Göttinger Predigten
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Pentecost 9, 08/10/2014
LEARNING HOW TO NAVIGATE IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Sermon on Matthew 14:22-33, by David Zersen
This summer in the states surrounding Lake Michigan in the U.S. there have been a significant number of warnings about the dangers of a rip current to swimmers. Rip currents take place when large waves hitting the shore turn at angles and seek a way back out into the deeper water. If a person is caught in this current heading out to deep water it may be difficult to fight against it and the swimmer may try to navigate the current back to shore. Last year, the United States Lifesaving Association estimates that 100 people died because they didn't know how to navigate a rip current. Instead of fighting the current which tries to pull one with it out to sea, swimmers should make a right angle turn and swim parallel to the shore until they are out of the current.
That practical advice for swimmers is interesting in the light of Peter's predicament in today's Gospel lesson. Peter is with some of the disciples in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when a storm comes up in the middle of the night. (Apparently committed fishermen needed to be ready at all times for a school of fish to swim by chance into their nets.) In the midst of the dangerous currents, Peter feels himself invited to try some water-walking with Jesus. However, when the wind and waves get too daunting, Peter panics and makes the wrong moves. In the language of our Lake Michigan story, he starts to flail desperately against the current. "Which way should I swim?" he seems to be asking. "What should I do?" Jesus teaches him what he teaches us. "Keep your focus. Don't swim against the current. Let me take you out of the storm."
Being lost at sea can mean a violent end
There are many modern counterparts to this predicament. They are real for us when we fail to keep our focus and simply flail around foolishly in the hopes of using our wits to solve a problem. That can involve making faulty judgments like acting out in panic, responding in revenge or doing the very thing which later reflection would regard as ignorant. When we are lost at sea, we often don't use good sense. Our fight or flight mechanism goes into action, but neither may provide the right solution.
If you're teaching a child to float on his or her back, and you want to release your arms under it, he or she may simply kick and splash in order to regain some control. However, as you try to calm the child, you could simply encourage, "relax, let go, keep your eyes on me." It's what Jesus encourages Peter to do. Jesus was the one in charge, not Peter. He was the one who would provide the ability to withstand the wind and waves. Peter needed to keep his eyes focused on Jesus.
The meaning of this is quite profound. Understanding it takes us away from the sea to all kinds of metaphorical counterparts in which we find ourselves sinking, drowning, getting lost, surrendering our common sense and destroying all hope of surviving. The situations may involve us in personal conflicts or in international skirmishes. Right now there are many examples of metaphorical storms at sea in which people are swimming against the current and losing all chances of finding a meaningful present solution for themselves as well as one for their future situations. A good example was given in an interview with a middle-aged Palestinian father who was asked by a reporter whether he could ever forgive those who had destroyed his home and his way of life by bombing. "Never," he responded with determination and desperation. We certainly understand his plight. We sympathize. We want to embrace him and his family and share his anguish. Be when we're not in the circumstance, when we're not close to drowning in the antagonistic currents in life, we may be fortunate enough to acknowledge that there has to be a better way.
Today we are facing torrents of violence and revenge that flood our television screens. What are the solutions for people who want to swim the Rio Grande, who want to flail against their opponents in Syria, in Ukraine, in Libya, in Egypt, in Afghanistan, in Iraq or in the U.S. Legislature? Frequent interviews with John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, suggest that we may have the answers to these predicaments, or that we should be trying to resolve the tensions, the violence, and the hatred through negotiation. At times we may even get so emotionally involved in the crises that we think it's our obligation to swim against the currents along with all these troubled people. However, when we step back for a moment, when we try to use some common sense and all the spiritual insight we've been trained to employ, we recognize that all the negotiation in the world is not going to remove the maelstrom into which people fall when they senselessly flail about seeking solutions in the adverse currents.
Being lost at sea encourages us to acknowledge the source of salvation.
When Peter found himself in a predicament that could have sent him to a watery grave, he cried,
"Lord, save me!" For us Christians, it is the only sensible thing to do. When we are desperately seeking a solution to a problem, all too often we check with Dr. Phil or a close friend or a self-help manual. At international levels, we have big expectations for our elected or appointed officials. However, Jesus reached out to the flailing and sinking Peter and said, "Why did you doubt?"
