The Passage<\/p>\n
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.\u00a0 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.\u00a0 When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.\u00a0 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.\u00a0 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, \u201cIt is a ghost!\u201d and they cried out in fear.\u00a0 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, \u201cTake heart; it is I.\u00a0 Do not be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Peter answered him, \u201cLord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cCome.\u201d\u00a0 So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.\u00a0 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, \u201cLord, save me.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, \u201cO you of little faith, why did you doubt?\u201d\u00a0 and when they got into the boat , the wind ceased.\u00a0 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, \u201cTruly you are the Son of God.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[English Standard Version]<\/p>\n
\u00a0 In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
These are jarring times in which we find ourselves: In the aftermath of this country\u2019s credit rating, are there responsible people in Washington, DC, who are willing to confront our spending habits?; If one is a fan of college football, what are we to make of all the changes in conference memberships?; What is going to emerge from the polarization in this country\u2019s politics?; Are individuals going to pick up on the slickness and attractiveness of the world\u2019s gods?; Will the military abilities of Ukraine be able to match those of Russia?; How will the students in our public schools overcome the learning deficits that were thrust upon them?; Are people paying attention to the number of denominations drifting from their biblical and sacramental foundations?<\/p>\n
During such jarring times, the Lord\u2019s baptized people are being plunged into the realities of the Life he gives to his people throughout this Pentecost season.\u00a0 Such plunging today involves the storms that swirl around and through our lives.\u00a0 Being South Carolinians, we\u2019re highly familiar with storms \u2013 rain, thunder and lightning, hurricane, nor\u2019easter, tornado, ice and snow.<\/p>\n
As we move into this familiar passage today, we discover it has much to teach us about the Life brought to this world by the Son.\u00a0 There are four actions in this passage: Jesus going to be with the Father; Jesus emerging in the middle of a storm; Jesus rescuing his disciples; and Jesus calming the storm.<\/p>\n
The first action<\/strong> shows Jesus going to be with the Father.\u00a0 After dismissing the thousands of people he has just fed, Jesus goes up a mountain by himself to pray (remember, first, that a mountain, biblically, signals the Father\u2019s presence; remember, second, that prayer signals a conversation between the Father and the Son).\u00a0 This action also shows the disciples in the middle of a storm on the lake.\u00a0 Before Jesus had dismissed the crowd, he had ordered the disciples to get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side of the lake.<\/p>\n The second action <\/strong>shows Jesus emerging in the middle of a storm.\u00a0 He is walking on the water toward the disciples between the hours of 3-6 am.\u00a0 When the disciples see this, they are terrified, blurting out that he is a ghost and crying out in fear!\u00a0 Throughout the Scriptures, the presence of the LORD God stirs this reaction among people (it makes one wonder if this is why people avoid the Lord\u2019s presence today, particularly in the four holy places of his Scriptures and Sacraments).\u00a0 Immediately, however, Jesus tells them to take heart; it is he and they are not to be afraid!<\/p>\n These calming words lead us to the third action<\/strong> that shows Jesus rescuing his disciples.\u00a0 Peter responds with these well-known words \u2013 Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water (Greek meaning of \u201ccommand\u201d carries the sense of \u201cdraw me to you\u201d). Jesus gives the command; Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water and moves toward Jesus.\u00a0 But then he notices the strong wind, becomes frightened and begins to sink, causing him to cry out his equally well-known words \u2013 Lord, save me!\u00a0 Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches Peter while saying to him \u2013 You of<\/p>\n little faith, why did you doubt?\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget that Jesus\u2019 assessment of Peter also applies to us (often, we are of little faith and, to be honest, of much doubt!).<\/p>\n This brings us to the fourth action<\/strong> showing Jesus calming the storm.\u00a0 When Jesus and Peter get into the boat, the wind ceases!\u00a0 Those already in the boat worship Jesus, saying \u2013 Truly, you are the Son of God!<\/p>\n We\u2019re familiar with the storms that occur in this part of the country: rain, thunder and lightning, hurricane, nor\u2019easter, tornado, ice and snow.\u00a0 Today\u2019s Gospel demonstrates that our Lord has power over them.\u00a0 However, before we start telling the Lord what he should do about the storms that crop up (especially with us getting deeper into the hurricane season while experiencing thunderstorms), we should notice there is another demonstration in this passage, one involving our faith and our doubt).