Traversing Troubled Waters; Sermon for August 10th, 2014 By Nicole Collins

Where were you when God laid the foundation of faith in your hearts? As a disciple of Jesus we are all familiar with the classic statements faith such as having faith the size of a mustard seed or having a faith that can move mountains.... And perhaps my favorites comes from one of Paul’s other letters—Philippians chapter four: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  In short, faith can be a wonderful power in the world when it is not operating from a worldly frame of mind.

Job had a hard time with understanding what god's motivation was in basically responding this way...Was God trying to make him feel guilty for all the awful things that has just happened to him! Or just set up the boundaries of who’s the one in power... either way, Job’s questions weren’t really ever answered—he needed to fall back into faith.

But in speaking to a faith that can move mountains can we imagine what some 40,000 up on top in the mountainside in Iraq are feeling?  Basically they have been warned that if they descend they will come to their death but if they choose to deny their faith they aqueous to another kind of death.  A death their evil oppressors will neither understand or care to understand...  To deny your heart’s faith in God is a terrible fate to inflict upon innocent people.

Much like Peter, we can relate to how he felt atop of those waters feeling a great rush of fear coming over him as the winds and waves whip around him. He sees his Lord and Savior standing ahead of him beckoning him to come forward to keep the faith and stay firm but he becomes terrified and begins to sink. For the people on the mountainside, there was some hope raining from above as humanitarian aid packages drop from the skies to offer some relief.  Does it really bring peace however? Does it really calm the heart from the terror they must be feeling? Does it truly begin to heal the tears that must be welling within the persecuted hearts of those trapped upon this mountainside?

A number of years back it was a book written by Harold S. Kushner, ‘When Bad Things Happen To Good People’... Why does evil exist is it all just an aspect of being human? Why do we do terrible things, horrible things to one another that is not a mirror to Christ image but that of the evil one?  The mystery of life is just that—a mystery.  But of course in our saint and sinner selves, we bubble forth with questions spurred on by doubt, and fueled by fear, misunderstanding.  It is one of the painful challenges of living into being Christ Jesus’ disciple.

The other day when requesting prayers for our overseas brothers and sisters on this Iraq mountain side; I had a friend make a post or comment saying that: “We all believe in the same God!” But in all honesty, why would the same God be commanding his disciples to murder, essentially kill neighbor if they do not convert? Why would the same God destroy the beauty of nature the beauty of his Holy Houses of prayer and worship built from ages past? This is not my Lord and Savior, who died and rose for my behalf...  This is not my God!

The only thing our Lord Jesus ever said that seemingly sounded as battle cry was all about the spiritual. This was when he told his disciples that he comes not to bring peace, but the sword.  It is too easy for us to assume it be a war cry of an empirical sense... For Jesus, it was the declaration of the turf of a spiritual battleground—the one raging in our hearts and the two opposing parties being that of good and evil.  This is the struggle of having, keeping and nurturing our faith formation as disciples.

The Lord Jesus Christ, our savior, redeemer is not a God of physical war and destruction but a God of love, mercy, compassion and true transforming internal change.  Today’s passage from Romans has St. Paul illumine this: “^8b... “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.”  Paul continues in saying a little further along in this passage that: “¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ¹⁶But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”

These thoughts raced in my mind when the news reporter said “these people,” as he called them, (the terrorists) are barbarians for civilized human beings do not cut infants in half and bludgeon mothers who refuse to bow down against their faith! Beautiful and gracious behavior—faith in genuine action for God through love of God and neighbor knows that murder is truly unjustifiable evil, period, especially in light of “evangelizing...”

Our human nature continues to want to ask... “But if our God is a God of peace and mercy why do terrible things happen?” Again as earlier said, these are the mysteries of life, the mystery of keeping, nurturing and responding in grace as faith. Some may ask; why were we given free will? It hasn’t really helped us all too much... how often do we even make the right decisions how much more often do we make the wrong ones? This again is a part of that internal struggle, much like the immediate responses of Peter’s to freak out when he ventures out on his faith answering Jesus’ call to come to him walking upon the waters.

The Word of faith is on our lips and in our hearts but often we are harboring fear in proclaiming it and taking the brunt of it in the face of great persecution and evil... I remember early on in seminary learning that the statement, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ is our very first creed. During the time that St. Paul uttered those words in his letters he knew he was saying it in defiance against Roman tyranny... For who would dare utter that someone other than Caesar was Lord?!  The Pharisees even challenged Jesus politically with making Jesus respond in saying: (Matthew 22:18-21) “¹⁸... “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” ²¹They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

In the guise of laws and regulations, informed righteousness we impart the horrors of death, sin and Satan.  We are basically contributing to developing a graceless wilderness of darkness where there is no hope and no purpose.  This can only happen when we choose to operate away not only from God, but operate from a place concerned with power and control.  The ISIS group is doing just this.  They feel they are operating for and from God in basically persecuting and executing their neighbor...

Our world is a perilous place right now where we do not know where the end is and where a new beginning truly begins.  For off in the distance, much like Peter, we see the Lord with his arms open and the love and peace and grace of his heart flowing towards us but we are gripped with fear, riddled with questions and our defenses against the Evil One’s shortcuts are down and susceptible to his temptations...

The challenges of the world either abroad or in our daily lives— it's sin, indifference and its stumbling blocks can drag us down with fear and temptation to taking those easier roads, to essentially succumb to weakness. But we can’t in good conscience let this continue to be.  We must grow obediently in our faith to be accountable to the one who loved us beyond measure granting us pardon, we never deserved but was given: GRACE.

We need to take those baby steps, we need to take those uncomfortable grand leaps of faith. And yes, more often than not, those grand leaps of faith will not hint towards the future we long to see...  We may not see our leaps needing to be over a chasm or a simple mound... We need to harbor, develop faith that can move mountains.  Perhaps we could even have faith that would enable us to walk upon the waters?

In ancient culture the waters were to be feared and thought to be a place of chaos as well as creation.  With Christ we know that the water is the source of life but treading a top the unknown is something very difficult, our human nature fights instinctually where we cannot understand or will even try to understand...

But if we do not try to tread over those murky, frightening ‘troubled’ waters...we will die. We will die a death of spiritually not knowing how the Lord hopes for us to grow as his children of grace; for it is faith that gives our lives meaning, faith that grounds our sense of purpose in the world that can be of great light and beauty.  A faith that can grow the fruits of beautiful behavior...

The tears we shed for compassion of the neighbor in the mountains of Iraq we must see as the waters of hope to a God of love and mercy.  A God of a spiritual war seeking the transformation of our hearts to love him and neighbor with the story of our lives lived in gracious service to him.
AMEN

August 10^th, 2014; 9^th Sunday after Pentecost; Year A; SOLA Lectionary 

Psalm 18:1-16; Job 38:4-18; Romans 10:5-17 & Matthew 14:22-33