Sermon-Jody Rice-Matthew 14:22-33

Grace to you and peace from the One who is, who was, and who is to come again. Amen.

Let’s take a look at one persons struggle with doubt. I will never forget the story my father used to tell me of when he was a young man and his Mother woke him to tell of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Tears were running down her face since she realized that her son would now be going to war. She had such doubt about his future. My father, served in the army during World War II. He always had some of the most incredible stories from his experiences. He came home after being in the Pacific Islands and told stories just like this one about another man’s struggle with doubt.

During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire he had lost touch with his fellow soldiers.

Alone in the jungle, he could hear enemy soldiers coming in his direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search all the caves and he would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, if it be your will, please protect me. Whatever your will though, I love you and trust you. Amen."

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close. He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave.

As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave.

"Hah, he thought, "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humor."

As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while. "Lord, forgive me," prayed the young man. "I had forgotten that in you a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."

This man doubted his faith while waiting for the enemy to find him in the cave. In our Gospel message today we are going to examine another person who doubted his faith- Peter. Our story today in the Gospel of Matthew starts right after the feeding of the multitudes. Jesus spends most of the night alone praying in the mountain after sending his disciples on ahead in a boat to Capernaum by way of Bethsaida. They were rowing near the shore because one of the many storms for which the lake was notorious developed. The disciples were struggling against the waves and winds and making very little progress on their trip.

As the night wore on, Jesus started to walk around the lake to meet the disciples on the far side. But Jesus realized that the disciples were in trouble and appeared to them when they were about half way across the lake. The significance here is that Jesus came to them in their hour of need.

Peter sees Jesus walking on the water and he wants to walk out onto the water also. We could say Peter’s strength of faith is strong because he does step out of the boat and begins to walk. But the moment that Peter becomes distracted by the storm, he begins to sink! Peter cries out in his moment of doubt, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”1

Now we could say a few things about Peter here. We could say that he was acting on impulse without thinking about what he was doing. As a result of his impetuousness, he often failed. But, he never completely failed here because in this greatest moment of need he grabbed onto Christ. What we see here is a disciple in the making, our role model for discipleship. His faith just keeps getting stronger!

Jesus calms the seas as he and Peter get back into the boat. Then the disciples in the boat said, “Truly you are the Son of God”2. The disciples worship Jesus. Here then is the claim for Jesus being the Son of God.

What does this Gospel message tell us for today? First it challenges us to look at the storms that we face in our own lives. Storms that cause us to doubt! “There are times when we are up against our personal storms and life is a desperate struggle with our temptations, sorrows and decisions”.3 Where are our storms that can cause doubts within us today? Is it when you have had to turn off a life support system for a loved one? Or had to deal with a child that is stillborn? For me, my greatest storm was caring for 3 people over the age of 80. During that time in my life, the storms of Alzheimer’s, cancer and heart disease were making me doubt my faith and getting in the way of me focusing on Jesus. When we focus on our own storms, we lose focus on God. What we must never forget is that Jesus is with us in the midst of all our storms and calms our fears. God promises to be there.

We also must see here that the disciples were claiming Jesus to be the “Son of God”. This is their claim but it is also ours. The Jesus of then is the Son of God for us today and 1 NRSV 2 Ibid. 3 Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2. Revised Ed. Louisville, TN: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975. always! And what should our response be? We should confess Him as our Lord and Savior and worship Him.

Now a perfect example of constant storms and doubt that you can all relate to is from one of my favorite childhood Saturday morning cartoons….Wild E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Of course the Road Runner is always getting away at the last minute. And poor old Wild E. Coyote is usually seen running off the edge of a cliff or mountainside. As he begins to fall, he grabs with all his strength a twig which is sticking out of the side of the cliff. He hangs there for a few moments… then you hear…“crack”…the twig breaks… and he falls.

This story is similar to our Gospel message today about Peter’s faith. For you see, just as Wild E. Coyote with all of his strength could not keep the twig from breaking, Peter with all the strength of his faith could not keep from sinking. For you see, “the key to great faith is not how strong the faith is, but what the faith holds onto. Faith that holds onto the promises of God, that faith will never fall. For God’s promises never break”.4

At all times in our lives when we face fear and weakness, we must realize that no person need struggle alone. Jesus, the Son of God, is in the midst of the storms of our lives with his hand outstretched to save us. He was with them then and He is with us today! So the next time you are being battered about by one of life’s storms, let go of the storm and walk into the saving arms of Jesus for…. Truly He is the Son of God!

4 Semoncental.com