A Sermon for Pentecost 10

Matthew 14:13-21 and Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

 

The Kennebec River in Maine is well-known for its exhilarating whitewater rafting. With high volume water releases from the turbines at Moosehead Lake, the river swells and flows through several gorges, producing six to eight foot waves and 12-miles of powerful rapids with imposing names such as Big Mama, Whitewasher and the fearsome Magic Falls.

We were standing there on the banks of the river one morning a number of years ago. About 30 youth group kids, outfitted in wetsuits, life preservers and helmets, were listening to last-minute instructions from their guides before boarding the rafts. In the background, the river was roaring. In the foreground, the children were completely silent, their faces now pale from sheer terror.

Then I remembered the release form their parents had signed:

In consideration of the agreement by the Companies to accept application, I, individually, and as parent/guardian of any minor executing this Agreement, do release and forever discharge the Companies and their owners, agents or employees connected in any way with the contracted for activity from any and all actions, claims, causes of action, expenses, damages and demands of any kind including but not limited to any claim of damages for bodily injury, illness, disease, DEATH…

And it suddenly occurred to me that this was a really stupid idea! How was I going to explain to the parents that I had gotten their little children killed? What kind of fool was I bringing these kids to such a risky event? This was not the sort of activity a Church should sponsor! I mean, we spend our lives in the Church preaching that we should come to Jesus to get saved…not killed!

Although, come to think of it, our experience on the Kennebec that day was not unlike what happened that night long ago when Jesus invited Peter to step out of the boat and into the raging whitewater of the Sea of Galilee.

That story from Matthew 14 is always captioned, “Jesus Walks on the Water.” It is a story Sunday School teachers use to teach children that Jesus even has power over the forces of nature.

But I think that caption might be missing something. There is another dimension to the story we often overlook. Sometimes in focusing on Jesus walking on the water, we forget what happened to Peter! Do you remember? Were you listening? Peter sees Jesus walking on the water and thinks he’d like to take up the sport, too. So he asks Jesus if he can join him out there, walking on the water.

Jesus says, “Come on in!”

So Peter climbs out of the boat, and lo and behold, takes a step…or two!

But then, hearing the roar of the wind and seeing the white froth of the waves – Peter panics, and SINKS!

Maybe we could just as easily caption this story another way:

“Peter Almost Drowns!”

Why do you suppose Matthew tells us this second part of the story? He could just as easily have left it at Jesus walking across the sea. And you and I could sing a hymn of praise, receive the benediction, and go home knowing that Jesus has power over all of creation. But Matthew doesn’t stop there. He tells us Peter almost drowns.

Could it be that Matthew is telling us something about the RISK of following God?

You certainly know that Jesus himself was crucified. You probably know that most of the disciples eventually were killed, too. All through the Bible – from Old Testament to New Testament – people of faith suffer. They experience injury, rejection, and imprisonment. In the words of the whitewater rafting company’s release, they know “bodily injury, illness, disease and death.”

Faith is risky business!

I wonder why we in the Church today do not fill out waivers of liability when people come to church on Sunday? I wonder how many people would go forward at Billy Graham crusades if there were warning signs in big red letters that said, “This activity may result in injury or death.”

Do you think what we have done is to take the real Christian faith – with all its tremendous personal risk – and substituted it with a new, risk-free version of faith? Think about what you hear on television and from pulpits today: “Come to Jesus and he will give you comfort, problem-solving power, joy-producing principles, promises of prosperity and success.”

Does this sound like whitewater rafting to you?

More importantly, does this sound like Jesus who said, “If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves, lift up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it; but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.” – Mark 8:34-35

Faith is risky business.

My good friend Dr. Clyde Fant once said that when he first came into the ministry he knew everything there was to know about God.

Everything!

But he didn’t know anything about Jesus.

Today, Clyde says, he knows less about God than ever before, but he has started getting to know Jesus better.

Do you hear what Clyde is saying?

We all come into faith with our own ideas and concepts about God – about God’s will – about God’s relationship with the world. We all pretty much think we have God’s number.

But like the disciples before us, when we meet Jesus, our ideas about God get blown out of the water:

The rich probably won’t make it to heaven? Not in our affluent American version of faith!

God loves sinners? Not in our religion!

God does not want to hear our songs and prayers and worship so much as God wants to see our mercy, compassion and justice?

Well, tell that to the Church today!

The point of it all is not getting to heaven someday, but manifesting the kingdom of God on earth NOW?

Wow.

It’s risky business when you have to give up your own ideas about God in order to meet the God of Jesus Christ.

It’s also risky to take up a faith that requires you to think rather than merely believe. All across the world today, Fundamentalism of every sort – Islamic, Jewish, Christian – strips human beings of their ability to think in order to impose upon people manmade values that are not of God. Suicide bombing will get you to heaven? Palestinians have no right to the Promised Land? Women must be submissive to men? Science should be rejected in favor of religious myth?

I will grant you it is much easier to have a religion that tells you how to think and what to think, than it is to learn to think for yourself. Thinking is risky business, especially if you think God punishes those who do.

Faith is risky. Jesus taught about giving yourself away to others. Forgiving others. Being patient with others. Jesus calls us to non-violence, to give to the poor, to turn the other cheek.

Faith is risky.

And nowhere is it riskier than when it comes to love. Love is the only commandment that matters. You can keep all the others, but without love – Paul says in First Corinthians – you have nothing to stand on.

We are called to whitewater loving!

In our second Bible story today, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers.  Maybe you live in a family like that, where family members do terrible things to each other. Whether you do or not, all of us live in a human family where brothers and sisters routinely treat each other inhumanly.

Joseph is taken to Egypt where, through a series of events, he becomes a close confidant of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He gets put in charge of the Egyptian version of FEMA, providing emergency relief during times of drought.

And wouldn’t you know it? Joseph’s murderous, hateful brothers, escaping the famine in their own country, show up in Egypt looking for food.

And guess who they have to see to get it?

Now I don’t have to tell you what would have happened if I was Joseph. And you probably have a sense of what you would do.

But the question before us is, “What will Joseph do with the brothers who hated him so much they sold him into slavery?”

Well, you know how the story goes.

Joseph treats his rotten brothers as he himself would want to be treated. He opens his home to them. He opens his arms to them. He opens his heart to them.

He loves his enemies.

Risky!

God’s love always is risky. It is a whitewater rafting ride of incredible magnitude.

But WHY are we called to risk love in such a world as the one in which we live?

Well, in the case of Joseph and without his even knowing it would result in this, risking love toward his brothers preserved the twelve tribes of Israel. And out of those twelve tribes of Israel – many generations later – a Savior was born.

We risk love because it is God’s instrument for saving the world.

To NOT love is even riskier!

So I’ve got these permission slips up here today. If you want to go on this trip, you’ve got to acknowledge the risk. Being a member of this church and a follower of Jesus could result in bodily injury, illness, disease, or even death!

But the reward – a new heaven and a new earth – a new humanity bonded together in love – a world with God at its center – is well worth the risk.

Who wants to sign up?