11th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 14A

11th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 14A August 13, 2023 11th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 14A August 13, 2023 This past week, I came across a story with art by one of my favorite artist families—the Andreas family. Their studio is called StoryPeople. The story is titled “Deep End” and here are the words: “I used to believe if I prepared hard enough and long enough, I would be ready when I needed to be. But now I think the closest any of us really get to being ready is feeling not ready and then doing it anyway.” The image that accompanies the story is of a person stretching an arm higher than is comfortable with a ball of energy shining from their center. I’ve been thinking of this piece of art all week as I’ve been pondering the story of Peter’s attempt to walk on water that our gospel reading gives us this week. What on earth possesses passionate, impetuous Peter to inspire him to get out of the relative safety of a boat on an already storm-tossed sea and attempt to join Jesus out walking on the water? What is it that possesses any of us to take risks in our lives or in our lives of faith? Our reading from Matthew this week is especially interesting to me, not just for this risk that Peter takes, but because it shows growth in Peter and in the rest of the disciples in their faith in Jesus. This is actually the second time in Matthews’ gospel when Jesus is with the disciples in the midst of a storm on the sea. In the first story, Jesus is present in the boat with the disciples. (This is in Matthew 8:23-27.) Jesus falls asleep in the boat, and a storm blows up. The disciples start to panic, wake Jesus up saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” Jesus chastises the disciples saying, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” and then he gets up, rebukes the winds and the sea, and everything suddenly becomes calm. The disciples’ response is amazement, and they say, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” In today’s reading, Jesus has sent the disciples on ahead in the boat to the other side of the lake, while he goes up the mountain alone to pray. A storm blows up, and Jesus walks across the water to join the disciples in the boat. Interestingly enough, the disciples don’t seem to be freaking out in this storm like before. It’s only seeing Jesus walking across the top of the water to them in the midst of the storm that really freaks them out. Jesus speaks to them, assuring them that it is he, and Peter decides at that point that he needs to get out of the boat to join Jesus walking out on the water (because, why not?). Jesus seems to agree with Peter’s plan, and Peter is doing ok at first, until he remembers the storm blowing all around him. He becomes frightened, and then he begins to sink. Jesus wastes no time rescuing him and saying again, “You of little faith” and asking “why did you doubt?” But then, listen to what happens! The two get into the boat, the wind ceases, and the disciples in the boat worship Jesus proclaiming, “Truly you are the Son of God.” This is quite a different response to the first story, where they basically say, “who is this guy?” I can’t help but wonder if Peter’s risk and stretching and willingness to get out of the safety of the boat didn’t help inspire the other disciples to finally recognize Jesus for who he really is—the Son of God. Can you think of a time when someone else’s risk or stretching in their own faith helped inspire your faith or helped you grow deeper in your relationship with God? I know that your courage inspires me all the time and makes me want to be more courageous, too. It’s one of the gifts of Christian community. When we walk closely together, we see the ways that each of us grows in faith, and it can inspire us, challenge us to stretch, to take our own risks and to grow in our own ways, jumping off into the deep end even when we don’t always feel prepared. This fall, we’ve got plans to do some stretching here at St. Thomas. We’re going to start a Children’s Chapel program for kids in K-5th grades. (Older kids are welcome to join us as helpers if they want.) It’s time we tried something different for Children’s formation, and so we are committing to do this for a year to see how it does. We are so committed to this, in fact, that the two clergy are going to take turns, with one of us being in children’s chapel every week with the kids. So we are committing some energy and some resources to this to try to help it succeed. It’s definitely a risk, a stretch, for each of us. I’ve never done children’s chapel before, so we’ll see if this old dog can learn some new tricks. Hopefully our risk will inspire others to join us in this. For it to be successful, we need the parents to bring the kids (‘cause it ain’t children’s chapel without children), and I’m going to be asking our young families to make a commitment to regular church attendance while we try to get this off the ground. We’ve already got some volunteers who are willing to step up and help us in this endeavor. How else might this risk, this stretching, inspire us as the people of faith in this place? This past week, I finished reading the book How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Bishop Mariann Budde, the Bishop of Washington D.C. Bishop Budde writes all about the times in her life when she has been inspired to take risks, to get out of the relative safety of the boat. She also acknowledges that sometimes, it is not our choice to get out of the boat; sometimes, the storms of life toss us out into the water, ready or not, and it’s up to us to figure out where we go from there. In her final chapter, she writes about the importance of perseverance and she writes about how perseverance in prayer needs to be joined in us with a commitment to mindfulness and a willingness to learn some basic spiritual skills. If we don’t have mindfulness and spiritual skills coupled with our perseverance, she writes, “We fall pray, in the words of the late Harvard Chaplain Peter Gomes ‘to a false and phony version of the Christian faith that suggests that by our faith or our prayers we will be spared the burdens of life. Thus perseverance in prayer isn’t just about doing it more, but allowing our hearts to be stretched by the trials and struggles of life so that our capacity for love and forgiveness grows, as well as what we are willing to endure for the sake of love.” ii. Perhaps you find yourself outside the boat against your will. What might this allowing your heart to be stretched by the trials and struggles of life look like for you in this moment? Your invitation this week is to ponder how you might be called to stretch a bit, to take some risk in your life of faith? Or, if you find yourself in the midst of a trial or a challenge (tossed out of the boat, perhaps against your will) then your invitation is to persevere in prayer so that your heart may be stretched by the trials and struggles of life so that your capacity for love and forgiveness grows. Where might Jesus be inviting you to get out of the boat and do the seemingly impossible with him at your side? i. https://www.storypeople.com/products/deep-end-prints?variant=32107322081391 ii. Budde, Mariann. How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith. Avery: New York, 2023, p 175.