Pentecost IX (Proper 12 B) [John 6:16-21] (26-Jul-2015)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 8.30am, 10.30am.

Click here for PDF file of sermon for printing.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send to all of us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we read about two miracles of Jesus: the first where he feeds 5000 people, and the second where he walks on the water. Last week, I spoke about the feeding of the 5000 quite a bit, so I’m going to leave that aside for today and focus on the fact that Jesus walked out on the water to his disciples in the boat.

This passage about Jesus walking on water, I think, is one of the most offensive gospel readings that we have read this year. I’ll say that again: this reading is offensive. And you might think: “no, it’s not. It’s quite clear about what it says. I’m not offended by it.” And we might think, “Jesus is not telling us about some particular sin that we all happen to be committing. It’s not as if Jesus is talking about something strange and difficult to understand.” So why would I say that this is offensive?

The words, the story that Jesus walked on the water is not offensive. But the fact that he walked on water is offensive. The writers of the bible were not writing something here that was a fairy-tale or a myth. They wrote eyewitness accounts of facts. And this is offensive to us as a culture, to us as a society, because I would hazard a good guess that there are many Christians (let alone unbelievers) who simply don’t believe that this could have happened. It’s offensive to the scientific way in which we view the world, it’s offensive to our pride, it’s offensive to the way we think of ourselves as modern people. People think: “I’m not going to believe in that – I’m not going to believe that a man with human feet really walked out a path on water. I’m a modern person!—(whatever “modern” means—it’s normally is the opposite of “humble”).

But then, if we’re offended by this in the bible, what else are we offended by? What else from Jesus’ life do we harden our hearts to? Do we believe, for example, that Jesus was actually born of a Virgin? Do we believe that the wise men were really led to Jerusalem by the light of a star? Do we really believe that the angel Gabriel really came to the Virgin Mary? Do we believe that there really was an angel Gabriel? Do we believe that Jesus really did heal the sick? Or if he did, do we believe that if Jesus were alive today—(of course! He actually is alive today!)—that we wouldn’t need him to heal the sick, because modern medicine has an answer to everything?

But then at the end of this list is the most important question: Do you actually believe that Jesus rose from the dead? St Paul says: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. This is such an important question for us to ask. Muslims says “no” to this question. Buddhists say “no” to this question. Atheists say “no” to this question. But Christians say “yes”. Christ is risen and he is risen indeed. And at the same time, to our human minds, this seems impossible—God hides his wisdom under what the world calls foolish.

St Peter says in his second letter: We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

And so, let’s come back to our reading today about Jesus walking on the water. Peter was there on that occasion. We even read in the Gospel of Matthew that this same Peter asked Jesus to allow him to come to him on the water. And we read that Peter actually did this. And then this same Peter, after Jesus had risen from the dead, writes to people: We did not follow cleverly devised myths. We’re not making this stuff up. It’s real.

Now if you were to go back in history, you could read the writings of the ancient Greeks, and read about the gods Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo—there’s plenty of cleverly devised myths there. You can go and read the writings of the ancient Romans, and read about Jupiter, Hercules, King Neptune—there’s plenty of cleverly devised myths there. Ancient Egypt also has its cleverly devised myths. The Vikings also had their cleverly devised myths, with their gods Thor, and Woden. Even in English, our days of the week Thursday are named after Thor, and Wednesday is named after Woden. The religions that came from these cleverly devised myths are what we call paganism or heathenism.

You may or may not be aware that there is a revival of paganism going on throughout the world. There are many people in Europe, particularly, that are returning to their pagan gods. Iceland was a country that adopted Lutheranism as its official religion in the 1500s, and is still a country with an official Lutheran church, and many Lutheran churches. And yet, Iceland is an old pagan country, fast returning to its pagan roots. There are plans at present to build a Norse temple in the capital city Reykjavik. They are wanting to build a temple for the old Norse religion. There is also a revival of this stuff going on in Sweden and in Scandinavia too and in Germany.

What’s going on? Why are people turning away from Christianity and going back to these cleverly devised myths?

One of the most highly developed forms of paganism, which is still very much alive today, is of course Hinduism, which is the largest religion in India. Hindus worship many gods. Recently, I decided to read up about Hinduism, and to better understand how paganism works. In a book about Hinduism, I read the following thing: “Hinduism has the unique distinction of having no known founder… Having no founder gives Hinduism a certain advantage over other religions… Had it been a religion with a specific founder, it would have been hard for Hinduism to undergo the kind of evolution it has experienced during the past many thousand years… At different periods, many [people] born in India have cleansed, reformed and revitalised Hinduism and made it relevant to their times. This would not have been possible had Hinduism had a founder.” (Bhaskarananda, The Essentials of Hinduism, pp4, 5).

Now, you might think, “What’s the pastor talking about?” Let’s come back to our reading and the fact that it speaks to us about, that Jesus actually walked on water. Unlike Hinduism, Christianity has a founder: the founder of Christianity is Christ. Jesus Christ is the founder of our religion, the author and perfector of our faith. And in our reading, our founder, our Saviour, our Jesus, walks on water. We also believe that our founder died and rose again and is actually alive.

And when we come to read our reading today, there’s a real temptation for us: instead of really coming to terms with the fact of history that Jesus did this, we want to say: “How is this relevant to me?” “How does this make a difference to my life?” In the book I just quoted, they say that Hinduism doesn’t have a founder and can always become relevant. But we do have a founder: is our desire to always want to make things relevant come from a lack of faith in our founder? If we have a living Jesus, and we want him to be relevant, aren’t we the ones who should make ourselves completely and totally irrelevant, and once again make him the only one in the church who is actually and totally relevant? If we have a Jesus who has actually risen from the dead, aren’t our mouths the things that need to be silenced and shut in awe and reverence before his majesty?

