The Gospel of Matthew 14:22-34

At that time, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they entered the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.

I have many favorite passages of Scripture but I have to say that this is my favorite.  I may have told this story before, but when I was becoming a novice in the monastery we had to selected three names to give to the abbot who would decide what our new name would be.  We were to write these names down, with a little description of why you wanted that name, and then pass it in to him prior to the service.  Now, I had never really named anything before, not having children I have been spared this particular task, and I have a deep appreciation for this job now, choosing a name that someone will be known by for the rest of their lives.  This was not an easy task.

So I chose three, Stephen, Philip, and Peter.  Stephen and Philip I chose because they were deacons and there is something special about the role and ministry of the deacon, the ministry of service to others that attracted me, but Peter was a different story.

Peter is a strong character in Scripture, the chief of the Apostles, but interestingly enough it was his brother Andrew who called Peter to follow Jesus, it was Andrew who was called first by Jesus and then Andrew went to find Peter and ask him to come to church as they say, and Peter, trusting his brother, followed him to meet this Jesus Andrew had been going on about.

Peter was a fisherman, married, presumably with children.  We are uncertain of his age but my guess is he would have been around the same age as Jesus.  More than likely he was a devout man who observed all of the rituals of his Jewish heritage.  He cared for his family; remember the story of Jesus healing the mother in law of Peter, but there was something else that drew me to him.

First the practical reasons, Peter’s feast day, which he shares with that other great Apostle Paul, is celebrated on June the 29^th, the same day as my birthday, so it would be easy to remember. But there was more to the story.  The more I read about Peter the more I liked him.  You see, and we see this clearly in today’s Gospel, Peter was always a little behind everyone else, he never seemed to catch on as fast, and he was always putting his foot in his mouth, bingo, that was me!

In today’s Gospel passage we find the Apostles in a boat and Jesus is on the shore praying.  Jesus often withdrew from everyone and went on His own to pray and, I am sure, to gather the strength He would need to continue His mission.  But the Apostles were on this boat and the seas started to get rather choppy.  I am not sure how many of you have been on a small boat, on the sea, when a storm comes up but it is not fun, trust me when I tell you this.  They were all huddled together in the middle of boat, I am sure praying like crazy, when all of a sudden they look out and here comes Jesus walking on the water!

They thought he was a ghost and started to be even more afraid, and then Jesus spoke to them and told them not to be afraid.  Then Peter, being Peter, said to Jesus, if it is You bid me to come to you on the water.  So Jesus said, okay, come on.  Peter put one foot over the side, maybe looking back at the others for some encouragement, then the other foot, and then, much to his own amazement, he stood and began to walk on the water.  But not far out he noticed the waves and the stormy sea and he panicked and called to Jesus for help.  Jesus reached out His hand and brought Peter to safety.

Peter, as bold and as strong as he was, could not walk the walk he chose to walk without the help and strength of Jesus.  He took those first steps on his own but as soon as he realized what he was doing and where was he started to panic and asked Jesus for help.  Peter’s faith was so great that he actually walked on water, but at the same time, his faith was so weak that he could not complete the task.

We have all been in this position.  When times are good, we go it alone we think we can do it all no matter what the task is that lies ahead of us, but like Peter, we find out that we cannot do it alone and we need help.  We have all been in that storm tossed boat, clinging to the mast, praying for help and guidance and thinking it will never come.  Then a hand comes out of the darkness and the storm to pick us up and help us.  That hand might belong to a friend or it might belong to a family member.  Perhaps that hand belongs to you and you reach to help someone who is in the midst of the storm and you help them back on their feet.

We have seen some terrible images these last few weeks of our brothers and sisters in Egypt and Syria.  We have seen churches burned or destroyed and countless numbers of Christians murdered for no other reason than that they are Christians.  But we have also heard some pretty extraordinary stories of people helping people, ministering to each other when the waves of hatred are crashing over the bow of their ship.  There are stories of groups of Muslims, who join hands around Christian churches, to protect the worshipers while they attend Church, the same was done not long ago by Christians joining hands to protect Muslims as they prayed.