<\/p>\n Even though we have been drawn into the Life of the Holy Trinity, we recognize that the life of the world still clings to us, a life that is under the domination of the unholy trio of sin, Satan and death.\u00a0 The unholy trio\u2019s domination reaches far beyond the natural storms of this planet, stirring up other storms, storms with which we are very familiar.\u00a0 These other storms are usually reflected in the Sunday prayers: illnesses in bodies, minds or spirits; distorted senses of who we understand ourselves to be; difficult or unsatisfying work; tense or breaking relationships.<\/p>\n How do we react to such storms \u2013 do we try to prevent them from occurring or hide from them or run from them?\u00a0 When these other storms erupt in and around us, our instinctive reactions are to turn to ourselves (that\u2019s what we do when confronted with a tornado warning \u2013 we start heading for the safest place in our homes!).\u00a0 What this passage is teaching us today is to turn from ourselves to the LORD God, the Lord who streams his Life into ours from his Scriptures and Sacraments.<\/p>\n Hearing that familiar phrase, Scriptures and Sacraments, we\u2019re tempted to shut our minds down, claiming we already know about those four holy realities.\u00a0 But let\u2019s not cave into such temptation; here are some examples why we should not:<\/p>\n When our bodies are fighting off a serious illness and our prescriptions include radiation and medications, do we think that is all there is to it?\u00a0 No, we don\u2019t!\u00a0 As the Lord\u2019s baptized people we realize that our exposure to his holy places really drives the health pouring back into our bodies (both in this life as well as in eternity).<\/p>\n When our relationships with others become tense or brittle and we are consulting with people skilled in those areas to help us through the situations they generate, do we think that is all there is to it?\u00a0 No, we don\u2019t!\u00a0 As the Lord\u2019s baptized people we realize that our exposure to his holy places really drives the restoration pouring back into such relationships.<\/p>\n These other storms, to which we are subjected by the unholy trio, are extremely threatening and fierce.\u00a0 But the LORD God will always hear our cries that he save us.<\/p>\n Storms cannot rip the marking given us by the Lord when he baptized us.\u00a0 Storms cannot prevent us from hearing, reading or studying the holy Writings he has given us in the Church.\u00a0 Storms cannot block us from his Forgiveness as we confront our sins and confess them.\u00a0 Storms cannot prohibit us from eating his Body and drinking his Blood.<\/p>\n It is true that these storms create and drive these jarring times: There is increasing emphasis in this world on self-centering attitudes and actions; There are burial services designed to focus only on one who died; There are countries led by rulers who just don\u2019t think like other leaders; There are parents who have difficulties parenting.<\/p>\n Remember that these storms are always trying to get us to take our primary cues from a self-absorbed life, but all that does is to worsen the situations in which we find ourselves.<\/p>\n The unholy trio of sin, Satan and death continually wants us to focus on our own lives.<\/p>\n They want us to become dispirited and exhausted while surrounding us with people<\/p>\n determined to be like God or stirring up tensions between individuals or wrecking things.<\/p>\n And we are to take the primary cues for our lives from that kind of a life?\u00a0 As baptized people, we don\u2019t think so!<\/p>\n Today\u2019s storm in the Gospel reminds us that the Lord\u2019s people are aware of their cues \u2013 all of them good, all of them permanent, all of them effective.\u00a0 Let this passage remind us that when the storms of the unholy trio begin slamming into our lives, there are the Lord\u2019s four cues that will carry us through them.\u00a0 Yes, they are familiar to the people of the Lord\u2019s parish communities, but let\u2019s not take them for granted.\u00a0 For those cues, imbedded in the Scriptures and Sacraments, are the only realities that can secure, protect and sustain us!\u00a0 All these cues stream from the Son\u2019s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, a stream that emerges from the waters of Baptism.\u00a0 With our lives firmly immersed in the Life of the Holy Trinity, the LORD God hears our cries for help and saves us!<\/p>\n Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC, STS; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pentecost Eleven (Revised Common Lectionary) | 08.13.23 | Matthew 14.22-33 | Carl A. Voges | The Passage Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.\u00a0 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,157,853,173,108,110,461,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-18699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-14-chapter-14-matthaeus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18700,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18699\/revisions\/18700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18699"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=18699"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=18699"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=18699"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=18699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}