Expectations

Sermon Notes 13th August 2023
Geoff Vidal

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, Matthew 14:22-36 

The Friday congregation is a little more senior than we are on Sundays. The pews are harder on bottoms on Fridays so there is a shorter service of only the Gospel reading and two hymns. On a Sunday we often have the First Testament reading and there is a little more time for the sermon on Sundays. I try to work out what will be helpful to share in that time taking into consideration that there are differing expectations. Some people are wanting to learn new things and some people are hoping that they will have the things that they know confirmed. There’s no way we will all think the same things at the same time: we are all wonderfully different. But, thank goodness that we are not all clones of each other. 

Both the First Testament and the New Testament include the instruction that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength. Loving God by using all our mind is as important as loving God with all our heart and soul and strength. Some people find home groups (or life groups) help them to grow in their love of God. Books help growing minds; last week Desiree spoke of the helpful Julia Baird book “Phosphorescence”. At least one person who comes each Friday watches Christian TV early each morning. Another very popular connection with God is the TV program Songs of Praise (although watching Songs of Praise might be using more heart or soul than mind).

I am truly blessed in that I have an opportunity to meet with a few other men most Tuesday mornings and chew over a range of different theological and ethical ideas. We agree on lots of things but at times I am challenged by new ideas. I have to think differently and to consider why I think the way I think. 

Loving God with all your mind mostly comes down to trying to comprehend how we envisage God and what is our understanding of Jesus. 

So, perhaps we come here to church very sincerely looking for a clearer understanding of who Jesus really is. Or maybe you would like to have your thoughts of Jesus confirmed. Possibly we a seeking a better knowledge of God. You might have come to church today trying to figure out where God can be found. 

There is a funny story of a misbehaving boy being given a “talking to” by a priest. When asked the question “where is God?”, he became extremely distressed and ran home telling his mother “they have lost God down at the church and are blaming me for it!”

Well, just where is God? Maybe the Bible readings we have heard today can help: 

The reading from Genesis is more than just the story of Jacob’s older sons being so fed up by the way he favours and spoils their young brother, Joseph, that when they have a chance, they get rid of Joseph. They don’t kill Joseph as a few of them wanted to do, but they have him sold as a slave to be taken to Egypt.

There’s a reminder in this story of the power of evil in the world. Oppression isn’t a problem “out there” with slave traders and Pharaohs. Oppression happens very close to home when there is not peace between brothers or clans. 

This story of Joseph being taken to Egypt as a slave is the link between God’s promise to Joseph’s ancestor Abraham and God’s rescue of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God was present and involved in the lives of Abraham and Jacob and Joseph and in the life of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. 

It’s distressing to hear survivors of the Holocaust (or relatives of victims) question the presence of God arguing that, if God did exist such horrors would not occur. I have read a book by Rabbi Kushner (a prominent Jewish theologian in New York) who tells his readers that it is much more helpful and appropriate to focus on the positive story of God in the Exodos of the slaves from Egypt than the evil actions of Nazi Germans.  

However, there are times when we wonder where God is. Why wasn’t God there to stop that disaster; that flood or fire or car crash or the abuse of that child or wife. Although we wonder where can we find God, the strange thing is, that, in fact, it is God who comes to find us.   

Our Gospel story from Matthew reminds us of how God (who we think we are looking for) can come to us unexpectedly. The story begins with Jesus, at the end of a busy day, sending his disciples away and going off alone to a secluded place to pray. Jesus often went away to pray when he had been busy. Each of the Gospels record that, when there was a lot going on, Jesus first priority was to get in touch with God in prayer. 

In this story today, we have a clear contrast between the situation of Jesus and that of his followers. When evening came Jesus was praying alone, but his disciples were in a boat, battered by the waves. They were a long way out from land, and they had the wind against them.  

Late in the night, Jesus comes to them out of the darkness, walking across the waters. Yet, despite their need for Jesus, the disciples are terrified at his presence. They yell out, “It is a ghost!”. Jesus reveals himself to them saying “It is I” and he encourages them by saying “Take heart; do not be afraid”. 

Now, Peter is prepared to take a risk if Jesus asks him to. Peter says, if it is Jesus, he will only have to tell him to come across the water to him, and he will do it. Initially, Peter places his trust in the Lord, but then he becomes really scared as he looks away from Jesus and becomes focussed on the storm going on around him. However, as Peter starts sinking, he calls on the help of the Lord, and Jesus holds him and keeps him safe. In Peter's situation of little faith and doubt, his Lord has stood by him.  

Jesus and Peter get into the boat, the wind drops, and the disciples are very aware that Jesus has rescued them one more time. They boldly proclaim: “'Truly, you are the Son of God.”  

It would be a pun, wouldn’t it, if I said, “Most Christians are in the same boat as the disciples and Peter.” But we are!  We are not always confident that Jesus is present with us. We often begin with the great courage which only faith can give us. However, this courage of faith seems to disappear when a storm blows up in our lives. We are not very confident when we are being knocked around by all the problems that trouble us in our lives.  

This Gospel story is a great reminder that God is present even when we don’t expect it and, ultimately, we are dependent upon the gracious help of our Lord. It is in knowing the presence of Jesus that we are able to get across whatever stormy patch we find ourselves in. Jesus is the one who is close to God, who gives us the example of looking to God for guidance and strength.  

However, even when we have our moments of believing that God is right there (thinking that God is present with us), our faith can be a bit shaky. Our faith can be very tentative if we have to jump out the boat into stormy water.  

The encouragement is for us to know that, when difficulties come our way, it is possible to find that God is truly there; it is possible to find assurance that God is present coming out of the darkness into our lives.  

Encouragingly, Peter's story, and the story of disciples who thought Jesus was only a ghost, reminds us that even people with only a little faith can still find that Jesus is not far away - just out at the edge of our vision we can find Jesus coming in towards us; Jesus wanting us to see him and draw him in to us. 

Yes, Jesus still comes, reaching out his hand and catching us, pulling us up out of the strife we are in, calming the things swirling around us, leading us into the safety and peace which only God can give. Blessing us with peace which is beyond our understanding.