A. There is an old story about a devout abbot who decided to take a spiritual retreat in a cabin located on a remote island in the middle of a large lake. For six months he remained on the island with no other person seeing him or hearing from him. But then one day, as two monks were standing near the shore soaking up some sunshine, they could see in the distance a figure moving toward them. It was the abbot, walking on water, and coming toward shore. After the abbot passed by the two monks and continued on to the monastery, one of the monks turned to the other and said, "All these months in prayer and the abbot is still as stingy as ever. After all, the ferry costs only 25 cents!"

Well, my friends, unless one knows where the rocks are located, none of us can walk on water! Jesus doing just that, however, seems to be what most catches our attention in this morning's passage of Scripture. However, let's not overlook everything else that is going on here, because a number of other details are just as important as the Master striding atop the waves. I don't know about you, but I tend to identify with the disciples in this story, who see Jesus intending to pass them by, and cry out, not knowing who He is, thinking He is a ghost, and scared out of their wits! How many of us have been faced with the storms of life, and in the midst of guilt and pain, feel like Jesus is passing us by? God can walk on the waves, but I have to stay in the boat, straining to keep my equilibrium in the tumult of life! As the disciples say in another related story, "Lord, don't you care if we perish?" Have we ever felt this way?

Of course we have. Maybe we feel that way now. But rather than being an intended slight by an arrogant God, Jesus intending to pass the disciples by is proof positive that God is always strong enough to save. Let me explain.

B. Our story this morning is set immediately after Jesus' miraculous feeding of the 5,000. He dismisses the crowd, filled to the brim in both body and soul, and immediately sends His disciples across the Sea of Galilee ahead of Him. The text is clear that Jesus desires to seek quiet prayer and fellowship with His Father. For Jesus, prayer was always rocket fuel for His public ministry. Jesus never failed to consult with the Father through prayer before He proceeded with God's ministry plan.

We should notice Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go across the Lake. He knew what was going to happen to them. These guys had spent a lot of time with Jesus engaged in discipleship 101, On-The-Job-Training. They had watched Jesus feeding the 5,000, specifically to see that nothing is impossible for God. He was getting them ready for their ministry to evangelize the world after His Resurrection, Ascension, and gift of the Holy Spirit. This means He had to strengthen their faith in a God who would be with them always again and again, even in the face of hardship. So Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He sent them across the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee; He knew He was sending them into a dangerous situation that would test their faith. Unfortunately, they didn't pass the test; fortunately, this would not be their last test. God's got all the time in the world to train us up spiritually for the tasks He has before us. We can learn our lessons now or learn them later. But we will learn them!

Now to glean as much meaning as we can out of these Spirit-inspired words, we need a brief lesson in Biblical interpretation. Biblical scholars frequently use a technique known as "form criticism," when doing the vital work of interpreting Scripture. When I use the word "criticism" in this context I don't mean that we are going to nitpick every word with the intent of disproving the clear meaning of the text. Rather, when we talk of using form criticism, the word "criticism" is synonymous with the word "analysis." Form criticism is a way of analyzing the text.

In a nutshell, it was discovered long ago that the various types of stories in the Gospels follow very specific patterns, called "forms". This comes from the fact that in Jesus' day, everything He did and said were first communicated orally. People used certain mental templates to help them remember the events of the story as best as they could. These templates were retained when the stories were written down as a whole Gospel narrative.

For example, a very common template, or form, is one called "miracle story". Miracles all follow the same general pattern: statement of the situation or problem, Jesus' miraculous intervention, and the reaction to the miracle by the witnesses. Consider the Feeding of the 5,000. The situation or problem here was that there were a lot of very hungry people; Jesus intervened by miraculously feeding everyone out of very little; and the crowd's reaction to the miracle was that they were able to eat their fill, and there was still 12 baskets of food left over, more than when they started.

Where form criticism is useful for Biblical analysis is that whenever something special is added to the template, it is like the Gospel writer sending up a signal flare and saying, "This is of special importance!" In the story of the Feeding of the 5,000, Mark adds the statement of Jesus to the disciples (You feed them!) and their incredulous response (Even 200 denarii couldn't buy enough food!). Then Jesus breaks and blesses the bread, reminding the Jewish listeners of the day of God providing manna for His people in the Wilderness, and reminding Christians of Holy Communion, where our spirits are fed by the Spirit of God present with us. Taken all together, we clearly see that whenever we disciples engage the world with the Gospel, which is food for the hungry soul, we are empowered by Christ, who will bless and multiply our efforts. That's how form criticism works, and it has been an invaluable tool to Biblical scholars for generations.

