Enough Faith

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
August 13, 2023

14 Proper A

          Don’s and my 16-month-old grandson is quite the daredevil.  When Banks was crawling, he would crawl off the edge of anything if not caught and he earned the nickname “Nosedive.”  If Banks had his way, he would nosedive himself into the bathtub, down the stairs, off his changing table, out of his chair, or wherever else he wanted to go.  The child has no sense of gravity and complete trust either than someone will catch him or that nothing painful will happen. 

          Given the chance, I am sure that Banks would jump out of the boat and into the water to walk toward Jesus just as impulsively as Peter did this morning.  In fact, today’s gospel lesson lends itself to what might be called Nosedive theology.  If we just have enough faith in Jesus we can get out of the boat and walk on water, or roll off the changing table, out of the chair, down the stairs, or whatever and not be harmed.  No one wants to hear Jesus say to them “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Yet on the other hand, most of us have figured out that gravity always wins.  So what are we to do with Jesus this morning? 

          What we are going to do is dig a little deeper into the story.  Jesus has just fed 5000 men, plus at least as many women and children when Jesus has the disciples get in a boat and head to the other side of the lake.  The disciples are in the middle of the lake, with the wind against them, fighting their way to the other side, when they see what they believe to be a ghost.  Peter wants proof that this ghost is really Jesus so, at Jesus’ invitation, Peter climbs out of the boat and attempts to walk on the water to Jesus.  When he sees the strong wind, Peter becomes frightened and begins to sink.  Jesus saves him with a reprimand: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

There are two problems with thinking that if Peter just had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus.  First, throughout scripture, control over the water belongs to God, not humans.  God caused the great flood that wiped out all living things not on Noah’s ark, and God caused the rains to stop.  God parted the Red Sea, so that Moses could lead the Hebrew people across the water and away from the Egyptians.  In the book of Jonah, “the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up.”  And in the book of Job, God asks “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?” with the implied answer that it was God, not Job, who did that.  The list goes on and on.  The ability to control the sea belongs to God and God alone.

Secondly, Peter’s problem when he begins to sink is identified as fear.  But when Jesus rescues Peter, he says “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  What Peter and the disciples doubted was the identity of Jesus.  First, the disciples thought Jesus was a ghost.  And, at 3am in the pitch dark in the middle of the water in a boat being battered by waves, a ghost makes a lot more sense than thinking that Jesus has strolled out on the water to check on them.  Then Peter says “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  Peter is testing the identity of their visitor.  When Peter begins to sink and Jesus says “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” the only thing Peter has doubted is the identity of Jesus.  The point of the story is to prove that Jesus is God, not to make the disciples feel badly because they cannot walk on water.  And at the end of the story, the point has been made, as the disciples say “Truly you are the son of God.”

          Jesus does not call us to believe that if we have enough faith we can walk on water.  What Jesus does call us to believe is that Jesus can walk on water and that Jesus can walk on water because he is God.  What this story calls us to believe is that Jesus is present in our boat with us, whatever storm we may find ourselves in, and that Jesus’ presence with us matters because Jesus is God.  In this very same gospel, Jesus is given the name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”

          This morning, we will baptize Jordan Repko.  As much as we might like to believe that baptism will prevent any bad thing from happening to us, we all know that is not true.  In baptism, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.  Baptism is a matter of our identity.  In baptism, we promise to live as people who are marked as Christ’s own forever.  We promise to be faithful in worship, to turn from evil, to seek and serve Christ in all people, to work for justice and peace, and to use our words and our actions to proclaim the good news of God in Christ.  Some days, walking on water may sound like an easier option!  But Jesus doesn’t call us to walk on water.  Jesus calls us to claim our identity as people who believe that Jesus is in the boat with us, who live as people who believe that there is nothing we must face alone, and who have the courage and the will to persevere in the midst of any storm because we have been marked as Christ’s own forever. 

                                                                             Amen.