“Peter answered him “Lord, if it is you, command me to come
to you on the water”.
He said “Come”. So Peter got out of the boat, started
walking on the water, and came towards Jesus”
Having faith or trust in times of great distress is a very
hard thing to maintain. I know this all too well and so does anyone here who
has endured loss and sadness and loneliness.
By a sheer act of will and keeping our eyes on God it is
often possible for a while. For a while it is possible to keep afloat and ride
over the storms and rough waters of life, but only for a while...
If the storms are strong enough and last long enough our
doubt and fear gets the better of us and we succumb to the rising waters that
threaten to engulf us and we start to sink. We lose sight of God, and give ourselves
up to the waves. In the parable of the sower this is the seed that fell among
thorns and was choked by the worries of the world.
In extreme conditions all seems black, and there seems no
end and no hope in our troubles. The Christian faith takes these times
absolutely seriously. The Christian religion is built upon a man in whom we
believe God was reconciling the world to himself. This man suffered and died
and felt lost alone and abandoned. It was Jesus who when hanging on a cross
waiting to die uttered the words “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” So
how can we not take the storms of life seriously or rebuke ourselves when our
faith and trust grow faint or even disappears entirely?
Matthew continues, “But when he noticed the strong wind,
Peter became frightened and began to sink, he cried out “Lord save me!”. Jesus
immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little
faith, why did you doubt?”
The cornerstone of the Christian religion is that even out
of his loneliness, abandonment and death, God reached out and raised Jesus to
life to show to us that even through all our trials, even in that dark finality
that is death, God is always there, mostly unseen and unnoticed or acknowledged,
but his hand outstretched to save us is always available and always able to
reach us and grab hold of us to lift us to be with him.
In the image of Jesus reaching out to pull Peter out of the
water I am reminded of a common icon that you see in many Orthodox churches of
a gaping hole that leads down into the abyss. Across that hole the cross is
laid and Jesus is standing on the cross using it as a platform and he is
helping people up out of the darkness by stretching out his hand and helping
people out one by one.
Once saved, with the others in the boat the wind ceased and
they worshipped him saying “Truly you are the Son of God”. Truly God is in you
reconciling the world to himself.
In all of our lives, there will be storms, and there will be
times when our faith holds and our faith gives out under pressure. Through all
the storms of life God is there. God is there also at that final darkness, that
greatest separation that is death. His hand is always stretched out to hold on
to ours and pull us towards him.
Amen
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