Scripture: Matthew 14:22–33
Oh God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, our rock, our tower, and our redeemer. Amen.
I had a dream earlier this week.
And in the dream I was attending a big community dinner at a large function hall.
And at the dinner, people were getting up and telling jokes to entertain the crowd of happy people having dinner.
At some point, one of the event organizers comes up to me and says that someone didn’t show up for their scheduled time to tell jokes, and they asked if I would be willing to fill in, “you know, tell some theology jokes from your line of work.”
I can tell you this has never happened to me in real life, nor do I hope that it ever will.
But in my dream, I agreed and stood up and started telling jokes and stories.
Among a few stories, I told the crowd about the pious pigeons who live on the Newman Church roof and who have been making a habit of reenacting the resurrection by falling down our chimney.
As I ran out of jokes and stories, I asked the crowd if they could help me out by asking a question they had about theology.
Someone asked, “what’s a catechism?”
I said, it’s the worship of cats, and then I woke up.
I don’t know where that dream came from, or what it meant exactly, but it set off a chain of reflections for me about the power of timing in the story of Jesus walking on water.
And just so I don’t mislead anyone, I should say that a catechism is a method of teaching by posing questions about faith, and presenting common answers. It does not have anything to do with cats, as far as I know.
But back to the idea of timing: A former colleague of mine used to ask—
What is the difference between a good joke and a bad joke timing.
Timing is one key to understanding our scripture reading from Matthews’s Gospel.
Jesus begins slowly, by taking time after feeding 5,000 people to go off and pray by himself. And after he has done that, he sees that the disciples are in trouble on the stormy seas, and he begins moving very quickly to help them. It’s a matter of timing.
The Greek word euthus (εὐθέως) meaning immediately is used three times in the passage:
Jesus immediately made the disciples get into a boat and sail away from the shore.
When the disciples are afraid of the ghost on the water, Jesus immediately says to them, “Take heart, it’s me.”
And when Peter begins to sink, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him.
Jesus was able to take swift and faithful action in this story because he had taken time to rest and pray.
For many of us, our mental life of worry has no downtime. Our thoughts and concerns about the world and loved ones near and far are constant features of life, and time and space for self-aware reflection seems out of reach.
When Grace and I moved into the house where we now live, the house inspector told us that all the available spaces in the electric panel were full. Everything worked okay, but there was no room for anything new if we ever wanted to add something to the house.
Sometimes life feels this way — things are going okay as they are, but we know somewhere in the back of our mind that if we are going to more space for a change, we will have to do the work of creating the space for it. It’s a matter of timing.
The disciples have just been through this powerful experience of healing, helping, and feeding people. They have every expectation that life with Jesus will continue on in this fashion into the future. But Jesus seizes this moment.
In Matthew’s Gospel, our reading today is Jesus taking the time to add a new capacity. Walking on water allows the disciples to see Jesus in a whole new way — and the disciples can now see Jesus, for the first time in Matthew’s Gospel, as the Son of God. Everything is changed for them now.
Recently, Grace and I took the time to make more space in our electric panel. For a whole day, the house was without electricity while the electrician worked. It was quiet. There was no internet. We didn’t open the refrigerator. It was too hot to do much of anything. It was a good day for thinking, resting, and praying. As the electrician turned all the circruits back on, one by one, he pointed out that the dehumidifier in the basement was draining a lot of power, more than it should. We had no idea. We turned the dehumidifier off. We would have never known that if we hadn’t taken the time to turn everything off for a time.
St. Ignatius of Loyola taught his followers a special prayer called the Examen which is an opportunity for daily reflection. It invites those who pray the prayer to twice a day pause, in the morning and the evening, to look for the movement of God in all the people and events we see and experience.
You begin by relaxing and placing yourself in God’s presence and allow yourself to become aware that God is with you right now. You take a moment to thank God for the specific gifts and blessings of your day.
Then you look back through the memories of your past day, like you are watching a movie of your own life, and pay attention to your emotions as you recollect your day. You can choose one specific moment or feeling from the day and talk to God about it in prayer, and ask God for grace, wisdom, and guidance for the future day ahead.
Slowing down to pray this prayer can give you direction, purpose, and hope for the day ahead. We can imagine Jesus praying this prayer in the mountains after feeding the 5,000 and giving thanks for the lives of his friends and disciples who were at work with him, and asking God for help taking care of them in the days ahead. He is ready when they face trouble.
May we too be inspired to brings Jesus’s life into the future.
May we take the time to appreciate jokes and lighter moments so that we will be more ready to take on the serious and heavy parts of life that are near.
May we be ready to turn off what is draining us of our power so that we can be light enough to walk on the proverbial water with the help of our faith in Jesus.
May it be so. Amen.
