In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. This week, I received a phone
call from a journalist doing a story on a survey
about Orthodox churches and coming out of the
pandemic and how they fared, how they operated.
I saw the article yesterday and... 90 % is right,
pretty close to what I said. Most of it was pretty
close to what I said. I was asked in the discussion
and the conversation about if our parish grew
during the pandemic, despite the fact that we
had worship outside on the front porch and limited
when we came inside. And it's somebody like John
Robert knows who came. On the Sunday when we
were having baptisms outside for the first time,
he came. Yes, the church, I said the church did
grow. And she asked me why. And in my discussions
with, for example, John Robert and a few other
people, my assessment was that when your life
has fallen apart, when the foundation... of what
you know is crumbling. And the fires in 2017
had a lot to do with this as well. When your
foundation is as St. Paul says, hay or stubble,
and it's not stone, it's not precious gems, it's
going to be burned up in the fiery experience
when everything, your whole support system falls
apart. No more distractions. No more entertainments.
All the things you knew pretty much gone. Your
house burned down to the ground. And then lo
and behold you have a pandemic and you can't
see other people and so forth. So people started
to think about eternal realities. About their
life in this world. About the life of the age
to come. What does it all mean? Well this has
to do for me with this gospel that you heard.
Because we, as Orthodox Christians, have been
given the most magnificent gift. Not just the
knowledge of the kingdom of God, that Jesus,
our God, the word of God, became man. He was
crucified. He took our sins and nailed them to
the cross. He entered into death itself. He destroyed
the meaning and the prison of death. and he rose
from the dead, and we get to share in that victory
even now in our baptism, and in each and every
liturgy when we receive communion at the Divine
Liturgy. What a gift! But in our life, we have
to be careful that what we're building in between
Sundays, what we're building that life on, has
to be solid ground of the Gospel. Last week,
we heard about Jesus feeding the 5 ,000. Fresco's
right there if you need a reminder. And the magnificent
sermon Father James gave on that account. But
right after that, Jesus constrained his disciples.
He made them get into a boat and basically said,
I'm going to meet you on the other side. And
he went to a mountain to pray. They were nourished.
But then they had to face something which they
felt was on their own and impossible. I read
a meditation by a religious author named Hans
Boersman. I want to read a section of that for
you because it touched me very deeply and hopefully
will mean something to you as well. Speaking
of the disciples in the boat in the terrible
storm, you just heard about that. Have you ever
been in a boat in a storm? If you haven't, just
take a look at one of those reality TV shows
about fishing, you know, like The Greatest Catch
or whatever it's called. It's scary. It's absolutely
frightening. Here's what Hans Bormann says. He
says, this is a horrifying situation in this
account of Jesus walking on the water along with
the disciples. For many dark hours, we too have
rowed, so to speak, so as to reach the other
side. But our headway is painful. We're getting
tortured, literally. The wind is howling. The
monster Leviathan is on the prowl, coming up
from the depths. Our human strength obviously
falls short when devilish winds are torturous
and the monster tosses up the waves. The powers
of hell below seem in control. We cannot reach
the other side. But Jesus reminds us. The world
is comprised of more than the chaotic sea. Look
elsewhere. Look up the mountain. There in darkness
someone is kneeling, praying all alone. The crowds
are gone. They're filled with loaves and fishes.
The disciples too have left where Jesus made
them, constrained them to get into the boat.
The Lord is in his holy temple. All the earth
keeps silence before him, writes the prophet
Habakkuk. Note the contrast. The disciples down
below fighting wind and waves, dreading jaws
of Hades, demonic powers dragging them down.
Jesus, our God, high in his holy dwelling atop
the mountain, serene and peaceful in his father's
house. Does he not know? Does he not care? Why
did he make us get into this boat? Why has he
left us rowing all alone? It is nearly morning.
We have been fighting all night long. Does he
not realize that we have reached the very end
of our rope? So wrote Hans Borsman. And yes,
perhaps this sermon is the same message that
I gave to you a couple of weeks ago about the
persistence in God's grace and hope and trust
in him. Because that's what the scriptures teach
us. In our weakness, he is made strong. The disciples'
questions are your questions. They're my questions.
The disciples' fear in that moment are our fears.
The reality check, says Hans Bormann, is Exodus
14. Do you remember Holy Saturday? Standing in
the middle of the church? Moses stretched out
his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the
sea back by a strong east wind all night and
made the sea dry land and the waters were divided
on this side and on that. He's telling us the
Redeemer controls the chaos and drowns the enemy.
