I'm sure most of you remember a few
years ago when there were bracelets and charms and bumper stickers
that said “WWJD” – what would Jesus do? I never thought this
was a great idea for me. I have never been able to tell what Jesus
would do in a particular situation, even after studying the gospels.
I do know that he would do the right thing and if it was a choice
between a good thing and a better thing, he could tell which was
better. I often can't. But I would have a bumper sticker that said
WWPD – what would Peter do. I identify with Peter. I've stuck my
foot in my mouth, I've made promises I didn't keep, I've sometimes
not been there for people I care about – and there are times when I
thought I knew what Jesus would do and after I did it, I discovered
it wasn't at all the right thing to have done.
One author in referring to the miracle
we've heard about today, complained that of all the miracles recorded
in the Gospels, this was the one miracle that seemed to have no
point. Jesus has been curing the sick, driving out demons, and even
feeding a hungry crowd. These miracles had a point; they showed that
Jesus had the power of God; they caused a bad thing to become good,
an emptiness to be filled up, a broken human life to be made whole.
If you, like these disciples, had been following Jesus around you
would be pretty convinced that he could work miracles. So when he
was walking on water, was he just showing off? Did the disciples
need another reminder that he was special? In fact, in this
particular miracle, their first reaction was to cower in fear –
they thought he was a ghost. Was that Jesus' intention? The bottom
line is that I don't think anyone knows exactly why Jesus did this.
So we turn again to Peter. We know
what Peter would do, because he did it. He figured that if Jesus
could walk on water, then it followed that he should be able to do
so. And he called out to the Lord, expecting a miracle. The words
in the reading say that Peter said, “If it is you, Lord...” but
most authorities agree that it should have been translated, “Since
it is you, Lord...” Peter wasn't testing Jesus; he was convinced,
and he believed that Jesus could work miracles.
I wonder what the other apostles felt.
There they were, frantically trying to keep the boat from sinking,
bailing water out with their bare hands, perhaps. And Peter decides
to leave them to be with Jesus. And it makes you wonder, perhaps,
whether that is a danger for the most devout of us – we feel more
comfortable when we are alone with the Lord, when maybe we should be
back in the boat helping bail. It's a problem in many parishes. We
have people who are indifferent to the parish community, sometimes
because they are just plain indifferent, and other times because they
feel as though they can advance faster in their spiritual lives if
they leave the concerns of the community behind.
In any event, at Jesus's invitation,
Peter does step out of the boat; he does find himself walking on
water. And he notices that the waves are tossing and the wind is
blowing and he begins to sink like a stone. I think Peter is showing
us ourselves. There are times when everything is going well, when I
feel as though I'm walking with God by my side, when I have a sense
that all is right with the world. And there are other times when I
feel abandoned by God, and I look around in despair at our
politicians, our enemies building bombs and planning our destruction;
climate change --- you name it, it isn't hard to notice the tossing
waves and the blowing wind.
And maybe it's even a reflection of
the average day in the life of a Christian. We get up in the morning
and look forward to accomplishing a lot with the time God has given
us this particular day. And then we go to bed at night, our
check-list unfinished, new tasks waiting for us in the morning, and
our energy depleted. And maybe it's a mirror of our life; I get to
talk to a lot of people who are at the end of their time on earth.
There are many who say with sincerity, “I've had a wonderful life”.
But when you get to know them, it seems as though their assessment
of their life is more related to whether they are optimists or
pessimists. Nobody gets through life without a few big regrets, a
few moments they wish they could do over.
Peter undoubtedly was having one of
those moments. Why didn't he stay in the boat? What if the Lord
couldn't save him? What if Jesus was upset with him and intended to
teach him a lesson? But he cries out, “Lord, save me!” And
sometimes that's all we can do – when we look at the world, when
we look at our day which didn't turn out the way we had hoped; when
we look at our life and notice those moments when we really blew it.
All we can do is cry out, “Lord, save me.”
There is a story about a marine who
was supposed to be the bravest soldier there was. He was asked by
his commanding officer if he would jump out of a plane to help out a
group of soldiers who were pinned down by enemy fire. The marine
thought a few minutes and said, I'll do it under two conditions –
that the ground I land on will be soft, and that the plane will not
fly higher than 100 feet when I jump. The commander said that he
would be dropping in a jungle clearing, so the ground would be soft,
but he couldn't ask a pilot to fly that low – and besides, if the
marine were to jump from only a hundred feet, his parachute wouldn't
open. The marine replied, “You didn't say I'd have a parachute!”
We are always like Peter. We keep
forgetting we have a parachute, we have the promise of Jesus that he
will be with us. We wait until we are at the end of our rope before
calling out “Lord, save me.” But you and I can at least be like
Peter, and know that when we call out, Jesus is there holding out his
hand to grasp our own.
