The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The Lord is the stronghold of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
Welcome to Worship at Disciples Net Church.
We're so glad that you found your way here.
Hope you'll join us for a short time now
of worshiping God together.
Won't you come?
And now, won't you join us in song?
Oh, what peace we have in form and
Oh, what needless faith we bear
Oh, because we do not carry
Everything to my prayer
Can we try those temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the morning prayer
Can we find a friend so thankful
Hope that all our sorrows share
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the morning prayer
Will you pray with me please?
Almighty and everlasting God
The comfort of those who are grieving
The strength of those who are hurting
Let the prayers of your people rise to you
We give thanks for your son Jesus
For no matter how deep we sink in sin
And despair he comes to us
And at the touch of his hand
The outcasts are healed and reconciled
And the dead awake to fullness of liar
Your son Jesus has untied our burdens
And healed our spirits
And so we lift up the prayers of our hearts
For those still burdened
Those still seeking healing
Those in need within the church and the world
For families that are separated
Either by war or for work
Protect the children and restore those families
Bring safety and protection to all your children
In this world
For those in fear for their lives by invasion
Ambush and attack
Bring them to a place of safety
We also pray for reconciliation
Between warring factions
And hope for a time when people will no longer
Take up arms against others
May your realm come more fully into this world
For those who still suffer because of actions
Taken by the church or its representatives
Even long ago
For indigenous people separated
From their lands and families and cultures
And for the targets of so-called religious wars
And inquisitions
We pray for forgiveness for those wrongs
And the strength of spirit not to repeat
The sins of the past
To everyone in distress
Grant relief and refreshment
And draw them into your abundant life
Those who feel lost in the crowd
Let them feel your presence and your love
For them specifically
To all those in need
Let them feel your ever-near presence
But also let them see us
As we take up your call
To be your representatives in bringing peace
Health and wholeness to this world
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
Who taught us to pray, saying,
Our Father
Who art in heaven
How will we thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
To give us this day our daily bread
And to forgive our debts
That has to be forgiven our debts
And to lead us not into temptation
But to deliver us from evil
For I am just in heaven and in power
And in the glory of her ever coming
Tell me the stories of Jesus
I hope to hear
Things I might ask Him to tell me
If He were me
Sings by my ways
My tears I must see
Stories of Jesus
Tell them to read
First let me hear
How the children stood round to sing
And I shall then see His fasting
Resting on me
Birds full of kindness
States full of grace
Falling in the love light
Of Jesus Christ
The story that we look at in Scripture today
I think is one that needs to be put in context
And sometimes this particular story
We isolate and don't take time to notice
What happened immediately before
This is a story of Jesus walking on the water
And coming to the disciples in the middle of the lake
In the early hours of the morning
And it is important to put that in a certain context
Because you see this story begins in the evening
Of the same day that Jesus has learned
Of the death of His beloved friend and cousin
John the Baptist
Jesus needed to be by Himself
He needed to grieve
But you see there was this crowd
Of 5,000 people who were hungry
For the teaching that He had to bring
And they were also hungry for bread and fish
That story you perhaps remember
And have heard it another time
But I think it's important to remember
That Jesus desperately wanting to be by Himself
And simply pray to God
Was forced by the need of God
Was forced by the needs of the crowd
And by His love for these people
To put off His own needs
And wait until a little bit later
To be by Himself and to pray
So Jesus has been through all of that
At the end of the day
And we take up the reading
Of Matthew chapter 14 verse 22 to 33
And this again is immediately after the feeding
Of the 5,000
Immediately Jesus made the disciples
Get into the boat and go on ahead
To the other side while He dismissed the crowds
And after He had dismissed the crowds
He went up the mountain by Himself to pray
When evening came He was there alone
But by this time the boat battered
By the waves was far from the land
For the wind was against them
And early in the morning
Jesus came walking toward them on the sea
When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea
They were terrified, saying it is a ghost
And they cried out in fear
But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said
Take heart, it is I do not be afraid
And Peter answered Him
Lord, if it is you
Command me to come to you on the water
And Jesus said come
So Peter got out of the boat
Started walking on the water
And came toward Jesus
But when he noticed the strong wind
He became frightened and beginning to sink
He cried out, Lord, save me
Jesus immediately reached out His hand
And caught Him saying to Him
You of little faith, why did you doubt?
