Now Peter, get out of the boat. That is to say, Jesus may be the savior, but he never tells his people to play it safe! No, he says, “Do not be afraid, It is I” translated also “I am” which is the name of God given in the Old Testament. Brothers and sisters, do you hear what God is reminding us today through the scripture. God is here… now, and whatever you are contemplating in life, now is the time to act! It’s the only time we’ve got. “Come” Here’s something else. We/ you/ me, we’re going to slip up. We, like Peter, are going to get distracted from our lives with God. We are going to forget about the now and get lost in the tomorrow or have trouble letting go of some guilt of the past. We are going to get distracted and frightened by the wind, and it is going to cause you/ me / us to slip down. We will be so distracted that we’ll forget what we’re doing and we’ll slip… and it won’t be good and we’ll cry out… “God, save me,” just like Peter. And the God who encouraged us to “come” live your life – take a chance, will be there… in every now, God will be there. So cast out your fear – we have a God today – a forgiving and patient God – revealed in Jesus Christ. So come on. Once again. As many times as it takes. Come on. Get out of the boat. Cease the moment. Live the life you are given! The time is now! And now… just like the disciples, once they got Jesus in their little boat, let us worship Christ who call us to action, for “Truly he is the Son of God.” Truly he teaches us that God is here. Come, get out of the boat. Now is the time we worship. -------------------- Pastor Joshua Magyar 418 W. Main St. Sidney, MT 59270
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