Missed The Boat

2017-08-13 Matthew 14:22-33 "Missed the Boat"

Missed the boat.

You parents.

Do you remember the first time you forgot to pick up your kid?

Or, you kids...

Do you remember the first time your parent forgot to pick you up from preschool... from a birthday party... ?

I remember the first time I forgot a kid like it was yesterday.

In fact it may have been yesterday – but not the first time.

One of our daughters (and when I say it that way it sounds like we have seven).

One of our daughters was in early elementary school and I was on pick-up duty.

I was far, far away, almost in Fountain City, nearly in Powell, doing the work of the Lord.

I lost track of time.

My phone rang about a half-hour after pick-up time.

It was the school.

And you parents know that feeling.

When you see "The School" on your phone.

When the blood rushes out of your face and you say certain words, starting with, "Oh…."

It was the school secretary, who had been comforting said daughter.

"Reverend McTyre, did you forget to pick up…?"

Convicted... of my sin.

The abandoned child then got to sit in the office, alone, for another half-hour, while I drove completely within the speed limit to get her.

Now, I know this is hardly a capital offense.

But I remember it.

And I think we all remember similar things –

because it was the first time her father had publicly disappointed her.

I missed the boat.

And she got left high and dry.

--

Have you ever missed the boat?

We all have missed the boat.

Sometimes there's good reason.

Sometimes there are excuses.

Properly fertilized excuses can bloom into exquisite rationalizations.

We've all done it.

We've all missed a boat.

Or two.

Maybe a lot of boats.

Maybe the same boat again, and again, and again.

But what happens when somebody misses OUR boat?

What happens when we're the ones disappointed?

When we're the ones forgotten in the office?

Left alone in the storm?

What if Jesus misses our boat?

Is that even possible?

In the gospel lesson today, Jesus missed the boat.

Literally.

Now, some will defend Jesus, saying he wanted to teach the disciples a lesson.

("You of little faith, why did you doubt?")

Maybe.

Jesus misses the literal boat.

What do you do when other folks, when maybe even JESUS misses your boat?

Do you doubt who he is?

Do you let him back in?

How do we all get back in the boat, with Our Lord, together?

--

Jesus has just fed five thousand. Whew!

Time to shut-er-down.

So, immediately after supper, Jesus makes the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side.

Jesus stays behind to dismiss the crowds.

Matthew mentions this twice.

"Hey, I said, you're dismissed."

I've never had that problem.

One Benediction and y'all are good.

The point being, those guys in the boat got a good long head start.

Did you ever wonder how Jesus thought he was going to catch up?

Like, "Oh, y'all go on ahead. I'll just walk."

Did he have a secret motorboat?

Call an Uber?

No.

It says, "He was there alone."

Really alone.

Out of coverage.

Ultra-marooned.

High and dry.

Jesus didn't miss the boat.

Jesus skipped the boat.

Has Jesus ever missed YOUR boat?

In your moments of doubt, did you wonder, just for a second, did you feel like, maybe, like he skipped your boat on purpose?

--

Who remembers the Prayer of Martha?

It's in John 11:21, and it goes, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."

I've been at enough bedsides and done enough funerals to know that the Prayer of Martha is more common than any of us will admit.

Sometimes we say it out loud.

Sometimes it's the first bucket we pour in the moat between us and God.

"Lord, if only you had been here."

"Lord, if only you had heard me."

"Lord, if only you hadn't left me out there – sent me out there – on the sea, alone."

Matthew doesn't say if Jesus heard the disciples' MAYDAYs.

He doesn't say if they even called out.

They were men, God bless 'em.

And you know how we are about asking for help.

(And all the Presbyterian Women say, "Ummm hmmm.")

But whether they admitted it or not, whether they knew it or not, they needed help.

And Jesus, was not, in the boat.

He comes to them, walking on the water.

And they go, "Aaah! It's a ghost!"

How could anyone be that dumb?

How? Easy.

It's as easy as missing a boat.

--

"Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."

Peter answered him (and you figure he had to be yelling over the storm and the waves),

"Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."

Some have said Peter's trying to be like Jesus and walk on water, too.