But when they got into the boat
The wind ceased
And those in the boat worshipped Him
Saying truly you are the Son of God
May God bless to our hearts and our understanding
This reading from God's Holy Word. Amen.
Many interesting and some funny things to notice
In this passage of Scripture
And I think the first thing we want to notice
As we see the disciples in a boat in trouble
Fighting against the wind and the waves of the lake
The disciples were in trouble
And they were doing exactly what Jesus had told them to do
They were obeying the Lord's command
He had told them to get in the boat
And to go across to the other side
They were doing exactly what Jesus told them to do
And then they found themselves in trouble
Sometimes today faithful people
Have exactly the same problem
Somehow for people of faith it makes sense to think
Will we get in trouble when we don't do what God wants?
Actually sometimes we get in trouble
Precisely because we are doing what God wants
Because we live in a world that is sometimes a bit hostile
To doing the things that God wants
At least the way we Christians understand them
And so the disciples were in trouble
Even as they obeyed the command of Christ
Now the early church looked back on this event
And this story, they needed this story
Because in the early years the church was greatly persecuted
And they look back on this story
And they see that Jesus comes to them
First of all, when he is needed most
Secondly, he comes in a way that no one expects
Third, at least in this one instance
He has come in a way that everybody knows is impossible
And yet he did it anyway
The disciples did not recognize Jesus
And it was necessary for Jesus to identify himself
And he says, it is I
And then Peter says, Lord, if it is you, bid me to come
Now I'm sorry, but that was just plain dumb
My daughter, when she was nine, reading
I'm not sure if it was this passage of Scripture or another
She commented that it seemed like Peter was always doing something dumb
Now if you or I saw someone walking on the water
Doing what was totally impossible to do
And heard the voice of Jesus identifying himself
Would you say, Lord, if it is you, and want further confirmation?
The other disciples in the boat didn't do that
I don't think I would do that
I suspect you would not either
But as my daughter said, it seems like Peter's always doing something dumb
The Lord says, come
And Peter gets out of the boat
Now maybe that's doing something dumb as well
Would you do that?
I don't think I would
The other eleven certainly did not do that
It seemed pretty stupid at the time
I mean, they were in a perfectly good boat
And it was a pretty bad storm
We sometimes use the phrase, look before you leap
Well, Peter was never very good at doing that
And so Peter stepped over the side of the boat
The other eleven, far more sensible
Far more careful
Maybe a little smarter
They did not get in trouble that night
The way foolish, impulsive Peter did
And so here is Peter walking on the water
I wonder what he was thinking
Was he scared?
Was he excited?
Was he proud of himself?
Was he happy?
I don't know
Verse 30 says, he saw the wind
Or the translation we read just now, he noticed the wind
He noticed the wind and was frightened
I have heard some Bible commentators suggest
That seeing the wind is the same thing as saying
That he took his eyes off of Jesus
And that, of course, was when he got in trouble
That was when he failed
That was when he sank and cried out for help
Lord, save me
And, of course, that is also when the Lord reached out
And took him by the hand and did save him
Yeah, Peter was pretty foolish that day
He was too quick to jump
He was unprepared
He was not ready
He tried to do what was absolutely impossible
Everybody knew it was impossible and he failed
And the other eleven
They were just too wise for all of that
They would never do such a foolish thing
And again, I'm afraid I must confess
That I would not do such a thing either
I invite you to examine yourself for a moment
Do you think you would have jumped out of that boat that day?
But then there is this
Imagine how many times in history
Twelve people have been in a boat
Have had trouble with the wind and the waves
Have stayed in their perfectly good, safe boat
And afterwards made it safely back to shore
How many times do you think that has happened?
Millions of times that has happened in history
But nobody writes stories about that, do they?
Matthew would not have included the story
In his version of the Gospel
If it had happened that day
There wasn't anything important to report
If that was the way the story went down
Eleven or twelve people stay in a boat
Who cares? Big deal
That's not a story
So here's the real question
Who had the more worthwhile experience that day?
Peter or the eleven?
Who learned the most that day?
Who actually did something that day
That no one has ever done before or since?
Who accomplished something that day
That we all know is totally and completely impossible?
Even if he only did it for three or four steps?
