Steve Cuss recently gave a
wonderful insight into Matthew 14:22-33.
He noted that often as preachers we encourage you to be like Peter. You must get out of the boat. You must walk on water. You must risk in order to grow in faith. Then, Cuss, says that 92 percent of the
disciples stayed in the boat!!
Eleven out of twelve, a super majority, stayed in the boat. And in the end, all of them worshipped
Jesus. Maybe you don’t always have to be
like Peter, maybe you can be like James who stayed dry and still got to the
same place Peter did without getting drenched by the sea! I love this take on the passage, because it
reminds us to be thoughtful about who we identify with in the passage. You don’t always have to be the main
character. Scripture is complex and
contradictory and sometimes we have moments we are like Peter and other times
we will be James thinking, “I am going to hold back for just a moment to see
what happens.” Sometimes in meetings I
write the word, “WAIT” on the top of the agenda. WAIT stands for: “Why Am I
Talking?” As a pastor, it is an
occupational hazard to run my mouth too much.
And often when I wait, a member of the church makes the same point I was
going say. I find the Spirit of God letting
the people of God speak truth to each other, rather than being the Peter who
always must have the spotlight on me, thank you very much. To be sure, there are moments we need to
risk, speak up and stand up, get out of the boat of safety. But not every moment is a test of your
faithfulness, God’s isn’t grading every moment of your life, grace (as we’ve
explored this week) is more abundant and amazing than some equation or set of
rules and regulations. Re-read this
story. Where right now, specifically, do
you need to step out of the boat? Where
do you need to be on team James, staying in the boat, paying attention, being
open to what God is doing?
One note on Matthew 15:21-28,
this moment in Jesus’ life where I want to shout at my Bible, what has
Matthew done to Jesus? Did Jesus
wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Was he hangry? Was he showing his
humanness? Was this showing us how even
Jesus can change his mind/heart/soul ~ or repent ~ in his life? Or that Jesus’ life wasn’t practically
perfect in every way? I don’t know. I am not sure why Matthew includes this
story, but it does invite some wrestling with our shadow sides of faith. Where am I growing, remember that growth is
messy and circuitous and sometimes embarrassing? Where have I said something I instantly
regret and want to nab the invisible words from the air and shove them back in
my mouth from whence they came? Note
that the woman is a Canaanite, that is code for “other”. How do I treat people of other political,
social, religious, racial, sexual orientation, gender identities? Do I “other” them? Do I treat others as dogs, as less than fully
formed in the image of God? Maybe
Jesus is shining a light on not just his shadow side but our own too. No wonder we’d rather NOT read this story. May these words rumble and roam around your
life today in ways that awaken you to the times we treat others as less than
(perhaps because they have treated us in that manner, but there is that
annoying “love your enemies” invitation of Jesus). May we notice that Jesus struggled to walk
his own talk sometimes. May we each
embrace our humanness to being open to the holiness in which each of us is
still be formed and fashioned. Amen.
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