Peter began to sink because he took his eyes and focus off of Jesus and focused on himself and what was going on around him, as Christians we are called to focus, not on ourselves, but on Jesus and on others.  The moment we take our eyes off of Jesus and our mission, we begin to fail and flounder.  We need to keep our prayer life strong in battle against the evil one.  The Church is that place we come to, just as Jesus withdrew to pray and gather His strength, we come here each week to do the same.  We come here, listen to the word of God, receive His Sacraments, and return stronger to the world ready to walk on the waters of life without fear of what is going on around us.

I have said this to you before, Jesus never said it would be easy and being a follower of His, in this 21^st century world we live in, is harder than it has ever been.  The waves of the world are crashing over the bow of our lives and of the Church and we can chose choose to cower in the corner, or we can chose to be as bold as Peter, and throw our feet over the side and get out of the boat, and get the job done that we are called to do.  Jesus will give us the strength, just as He did for Peter, and He will carry us along the path, but we, like Peter, have to take that first step of faith and get out of the boat.  We are no longer passengers it is time for us to take control!

Last week I deviated from my prepared text to speak about how bad single mindedness is in the Church.  Not single-mindedness in the sense that we all work together for the same purpose, but single-mindedness in that we only want what we want no matter the consequences.  Most of the problems we have in the world today are due to this one reason.  Doing the will of God is one of the hardest parts of being a Christian.  Loving everyone, especially those who hate us, I think is at the top of the list of hard things, but doing the will of God comes in at a close second.

It is very natural for us to want to do what we want to do.  We want to go here, so we go, we want to go there, so we go.  But following the will of God is difficult and demanding.  Following the will of God means to put a portion of ourselves on the sidelines and for some that is almost impossible.

This past Thursday we celebrated one of the great feasts in our Church, the Dormition of the Theotokos.  Church Tradition tells us that as her time of death was approaching, Jesus sent an Angel to His Mother to tell her that her time was at hand.  She went to the Mount of Olives to pray and give thanks to God.  She returned home to take care of the things that needed to be done prior to her death.

Also at this time, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth and brought them to the side of the Theotokos where she told them all that was about to happen.  They were filled with much grief at hearing of her pending death, she consoled them with motherly love and affection then she raised her hands to God and prayed for the peace of the world, blessed each of the Apostles, reclined on her couch and gave up her spirit.

With great care and love, they sang hymns and carried her body to the place of her burial.  The an interesting thing happened and is depicted in the Icon of this feast.  A man, filled with malice, reached up to touch the body of the Theotokos and immediately his hands were struck from his body by an invisible blow.  Filled with much grief for what had happened, he repented and his hands were miraculously reattached to his body.

The buried her body in the place set aside for her and sang many hymns at her grave.  On the third day after her burial they were eating together and celebrating the Liturgy, when they lifted the bread to be blessed, the Theotokos appeared to them saying rejoice, and they knew that her body had been translated to heaven as a witness to the resurrection of the body that we all will undergo in the last days. She was not raised from the dead as her Son and our Lord was, she was raised to glory, as we all will be, when Christ comes again.

But the story of the Theotokos begins years before these events when her parents Joachim and Anna pray for a child and that they will dedicate this child to God.  They are blessed with conception and they have a daughter and call her Mary.  They bring her to the temple as an offering to God and it is there that she is raised.  She is betrothed to Joseph and is chosen, above all others, to be the mother of God.

The Angel of the Lord appears to her and tells her what is to happen; she only asks one question, “how is this possible for I know not man.”  The Angel tells her that all things are possible with God and at that moment she conceives by the Holy Spirit and will bring forth a Son.