It was Peter. It wasn't the eleven
We, I know, prefer to be like the safe, careful eleven
We don't want to risk too much
And this is true whether I am talking about myself
And my family, or whether I am talking about the church
We want to be sensible and wise
We don't want to take too much risk
We're not going to jump over the side of the boat
Why we make jokes about being uncomfortable
When people rock the boat
We're not going to step over the side of the boat
So I guess the story of Peter is a story of risk
And of courage
It is also a story of hope
I think it is above all a story of hope
I think the entire message of the gospel in the New Testament
Is above all a story of hope
It is about following Christ
And somehow with Christ's power and strength
Then doing something that seemed not possible
So it's on hope that I focus now
As we close the story today
The story of Peter walking on water
Is a story of hope
And it is also not only Peter's story
It is the church's story
It is your story and mine
It is the story that belongs to the church
Of our time and place
It's the story of hope for the disciples' debt
It is the story of hope for all of us
Whenever we look at a job
That seems too great
Whenever we look at tasks that seem too difficult
Whenever we look at world problems that seem impossible
We see racial hatred
We see other kinds of bigotry and prejudice
We see greed
We see poverty
We see war
We see horrible illness in the world
All of these things that have been part of human history forever
And it seems like they always will be
It makes it hard for us to hope
And sometimes we are like the eleven in the boat
We want to stay where it is safe and quiet
We don't want to jump out of the boat
Sometimes when we are faced with problems that seem impossible
Let us remember that governments do not have the capability
Of stepping out of the boat
Political leaders do not have the capability
Of stepping out of the boat
They cannot get out of the boat
They cannot accomplish that which everyone thinks is impossible
It is only people of faith in the church
Or perhaps beside the church, not in the church
But it is only people of faith who really have the capability
Of stepping out of the boat
It is only people of faith who have the ability
To call to bear upon the impossible problems of the world
The power of the risen Christ
And that means that we can have hope
The message of the story of Peter is that there is hope
Even hope for a world of justice and peace
Someday with the power of Christ
Peter didn't look before he leaped
But at least he leaped
At least he leaped
Amen
All the ground is sinking sand
All the ground is sinking sand
It's all his blood, it's his blood
So put the air down down in blood
And all around my soul is made
Even if it's all my hope can stay
On Christ the Son of the Christ
And all of the ground is sinking sand
All of the ground is sinking sand
If we shall all get from this struggle
Where death in him become
Rest in his righteousness alone
Lovers who stand before the world
All Christ the Son of the Christ
And all of the ground is sinking sand
All of the ground is sinking sand
Sometimes when I sit in a physical church
I'm reminded of two main times in the service
One is when I'm sitting in the pew looking toward the front
Toward the song leader, worship leader
The pastor that is preaching
I think of Jesus teaching the disciples
And being before them and then looking at him
But the second thing I think of is sitting at the Lord's table
And even though I may be in the pew
The idea is to remember Jesus that night with the disciples
As they sat around and looked not just at Jesus
But looked at each other
As we come to the table once again
We're given that opportunity to look at each other
It's a little bit difficult here, but we still try to imagine each other
Through the eyes of Christ
As Christ would see us at the table
And ask us not to idolize him
But to imitate him as we share our bread
In this cup with one another
We join in prayer
Gracious God, we thank you for this bread
In this cup that's before us
Before each person here whether it's physical
Bread and cup or something like that
Or it's held in their mind
We thank you for giving us this way of remembering
What you call us to do
In times of trouble
In times of calm
In times of joy
In all times coming to the table
Sharing this bread and cup
Our food, our table
As you would do in Christ's name
For on that last night
As Jesus was eating with his disciples
He took a loaf of bread
And after he had blessed it
He broke it and said to them
Do this in remembrance of me
And in the same way
After they had finished eating
He took a cup of wine
And said to them
This is a new covenant and my blood poured out for you
Do this in remembrance of me
For as often as you eat of this bread
And drink of this cup
You tell the Lord's story
You tell of his death, his life
Until he comes again
Won't you come?
The body of Christ broken for you
The cup of blessing poured out for you
No, and I'll still be here
With loving love
Only our thoughts awake
No self can see
As to life and bread
All we enter in
Sit at the feast, dear Lord
Make out the prayer
Build out the cup
And recite to the day
That we may point in thee
Power and peace
That from all bondage
With the Lord release
May the power of Christ
Fill you and enable you
To reach out in love
To reach out in power and strength
To have courage and always to have hope
Amen
Now is singing sound
