Listen

S. Pentecost 11.26 Matt. 14:22-33

‘So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.’

It probably wasn’t the best idea, as a way of identifying Jesus it seems—when they saw him walking on the water and thought he was a ghost—for Peter to say “Lord, if it’s you, command me to come to you on the water.” ‘Cause if it isn’t Jesus, but an evil spirit, Peter drowns and they go, “Uhm, well: not Jesus!”

But I’m going to suggest that was not what was going on with Peter leaving the boat to walk on water. They knew him by the word he spoke when they cried out “It’s a ghost” and Jesus says to them “Take heart, I AM!, fear not!” Which is what the Greek says, by the way. It’s not as in all English translations ‘it is I, do not be afraid’.

Nah, it’s εγο ειμι the first two words of the divine Name “I AM WHO I AM”. Though, when you translate it correctly, there is humor. Jesus hides the divine identifier in a laconic “Take heart—I AM; fear not.” That is: “I’m taking heart, you should try it, too…” The scriptures ritely translated are far more humorous and Jesus is far more sardonic than in the ‘sanitized for your protection, we’re not going to have any fun with this’ Calvinist translations that dominate the English language market…

“I’m taking heart, you should try it…” is really an invitation to “step out of the boat, walk on the water with me… it looks like fun, right? An adventure!”

And this makes the most sense of Peter’s response “LORD, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water…” ‘I recognize you, LORD, but I’d like you to confirm that I’m hearing you correctly that you want me to join you, leaving the boat, the conventional means of water transport 😉 and walk with you on the water…’

And Jesus says, “Come!”

So Peter got out of the boat (in the midst of a big storm, mind you—yuuuge wind and waves, lotta danger, crazy stunt, really 😉 which is why I love Peter and he’s my favorite apostle. He is reckless, careless, a Type T thrill seeker who follows his heart not his head. The other disciples must have had some shock and awe which also explains why they looked to him for leadership, even if he did sink like a ‘Stone’ (that’s what ‘Kephas/Peter’ means)…

It must have been amazing! I love skateboarding, body surfing, high winds, riding the waves, speed, danger. But to walk on the waves!—an awesome combo of surfing and skateboarding—what a rush! If I could do that, I don’t think I’d ever really want to do much else… 😉

And it went amazing—at first! Peter gets out of the boat and makes it all the way to Jesus who was some distance off. My guess, having a little bit of Peter in me, was that it unraveled like this: Peter goes “Whoa! I’m walking on water! I don’t need no stinking surf-board! Whoo! Yeah, baby! Is this not the most bad-ass thing you’ve ever seen!?”

And then he notices how crazy this is. ‘Whoa, the wind’s really strong; that last wave almost took me under, and whoa, ROH-OH, Scoob! I’m sinking!’

Masters Swimming does not seem have been Peter’s sport, so, going under, he cries, “Lord, save me!” And Jesus reaches out a hand, pulls him up, one-handed (I mean how cool is Jesus, right? Wouldn’t you follow him anywhere? Danger, adventure, and super-cool under pressure 😉 and the sardonic, “Oh, you of little faith! Why did you doubt?”

And you see the humor in that? ‘Why did you doubt, little-faith?’ “What do you mean, ‘Why did I doubt?’ Why did I doubt?! This whole water-walking, wind-ruling, wave-running thing is totally insane!” Simon says…

Yet, still, today, Jesus invites you (like ‘Stone’ 😉 to do the impossible; and when you falter, smiles: “Why did you doubt?” Is he serious? And just as a coda: as soon as they get into the boat, the wind ceases, just to underline who the one who raised the storm in the first place is… 😉

So; what does this mean? What’s our takeaway?

Well; the early fathers and Luther—who read the scriptures as a vast, loosely-organized avant garde non-fiction novel—think whenever Jesus is feeding people with bread it’s the Lord’s Supper pictured somehow, someway. Wherever there is fish—the Greek ιχθυς—they see an acronym: Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior 😉

Wherever there is a boat they think Noah’s ark, or the ark of the covenant—some Indiana Jones style vehicle of salvation. Wherever there is water and a drowning or water rescue (like Jonah and Peter) they’re thinking holy baptism…

I think this is the rite [sic] way to read scriptures. So here’s an early church fathers-Luther-style takeaway:

The boat is the church, the gathered believers of Israel. But most of Israel never really believes Jesus is LORD. The Pharisees and Sadducees rule Israel with the iron fist of the law, making themselves LORD!

But… seeing Jesus, you’re drawn to him, despite or because of the danger of doing the impossible and walking with him on the water?! So he bids you leave the boat of institutional Christendom (to which he does send us as apostles) in order to walk with him yourownself, on the water, in the most wild and wonderful way…

Just as we witness to the institutional church today that Jesus calls us to wind and wave ride with him, not to just sit around minding the store, to be with Jesus means ultimately transcending the safety and security of the boat for the wild, grand and impossible adventure of wind-riding, wave-running with Jesus… 😉

The church is a launching pad, giving the necessary ‘grammar of faith’ that hooks you up with Jesus. But just as the purpose of grade school grammar books is to make you speak grammatically not memorize and endlessly repeat the rules of grammar, so the word and sacraments of the church aren’t there for dogmatic intellectualism and an Amish-kinda lifestyle but for the Surfer Dude Deadhead adventure of wind-riding and wave-ruling with Jesus…

Baptism drowns and kills you in order to give you this new life! Until you’re drowned with Jesus!, you can’t walk on the water and rule the wind and waves with him! It takes a little faith, actually… a leap of faith into the wild unknown to get there. Safety not guaranteed!

For most of us, Jesus commanded us to come to him on baptism’s wild, holy waters when we were little babies, not knowing (and our parents maybe not really caring that much? 😉 what we were getting into…

But sinking under baptism’s holy waves, being pulled up from the depths of death by the Master’s strong hand…

This is the Way!

Luring you out into the storm, letting you sink under baptism’s totally gnarly waves, Jesus pulls you up, feeds you now his own body and blood, putting his heart into you to throw caution to the winds and follow him everywhere; Super Bad-Ah…s Peace, surpassing understanding, guards your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus. Amen.

😉