But it all began with Mary saying yes, she threw off all of her desires in this world, faced almost certain shame for being pregnant without being married, but she still said yes to God.  But she really had no other choice, she had been raised in the will of God and to her there is no other choice but to say yes when God asks.

Mary lived her life in absolute concert with the will of God.  She was human just like you and I, but she had total devotion to God and was willing to risk it all to walk in that will.  She had no idea what was coming or what any of this meant.  She did not possess knowledge of future events or any special knowledge of what all of this meant, she approached faith in a very simple, uncomplicated way, whatever God asks of me I will do.  She had absolute faith and absolute trust in God that God would not ask her to do something that she could not do, remember the words of the Angel, “With God, all things are possible.”

This is the faith that we are to have, we are to have the simple faith and the simple trust that God will have our backs and we need to live out that faith to our best ability.  God is calling each of us to walk the road that He has chosen for each of us.  Our daily prayer should simply be the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest and eventual death, “not my will but yours.”  We should pray each and every day that we walk in the light of God and in His will not our will, or I should say that if we are living the life that we should live our will, will be God’s will and if that is the case then all will be well.

So let us approach our faith with the innocence of the Theotokos and simply say, not my will your will and walk in the way of God.

As I have mentioned to you in the past, the entirety of the Christian Gospel is based upon love, love of God and love of each other.  We have a duty, as Christians, to love and pray for everyone, even those we do not like and those who do not like us.  In the Liturgy of Saint Basil the priest prays for those who love us and those who hate us.  To put a very fine point on it, a Christian cannot hate anyone.

In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew we read about an encounter that Jesus had with two blind men.  The two men were following Jesus and crying out for Jesus to help them, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”  As they stumbled along in their darkness they shouted all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”  It is important to note here that they were asking for mercy, not especially for healing.

When I speak to groups about prayer, one of the hardest lessons for people to learn is when we pray we ask that God’s will is done in each and every situation.  Sure, we would like to see the person healed of their illness, or we get the job we want, or we pass that test, but our will is not always in sync with the will of God, so when we pray we simply ask that God’s will, and not our own, is done.

Recall Jesus in the garden prior to His arrest and ultimate Crucifixion.  Jesus prayed in the Garden and was asking God that if there was another way that He able to take that road rather than the one that had been set before Him.  You see, unlike us, Jesus had to do the will of the Father, He did not have a choice as we do, in this situation.  Jesus prayed so hard, Scripture tells us, that drops of blood fell from his brow on to the stone where He was praying.  So intense was His prayer, so hard was His concentration, that He changed his physical self.  But in the end Jesus says to God, Your will be done, not mine.  That is a difficult lesson for us.

These two men were following Jesus and crying out for mercy.  They were not crying out that they be healed of their blindness, but that, if it was the will of God, He might show them some mercy.

As we know, our ancestors in faith believed that sickness, especially blindness, was due to the amount of our sins or the sins of our parents.  If a child was born with an illness it was because the parents had sinned in some way and this was God’s punishment on them.  If something bad happened to you, it was not because you were careless but because God struck you for something you had done.  They were asking for mercy in forgiving them so that they might become whole again.

Jesus turns to them, and as He does in so many cases, He asks them a question.  Jesus could have simply willed that they were healed, but He asks them a question or He has them do something.  Sometimes He touches them and sometimes He does not.  But in all cases there is something that has to be done.  In other words, there has to be a show of faith, asking is simply not enough.

So He asks them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”  Of course they answer yes, if they were to answer no, Jesus would have turned and walked away, or would He?  They do answer yes and He touches their eyes and tells then that according to “their faith” let it be done.  He did not say because of what I do, but because of what you have done, in other words the faith they have, they have been healed.

This entire chapter of St. Matthew is about compassion, the compassion that Jesus had for those He encountered.  He heals them, feeds them, loves them, teaches them, and is interested in their lives and what happens to them.  Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus ever condemn anyone for the sins they have committed.  Jesus welcomes all to follow Him, He points out where their lives have strayed from what is right and true and shows them the way back, but He never condemns them.  We cannot condemn people if we are to show them compassion and love.

