Father, Son, Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ.
Let me bring three circumstances to your mind,
two from the Gospel and one from the Epistle.
I'll try to be brief. I say that frequently and
frequently am not brief. Those who are eloquent
have the gift of being brief. Those who speak
in a halting, unclear way necessarily go on and
on. As we look for that right word, the brilliant
can find the gem right there and give it out,
but the rest of us are not like Archbishop Alexander,
for example, who preached last night four minutes
and it was soul -stirring and beautiful. Three
circumstances. You heard the gospel from the
14th chapter of St. Matthew. The apostles in
a boat, they had been sent over to the other
side of the lake, and Jesus went to pray. When
Jesus prayed, it wasn't just a lot of words,
O God this, O God that, O Father whatever. It's
communion. It's silence. It's being with God
in a quiet place, the still small place. Jesus
teaches us in that act that we should do that
too. The disciples, on the other hand, were in
a boat. It was a storm, the Sea of Galilee about
the size of Lake Tahoe. But the storms are terrible
because of the winds, the way it whips up there.
Water's coming over the edge. They're crying
out. They're crying out. And the Lord comes walking
across the sea. This is not what I want to talk
about today because, of course, he's the Lord,
the creator of all things. For him to walk across
the sea is not some circus trick. It's to get
to his apostles that are crying out in fear.
And Peter comes to him. He sinks. You know the
story. What does Jesus say? Oh, you of little
faith. Why did you doubt? He could have gone
on and said, you just saw 5 ,000 people fed in
the wilderness with a little bit of food and
a great amount left over. You saw demoniacs being
cured. of their demon possession. You saw people
being healed, lepers being healed, the deaf hearing.
Why did you doubt? A view of little faith. In
the eighth chapter of St. Matthew, the second
circumstance I'd like you to think about. Jesus
is in the boat, and the boat is being tossed
in the storm, and once again, they are fearful
for their life. And Jesus is asleep. And there
he is, and they're crying out. Again, they had
seen so much. And he comes awake, and the storm
is stilled immediately. Storms don't do that,
right? The waves keep moving for a long time.
No, with Jesus, the master of all things in heaven
and earth, it became still. This is a lesson
for us to come to Christ. Is somebody singing
outside? Can you? Yeah. It's, yeah. Like, I'm
talking stillness here. Where was I? What does
Jesus say to them? Same thing. Oh, you of little
faith, why do you doubt? In both circumstances,
what is the problem Jesus is addressing? Lack
of attention to him and what he is and who he
is. This is the problem. You know, if I'm driving
a car, if I don't pay attention, I'm going to
crash. People with their cell phones now texting.
There's more auto accidents. People are getting
killed. People on their bicycles with cell phones,
not paying attention to what they do. In church,
we bring our attention to the hymns, to stillness,
away from our own thought. If I go to a concert,
I need to pay attention if I'm going to get anything
out of it from what those performers are doing.
If I go to a ball game, it's going to be boring
unless I pay attention. If I... I'm with my family
and my wife, and I'm wrapped up in my own cares
and problems and issues. Love is going to grow
cold because I haven't paid attention. It's no
different with our life with Christ. Now let
me give you the other circumstance. You heard
it in the epistle today. St. Paul is talking
about building. On either gold or silver or hay
and straw. Because the day of the Lord, when
he comes, will reveal what's there. Why is he
saying this? Is it just some kind of interesting
thought that he has about the second coming?
No, he's addressing a problem. It's the same
problem. Attention. The beginning of chapter
3, he says, brethren. I could not speak to you
as to spiritual people, but as to carnal. They're
wrapped up in their own passions and to babes
in Christ. He's calling them babies. He says,
you people are babies. You're arguing with one
another. There's envy. There's strife. There's
divisions. You're carnal. You're not like people
that are spiritual. I can't give you spiritual
knowledge because you're babies in the faith
and emotionally and spiritually. They took their
eyes off of the goal here. And the Lord ends
with what we need to remember. And this is for
us the point today that I'd like to make. Do
you not know, St. Paul writes, That you are the
temple of God. An astounding sentence. Because
the only temple there was for the Jewish person
was that one in Jerusalem. Where forgiveness
would happen. Thanksgiving sacrifices would happen.
Feast days would happen. And the encounter with
the living God would happen. St. Paul is saying
you've been given the Holy Spirit. Start building
a spiritual life. Take your attention away from
the troubles and the difficulties, the strife,
the anger, the disagreements, whatever it might
be. God is not going to save us, brothers and
sisters, from the travails of the world. We know
that. But St. James tells us this. Count it all
joy when you fall into various trials, knowing
that the testing of your faith brings patience.
That when we bring our attention back to Christ,
no matter what the circumstances are, that when
we remember we are temples of God and the Spirit
of God dwells in us, then we won't defile that
temple because the one who defiles the temple
of his body St. Paul says God will destroy. Temple
defilers. We don't want to be that. There's all
kinds of things we might get excited about in
our world. Frustration. You don't like this governor.
You don't like this president. You don't like
this situation. I don't like this one. I don't
like that one. I'm frustrated about whatever
it might be. But brothers and sisters, if we
are the temple of God, then we can't just come
to the table of societal complaints and add our
angry voice and our frustration. If we are going
to be a little leaven in the whole lump, if the
gospel is going to be preached and people rejoice
at their salvation, then this means that we take
seriously that we have to build upon gold and
silver of the faith, that we have to keep our
eye on Christ as Peter didn't do when he fell
into the water. His name is Peter the Rock. What
do rocks do when they hit water? Unless you throw
them hard, they go right down. Our task, brothers
and sisters, It's focused here on the gift of
the life of the Holy Spirit in us. Don't be taken
away by other things. If you have to add your
voice to the chorus in society, make sure it's
a voice that is inspired by the grace of the
Holy Spirit, by holiness, by apostleship. by
support of one another, by worship and prayer.
Yes, we have extremely weak faith, but the Lord
saves even us. He said to the apostles, O you
of little faith, why did you doubt? But he saved
them from the storm. So I think we're in good
company. Amen.