19th Sunday OT A
Notes
Transcript
v This Gospel scene from Matthew is pretty amazing, and it is unique among the four Gospels as it is the only one to recount Peter walking on the water… doing the impossible.
Ø Just imagine what that must have been like – you’re in your small fishing boat with the other disciples, and a storm engulfs you. You see this huge thunder head when the lightning flashes across the night sky.
§ Booming thunder
§ Waves grow stronger
§ The Rain beats upon you in sheets
§ The boat is being tipped from one side to the other – you’re afraid it might begin to break
Ø Just then, in the flashes of lightning, you see a man walking toward you on the water.
Ø At first, you’re terrified. But he says. “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
Ø Jesus calls you to step out of the boat – probably the last thing you would want to do. But you keep your eyes on Jesus, you put one foot out over the side, feel the water on the bottom of your feet, and you stand. You’re doing the impossible. You begin to walk.
Ø But then, you look away from Jesus. You see the waves towering above you, the wind trying to blow you off your feet… you focus in on your fear rather than your faith, and you slowly begin to sink.
v Why did Peter begin to sink? Because he took his eyes off of Jesus and focused his attention on the storm and the fear. He began to doubt that Jesus could sustain him in the face of what was going on. In a way, he had more faith in the storm than in Jesus.
v Very often, we are in the midst of storms ourselves.
§ Pandemic – what’s coming next?
§ Our country – election year
§ Worries about our family members
§ Worries about our job, our financial situation
Ø These storms boil down to UNCERTAINTY, DISCOURAGEMENT, and FEAR
§ In the wind and waves of these storms, we tend to cling to frail boats of
· Political parties, putting blind trust in others
· Our own pride, or hiding from our problems
Ø These storms can force us to ask the question: “Where is God in all of this? Where should I turn to find him?”
§ The answer to that question can be found in our first reading from the first book of Kings.
· “God was not in the wind, the earthquake, the fire… God was not in the storm… but in the tiny whispering sound.
· And that whispering voice of God, in the cacophony of the storms of our lives says this:
¨ “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
v These are the words Jesus tells his disciples in the boat when they are terrified of the storm, they are seemingly about to die, and they think Jesus is a ghost.
¨ “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.”
Ø And there is something very interesting in those words Jesus speaks. The phrase “It is I.” can more literally be translated from the Greek as “I AM.”
Ø Does that sound familiar? “I AM” is the name God gave to himself when asked by Moses in the Old Testament when he was before the burning bush. Or more fully: I AM WHO I AM.
Ø This is to say that God IS. He is existence itself… He is much bigger than our minds can comprehend.
Ø What Jesus wants to show us by using this phrase, this name of I AM is that he is actively in control of everything. This goes against a popular belief about God called Deism that teaches that God exists, but that he lets the world continue on without his continuous working in it. Like a watch maker would wind it up and then let it work on its own.
Ø But the reality is that nothing could exist without him. God did not simply create the world, he is actively sustaining it. Each little flower, each bird in the sky, each wave upon the ocean, the chair or the pew that you’re sitting upon could not exist right now if God were not lovingly holding it in existence at this very moment.
Ø And the same goes for us. We would cease to exist if God were not loving us into existence at each millisecond of our lives. Each beat of our heart.
Ø God is not one creature among many, nor is he the supreme or most powerful thing in the universe… God is not really a THING at all – he is a pure WHO. He who simply IS, who holds all things together by his loving thought.
v Now why we did we venture off into this little theology lesson? Because all of this is to point out God’s true divinity. What he truly means when he says I AM. Could he forget us, not care for us in the storms?
¨ It all brings much more meaning to his words: “Take courage. It is I. I AM. I AM GOD. Do not be afraid.”
v When we take our eyes off of HE WHO IS, and we focus on the fear and uncertainty, we loose sight of TRUTH because HE IS TRUTH.
v We must listen for that tiny whispering sound of his voice, and we hear it by coming to Mass every Sunday, coming to confession regularly, loving others rather than being self-absorbed.
Ø And perhaps one of the most important things we can do is DAILY PRAYER. If we don’t turn to God every day, we will surely sink.
v So in the midst of our storms, we must listen to him who is standing upon the water, doing the impossible. He will sustain us, allow us to do the impossible with him, if only we keep our eyes on him. We can trust him. And when we see that we are doing the impossible, walking on water, we can come to say with the disciples in the boat: “Truly, truly you are the Son of God… the great I AM.”