The boat has always been a symbol considered to represent the church in the Gospels. The disciples were in the boat and without the Lord, interestingly here. They were in a storm. The chaos of the world blows all around the church. They were battered and losing ground, as the wind of the storm was against them. Jesus came walking toward them. THAT made them afraid. The storms they were used to, it would seem, but the Lord transcending the effects of the storm was something different.
Peter, being Peter, was eager to please the Lord and prove himself. He made a bold move to ask the Lord to command him to do the impossible. He was willing to risk it for the sake of being with the Lord. When he started strolling on the water, in the storm, however, Peter noticed the force of the chaos around him and he stopped facing it and started submitting to it. He cried out, Jesus saved him and then chided him for not having enough faith. When Peter rejoined the other disciples in the boat, and Jesus with him, the storm ceased. THEN they called Jesus "Son of God."
I am often focused on the other disciples in this account. They did not follow Peter in his zealous attempt to face the storm that raging all around them, but stayed huddled in the boat. I can imagine them saying what they would about Peter - perhaps that he was a suck-up or had an inflated opinion of himself to think that he could do the miraculous, and perhaps one or two thought, "This could be interesting. Watch." The Gospel writer has them staying in the boat in the face of the storm.
Matthew's Gospel begs interpretation within the context of the readers and listeners to it. I will humbly offer my interpretation here, in the hopes that it may bring a faithful perspective on what this Gospel story has to say about our age.
The church has been battered for about 36 years with bad theology (yes, Reagan and Falwell).
It has also been battered by the political and economic practices put in place that batter the people of God and hold them down, back and out. The bad theology has been used to justify and normalize the practice of marginalization, discrimination and exploitation of masses of people, and the church, cowering within its organizations, protocols and cultural contexts has not faced or addressed the storm that has raged all around her, but has in fact "blown by the winds of (doctrine)" the storm in the world. Church growth was all about finding a way for the church to benefit from the new expressions of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism that was being pushed politically, and Prosperity Theology was born to allow the church to cash in on the normalized greed of the culture, even ascribing its values to God by twisting the Word to suit "itching ears". The result was that the church has not addressed the prevailing winds of culture that have threatened the people of God, but has gone with it in some cases and in others, has cowered and cloistered itself within itself so as not to face it. The effect of this has meant that the church has become irrelevant to a generation of people who have been battered by the storm and have not had disciples who are willing to step out of the boat and face it.
The Gospel of Jesus addressed political and economic injustice. It addressed the forces of evil that create chaos and force their way on the people of God. It addresses the storm of popular opinion and the waves of normalized greed, hatred, lust for power and ideologies of self-indulgence at the expense of others. The church has not always addressed these forces with the Gospel of Jesus, but has stayed in the boat, either content to ride with the storm wherever it took them, or cowering from the force of it all and afraid to address it, themselves self-absorbed in their insulated church culture, either hoping to benefit from where the storm took them or concerned only to preserve themselves and their existence. Their "me and Jesus", personal salvation-focused theology has allowed them to ignore the pain of God's children, their sisters and brothers, in self-absorbed comfort.
Peter recognized the need to face the storm. He saw Jesus doing it and knew that he belonged with Jesus and was compelled to do what Jesus did in the world. His motives may have been self-serving or out of some deep-seeded need for validation, but Peter got up out of the boat and defied the storm. He failed because Peter did not understand in that moment the power of God in the chaos of the world. Jesus did not fail. And when Peter stayed focused on Jesus, Peter was doing what he set out to do in facing the storm head-on. It was when Peter believed that the raging wind and waves were greater than His Lord and Peter's ability to face them with his Lord, that he let fear overtake him in the storm.
We, the church, to date have done the same thing. We have not faced the storm head-on. We have given the Gospel over to the false teachers and prophets who have exploited it for their own greed, power and prestige or status in society. We have not applied the Gospel to the storm of greedy practices, abuses of power and a culture that is increasingly more self-absorbed. We have not said, "No", to those who have twisted God's Word. We have given it over to them. We sat in the boat, either raking in the benefits of status and wealth that came with the prevailing winds of idolatry, or we have cowered within the church culture and have ignored them. When someone has stepped out of the boat to walk with Jesus in facing the storm, the church has rejected them, wondering who they thought they were to do something so against the prevailing winds of doctrine and waves of practice. Sometimes the church has ignored the teachers and prophets who have sought to follow Jesus, and have stayed huddled together within their practices of piety and cultural faith expression, hoping the storm would pass. In the meantime, the rest of the world struggled in the storm and the church ignored them. In the meantime, their children looked around and learned what church does from them. For 36 years that has been happening.
The storm is raging. The boat is battered by the waves and the wind is against us. Jesus is coming to us still. The Gospel still addresses the unjust and unfaithful practices of those who claim to be followers of Jesus but who do anything but follow what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in the world. The Gospel addresses the greed, lust for power and self-centeredness that leads our society to normalize hatred, exploitation and inequity in the world. What will we do? Will we ride the wind and waves of prevailing doctrine and ideology that are in direct conflict with Jesus, hoping to benefit from them? Will we cower in the church culture and render ourselves and the Gospel of Jesus irrelevant to the world around us and the people who struggle in the storm? Will we get out of the boat and walk with Jesus? If we do, will we believe in Jesus' way of facing the storm head-on and follow Jesus in doing so, or believe more in the power of the storm itself to prevail in the world?
The storm is clearly not subsiding, but rather getting stronger in this context of time and place.
What will we do?
What will I do?
What will you do?
Pastor Jamie
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