Preach it!

This morning I preached at York Center Church of the Brethren. Here's what I said!

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-31

^22-23 As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night.

^24-26 Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror.

²⁷ But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”

²⁸ Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.”

^29-30 He said, “Come ahead.”

Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, “Master, save me!”

³¹ Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, “Faint-heart, what got into you?”

Message

         At this time of year, if someone mentions the word “fear,” what comes to mind is ghosts, goblins, and all manor of things that go bump in the night. There is also the kind of biblical fear that we are hard pressed to find in our day and age. Fire raining from the sky or plagues of locusts. And there is fear like that which Peter had in the passage that was read earlier. Fear that stamps out faith. But fear is something we all struggle with on a day to day basis as well.

          Recently, fear has become my yellow car. You know, that idea that you don’t start seeing how many yellow cars are on the road until you own one? Once I started thinking about fear, I began noticing all that is around me that I’m afraid of. And I started wondering why I was scared of those things and how I dealt with them.

          What are we afraid of? Why do we fear? And how do we conquer these fears, irrational or not? Is there a “right and wrong” kind of scared? I started by examining the kind of fears that I mentioned first, the ghoulish ones. The disciples thought that Jesus was a ghost as he walked towards them on the water and they were afraid.

          What is so scary about some of the made up monsters of our time? Vampires, werewolves, and even zombies. People in the movies where these creatures come to life have every right to be scared of the living dead. But on top of that, they still have their every day fears as well.

          In the movie Zombieland, the Zombies have taken over the world and there is a small group of people who are just trying to survive. At the beginning of the movie, the main character, Columbus, talks about being scared.

          His neighbor, 406, has just appeared at his door yelling for help. He lets her in, sits her down, and gives her a code red mountain dew. She tells him about the homeless man who just tried to bite her on the street.

          “I'm sorry,” she says to him, “I'm just so scared.” “No, no, no, you should be scared.” He replies, “A homeless man just tried to eat you. That's the right kind of scared. That's reasonable scared. I get scared for things that don't make sense, like clowns with red noses, or, like, the rags they use to wipe down tables.”

          Can our fear take over our lives sometimes? When fear starts to overshadow our faith, that's when we really have a problem. We start living scared lives and stop living out the lives we were intended to live even before a major crisis happens.

          “I have a case of, uh, chronic anxiety," Columbus says, "Truth is, I was always kind of phobic. I found lots of things disturbing. Like undertow or department store Santas. Being alone with a baby. But the thing I fear more than anything, yes, even more than zombies, clowns. When you're afraid of everything that's out there, you quit going out there...”

          Zombieland may be about surviving the “Zombie Apocalypse,” but to me, the biggest message is fear and overcoming it. Before dead started roaming the earth, Columbus had already given up on any kind of "real living." His fears won way before he had flesh eating beings chasing him.

          Fear is in everyday life, not just in the movies. There aren't zombies roaming the streets right now unless it's a premature trick-or-treater. When Peter jumped out of the boat to walk towards Jesus, he wasn't afraid, or at least the scriptures don't describe him as being afraid. "He jumped out of the boat," it says. His faith in Jesus helped him cross the water. Halfway there, though, his fear won out over his faith. And he fell. He let his fear block out the miracle that was before him, the wonderful man that was there before him. He was walking on water! and he let fear prevent him from going further.

          “We don’t have to understand or explain it," says Albrecht in his commentary on this passage, "It’s enough to say that this was another miracle Jesus performed, another instance where he showed that he was not bound by the natural scientific laws that we can never set aside.”

          Fear comes partly from the need to explain everything. If it can’t be explained, it could be scary. That’s where faith comes in. Trusting that, even though we can’t explain something, we know it comes from God, that God is good, and that he has a plan with our best interest in mind.

          I was scared of taking a new position and moving halfway across the nation. But I knew it was a call from God to join BVS and that Elgin was the place for me. So I did it. I doubted at first if that was what God was really calling me to do, but, in my gut, I knew that was the fear talking and this was what I was supposed to do.

          I would put the theory to you that doubt almost always comes from fear. “...Peter got out of the boat," Albrecht says, "and began to walk to Jesus on the water. But when he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the high waves nearby, he became afraid and began to sink. Then he called on Jesus to save him, and Jesus reached out and caught him, admonishing him for doubting.”  “Faint-heart," Jesus says in the message version, "what got into you?”

