I greet you, brothers and sisters, on this eve
of the Feast of Dormition coming up tomorrow.
School's starting, as all of our students know.
So I was thinking about how poorly I did in algebra
when I was a student. And I'll confess, it was
Algebra 1 in 12th grade, so I was pretty bad.
And the problem was, is that I might have got
the first principle down, the first formula,
but after that, they kind of went by me. And,
you know, it's cumulative. If you don't apply
what you learn this week, or this day, and then
the next day, and keep it fresh, then you snowball
into chaos. But if you do apply, then you snowball
into understanding. And I was with chaos. Went
to college and took general math. So not so good.
I did have successes later. It wasn't all failure.
But this reminds me that when we hear the Gospels
every Sunday, it's cumulative. The church is
trying to teach us something week by week. It's
not just a random story. Oh, Jesus is so great.
He healed these people. Then he went to the next
place and did something else. There's a lesson
that's being given to us to strengthen our faith
because we need that. Without faith that is strengthened
by God's grace, We'll snowball into chaos. What
did we hear a few weeks ago? And Father James
alluded to this last week in his homily, so I'm
just reminding myself about it. Two weeks ago
we heard about Jesus healing a blind man. The
blind saw Christ with their hearts, not with
their eyes. While the Pharisees, seeing the amazing
healing and the healing of the man who couldn't
speak, could not rejoice with the people. But
the people rejoiced in that they saw this wonderful
work of God taking place. And last week, Jesus
had thousands and thousands of people follow
him, it says, in a desert place. Because the
desert, if you've been to the desert, I really
haven't been to the desert, I've been to Phoenix
a couple of times, but... If you've been to the
desert, you know that if you're not prepared,
you are going to perish. God sent his people
after his overcoming Pharaoh and the chariots
and drowning them. He sent them into the desert
because he was going to feed them and nourish
them. And so we have this gospel, the fresco
you can see right there. The feeding of the 5
,000, the only count of the men in that number.
So there were probably 15 or 20 ,000. This is
telling us that God is in our midst. Doing what
God does, which is to care for us. To heal blindness,
not only of the eyes, but especially of the heart.
To give us true speech, as Father spoke last
week so wonderfully. To feed us. Not with bread
and circuses, but with himself. And this week,
to show us as he walks out upon the sea, and
in the Old Testament, the sea is the place of
chaos. If you've been in a boat in a storm, it's
extremely frightening. It's chaos. Where does
Pharaoh and his chariots end up? At the bottom
of the sea. everything is going to be poured
into that chaotic place at the end, says the
book of Revelation. And there'll be no more sea,
no more chaos. And Christ comes to the apostles.
It's maybe 4 a .m. They've been out there all
night. He told them earlier, get into a boat,
go to the other side. They didn't want to. And
he would meet them. I don't know what they thought,
how he would meet them on the other side. and
they were in the midst of the storm crying out.
They think they see a ghost. There's somebody
on the water. You know, German Bible scholars
of the 19th century would say, well, Jesus probably
stepped on a sandbar or something like that,
or they were really close to the beach, and so
it just looked like he was. What's the point
of telling the story if it's not miraculous?
If it's not telling us that God has power over
death, power over sickness, power over illness
of all kinds, the ability to feed us, and power,
because he is the creator of all things, over
nature, too. And Peter sees him, and they cry
out, and Jesus says this incredible, fear not,
it is I. Now, you can read lots into that, it
is I, but if you go back, To the gospel of John.
I think it's the gospel of John. When Jesus is
arrested. They're looking for Jesus of Nazareth.
He says it is I. They all fell to the ground.
Not dead. But in fear. Because he uttered the
words. Of the name of God. Exactly what's on
this icon. And the disciples were comforted.
And Peter yells out. Well if it's really you.
Let me come out there. We should never tempt
God. We should never ask God to let us do something
we are not capable of doing. He will make us
capable of many things, but not something like
that. Oh, sure, there's saints like Mary of Egypt
who walk on the water. There's saints like Lawrence
of Salamina in Greece that walked on the water,
and many others. But Peter was just a beginner.
And he took his eyes off the Lord. He forgot
what he knew. And he was afraid of the storm.
And he sank. And he cried out, what? Lord, save
me. This is what we don't do, brothers and sisters.
When we're surrounded by trouble. When we're
afflicted by anxiety and uncertainty. and doubt
we've stepped out of the boat in the midst of
a storm and we forget to say lord save me reach
up and be pulled back into the ship the account
from saint matthew of saint peter's failed attempt
to walk on the water is a cumulative story given
to us with the others and with the one next week
where we're going to hear the man say, Lord,
I believe, help my unbelief. These stories are
given to us to strengthen our faith, to make
us firm in our faithfulness. When we are faced
with a storm that doesn't drown the body but
drowns the soul, remember this. The place of
peace and calm. as this gospel shows us, as all
the gospel shows us, is the person of Christ
in the midst, not just me and Jesus, no, the
person of Christ in the midst of the disciples,
in the midst of his people, in the church, where
he is, there is perfect peace. Maybe not on the
outside. Listen to this phrase from this beautiful
Akathist, glory to God. Kentucky in number five.
The dark storm clouds of life bring no terror
to those whose hearts by lamp is burning brightly.
Outside is the darkness and the rain, the terror
and the howling of the storm. But in the soul,
in the presence of Christ, there is light and
peace, silence, and the heart sings, Alleluia.
Where he is. There is perfect peace. Where he
is, there is the kingdom of God. Where he is,
there is eternity. Where he is, storms no longer
matter to buffet us. We may be sorrowful. We
may be troubled by them. We may be hurt by them.
But there is peace in the heart, and we sing
by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Alleluia. And
the storms only remember... cause us to remember
the baptism that we had in the water. The scriptures
teach us many, many things. They guide us each
week. Don't miss a Sunday, because you will miss
an important element, and like me with algebra,
you're not going to know the next equation, how
it works. And you'll only find out when you hit
that wall. And you'll throw up your hands. You
may step out of the boat. We must not. We must
not put Christ to the test like Peter did. We
must not make our active participation in the
church conditional upon any preconceived notions
of how orthodoxy should fit into my life. Because
that's what happens when we step out of the boat.
It's not conditional of what we want and get
from God. The point is not that we fit God into
our lives, but that we offer ourselves to participate
more fully in his. He comes to us in the storm,
but brothers and sisters, sometimes we have to
go to him when we're storm tossed. Father Sarah
from Burroughs of Blessed Memory said this, Christ's
kingdom is not of this world. The world cannot
bear it. That's true. Christ came to give peace
to the heart, but a sword and division to the
world. We constantly rebel, try to make life
easier, try to be half Christian, try to make
the best of both worlds. We fail when Christ
is not in the heart. We must ultimately choose.
Our felicity lies in one world or the other,
not in both. Again, I'll leave you with this
amazing verse. The dark storm clouds of life
bring no terror to those in whose hearts thy
lamp is burning brightly. Outside is the darkness
and the rain, the terror and the howling of the
storm. but in the soul, in the presence of Christ,
in the midst of his people. There is light and
peace, there is silence, and the heart sings,
Alleluia. Amen.