Pharaoh, the monster of the sea, death and sin.
Drowned on the cross, if you can use that strange
analogy and metaphor. The creator and redeemer
is coming down from the mountain. Christ our
God, about whom we say, by whom all things were
made in the creed. That mighty one sees us in
every moment of our struggle. Maybe you haven't
had a struggle. You will. That's guaranteed.
He comes to us. He's walking on the sea. Psalm
77 says, O Lord, thy way was through the sea,
thy path through the great waters. The disciples
are scared out of their wits. But Peter, the
brave, impetuous Peter, so often as the spokesman
and figure of our own relationship with Jesus
Christ, isn't he? No, Lord, not the cross. He
finally believes. He sees Christ coming on the
water. He believes that it is his master emerging
in the darkness. He believes that Jesus is actually
walking on the water, and of course he would.
He is the creator of all things. All harmony
is restored in Christ and in the saints. A little
bit of paradise. He believes that Jesus is walking
on the water, and in his fervent desire to be
near him in this hour of trial and testing, he
believes that he will be allowed to go to him
on the waves. But he also believes, note, brothers
and sisters, this is important, this will not
happen without a blessing. Peter does not say,
I will come to you. He says, rather, command
me to come to you. Yes, that's impetuous and
probably not wise. But that's the difference
between arrogant pride and true, loving, humble
discipleship. Command me, O Lord, bless me. Jesus
says what? He says, come. And when Peter had
come down out of the boat, St. Matthew says,
he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when
he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid
and beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord,
save me. The Lord granted Peter that desire.
And maybe we ourselves, yes, know something about
that instance in our own life in a different
way. The biblical interpreter St. Theophilus
says, see how Peter prevailed over that which
was greater, the sea? but was defeated by the
lesser peril, the wind. Such is the weakness
of human nature. Jesus laid down the seas, says
St. Theophilus, beneath Peter's feet, revealing
his power. This means that Christ, the God -man,
has come to overcome the laws of fallen nature.
It means that Peter and all of us could prevail
over this fallenness, starting with ourself.
But St. Theophilus says it was the wind that
caused Peter to be distracted and to sink. What's
the meaning of that wind, he says? What kind
of winds do you think cause us the greatest collapse?
They're the spiritual winds, the logisme, the
intrusive thoughts, the obsessive thoughts. They're
crafty. They're subtle suggestions of the devil.
They're intrusive. They're persistent. They don't
come from within us. They're what the canon of
St. Andrew calls the elusive or deceptive thoughts.
The Lord empowered Peter to walk on the water
even though the wind, everything was against
him, was still blowing. It's because Peter allows
the wind to distract him. That's why he was rebuked
by Christ. The Lord grabbed Peter's hand. Kept
him from sinking. The wind was still howling.
Why do you doubt? He sees the Lord walking across
the world. Why do you doubt, Jesus says. You
see, faith is not just believing hard enough
mentally, but it's being faithful to what the
Lord has commanded and doing it. The logis me,
those deceptive thoughts. Someone described them
as monkeys jumping from tree to tree. That's
what it's like in our mind. They're swirling
about. They're sowing doubts. And Peter accepted
those doubts. And Jesus corrects him. And when
they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Great
miracle. Simply said. Take note, the wind ceased.
Let's include ourselves in that boat. Think,
if you will, dear brothers and sisters, of our
Lord's coming. We ask, when did God get into
the boat with us? Hans Bordsman says, when he
came down from heaven to take on the form of
a servant. When he hung upon the cross, forcing
death to open. like Jonah, to free those tied
down in death's domain, to give us the resurrection
of the body, our life, true life, not elusive
life where it's all crumbling beneath us and
we don't know where to turn. Jesus is in the
boat because the boat is a type of the church.
And the church is the safe place where our salvation
is obtained. And Jesus gets into the boat, and
in that little boat, crammed together with all
these other people, it says, they worshipped
him. Truly, you are the Son of God. Christ gives
us courage. He gives us grace. when he is with
us. This is not a psychological or some kind
of mental game. We feel better because we prayed
to God. No, it's the activity and the grace of
God. It's palpable in the heart that enters our
existence. And we feel that together with Christ,
we can overcome all difficulties. Just like the
apostle says, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. Let's give our life to the
Lord and trust in those moments of the storm
that we have already been fed like the 5 ,000
and that Christ is with us as he prays to the
Father interceding on our behalf offering us
up even in our storm. To him be glory now and
ever to ages of ages.