          Hebrews 11:1-2 encourages our faith and trust in God. "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd."

           In his TED talk, Tim Ferriss describes his great fear of swimming and how he conquered it instead of letting his fear live his life. He broke down the elements of swimming piece by piece until he understood it. He used this method to learn tango and how to speak multiple languages. He realized his fear and not only did he do something about, it but in fact, he embraced it.

          “So fear is your friend," he says in closing, "Fear is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn't do. More often than not it shows you exactly what you should do. And the best results that I've had in life, the most enjoyable times, have all been from asking a simple question: what's the worst that can happen?”

          Fear is doubt, doubt is fear, but as both can weaken your faith, they can also strengthen it. If you turn immediately to God as you start to doubt or fear, he can pull you through it. Being afraid can be a warning sign and help you realize that something really may not be the right thing for you. As long as your fear doesn't take over your life, a little fear is healthy. It can be a driving force for survival even.

          I encountered this kind of fear this summer. The kind of fear that has you praying non-stop for help and guidance. The kind of fear that brings you closer to God. As most of you know, I was a coordinator for Church of the Brethren workcamps this summer. One of my workcamps was in St. Croix. On one of our last days, we went snorkeling. I was told it's a wonderful experience that everyone should have. I still believe that and would like to try again someday, but this was not one of those experiences.

          The water was not very clear the day we went, but we thought we would try anyway. We headed out. When we couldn't see anything, everyone went back except for two workcampers who had gone out even further than the rest of the group. I went out to get them and to see if there was anything better where they were. One of the youth was a swimmer on a team in his high school. The other was a girl who was very fit, and then there was me. I realized as we started to head back in that it was too far for me. I should have stopped way before I had.

          I'm a good swimmer but Going out is always easier than coming back in. The team swimmer and the girl were ahead of me, making their way in and there I was, the adult who came to get them, struggling. Then I started to get tired and I started to get scared. All the stories I had heard of people not making it back to the shore because they had gone out too far started swimming around in my head.

          I still didn't know how to properly use the flippers on my feet and the mask kept filling up with water. I could barely see the youth who was guiding us in. I had to keep it together. So I started praying. My fear drove me to work harder and not give up. Then, Dori's voice from Finding Nemo floated into my head. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." Who knew a cartoon character with short term memory loss could give such encouragement, but it worked. I was panting and freaking out inside but every time my youth guide turned around to check on me, I smiled and waved.

          The girl I was with was starting to get nervous also and I needed to stay strong for her as well as myself. I prayed. I swam. We hit the shore and that's when I understood all those people in the movies that crawl onto the sand and kiss it. I didn't do that, but I thought about it. In the end, I think I made it out to be worse than it was, but I was so full of fear. But the fear didn't block out my faith. I made it with God pulling me along.

          When reflecting on this story, I think of the passage in Proverbs 3. "Dear friend," it says, "guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life; don’t for a minute lose sight of them. They’ll keep your soul alive and well, they’ll keep you fit and attractive. You’ll travel safely, you’ll neither tire nor trip. You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry, you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep. No need to panic over alarms or surprises, or predictions that doomsday’s just around the corner, Because God will be right there with you; he’ll keep you safe and sound."

          Fear of a zombie attack, fear of clowns, fear of being lost at sea while walking on water, and fear of not making it back to shore. These all have their benefits for life...well, maybe not the fear of the zombie attack. We can learn from these fears if we don't let them become irrational. We can even become closer to God through them. "Fear not," Jesus says. The bible says some form of that at least a hundred times. One source said that "Do not be afraid" was in the bible 365 times, one for each day, but that could have been wishful thinking. God doesn't want us to fear and knowing he's on our side we can "take afternoon naps without worry."

          In the end, Jesus saved Peter, as he saves us all. Peter had just proven physically for all to see that he had doubted but Jesus never gave up on him. And he doesn't give up on us either when we let our fears outshine our faith. He waits patiently and gives us a hand up when we need it. We just need to call out to him. Tim Ferriss said, "What's the worst that can happen?" I would add, with God at your side, how can you fail?

Benediction

So just keep swimming. Trust God to pull you along and believe it when he says, "Fear not." He'll help you through. Go in peace and light. Amen.