This morning's passage of Scripture finds the disciples once again in the middle of the Lake during a violent windstorm. It is obvious that they don't believe Jesus knows of their dire situation, even though He has been watching it from the shore all along. It's the wee hours of the morning. Jesus sees their plight, and heads towards them, walking across the surface of the Lake. Shockingly, Mark tells us that Jesus "intended to pass them by!" The disciples think He is a ghost, and cry out in panic. Jesus hears their cry, steps into the boat, and immediately the storm ceases. The disciples, incredulous, don't know what to think. Mark says that, "their hearts were hardened." As I said, they had flunked the test, but the final exam was still coming. They still had too much of themselves and their preconceived notions about who God is and how He acts on our behalf getting in the way to be the kind of disciples Jesus needed. But that would come.

Now this story seems at first glance to be a miracle story. After all, walking across the waves is pretty miraculous! But upon closer examination, we find that this story has all the characteristics of another form, namely, an Epiphany story. An Epiphany story always describes a time that the Divine is revealed in all His glory to human beings.

Here are the clues: 1) Jesus uses the phrase, "It is I", which in both the OT and the NT refers back to the divine name Yahweh, or "I Am Who I Am." 2) The awesome appearance of God in Jesus, who is at first unrecognized, and which invites fear and astonishment on the part of the person involved. Think of Moses before the burning bush. He couldn't understand what was going on at first, He didn't know it was God, and he was terrified by what was going on, 3) Jesus' phrase "Fear Not," is common when people are confronted with the presence of God. Remember the angel who appeared before Mary to tell her about her role in the birth of the Messiah. 4) Lastly, the use of the verb "pass by" is common in epiphany stories; for example, when God revealed Himself to Elijah on Mt Sinai after the prophet fled from Jezebel, God commanded Elijah to come out of his cave and "behold the Lord passed by." So Jesus wasn't being callous at all when He started to pass the disciples by in their distress. He knew they couldn't behold or comprehend His full divinity at that time. And he was right. At the end of the story they don't have a clue about who this Jesus is!

So if we consider this story to be an Epiphany story, our interpretation is put in an entirely different light. This is not a story about a miracle, although it is certainly miraculous. Rather, this is a story about a human encounter with God. In the midst of danger, God was still large and in charge!! Like in the Book of Job, where we find mention of God astride the waves of the sea, Jesus is proving beyond a shadow of doubt that He and the Father are one! With Jesus, the impossible becomes possible!

A minister was making a home visit to one of the families in his parish. A five-year-old boy answered the front door and told the minister his mother would be there shortly. To make some conversation, the minister asked the little guy what he would like to be when he grows up. The boy immediately answered, "I'd like to be possible." "What do you mean by that?" the puzzled minister asked. "Well, you see," the boy replied, "just about every day my mom tells me I'm impossible!"

C. Friends, these are times when the impossible all too often seems to be all there is before us. All too often we seem to catch ourselves saying, "I can't", or "God won't". We can communicate huge amounts of information across the planet, but we can't seem to talk to our spouse or to our children in a meaningful way. We have tremendous expertise to do most any job, but we can't seem to find a job in these recessionary times. Life seems to be filled with myriad impossibilities. But the thing we should glean from this passage is that even though those first disciples just didn't seem to get it, and even though their faith was at times very weak, God through Christ was not going to let them go. And Jesus is no more willing to let us go than He was with these all-too-human early Church leaders. Jesus is with us every step of the way. Jesus sees and knows our troubles, and can and will intervene in our lives. We should be aware that God might come along in unexpected or even surprising ways -- through others, or through something we read or hear, or through a situation that can only be described as miraculous. It is all too easy to put God in a box, to say that God can't or won't act in such and such a way. I remember watching trained fleas once in a circus. They did the same thing the same way as if they were in lockstep. I asked how one could ever train a flea, and I was told that the fleas are first put into a glass jar. As they try and jump in the jar, they bump their heads on the lid. Over time, they forget they can jump and, for fear of bumping their heads, never go beyond the limits of the jar, even though the lids have been removed. We get into similar ruts. It is easy to say 'I can't do this', or 'God won't do that'. And then God strides across the Lake, appearing where we didn't think He would ever appear, and suddenly stills the storm that rages around us.

Am I saying that God will take away the difficult times in life? Of course not! Remember, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, knowing that the storm would come. They had learned much wisdom from the Master. Now He had to place them in a situation where their faith would be stretched. In like manner, God doesn't cause difficult life situations, but God doesn't insulate us from them either. Through these times God shows us that we can ground our faith in Him, and not be disappointed. God never lets us down, nor does He ever let us go. I'm not belittling such a crisis time in our lives, if now is such a time, or if such a time has left us scarred, emotionally and maybe even physically. I know of such times too. No, I'm simply stating that God can walk on water; He is still in charge. And He won't let us down. Amen.

Keith Almond

P.O. Box 4388

Leesburg, VA 20177

703-344-3569

almond_keith@yahoo.com

Monday, July 27, 2009

Does God Pass Us By?

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