And yet, unlike all these pagan religions, unlike the Ancient Egyptian gods, and the Ancient Roman gods, and the Ancient Norse gods that people today are now still worshipping, we are not reading a book of cleverly devised myths. The most important fact about our reading today is that it actually happened that Jesus walked on the water, and no other religion actually worships a god, such as we do, where we actually claim did this on a certain day in history.

You see, we believe that Jesus is true God and true man. He is not a super-man like Hercules, or something like that. He is the God who created the world together with his Father and the Holy Spirit. And if he created the water, he can walk on it, if he wants to. And yet, what’s more miraculous: the fact that a man walks on water, or the fact that our God bothers to let a few hopeless fishermen in a boat see it? In the book of Genesis, we read that the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. This isn’t what read about here. Here we see God the Son having actually become a human being, a real man, and he doesn’t hover of the water, he plants his footsteps on the sea. From a scientific point of view, we would say that it is Jesus’ real human foot, with real human flesh, that walks upon real water—H²O. Now from a human point of view, we might think that this is impossible, but remember, Jesus is true God, and so anything and everything is possible with him.

And so we read in our reading: The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

Yes, I would be frightened too, if I saw anyone walking on the sea during a storm. Wouldn’t you? If this Jesus can walk quietly across the open sea, then he can walk in wherever he likes, and stand right behind you and right alongside of you and watch you commit your darkest and most secret sins. The closed doors would not prevent him. The bad weather would not hinder him. I would be afraid if the God I worship could walk on the open sea.

And yet, Jesus is not a ghost, but he says to his disciples: It is I; do not be afraid. If he really did this, then we know that it is his great desire also not to scare us, but to come and join us, and speak his peace to us, his forgiveness to us, his joy, his gladness, his love to us. We read: Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

We might find ourselves in our time of life when we just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We look up, down, North, East, South, West, and all we can see is wave upon wave upon wave. We look around us, and all we see is darkness. We might find ourselves being tossed up and down and all over the place, at work, at home, in our health, as we think about the future.

We read that just before Jesus walked on the water, he went up to a mountain to pray. Jesus is still praying even today at the right hand of God the Father. And when Jesus is on his knees, we know that whatever he has in store is something wonderful and powerful! Would we have expected him to walk on the water? And if that is what he does, and we find ourselves in a completely hopeless situation in our life, who knows how he will walk over to us and find us? Do you think that whatever suffering you are going through is a hindrance to him? Do you think the waves are a hindrance to him? Do you think the wind and the darkness are a hindrance to him?

Even Peter asks Jesus to let him join him. How will Jesus rescue you from what you are going through and let you even join him in the miraculous way he comes to you?

And if it is possible for him to walk physically on water, why not rise from the dead? Are the grave clothes, the tomb, the stone, a hindrance to him? What about Holy Baptism? Is there anything to hinder him from entering into our churches and baptise another child in his name with his own words and with his own hands? What about the Lord’s Supper? If Jesus walks on water, is there anything preventing him from coming and entering the bread and wine as he has promised and allow us Christians to eat and drink his body and blood?

But let’s think about this text in another way. I have often been thinking about all kinds of people all throughout the world who have been suffering in the last year—especially about Iraq and Syria. But then I have been thinking about all the ends of the earth who are still yet to hear the gospel for the first time. And then I get sorrowful about the places where the church has flourished for centuries, like Sweden and Iceland, as I just mentioned, where people are giving up on the gospel and going back to their old gods, like dogs returning to their vomit. Who is going to bring the gospel to them? How is it even possible? When I was in Africa, I heard about girl in Somalia, who was shot dead in the streets as an example, simply because she had a copy of the bible in her home. How are people in these places going to hear the gospel? How are missionaries even going to get anywhere near these needy people? Maybe the Holy Spirit even has it in mind to send a person from our congregation to somewhere dangerous like Iraq to speak the good news of Jesus to them and to encourage them in the faith. But how could this even be possible? How could this even be done? How could a person (even a person like us) be sent to a place like that? How could Christians do anything in places like that where there are machine guns and bombs going off in the streets? And yet, someone has to bring the gospel there, don’t they? Surely, God hasn’t finished with those people yet, has he? Surely, there’s still hope, isn’t there? And yet, who is God going to send? Who will he raise up? And how on earth will people be able to do that kind of work?

And yet, here we see in our reading today, Jesus in prayer on a mountain. And Jesus says: The harvest is plentiful and the labourers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest that he may send labourers into his vineyard. Jesus doesn’t tell us to panic and to worry. He tells us to pray. He tells us to join in with him who is always praying to the Father. And when Jesus is praying, when he is on his knees to his Father, who knows what he has in store for the future, for his people, for his church, for his little people everywhere throughout the world, for the nations? If he can even visit his disciples, walking on the water through the middle of a storm, what else do we think he might be able to do? And if he even can invite Peter to join him walking on the water, who knows what he has in store for you? If we look at the waves and the wind and the darkness, we would only despair. And yet, when we look to Jesus, and seek his face, and see only him, who knows what he can do with us? When we look to Jesus, there is only comfort, and strength, and peace, and love, and joy. Nothing is impossible with God.

Jesus says: It is I; do not be afraid. Amen.

Dear Lord Jesus, we trust in you. Add your strength to our wavering trust. We believe in your powerful word and promises. Help our unbelief. Come in your glorious majesty to us in all our fear and darkness, with the truth and purity of your word. Amen.