I remember years ago talking to my grandson Vincent. He was only 10 at the time. I had raised my voice to him. I thought at the time I was gently correcting him.
Vincent looked at me with a disappointed look and told me I was speaking sternly to him. And I realized I had hurt his feelings.
It is a different world than the one I grew up in, but Vincent was right to call me out. As his grandfather my role is love him and share what I can with him. To encourage and guide but certainly speaking sternly isn’t part of the job…at least not at 10.
I thought about Vincent and my stern talking I gave him when I was reading about the whisper in our first reading and how Jesus talked to the disciples and Peter in the Gospel.
God didn’t speak sternly to Elijah and Jesus did not speak sternly today to the disciples….There are times for speaking sternly as Vincent puts it but it wasn’t today in our readings and maybe not to a ten year old from a grandfather whose mission is love and cherishing.
In a whisper we hear is how God speaks in our first reading when he talks to Elijah, who is much distressed and on the run for his life.
God speaks to him in a whisper…after all the wind and earthquakes and fire assailing his senses maybe a whisper speaks loudest of all in its contrast.
Maybe the same is true for grandfathers to grandchildren.
Nevertheless, our God is gentle with us – He sees our vulnerabilities, our fragile bodies and our sensitive spirits. He speaks from love and patience.
That is what we see in our Gospel too when Jesus appears to the disciples.
They had left probably the evening before to cross over to the other shore. They had been in the boat all night with wind and waves working against them. It was now the darkest part of the night….the fourth watch, between 3 and 6 when tired men wonder if the dawn will ever come.
An hour when tired sailors watching the shore move further away as the wind pushes them out for hours….wonder if they will ever see Jesus again or perish beneath the waves. Those of us who have served the fourth watch in the military on guard duty or onboard ships 4th watch know exactly how dark and alone it can be.
And now the dark night was accompanied by waves and wind that sought to sink them, they were tired from fighting the wind, their hearts wore out from seeing the hopelessness of the situation. Now they would see something or someone approaching them on the water…no boat but maybe a man walking where men cannot walk…on top of the water.
The cries of fear come quickly from exhausted disciples …until Jesus speaks to them…I can only imagine what it must have been like…to be lost, to have already given up maybe, then to see a frightening apparition and immediately to see your Lord is there and to realize all will be alright.
What a roller coaster of emotion. From battling storms, to fear to relief…
“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.” Jesus says.
He knows their fear and struggle just as he knows our fears and struggles.
We might not be fighting waves or wind but we do fight illness, broken relationships and fragmented families, we lose jobs and lose loved ones. And there will be times we don’t have the strength or ability to reach the shore, to make people or ourselves well again, find work, find someone to love, repair families.
We will find ourselves in the fourth watch, a dark time when like Elijah we will need to ponder where and who is God for us. Is he in the wind or the whisper. Is he coming to shake the world or take our hand. Is he to be feared or trusted.
That is the human condition.
For ever since Adam first disobeyed God we have struggled and fear has been part of our life. Adam’s first fear was when he became afraid after he sinned and realized he was naked…so instead of welcoming God he hid from God.
I think it is important to note that it wasn’t God who changed how he related to Adam but Adam who changed how he related to God.
God is always waiting to talk to us. To whisper to us what he wants for us and how we should live. To show us in the dawn breaking through the darkness and in the coolness of the morning that there is good news.
The good news that is the Gospel and teachings of Christ but also his message of hope and peace he has for each of us so we can live without being afraid or filled with anxiety.
-pause-
But we have to move past the noise of this world…our own storms and our own struggles and prepare a place in our heart for the Holy Spirit so we can hear his message. This takes real open conversation with God. Not just rote prayers we check off or blurt out by memory not thinking about what we are saying but real person to person conversation …. open, angry at times, respectful and in the knowledge that our God is a loving God who loves us for our humanity. We are made in the image of God but it is not our resemblance to the divine he loves but our very fragile nature. He loves us when we seek him, when we continue to reach out and repent even when we fail….he loves us in our persistence. In those times when it is darkest for us when we turn to him again.
Peter saw Jesus on the water and asked to be able to walk to Jesus…I don’t know if that was a moment of complete trust for a second or an ambition to join Jesus but whatever it was it didn’t last long.
In true Peter style, he took a step in the right direction, he knew to turn to Jesus and focus on him but then the wind rose against him and scared him and he began to sink. His faith and trust melted like an ice cube on a hot Texas summer day.
But again, we see our God who does not change how he relates to us, how he loves us even in our lack of faith. It was Peter who failed to trust and focus on Jesus…Peter had changed from that first step of faith to allowing fear to own him.
Jesus did not berate him. He didn’t get angry or scold him. He definitely did not speak sternly to him. He only said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt.”
The good news is we have a God who loves us for all we are, and all we can be. He loves us where he finds us. Weak, lacking in understanding or faith.
If we come here today and find our storms are overwhelming, we have been fighting our fight against the world, whether it is waves or fire or even struggling marriages or loss of hope….Jesus is still the loving God and He isn’t one for lecturing…….. but standing in front of us asking us to reach out. Ignore the wind, open our hearts to him, ask for the Holy Spirit to be part of our life and a resident in our heart….start the conversation. Person to person.
It doesn’t matter what we say or how many times we lose faith…keep trying – his hand is never pulled away. Peter showed us that even the foolish is loved by Jesus.
How are we doing today?
Do we have an open line to God now. Do we truly trust in him? If so, fear and anxiety should not be in control of our life.
If fear is causing us to stumble then we need to remember to bring God back into our daily lives with prayer. We need to remember to pray always…we can use our formal and memorized prayers to get us started and to quiet us down…but until we are listening like Elijah and have moved beyond the noise of this world we will not hear his voice.
Jesus tells all of us today, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.”
We can do this through prayer and being honest and open with our Lord.
But it isn’t a one and done kind of thing my friends. It is a continual process that like Peter we will need to work at. But the result will be less fear, less anxiety, more hope, and more peace.
Vincent is 19 years old today and towers over me. But he still doesn’t need me talking sternly to him. There are enough challenges and storms ahead in his life to help guide him. I will be there when he needs me and strive to be like God, a calm voice he can return to whenever he needs it
At the end of the day we may not be able to change the storms life hands us either. None of us are immune from struggles and storms. But we can change how we are impacted by them. We can choose to spend time in prayer, to spend part of our day listening for the whisper telling us what we need to do. And then we need to trust and take the step out of the boat with eyes firmly fixed on Jesus Christ.
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Deacon Tony Pynes 
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