In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This past week, and
therefore all week until the leave -taking yesterday,
we celebrated the transfiguration of our Lord
God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This occurs in
the gospel just a few chapters after today's
scripture, where in Matthew we hear, these are
just a few excerpts, but we hear these words.
Jesus took Peter, James, and John and was transfigured
before them, his face shining like the sun, and
his clothes became as white as the light. Moses
and Elijah appeared. And a bright cloud overshadowed
them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased. Hear him. And before that, and
during his whole ministry, he healed the sick,
the blind, the crippled. He cast out demons.
He raised the dead and he commanded the seas
and the wind. All of this was certainly part
of his preparation of mankind for his coming
sacrifice. And this preparation was essential
that he show him who he was so that when He went
to his crucifixion and all the things that happened
from that entering Jerusalem forward to this
glorious day, even today. All of it, all of it
was prepared by him showing us who he is while
he walked amongst us. Today is another one of
those occasions where Jesus shows us who he is.
And Metropolitan Herotheos Vlachos has this to
say about today's scripture. Christ, after the
miracle of the five loaves, ascended the mountain,
leaving the disciples in a storm -tossed boat.
When he came to them walking on the sea, this
was not some magic trick or human technique,
but the very outcome of his God -manhood. And
when their fear overtook them, he cried, take
courage. It is I. Do not be afraid. With that
word, he imparted divine energy that banished
their terror and calmed both wind and waves.
Now these words from the Metropolitan encourage
us to take a deeper look. at this profound event
where Jesus reveals himself as God. You see,
constantly he was revealing himself. I've contemplated
often how little he actually, or we have the
recorded words of what he taught, but it's prolific
with who he was and what he did. If ever there
could have been someone who didn't give lip service,
but walked his walk, it was our Lord. Jesus reveals
himself to us through revelation. And every prophet
that we honor, the apostles, the fathers, holy
ones through the centuries, he shows them by
revealing himself in their hearts. But here's
an instance where he's coming forth in and as
the kingdom of God to command all creation. A
magnificent revelation, this scripture today
of him walking on the waters, calming the fears
and calming the sea. But we must be more than
bystanders, standing in awe. Going, wow. Whoa.
Can you believe it? How did it happen? We have
to take it in in a different way. We must allow
the fathers and the saints, through who God continues
to reveal himself, help us to see the meaning
for each of us personally. Yes, this was a cosmic
event, these things like transfiguration and
his command of all creation, his command over
sickness and over the elements of the earth.
But we need to find the ways to take it personally
and to incorporate into who we are and what we
will become. The life of the church points us
To contemplate on how we participate in the scriptures
that we read. The fathers gave us whole sermons
on the elements of this particular passage. I
did a look and I found 20 different commentaries
on this scripture. Things are said about it like
this. Like they emphasize how Christ's mastery
over the elements reveals his dignity. Which
we've been talking about. And his divinity. and
his place in the Trinity. The Fathers talk about
how the words, that single invitation by Christ,
come, where he's encouraging Peter to leave the
boat and walk to him, is the Gospel's call, where
Christ is constantly saying to us, come. And
so the sea mirrors the turmoil of our passions,
the tumult of worldly cares, and of course the
waves of temptation for which all of us know.
Peter's sinking, they say, is more than just
losing his nerve. It teaches us humility in the
face of divine power. No matter how proudly we
accomplish anything, no matter how firmly we
stand on a great understanding or a mystery or
an experience or a blessing or a grace, we, like
Peter, sink from it. So in all humility, we must
learn. who we are in relationship to God and
where all of it comes from and what we must do
to have any of those wonderful events and successes
and blessings of our lives mean more than a passing
comfort. We have to incorporate all of God's
experience into who we are and make it real.
in all humility. The disciples' fear contrasts
with Peter's boldness and his courage. It kind
of demonstrates a core... Well, I forgot which
father said this one, but trust me on it. It's
one of them. Their fear contrasts with the courageous
step that... Peter took, showing that Christian
maturity moves from worldly cares and distractions
and anxieties and sometimes even terror. It moves
from there to faith -filled action, which culminates
in the confession that we hear in Scripture.
Truly, you are the Son of God. And everything
we experience is designed to bring that up out
of our own heart, whether it's struggles or blessings
or the combination of both. But given all of
this analysis of what these things can mean,
we've got to remember that we don't analyze our
way to salvation. Not even using scripture. Yes,
the head is the place that we can find our thoughts
and contemplations, but it's through the heart
that we are first called to the church, which
is for us the ark of salvation. And this ark
of salvation in some ways is like that little
ship tossed on stormy seas. We are here. in the
calm of the ship, amongst a world that is a stormy
sea. We climb aboard this ship when we're baptized,
and we remain in the ark, which is where he comes
to us, here in the ark of salvation. Here we
witness one another's struggle, like Peter and
the other disciples, but we also strengthen one
another. I'm just barely getting to know you.
