A Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost
What a wonderful thing to be able to walk on water. Instead of needing a boat to go fishing, you
could simply walk out to your favorite spot, put down your line and you're good
to go. Or how about if
you can't swim but like to be near water anyway. You could walk on the ocean and not be afraid
of drowning. It would be a different
type of transportation to make a trans-Atlantic journey from say,
Sailors from the earliest days went down to the sea in ships
and their greatest fear was not simply the sea monster but primarily drowning
and being swept away where no one would be able to salvage the body for burial.
The disciples in their boat were far off from land on the
But since the disciples weren't able to find Jesus, it would
be Jesus who would venture in his "Son-of-God" way and find
them. By defying God's law, including
the law of gravity, He would walk on top of the sea to once again join his
own.
There is no barrier which can prevent the merciful and
forgiving Jesus from joining up with his own.
Not even God's law.
(Excursus on God's law including the law of gravity and all
the other laws grounded in God's special design for preserving the world.)
Only an unrepentant heart will seal-off access to Jesus'
company. Jesus will be available and
offers salvation to all. But for the
unrepentant who seal themselves off from access to
this grace through prideful presumptuousness, God will become for them a terror
and despairing hopelessness pointing out to them their irresponsibility within
their whole lives. Seeking to find God
in their own way, presumptuous saints end up relying on their own brand of
righteousness assuming that it is also God's.
Jesus presents himself to his disciples not as a scary ghost,
but as their friend and helper and care-giver.
He may appear scary at first to unrepentant hearts; but his voice, his
commands that say "Take heart, it is I.
Do not be afraid" are words from the one who loves them and is
their Savior for them. If they will only
let him be their Savior. That's when
Jesus calls Peter out of the boat and Peter does and arrives as Jesus walking
on the water in the same way that Jesus does.
Peter's faith does that for him
Unless words of Jesus are proclaimed to you, you will hear
only scary voices and uncertain sounds.
The voice of Jesus, in his word, comes from the one who in our place became the sacrifice
for our sin as well as the one in his resurrection over whom now death no
longer has dominion. In his body through
the sacrament of Holy Baptism we are joined to this person. With God all things are possible, including,
as Peter, walking on water.