“Just Do It”

Midweek Lent, 2

February 28, 2024

Matthew 14:22-33

I moved to Dubuque, IA to start seminary in July of 2005. Mark and I met only 4 months earlier. I didn’t even want to start dating him because I knew that a long-distance relationship would be difficult to maintain.

The first night in my ‘new’ very old apartment, I lay there staring at the ceiling wondering, “What have I just done? I quit my job with the state—a job that had security, decent pay, healthcare, pension. I just started dating this amazing guy. And I’ve thrown everything up in the air to go back to school. In a different state. For 4 years. With no guarantees about internship or call. No idea where I’ll end up. No idea what this is going to look like.” And the tears just streamed down my cheeks. I was afraid I had made the worst mistake in my life.

John Ortberg wrote a book several years ago called, “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat.” At the time, I found it inspirational. It helped push me to take a risk on myself and on my faith. I didn’t have to stay where I was safe. In fact, I shouldn’t stay in the safety of the boat. I needed to venture beyond the boundaries of my little faith. Carpe Diem!

All I needed to do, as Nadia Bolz-Weber points out about this passage, was to keep reminding myself, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” And chug myself up that hill and out of the boat. Except, as she goes on, that’s not actually good news. Because it puts all my faith in me. And, when the storms arise and I fail, when the world falls apart around me, the Little Engine of Faulty Discipleship tells me that I simply didn’t have enough faith. I got distracted. I lost focus. I didn’t pray enough. I didn’t keep my eyes focused on Jesus.

But what is Jesus doing all this time? What has Jesus BEEN doing all this time—while I’m thinking I can and chugging my way up the hill? The focus of this approach to theology is all on me and what I’m doing and what I’m about. Very me-centric.

Nadia suggests three alternative approaches to this passage.

The first is this: Making things harder than they need to be is a stupid way to prove yourself. Nobody asked Peter to step out of the boat. It was not necessary. It was his decision. Completely. It was his decision to prove his faith—to himself? To Jesus? To the other disciples? But instead of proving anything, he punished himself, losing his footing when he lost his focus.

And yet, Jesus was there. Jesus was faithful. Jesus was the hand that saved him when he cried out. Even as his head went under the water, Jesus didn’t turn his back on Peter.

The second approach is: What we believe will determine what we see. We are fickle in our faith. It’s not that it’s too little—it’s just that we keep forgetting what God has already done. We keep forgetting that God is faithful. Prior to this event, the disciples had seen Jesus heal people; they saw Jesus cast out demons; they were on the boat when Jesus stilled a storm much like the one they’re in now; they saw Jesus bring a girl back to life; they saw Jesus heal a blind man and a mute person; earlier this same day, they saw Jesus feed more than 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish.

And then, as they row against the violent waves and wind, they see a figure on the horizon, walking toward them on the water. And they think: GHOST! Because they still believe that the storm is proof that God has abandoned them.

What the disciples saw was a storm and chaos. And for them, like us, any challenge that could lead to death must mean that God is far off. And yet, when Jesus approaches, he doesn’t say, “Don’t worry, I got this.” He says, “Don’t worry. It’s me. I’m here,”--even before he stills the storm. We have somehow learned that calm seas and prosperity are a sign of God’s presence, while difficulty and poverty mean God has abandoned us. But that’s simply not true.

Finally, When in doubt, remember what Jesus DID, not what he WOULD do. You all know the WWJD movement? What Would Jesus Do? Stickers and bracelets and bumper stickers and shirts. All encouraging us to be more like Jesus. Which, on the surface, isn’t a bad thing. But, the point isn’t to wonder what Jesus would do. The point isn’t to somehow try to emulate the miracles we want to see from him. The point is to remember what he already did–and the gifts we’ve been given to work with. To remember that he has already been through this with us and will continue to be there with us. We don’t have to muster up some kind of mammoth faith in order to follow him. We need only remember that he has been faithful in the past and will be faithful in the future.

I really like the way Nadia says it in her sermon:

And if life is storming around you it does not mean God is far off.

It’s just that…

Sometimes the winds are against us and life is terrifying

Sometimes we forget what God has done.

Sometimes we do not hear it when Jesus says take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

Sometimes we assume the worst – we look for ghosts and not for God

Sometimes we sink in the stormy waters of our own mistakes and miscalculations

And Sometimes, sometimes at the very last minute we have the faith it takes to just call out Lord save us.

And every time THAT happens. Every time we cry out for help The Lord reaches out his hand and catches us. There’s not some kind of deductible of self-reliance you have to meet before your spiritual benefits kick in. You can be downright wasteful with your prayers for help.[1]

And God will keep reaching down and pulling you out of the stormy waters. God will hold onto you when the waves crash. God will keep reminding you, “Don’t worry. It’s me. I’m here.” Until we finally believe it.

Pastor Tobi White

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church

Lincoln, NE

[1] https://thecorners.substack.com/p/the-case-against-wwjd-bracelets