August 7, 2011
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Walk of faith is a lot like walking on water
Walking by faith and in God’s grace is not as easy as somewould have us to think. There is a verypopular poem, “Footprints in the sand” by Mary Stevenson.
“One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Manyscenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were twosets of footprints, other times there was one only. This bothered me because I noticed thatduring the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow ordefeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “Youpromised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But Ihave noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only beenone set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?” The Lord replied, “The years when you haveseen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
It is a beautiful poem and I know manypeople take great comfort in the vision of God carrying us in the toughtimes. However, I think it is not a verygood faith walk image. God doesn’t justcarry us when the times are tough, God always carries us. To me, that is what it means to walk infaith. We walk trusting God is taking uswhere we are supposed to go. I think thepoem would be more accurate if we look back at the footprints in the sand andwe see when there is one set of footprints it is during the times in our liveswhen we are content and the times when there are two sets of footprints arewhen the path gets erratic, heading off into the deep water, or into thethistles, or over the broken glass. AndGod would say to us, those are the times you insisted I put you down and youwould go your own way.
The story of Jesus walking on the water isnot about ignoring the laws of nature. Ido not know of any other instance of Jesus walking on water or any of thedisciples walking on water. The point isthat when God needs to get something done, the laws of nature are notcontrolling. When we walk in faith, webelieve God can do things with us that the world will tell us is not possibleto be done. This doesn’t really makelife easier for us. Most of us prefer tohave the rules spelled out and to know exactly what can and can’t be done andwhat should and should not be done. Living by faith and trusting in God’s grace means we have to be open toGod’s leading in our lives and we have to believe God’s grace is sufficient notjust for ourselves but for all others. We much prefer to be able to go to the rule book and find what is theright thing for us to do and what is the right thing for others to do. God revealed the law to humankind to providea framework for making decisions about how we live together. The law really meant to encourage us to thinkabout what we do and how it affects others. The law was about relationship building with others and with the rest ofcreation. Instead the religious leadersused the law to control and exploit others. Jesus came and said that isn’t what God meant, it is about relationshipnot about hardship and control.
Living in relationship with God means weuse what God has revealed in the Holy Bible, what God has revealed to people weknow to have great faith, and what God has revealed to us to determine what weare called to do. We will not all becalled to do the same things or to live in the same way. You will notice Jesus did not tell all of thedisciples to get out of the boat. It wasimportant for Peter to experience what he could do when he acted on hisfaith. It was also important for all ofus to see what happens when we lose our focus and let our human weakness takecontrol. I do not mean to suggest thatliving a life of faith requires us to abandon all reason. Part of the way God has been revealed to usis in the laws of nature and in the predictability of consequences for certainactions. The point is God can suspendthe rules when it is in God’s will. Peterasked to come to Jesus and Jesus said come. It was a teaching moment about faith and focus. Sometimes God will invite us into a teachingmoment about faith and focus. We caneither accept the invitation or decide to stay in the security of the known.
Just this last week, I was speaking withsomeone about my future plans. I wasfrustrated because I don’t really know what I can commit to more than a fewweeks out because I don’t know if I will get an appointment and where thatappointment will be. I have seasontickets for MSU football but don’t know how many games I will actually get toattend. I have requests from friends tocome visit in the fall but I don’t know if I will be home. I was really working myself up into a pityparty about how unfair this interim specialist ministry is and then I thoughtabout Peter in the boat and asking Jesus to let him come to Jesus and thenpanicking when he saw the waves around him. I asked God to use me, to use my gifts and talents and God said come,serve the congregations that are in transition and help them to heal andstrengthen to go boldly into the future and then move on. These are my gifts and talents and I jumpedin, and then I let myself get distracted by the difficulties swirling around meand I want God to make it easy. If wewant easy, we have to stay in the boat and then we miss the excitement of doingthings we never imagined we would do and doing things the world will tell us wecan’t do.
It is also important to note that, whenPeter lost his focus and his faith was not strong, Jesus took his hand andbrought him safely back to the boat. Sometimes we will step out in faith and then we look around us, we getscared, and we feel ourselves sinking. It is good to know when we call out for God to save us, God will do justthat. We are never outside of God’sreach. God made us, God knows howdifficult it is for us to walk the walk of faith, God knows how tempted we areto take control of our lives and do what makes sense to the world rather thanwhat God tells us is the right way to live. God lets us take control and run to the hazards but God never lets go ofus. Amen.