The very word compassion points the way for us and how we are to respond.  The word compassion means to “suffer with” to understand where they are and where they are going and help them.  The world is stumbling around blind, as the two men in the story today, and we have to show them the way.  We show them the way not by condemning them, but by taking their hands and helping them to find the way and when they stumble we are there to help them back on their feet.  We help them to find the faith that they will need so their eyes will be opened.

Scripture tells us that we must have the faith of children.  When children are learning to walk for the first time, parents can be very nervous.  We watch out that they do not hit their head or anything else, when they fall, and we know they will fall.  But when they stumble we do not tell them that they are stupid and will never amount to anything, no, we pick them up and put them back on their feet and stand by for another fall.  We show them the right way, and hope that they will follow our example, that is the same thing we need to do with the world.

Very often Jesus is compared to the shepherd; this is common comparison in Scripture and the fathers and mothers of the Church us this as well.  The shepherd’s role is to watch over and protect the sheep.  Sheep have no ability to protect themselves.  They cannot run very fast, they cannot hide very well, and they have no personal defense mechanism, they are basically helpless and need someone or something, to watch over them.

Everything the sheep needs has to be provided for them.  They need to be moved from pasture to pasture because a sheep will eat the ground to dirt if they are not moved.  The shepherd is everything to the sheep and the sheep come to rely on them and, as stupid as they are, will respond to the voice of their shepherd.  The shepherd knows his role and takes tis serious otherwise danger will come and He will lose sheep.

We are the light of the world and we must let that light shine so those who are blind by the ambitions of the world will be able to see it.  That light is like the beacon on top the light house that guided sailors to safety of the port.  The Church is that port and we are the light house.  The light cannot shine at its brightest of the lens has even the slightest smudge on it.  The lens has to be clean in order to function properly.  Let us work on the cleaning our lens so we can truly guide people to the safety of the Church.

I have always enjoyed reading Saint Paul.  He has a way of getting right to the heart of the matter without mincing his words.  He tells it like it is, which in his day was rare and today should be a lot rarer than it is.  Although he told it like it is, he never did it out of malice and he always, under line always, did it with love.

Writing to the Church in Rome, Saint Paul lays out some rules if you will.  He speaks to them about the grace that has been given to us.  You see, we are all given gifts by God, we may not know what they are or we may be hiding them for some reason or another, but all of us have been given graces.  By virtue of our baptisms we have become members of the God’s family and with that comes a certain amount of responsibility.  We are not alone in this for, believe it or not, we need each other.  There is no such thing as a solitary Christian or a Christian in isolation.  Even the hermits of the early Church that fled to the desert were not alone for long as the people came from the cities.  So we all have gifts and we need to exercise those gifts.

Today’s Epistle reading is a great illustration of what this truly means.  In the first few verses, St. Paul lays out the various roles in the Church.  “Although there are many members of the body, they do not all have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.”  We are family, and with that comes some responsibility.

St. Paul goes on to say, that the gifts we have been given differ according to the Grace that we have received, and then he names a few, prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, liberality, leadership, diligence, but then he tells us what we must do with all of these gifts.  If you re-read his words that we just heard moments ago, you will discover that what St. Paul is saying is that no matter what your job or station in life, whatever it is that you are doing we must do it to the best of our ability because by doing so, we bring glory to God.

But the same is true on the other side.  If we are not using our gifts to the full potential, and if we are not doing whatever it is that we are doing to the best of our ability, then we do not bring glory to God and that, in an Orthodox perspective, is not living up to the promises that were made on our behalf at our baptism.

