We didn’t talk last week about Jesus’s miracle of the loaves and the fishes, but we pick up the thread today as we hear that he dismissed the crowds and made his disciples go on ahead to the other side of the lake. He himself was going to go up the mountain to pray. Many times Jesus slipped away to have quiet time for prayer, away from his disciples, and away from the crowds who made so many demands upon him. In fact, he made such a habit of doing this that quite often the disciples did not know where he was in their times of need, perhaps setting the stage for their and our many opportunities to live by faith. Still, Jesus appears to have done this intentionally because he knew that he too need to be re-created, as he prayed and took time alone with God the Father to rejuvenate his soul. Summer is often seen as the time for recreation, and pastors try desperately to help people see this word with the proper emphasis, re-creation. We can learn a lot from observing Jesus’s behavior, and we find that we need to refresh ourselves. We were not made to just work and work, to produce and provide, to do and make happen. 70 hour work weeks that put food on the table and pay the bills for the family may seem like the goal of being the bread winner, but as Jesus showed last week, God is the one who provides the bread, and we all need time to rest, relax, and be with God; and we are reminded that taking Sabbath rest was never just a suggestion. But just as the Church has moved away from Saturday Sabbath observation, we realize that how and when we spend time with God is likely to be quite personal. Each of us needs to find the way of doing it that works for us, whether it be vacationing with family, digging in the garden, walking in the woods, or just sitting on the back deck with a cup of coffee and a bible. But however we do it, we need to give God a chance to speak to us and ourselves a chance to listen. Herein, however, lies much of the challenge; it involves listening. Most of us pray. I know that because periodically I ask you if you pray, and you answer me, and then I go to my office and log this information on a large excel spread sheet. (No.) But seriously, I do pay attention when I ask you about your prayers. Most all of you acknowledge praying, but when I ask you to describe them, most of you tell me what you pray about, what you ask for, and what you say “thank you” to God for. But when I ask you about how much time you spend in prayer listening to God, I get a lot of funny faces, confused looks, blank stares, and sometimes even the rolling eyes. You see, if you’re used to doing all the talking it may take some work to learn how to listen, especially when I am fully aware that when we first try it we will hear … absolutely nothing. You see, we are quite used to praying when we need something, and when we are given grace we are quite rightly grateful. We are told in today’s Gospel passage that Peter began to sink until he called on Jesus and Jesus reached out his hand and saved him. Paul seems to have had this in mind when he quoted the Old Testament prophet Joel by saying, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”. To prove this, we find that Paul was only re-quoting what Peter himself had already quoted in the Acts of the Apostles, no doubt with this very incident in mind. So while Peter could reflect on his own life and proclaim later that Jesus was his Savior, Paul, as the Church’s primary theologian, could take this to the next level (as usual). With Peter’s quote in mind he then writes out a logic string, “If you confess with your lips (that is calling upon the name of the Lord) that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for one believes with the heart and is so justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved”. But then Paul continues, “But how are they to call on one him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news’”. Now, normally this passage is focused upon when we are ordaining someone, and usually to the deaconate, because that is when the commissioning of preaching is emphasized. So we read this and often go in the direction of asking for God to raise up ministers and then thanking them for their service. But that’s only one part of it. For us today the part that matters may well be where Paul says “How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard”. This suggests that at the very core of our believing is the need to listen! If we reflect on this, we see that is may be more true that we realize. None of is born with knowledge of Jesus. Someone has to tell us, introduce us to the Lord whom we will know in prayer and sacrament. If we lived our entire lives on an island, we could live and die, sin and feel guilt, do good and feel satisfaction, but never know Jesus; never know the full revelation of God, never know the truth. We do believe that we are born with a built in readiness for Jesus, but without being told about him that place can be left empty or be filled with idols. This is not just incidental. We must admit that we cannot even prove Jesus existed, at least by standards of proof required in today’s courts of law. Oh there are references in Jewish writings to “followers of Jesus”, and there are references in Roman writings to “a Chrestus” who was “hailed as king of the Jews”, but in all these cases Judge Judy would say, “Don’t give me hearsay”. Yet we must acknowledge that our entire faith is built on hearsay. The Gospels were heard for decades before they were written down, and then copied, and then analyzed, and then criticized. While some people could be classified as gullible, and while some preachers could be classified as charlatans, it remains that for the Gospels to have survived, thrived, and spread throughout the world they must have rung true, providing light where there had been darkness; they must have had the ability to inspire faith where there was doubt. At some point each of us has had to make the decision to trust what we were hearing, to say, “I believe”. No wonder Paul would emphasize, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” He knew how important it was to spread the message; but for us today, it only serves to remind us how important it is to listen, to listen to the Gospel, and in prayer to listen to God. I was taught there are basically four types of prayer, each of which could be reduced to one word. The first three are thanksgiving, intercession, and confession, and the three corresponding words are “thanks”, “please”, and “oops”. However, the amount of time we spend in all three of these together should not equal one half of the time we spend in the fourth type of prayer. That prayer is called adoration, and the corresponding word is “wow”. A crucial part of that prayer is listening, but as I said, it’s not easy. It’s not easy for us who can’t shut up, it’s not easy for us who live in a noisy world that is full of background chatter, and it’s not easy for us who have to learn to hear not with these ears, but with the ears of our hearts (remember that the center of the word heart is ear). It does take practice, and it is by its very nature intangible, and for some it may even be scary. So today we’ll do something quite different from usual, because sometimes using one’s imagination helps. I’d like you to close your eyes for a moment. Think back to today’s Gospel. Put yourself in the boat with the other disciples. Feel the waves rocking you up and down. Hear the wind howling in your ears over the words of the others. Smell the fishiness of the boat, and feel the wood with your fingers as you hold on tightly. See Jesus take Peter’s hand as he is sinking. Feel the boat tip as Peter climbs back over the side. Hear Jesus say, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” You gain courage and ask, “Lord, should I walk out to you too?” Watch as Jesus turns to you and looks at you, and hear him as he says, “No, I have something else for you to do in faith. Now, listen carefully and I will tell you what it is …”. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:37:42 +0000