19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mt. 14:22-33 – Jesus Walks on the Water and Saves Peter
August 06-07, 2011
Saint Catherine of Siena Parish, Manchester, NH
Southwest Airlines has a great ad campaign. The scene
opens with a person in a really stressful situation, and as the
pressure builds, the ad ends with the phrase… Wanna get
away? When I read today’s Gospel, I just kept thinking
about that Southwest slogan, Wanna get away, and thought
of the number of times I just wanted to get away from the
pressures of life. Sometimes I look up and see the vapor trail
of a jet and think, “I don’t know where they’re going, but
I’d sure like to be on board.”
Have you ever just wanted to be left alone with no one
around to tell you what to do, where to go, who to see? How
many times have you just wanted to escape the hustle and
bustle of life, the barrage of phone calls, constant text
messages, and annoying TV ads bombarding the quiet of
your family room? Just a few minutes of peace and quite
with no interruptions, no deadlines, no schedules, no
obligations, no meetings, no expectations – Don’t you just
wanna get away?
Today’s Gospel begins with Matthew telling us that
Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and precede him to
the other side. The original Greek translation is much
stronger. Jesus did not give them an option. He compelled
them – he forced them to leave – they were not given a
choice in the matter. But let’s do a very quick review of
Jesus’s life so far in Matthew’s Gospel: (Speak the Following Quickly)
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He’s born in a stable just outside Bethlehem, visited by
the Magi, flees to Egypt after Herod issued a death threat,
returns from Egypt, is baptized at the Jordan River, goes
into the desert, is tempted by the devil THREE times, calls
the disciples, teaches crowds of people, preaches about anger,
adultery, divorce, taking oaths, retaliation, love for enemies,
almsgiving, prayer, fasting, dependence on God, judging
others, the Golden Rule, how to get to heaven, all about false
prophets and true discipleship. Constantly moving from one
region to another. He cures a leper, the centurion’s servant,
Peter’s mother-in-law, a paralytic, two blind men, a mute
and a man with a withered hand, all while putting up with
constant criticism by the Scribes and Pharisees… (pause)
It’s not too far fetched to think that Jesus just wanted to get
away.
I think there are many important lessons that Jesus is
trying to teach us in this Gospel, but I’d like to focus on just
one. When we feel that the pressures of life are weighing
down upon us, when life seems so burdensome, when the
stress of uncertainty sets in, when we just “wanna get away”,
we need to go to the mountain as Jesus did and we need to
seek God in prayer. We need to take time to simply be quiet
in the presence of God who wants to give us rest, to comfort
us, to encourage us, to embrace us, to lift our burdens and to
calm our fears.
Throughout the scriptures, we hear stories of people
going to the mountain in search of deep, and intimate
relationship with God. We can get so frazzled and enmeshed
in our day-to-day lives that we slowly lose sight of God, and
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then our relationship begins to wither and, over time dies.
Then when we’re so wrapped up in the pressures of life, we
feel as thought we’re drowning.
Deep down, we know that we can trust in God to reach
out to us in our time of need, yet in spite of knowing this
when we hit stormy weather and the wind and waves of life
threaten to overwhelm us, we so often find ourselves
floundering just like Peter and the other disciples in today’s
Gospel. It seems that our faith and confidence evaporate
when we’re overcome with hopelessness, and we start to
think that no one can help us; that even God has given up
and ignored our cries for help.
Many years ago, the company I worked for introduced
a new management position. They were going to either
promote or hire three top-notch inventory managers and
after a long process of interviews and screening, I was one of
the final candidates for this new position. During my
commute each morning, I prayed that I would be one of
those selected. The increase in salary, title, and rank within
the company was very attractive and I had every confidence
that I was the best candidate for this test strategy.
I’d get to work, stop by my vice president’s office, and
ask if the board had made its decision; but week-after-week,
they continued to deliberate. About four weeks after I
interviewed a second time, my morning prayer changed
from “my will be done” to “thy will be done” and on that
very morning, I was called into the vice president’s office to
learn that I did not get the job.
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At first, I was very confused. I was the perfect candidate.
My job performance had been outstanding. I had earned
bonuses every year. My department was one of the most
successful in the company… I felt abandoned, lost,
bewildered, and deeply hurt. My morning prayers stopped.
Clearly, God didn’t care, so why should I? Within 6 months,
the company decided to abruptly eliminate that position and
lay off the three who were hired in my place… In the end it
seemed that I abandoned God, but God never abandoned me.
I’m sure we’ve all had similar experiences of
hopelessness, or the feeling that God was silent to our cries,
but today you and I are here on this mountain where God is
truly present. Today you and I have come to this mountain
to find rest and comfort in our communal prayer, our
Christian fellowship, and our common Eucharistic meal.
Today, you and I bring our troubles, our burdens, our
worries, our sorrows, our pain, and our sufferend and leave
them here in the presence of God. Today, you and I are
present to the God of love, knowing that we are not alone
and that God is always present when the storms of loss,
abandonment, loneliness, or confusion seem to swirl all
around us pulling us deeper and deeper into the stormy
waters of life.
Jesus needed to be alone, and so he left the disciples
behind and sought the peace, encouragement, and love that
only his Father could offer. Sometimes you and I need to do
the same because we cannot support the other if we have not
first been supported. We cannot feed the other if we have not
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first been fed. We cannot love the other unless we have first
been loved.
Our gathering together as a community of faith, and
our walk together to this mountain of God’s genuine
presence in the Eucharist will provide the strength, peace,
comfort, and encouragement that we all need to continue our
journey as God’s chosen people.
We’ve all experienced various storms in our lives, some
easily blow over, while others are so powerful that it seems
that the angry waves just keep crashing against us and we
just “wanna get away” – but here we are on this mountain in
the presence of a God who will never leave us in the eye of
the storm. All we need do is remain present, close our eyes,
and reach out in prayer asking God to save us, and he will
respond, “O you of little faith. Why do you doubt?”
God Bless You.
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