When we call ourselves something, and I don’t care what that something is, it comes with roles and responsibilities that we have to live up too.  Some of us are parents, and that has a responsibility, the greatest responsibility if I might add, but we are also children, brothers, sisters, workers, employers, etc. but we are also Christians and more specifically, Orthodox Christians and that has to mean something.  If we are not practicing our faith to its utmost, then we are not bringing glory to God, and that is what St. Paul is warning us of in this passage today.

There is a line from the Book of Revelation that speaks about what will happen to us if we do not practice our faith at the highest levels.  The writer of Revelation calls us lukewarm and we will be spewn from the mouth of God.  We will be cast out.  I have said this before, Orthodoxy is not just another faith group or denomination, Orthodoxy is, and has to be, a lifestyle.  We are called to be different; we are called to rise above the pettiness of this life to something greater than ourselves.  We are called to care for those less fortunate and to be the voice of the voiceless.  We are called to take stands on issues and not back down no matter what pressure we are getting from the world.  That is what it means to be Orthodox and it is not easy.

But, St. Paul does not stop there, he writes to the Church at Rome, “be kindly to affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.”  What Saint Paul is saying here is that we have to think of others before we think of ourselves!  That is what it truly means to be a Christian, putting others before ourselves and our own wellbeing.

And how are we to do this, with love, brotherly love and affection.  But notice towards the end of what he said that we must be patient in tribulations.  I find it somewhat amusing when Christians complain about how the world treats us.  Where in Scripture does Jesus ever say, follow me and life will be easy.  Where in Scripture does Jesus say, follow me and you can continue to do whatever you want regardless of the consequences.  Where in Scripture does Jesus say, love everyone, except those who hate us.  The answer simply is nowhere.  Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus say that if we follow Him our life will be easy.  But, in many places He tells us just the opposite; He tells us that our life is going to be difficult and that the world will hate us, in fact He tells us to remember that when the world hates us, it hated Him first!  But we are to fact tribulations with patient endurance.

We are to see to the needs of the saints, that is all of us by the way, and we are to practice hospitality.  Then comes the most challenging part of what St. Paul is instructing us to do; “bless those who persecute you.”  And just to make sure we understand he adds, “Bless and do not curse.”  We are not only to pray for those who persecute us, but we are to bless them!  We are to impart God’s blessing on them, the same blessing that we impart on those we love and cherish in life.  That is the essence of Christianity.

But how are we supposed to do this?  The fathers and mothers of the Church teach that if we are living a true Christian life, if we are participating in the life of the Church, if we are availing ourselves of the Sacramental life of the Church, if we are “continuing steadfast in prayer, then this will natural for us because the life of the true Christian is all about love, love of God and love of neighbor.  Love, not hate, not curses, but love, unconditional love.  That is what it is all about that is what led Christ to the Cross and that is what should be our guiding principal.  If we truly love one another, with the love of Christ, then the rest will work itself out.

Take St. Paul’s words to heart today and during this Dormition Fast and pray that we might all be able to live them to their fullest.

Outside of the Gospels, if I had to choose my favorite book of the Bible I would choose the letter of St. James.  A few years back for Bible Study we spent a great deal of time with this wonderful letter.  If you have not read it I highly recommend spending time in prayerful reading of this pastoral letter.  In fact, the Dormition Fast season is upon us so why not make this your reading for this Holy season that we are about to enter.

In the last chapter of the letter St. James writes that if anyone is sick or suffering let them call the priest, it actually says the elders and that has been translated to mean the priest.  The priest is to be called when someone is sick, it does not matter the time of the day or night, and the priest is to be called to administer the sacraments of the Church.  The Anointing of the Sick has a bad rap; I think people believe that it is the sacrament you receive when all hope is lost.  Sometimes I feel that when I come into the room to anoint someone they are looking for the guy with the sickle to see if he is standing behind me, or maybe even someone from Morill’s funeral home.  The Sacrament of the Anointing is not the Sacrament when hope is lost; the Sacrament of the Sick is the Sacrament of Hope!

