Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

(Matthew 14:22-34)

The scene put before us in today’s Holy Gospel is one of the most indelible images from the life of our Lord and his disciples. We hear of our Lord sending the disciples ahead of Him in the boat while he goes up to the mountain to be alone with God, His Father. We hear of and envision the boat being tossed about in the waves from the stormy winds that stir up the sea. We can imagine the fear and awe that grips the disciples as they see our Lord walking toward them upon the waters – and the relief and joy they experience as He tells them the reassuring words that it is He, to be of good cheer and not to be afraid. And we have the incredible image of Apostle Peter stepping out of the boat onto the waters to walk toward our Lord – initially stepping forth in great faith and then beginning to fear and waver as the waters toss all around him. He begins to sink and calls out to the Lord to save him and immediately our Lord is there to stretch forth His hand and lead him back into the boat. Today’s Gospel reading concludes with the disciples all safely in the boat with our Lord - the seas have been calmed and they prostrate themselves before Him proclaiming ‘Truly, Thou art the Son of God!’

There is so much to learn from this Gospel passage: Christ sets before us the example of the importance of making time to be alone to pray and to be with God – recharging our spiritual batteries; we also see in the image of the disciples in the boat upon the stormy seas, an icon of the Church, which is our safe haven and ark in this world – keeping us afloat above the abyss of sin and worldliness; and we are also amazed to see the miraculous power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and His great care and compassion for his disciples as He walks upon the waters and calms the stormy seas. But let’s focus for a moment this morning on the Apostle Peter and his stepping out upon the waters to go to his beloved Lord.

When our Lord summoned Apostle Peter to come to Him, Apostle Peter, in his zeal and love for Christ, immediately stepped out of the boat and began walking upon the water toward His Lord and God. Apostle Peter demonstrates in this moment a self-forgetting, Christ-focused faith in Jesus Christ. As long as he kept his eyes on Christ he walked upon the water as if it were dry land. But what happened?... We read that,“when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out ‘Lord save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?’” The moment Apostle Peter took his eyes off of Christ and began to concern himself with himself, with his fears and doubts, this is when he began to sink. Thanks be to God, our Lord is always close at hand and when Peter cried out, ‘Lord save me!’ Jesus stretched out His hand and brought him safely back into the boat.

Brothers and sisters in Christ… this Gospel image of the Apostle Peter and Christ upon the waters must be a consistent reminder and lesson for each one of us. It is a vivid portrait of the uplifting and sustaining power of God-focused faith and the perilous dangers of our mis-directed, self-centered, anxious preoccupations that eclipse our focus on God.

This distinction of focus, between having our heart, our mind, and our affections turned toward God vs. having our heart, our mind, and our affections preoccupied with our selfish concerns is fundamental, it is the key to our spiritual life and our spiritual health.

What was it that drew the Apostle Peter out of the boat and allowed him to walk upon the waters? It was his love for and faith in God that allowed him to participate in the grace of God that kept him afloat upon the waters.

And so it is with us… if we would strive to follow Christ’s instructions to ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness’, we too might then participate in that grace of God which can keep us afloat upon the waters of our life. But if we turn our attention away from God, how quickly do we begin to sink and drown in the worries and anxieties of this life.

Christ’s call to place God and the things of God as our first priority in life is not a negation of those things which we have to do in this world. We must all still do our jobs, pay our bills, and attend to that which needs attending to in our lives. But Christ’s call informs us and instructs us as to how we are to being as we attend to such things.

If we would focus less on ‘what we are doing’ and focus more on ‘how we are being’ – this would be very instructive to us. We tend to focus more on ‘what we are doing’… and this causes us to fall into sin and forgetfulness of God. Thinking that ‘what we are doing’ is the source of our spiritual state… rather than ‘how we are being’.

If we are at church or if we are praying in our icon corner… these are the situations wherein we are usually aware of being with the Lord. But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what are we doing when we are at work? What are we doing when we are at home with our family? What are we doing when we are driving on the 101? We are so often forgetful of God and think that ‘what we are doing’ is the criteria for our spiritual life. No… it is not ‘what we are doing’ it is ‘how we are being’.

Let us ask ourselves: ‘How are we being when we are work? How are we being when we are with our family? How are we being when we are driving on the 101?’

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us attend to those things which require our attention, for this is our responsibility. But let us do so in the conscious awareness of ‘how we are being’ and in the awareness of the presence of Christ and His heavenly kingdom – doing all things with this unwavering focus on God. If we can adopt such an awareness of the closeness of Christ in all our comings and goings… Christ will sustain us even amidst the fiercest storms and crashing waves of life.

May God be with us and may we be with God, our God Who is everywhere present and fillest all things!