I just barely arrived. And I'm struggling pinning
names to faces. And so please forgive me for
that. But one of the things I am drinking in,
even if I don't remember your name, is what a
blessing each one of you are. As it's said in
the epistle, you are the temple of God. You are
the temple of God. Pulled from a stormy sea into
this ark of salvation. The drama of this stormy
sea set aside, nothing could prepare them for
the resurrection. Who he is had to be shown,
and the world had to witness it. He spoke these
words to Thomas, who was stunned by the appearance
of his Lord. These words, blessed are those who
have not seen yet have believed. So you see,
belief is everything. And today's gospel shows
it. It certainly shows the difference between
that moment of pure belief when he could walk
on water and then after the doubts set in. For
Peter and for all of us who would be saved, belief.
Jesus' words, blessed are those who have not
seen and yet believe, are not just for Thomas,
but they're for you and me. Blessed are those,
those. We're the those. Did you know that? Jesus
was speaking directly to you when he said that.
It isn't just a saying. I'll read it again. Blessed
are those who have not seen yet have believed
is not just a byline to that scene with Thomas.
It's a promise to you and me. It's actually a
command. Blessed are those who have not seen
yet believe. It's an immutable reality. This
reality this outpouring of his grace that comes
through the church in his body is salvation itself.
Take the verse John 20, 31, where he tells us
that the gospel was written, quote, that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that by believing you may have life
in his name. Do we keep this thought front and
center when we question faith and we wonder what
we believe and we wonder what things mean when
we're tossed around again? Do we keep front and
center the words in 17 .3? This is eternal life,
that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent, to believe and to
know him. is a living reality passed down by
the church through saints and fathers so that
all may be saved. Our church, life itself, moves
daily through these lives of saints. Every time
we gather and all the days that we don't, every
day you read your scripture and look for what
the church is doing, it's there, whether you
do it or not. Somewhere around the world there
is this. web work of honoring all the saints
that have lived through the centuries. One of
them we commemorate today. We commemorate St.
Lawrence. He lived the gospel and what did he
do? He believed it to the point of being radiant
with the Holy Spirit, being martyred in that
radiance. He was so radiant the world could not
stand it. And everything he said and did belied
the fact that he, like scripture said today,
knew that he was the temple of God. And nothing
they could do mattered. Can we learn to live
like that? Read more about him. I'm not going
to recount his life. You can read a wonderful
little short, some words about him. Read it again
if you already read it in the bulletin. And I'm
going to quote part of it because I was really
struck by this. Someone who is radiant with the
Holy Spirit is in fact radiating. Does that make
sense? If you're radiant with the Holy Spirit,
you are radiating. That's what the saints did,
is they radiated to the point where they could
not be ignored. They moved the world. That is,
they do not function as a container or a closed
vessel of sorts, rather as a conduit, an instrument.
transformed by bearing it to others, by bearing
to others the overflowing grace of God. Now that's
the spiritual lifeblood of the faith and of the
church and of this very parish. It makes us partakers
of the same salvific life, witnessed firsthand,
the ones who got to see it, by the apostles,
by all the church through the centuries to those
who have not seen yet believe. Don't simply read
about it and wonder. Don't read these things.
Don't hear this scripture and just wonder about
it and let it drift away. So I'm going to do
something today that I normally don't do. I'm
going to give you three practical takeaways.
I don't know if anybody does that in sermons,
but what was the takeaway, of course, is the
buzzword in business and everywhere else. I'm
going to give you three practical takeaways from
this. And what I'd like you to do on your own
in the future is every time one of these blessed
priests or deacons gives you a sermon, grab on
to some takeaways. Because we must do what we
stand in awe before. So here's three. When life's
waves, temptations and everything else, overwhelm
you, remember his presence. Go find an icon of
him if you must. And remember that it is I, as
he said on the sea. He comes to us in the times
of tribulation. And remember him. A second takeaway,
cultivate the Jesus prayer. Let Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God, have mercy on me. Why? You can't
be saying that without keeping him in front of
you. It helps you keep your gaze fixed on him.
And treat these trials, these waves, the stormy
sea, as an invitation to step out of your boat
of comfort, your boat of self -reliance, of being,
you know, self -deluded into thinking things
are going okay. And if you just do this, you
can put it behind you. Three things. When the
waves overtake you, remember it as I. Cultivate
the Jesus prayer to keep your gaze focused on
them and treat trials as an opportunity to step
away from your self -reliance. And rely on his
healing energies. Now I'm sure that all of us
here know that God continues to reveal himself.
If we search for him. And make ourselves available.
If we do that we partake in his promise. So that
without seeing we believe. Glory to Jesus Christ.