One would not dream of starting a journey of any length, without proper preparation.  When you are preparing to head out on vacation, much time is spent in planning and packing all of those things that will be necessary for the journey.  We lay everything out and plan how it will be put into the suitcase so as to maximize the space we have available to us.  The same should be true when we are sick.  I will say this plain, you never know what is going to happen so it is much better to be prepared than not.  If you are sick, of body, mind, or soul, if you are going in for surgery, even if it is day surgery, or if you or your loved one is close to death, call the priest and he will begin the sacrament to you and prepare you for the journey you are about to undertake.  It does not mean you are going to die, but if you are, you should be prepared.

In today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, Jesus encounters two men that are possessed by a demons.  Let me pause here to say that demon possession is real and it is nothing to joke about.  The Church takes this very seriously and this should be approached with great caution.  But Jesus comes upon these men and when they see Him, the demons recognize Jesus and cry out, “What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God?”  It is important to say here that even the demons are under the control of God.  The power of God is so great that not even the demons can survive in His presence.  The malice of these demons is so great, but not greater than the power of God.

The demons that had possessed these two men were pure evil.  People are not evil, the actions of people might be evil but people are not evil.  We are all created in the image and likeness of God and by virtue of that we are created out of love, evil comes by virtue of the fall of humanity.  Just as humanity fell in the Garden of Paradise, the demons fell as well and for the same reason, pride.  When we think we know better than God or think we do not need God, we suffer from pride and pride is the root of all other sins.

The demons can do nothing against the power of God and so they have no choice but to flee the men and enter the herd of swine that are nearby.  After they enter the herd, the swine rush down into the sea and die.  You see, God’s love surrounded the men, even thought they were possessed, God’s love surrounded them and protected them from certain death.  As you know, swine were considered unclean and swine herding was forbidden by Jewish Law, so the beasts were sent to their death as a sign of God’s love and protection.  But the swine were also sacrificed to show that no sacrifice is too great for the love of God.

We may not realize it but God’s love and protection surround us every day no matter what we do or how bad we are, the love of God never leaves us.  We may stop loving God or even forget that He is there but God is always around and always loves us.

When we are sick or suffering, the Church is here to bring whatever aid and comfort it can bring.  The church is the place for sinners, there are no saints here.  Jesus did not call saints to follow Him He called the sinners.  Look at who he surrounded Himself with, the lowest of the low and the sinners of this world.  He came not to chastise them, He came to show them love and through that love He demonstrated where there life had come of the rails, so to speak, and then showed them, again with love, how to get their life back on track.

All this past week, Pope Francis has been in Argentina at World Youth Day.  Started by John Paul II, this is a time when the Catholic Youth of the world come together for a week of prayer and learning.  It was reported in the press that almost 3 million turned out for a liturgy on the beach.  3 Million!  He spent time speaking to the youth and to church leaders and he called for a revolution, a revolution of faith.  He told them to get out of the Churches and to bring the love of Christ to the streets, bring the Church to the people don’t wait for the people to come to the Church.

If you have followed Francis at all you know that he is an unconventional Pope.  He has turned away from many of the trappings of his office and turned towards a more simple life, or as simple as the life of the pope can be.  He has visited hospitals and prisons and while he was in Argentina he visited a home for drug addicts.  He listened as each one told their story of how drugs possessed them and how if it was not for the work of those in that home they would still be on drugs today.  A picture of this event has been circulating around, a picture of Francis, Pope of Rome, embracing a drug addict and welcoming him home.  This is what it is all about, this is what Jesus did and this is what we have to do.

The Letter of St. James tells us that we are to show no partiality in our faith; we are to welcome all and minister to all with the love of Christ.  We minster to the sick and the suffering through the sacraments of the Church and, as Jesus did, we show so much love that even the demons flee.

We need to be this hospital, we need to be a place where people can come and find rest and we need to be the place where the love of Christ shines so bright that even the demons flee!