I've taken some lessons on this matter from my six-year-old grandson, Aiden. One time, I had both him and his eight-year-old sister in the public library and they needed to go to the bathroom. So, I decided I would stand outside the two doors and wait for both of them because I didn't know how to navigate the waters with two genders. As Aiden went alone into the big, strange public washroom, I could hear him singing softly, "Jesus loves me this I know." And I've since heard him singing it as he walked into the basement at our house alone. What a wonderful lesson for all of us to learn from a child!
When we are caught in a troubling situation and we don't know how to resolve a problem, the worst thing to do is just let our human instincts take over and force us to fight, to retaliate, to take revenge, or to brutalize the possibilities for living at peace with one another. It is true that others in our intimate relationships and in our international ties may come at us with the force of a rip current and we may choose to fight back. We know the results of such scraps, law suits, jihads, divorces, and world wars. We can justify them all by saying, "What would you have done in such a situation?" or "Would you just stand by and watch them destroy you?"
At some point in these modern counterparts to being lost at sea, when the driving current seeks to push us into greater danger, we should remember that if we just turn an angle-if we just disengage from the violence-we will see face to face our Savior hanging on a cross. It is an overwhelming experience to try to understand when everything seemed to be against him, he did not fight back. When crowds shouted "Crucify him," he said "Father, they don't know what they are doing." Jesus summons us to seek an alternative to revenge and ongoing violence by refusing to succumb to it. Just as he accepted violence against him and forgave others for their ignorance and ruthlessness, so he asks us as he asked Peter, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" In essence, Jesus is asking us to keep our eyes focused on his loving and forgiving lifestyle and to sense in it another and better way.
We aren't the first ones to get stuck in a human way of doing things, a route that can lead to a dead end. In Deut. 2:3, we hear about the almost amusing situation in which God says to Moses, "You've been wandering around in this hill country long enough! Turn north!" Jesus, however, before he even chides Peter, stretches out his hand to help him find another direction.
Jesus is doing the same thing for us when he encourages us to disengage, to be more flexible, and to seek to understand the situation when conflict arises. It doesn't have to be my way or the highway! If we disagree with someone or feel we have been hurt or wronged, we are not to react immediately but to check with others and involve them before we sever a relationship. (Matthew 18: 15-20) And if we have been ignored or not fully appreciated, we have been loved in order to love all, even our enemies. (Mt. 5:44) And when people challenge or correct or abuse us, we are forgiven in order to forgive others endlessly.(Mt. 18:22) We have been loved to seek such alternatives to conflict and violence not because they are easy, but because they are more than human. They are Jesus' own way. They are divine alternatives.
Occasionally when I'm driving on a highway I see a large billboard which some well-meaning Christian has paid for with the words, "Who is Jesus?" Then a website follows that curious readers can check. That question was certainly important to curiosity seekers in Jesus' own time. People wondered if it made any sense to follow the loving, gracious and caring lifestyle that Jesus modeled for all. Then as now it was certainly more human in a struggle or confrontation, when proverbially lost at sea, to swim against the current in the way humans have always done. However, when people tried to follow Jesus, when they threw fear to the wind and decided to love rather than to hate, they often found themselves exulting with the disciples, "Truly you are the Son of God." Truly, this is the better way!
Let's try shouting it as well. First, let's hear the Father affirm all of us as he once affirmed the Prodigal Son. Then, let's hear Jesus assure us as he assured the disciples that no matter the conflict, he is with us to the end of the age. Let's hear disciples and colleagues from all times and places who discovered that forgiveness is better than retaliation, love better than hate, say "Jesus is Lord." And let's hear the spirit surging within us admit that Jesus offers us more than our humanity ever can. In the midst of life's struggles, he calls us over the tumult to see what his lordship alone can do.
Let's try it together, assuring ourselves that we too know the true source of our strength.
Let's shout it to the one who loves us and saves us: "Truly you are the Son of God."
Suggested hymns: "Jesus calls us oe'r the tumult"
"Jesus Savior pilot me"