That would be super cool and look great on his resume.

But look closer.

That's not what Peter wants.

Peter doesn't want to BE Jesus.

He wants to TEST Jesus.

It's the Prayer of Martha turned upside-down.

"Lord, if it IS you."

"Lord, if you ARE here."

Lord, IF you DO care. IF you ARE my savior. IF you ARE the Son of God, command...

Wait.

Does that ring a bell for anyone else?

Who else said that?

Google it.

It's Matthew 4.

The Tempter, the Devil, tempts Christ, saying,

"If you are the Son of God..."

"Command these stones to become bread."

"If you ARE the Son of God, throw yourself down so the angels can lift you up."

"Lord, if it IS you."

We hear in Peter the echoes of temptation, not salvation.

Temptation.

But my, how times have changed.

When the devil tempted him, Jesus said, "No."

But to Peter he says, "Come on in."

Jesus knows who HE is.

Guess it's time for Peter to find out who he is.

Of course, we all know what's going to happen.

"Pride goeth before a fall (Proverbs 16:18)."

And an haughty spirit goeth before you sink in over your head without a life jacket (Dennis McCurry 20:17).

Remember that at Family Camp.

Peter sinks like a rock.

Peter misses the boat.

He really, really misses that boat.

Wishes he had never left the boat and was not rolling in the deep, was not in way over his head.

...he cries out, "Lord, save me!"

Oh, NOW he knows it's Jesus.

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little-faith, why did you doubt?"

Why did you doubt it was me, even when I had missed your boat?

--

The Bible says:

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

WHEN did the wind cease?

When they got into the boat.

Why?

Why then?

Why didn't Jesus calm the storm before he sent them out?

Why not before Peter started walking?

Why not when he fished Peter out?

Why didn't they walk back to the boat on glass-smooth seas?

Why didn't the wind stop before they got into the boat?

What is it about all of them, being in the boat, together, that calms a storm?

One of the oldest symbols of the church is the sailboat.

We call the church the Body of Christ.

We could also call it the boat of Christ.

Close your eyes and feel it.

Are the seas calm around us?

I wonder what the preachers in Charlottesville are saying about this passage right now, especially the black ones.

I wonder what the preachers in Guam and in South Korea are saying about this passage today.

I even wonder what the preachers of White Power might say about this passage. (Morbid curiosity.)

There are so many storms, swirling around us.

There are so many voices, voices crying out for help, voices shouting out in anger and in pain, voices calling out for justice – over the roar of the storms.

Lord, save me!

That's what Peter said.

Lord, save me!

Me? Save ME? Hey Peter, what about the rest of us?

What about we who are still in the boat, keeping our heads down and hoping if we're just good enough, and quiet enough, and faithful enough, we can ride it out?

What about the rest of us?

Think we could use a little help, here?

It's our boat, too, "Saint" Peter.

I wonder if there were any in the boat who thought,

"I say, let him drown. If he's stupid enough to go out there, to test Jesus, he gets what he deserves."

But Jesus, who saves Peter's undeserving neck, doesn't want anyone to miss the boat.

Even if the boat people are resentful of their shipmate.

And when they get back into the boat, the winds cease.

Just like that.

At least, that's how it goes in the Bible.

--

We who have been in the boat of Christ a long time know that the storms don't cease just because we're all in this together.

Lord knows, we don't always get it right.

Sometimes we flat-out miss the boat.

Sometimes we let people float alone or float away.

And churches, historically, have no problem going overboard.

They go overboard over silly things we think are going to just float our boat, when they're nothing but ghosts on the wind.

Remember the story.

The boat does not calm the storm.

The church does not calm storms.

The church has no power on its own.

We're nothing but a ship of sinners.

Jesus calms the storms.

Jesus lifts us from the deep.

Jesus gives us direction.

Jesus gets us to the other side.

But we of little-faith have to have courage.

We have to have the courage –

not the courage to walk on water.

But the courage to believe.

The courage to hope.

The courage to love when love is the last thing on our minds.

We of little-faith, have to have the courage to get in the boat,

with Jesus.

Together.