Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ amen
Many of you have heard the phrase, "I am only human" as a person is trying to explain why he/she has made some mistake, or did something wrong. Said in that kind of way, the phrase says something very negative about the condition of a human being. "I am only human" describes for many of us in our fallen state, the worst about a person. Or another phrase, "You cannot expect much from him/her, he/she in only human." we could go on and on, but you got the point. We can speak about the negative side of a person by talking about them as being all too human.
But did you know that in the Bible, when a person’s humanity is talked about, it is describing a person when he/she is coming closest to what God intended for us to be. God created us to be very human, to be different from the animals, to be special, to be unique, to be different. The human being were to be more like God, than like animals. Remember in Genesis 1:26 and following God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them." To be human in the Biblical sense is to be like God, to be human in the Biblical sense is to be living in the full image of God.
This morning I would like to apply both of these concepts of being human to Peter. For I think, that Peter fits our worldly concept of being human, that is the negative side the selfish side, the lower side of His being, but also he fits very well the Biblical image of being human, being in the likeness, in the image of God, being that person who lives as God intended for human beings to live.
Maybe a a tory that Charles Spurgeon’s told in one of his devotions can help to explain these two aspects of being human. "There was a king who upon occasion entertained all the beggars of the city. It was quite a sight. The king would be surrounded by his courtiers who were dressed in their finest apparel and at the same table would be the beggars in their rags. One day one of the courtiers soiled His silken garb so that he was embarrassed to wear it. In fact, he would not put it on and been seen in it. His heart was broken because he could not go to the feast with the king, and he sat and wept in disappointment until this idea struck His. Why not go as a beggar dressed in rags?
His fine silken garment was ruined, he could put on some rage and at least he would be present with the king for the feast. Determined to see the king’s face and sit at the king’s table, he entered the banquet as a beggar." Spurgeon ends the devotion with this sentence: "My soul has done this on many an occasion and I beg you do the same; if you cannot come as a saint, come as a sinner, only do come and you shall shall receive joy and peace."
Maybe another way to describe the two sides to the human condition is to say as Luther said, we ore both saint and sinner at the same time. Maybe that is the best way to describes Peter in our gospel lesson, he was both saint and sinner. Maybe that is the way we should describe us, both saint and sinner.
Let us first look at Peter as he was being a sinner, or less than what God created him to be, or as we night say it being all to human.
As the story goes, Jesus was in the hillside praying, when he noticed a storm coming up. He could see with each flash of lightening, that the disciples were having a difficult time keeping their boat afloat in the water. So Jesus decided the quickest way to help the disciples was to walk across the water.
And here we see the first evidence of the disciples and Peter of their lack of trust, lack of faith, being all too human and not being in the image of God, for they cried out, "It is a ghost. They cried out in fear."
They had just been listening to Jesus preach concerning His love for them, they had just witnessed, had come from the meal where Jesus feed 5000 with a few fish and a few loaves of bread, and they could not believe that Jesus could walk on the water. There was no evidence in the text, that they even prayed to Him during this time of trouble and when he comes on his own accord, they didn’t recognize Him, they were afraid. Then Peter asks Jesus if he could come to Him walking on the water.
Jesus says come!
Peter gets out of the boat, but as he saw the wind and the waves, as he realized what he was doing, he began to sink into the water. Peter forgot who was standing there, he forgot about being in the image of God and he sank into the water. The disciples and Peter in this instance were being less than human, or all to human in the negative sense. They were not being in the image of God, they were relying on themselves, they were in fact being sinner, turning away from God trusting in themselves.
There is a story about an old merchant ship that was caught In a dangerous storm on the high seas. The winds were wailing and the waves were pounding the little vessel.
All of a sudden the captain ordered a young sailor to climb the main mast set free the mast which became tangled.
When the young sailor got half-way up the tall east, he became frightened by the storm which was tossing the boat through the water. Looking down he screamed, "I am going to fall, I can’t go on! I’m afraid the storm will throw me down! What shall I do?"
The captain yelled in reply, "Look up, young man, forget the storm. Just keep looking up and you won’t fall !"
That sailor was like Peter and the disciples, he was so caught up in the storm, thinking abut himself that fear overcame, him. But the advice of the captain was sound, look up, concentrate on something else.
Or we might say, look to Jesus, concentrate on him. And that brings us to the positive side of the human condition of Peter and the disciples.
When they were more human in the Biblical sense, when they relied on Jesus, when they turned to God, then events went all right.
Notice, Peter must have had some faith, some trust in Jesus in order to step out of the boat.
And notice the final reply of the disciples saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
When Peter and the disciples focused all of their attention on Jesus rather on themselves and their own fears, then they could see who he was, then they could do marvelous things, like walking on water.
When the disciples and Peter were living, and being in the image of God, being in God and not trying to be their own God, life was full and had great meaning.
"A humble backwoods layman was once heard praying in church, "Lord,help me to remember, ain’t nothin you and I can’t do together." Isn’t that true. When we are focused on Jesus, then nothing is impossible, not even walking on water. When Peter was focused on Jesus, when he turned from his own fears, when he completely forgot about himself, when he surrounded to Jesus, trusted in him fully, then he could step out of the boat in the wind and the waves and walk toward Jesus.
This story about the wind and the storm, this story about walking on the water tells us two things about our relation ship with Jesus.
One being, he will come to us in our darkest moments, during the stores of life, during those times we aren’t thinking of him, he might just coming walking into our lives in some manner to bring us his mercy. As Spurgeon said, Jesus wants us as the saint and sinner that we are. If we live in our own image, if we forget who made us, if we try to be our own god, our own boss, God doesn’t throw us out, but He still comes to us showing us his concern.
So, if you feel you are in that sinner state, a state where you can’t seem to find God in your life have no fear, because God is finding you. He is coming into the storms of your life in ways that you might not be aware of, in ways you might not expect, in ways that might over whelm you, but God will be there.
And for those of you who are in a relationship with Jesus. who at this moment are living in the image that God intended for you to live, Jesus will be there to let you do those marvelous things.
For being in Jesus, being in Christ doesn’t mean a stagnate life, but it means a life of action, a life of risk taking, a life of courage. It means a life that is willing to say to Jesus, bid me come walking on the water to you. Bid me Jesus to do what you would have me do with my life. Bid me Jesus to risk, to dare, to love and give as you have freely loved and have given. Bid me Jesus to keep my eyes focused on you and then you and I can over come the storms of life. Bid me to stay in that relationship with you. Bid me to have courage of faith, that lets me explore the many varied and unique ways that I can serve you and serve my neighbor.
I would like to close with a story that is found in the book The Transforming Friendship by Leslie Weatherhead.
It is a story about one man’s relationship to Jesus that I find inspiring.
"There was an old Scotsman who was very, very ill. When his pastor come to see him, the suffering man told him about the empty chair by the side of his bed. The chair had held a key place in his life for many years. It began when he had trouble kneeling for prayer and a friend told him not to worry about kneeling. The friend suggested that he sit to pray and put a choir opposite him. In that chair, he was to imagine that Jesus was sitting and he was and talking to him as a friend.
He did it and continued to do it through the years. So the chair was still there by his bedside for his ’friend’.
Some days later, the pastor returned to call on the sick man, only to be met at the door by, his daughter who explained that her father had died during the might.
She explained that he had seemed to be resting well, and she had taken a brief nap. When she awoke to go check on her father, he was deed. He had not moved since she had left him except for one thing. He had reached out and placed his hand on the empty chair next to his bed.
The pastor smiled and thought, Jesus is indeed the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end and a part of each day’s journey in between."
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale August 5, 2002
