Last Sunday (Pentecost 8, Year A, Aug. 3, 2014)
August 9 – 8:30am, ECM at Hornes
August 10 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist , Rite II, Pentecost 9
This Sunday at St. Peter’s – Servers, Readings
We did it! Over the top with the Organ Bellows fund – $14K raised!
Thanks to all who contributed to provide a proper seal (leather) for the bellows which brings the air to the pipe to produce sounds that support our worship services.
Donate School Supplies for Caroline County students
Needed—yellow #2 pencils, erasers, wide ruled notebook paper, glue sticks, Marble black and white composition books, boxes of 24 crayons, small index cards, tissues, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, dry erase markers, fiskar scissors, spiral bound notebooks, yellow highlighters, pocket folders with and without prongs. Please leave on the back row of the church. Thanks!
Our topic this week is fear and faith through the lectionary, in particular "Jesus Walking on the Water."Although faith is almost always paired with doubt, so is fear. Fear and doubt often go together and play similar roles in working against faith, the radical love of Jesus. And we can argue that like overcoming doubt, overcoming fear can make our faith stronger, or indeed is evidence of a stronger faith.
Fear is an instinctive emotion driven by threat, such as the potential for death or the possibility of pain. It can easily challenge or overcome your faith. We have to work hard at propping up and maintaining our faith.
The story of Jesus walking on the water is about Jesus and the fear of the disciples in seeing an unknown man on the water but the attention soon moves to Peter getting up on the water. We have always challenged the elements to show of what we are made.
Forward Movement writes this week, "The story about walking on the water is about faith taming the forces of nature. Faith is what compels Peter to get out of the boat in the first place. Faith is also what Peter relies on when he encounters nature’s resistance. Faith is how Jesus stills the storm. The choice we face is almost always between fear and faith. "
The fear brought uncertainty, then doubt and the battle with his faith was renewed. It is captured beautifully in this simple picture. He did not drop like a stone; he began to sink. His fear and the doubts that came with it pulled him into the water. His faith fought to hold him up but in the end it wasn’t enough and Jesus “caught him". He learned the power of the Lord.
This week we have many examples of dealing with fear and/or faith in movies ("Truman Show", "Facing the Giants"), TV ("Leave it to Beaver") and music ("Suzanne"). Faith is discovered as we grow to find the authentic self.
People find their faith in many ways whether through religion, within the arts, challenging themselves, dealing with other people or within nature. We briefly look at nature in this regard. The water has to be treated with respect and some people find themselves there ("surfing") or simply by hiking or being in the woods and appreciating God’s creation and our circumstances in being able to share in that.
Lectionary, Pentecost 9, August 10, 2014
I.Theme – Confronting our Fears
"Jesus Walks on Water" – Ivan Aivazofsky (1888)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – 1 Kings 19:9-18
Psalm – Psalm 85:8-13 Page 708, BCP
Epistle –Romans 10:5-15
Gospel – Matthew 14:22-33
This Sunday’s readings deal with our need for help. This comes in various forms. It may be out of fear; it may be due to bodily danger; it may be a psychological condition.
Our faith may be tested in extreme. Each of the readings has a different form and setting where this occurs.
In all of this we have to remember Jesus call to us. Then it is that we feel his hand reach out to ours. Then it is that we know that the power to take one step more—and perhaps only one step more—is ours for the asking when we call on Jesus. How do we keep our eyes on Jesus when our failures and trials obscure our sight? How often do we feel as if we cannot take the next step? We feel ourselves sinking, sinking in our self-doubt and despair. It is difficult to remember this when our situation close to us cloud our vision.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah was active in the northern kingdom of Israel in the middle of the ninth century BC. He was an opponent of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who supported the worship of Baal and other Canaanite fertility gods. Today’s passage follows Elijah’s demonstration that Yahweh is in control of the forces of nature (17:1) and is mightier than Baal (18:20-39). Elijah then flees the vengeance of Jezebel (19:1-3). An angel strengthens him on his journey to Horeb (an alternate name for Sinai).
God’s revelation to Elijah echoes God’s revelation to Moses (Exodus 33:17-23). Like Moses, Elijah receives a revelation and a commission from the Lord. Like Moses, Elijah has gone through conflict with royalty and is fleeing for his life. Like Moses he feels inadequate to the task but is sent back into the fray.
God speaks to the prophet Elijah not in earthquake, wind and fire but in a mysterious silence. This may be an internal communication with him. Elijah thinks that he is already at the limit of his experience and energy, but a “sheer silence” draws him in deeper to the requirements that God has for him.
In the Psalm, this national lament seems to have been composed originally for a particular historical situation of affliction and then to have passed into general use. The original context may have been crop failure before the exile; or more probably, it may have been the difficulties faced by those returning from exile in Babylon. Thanks are given for the return (vv. 1-3), and the lord’s continued help is requested (vv. 4-7). The lord’s answer comes (vv. 8-13), perhaps as an oracle uttered by a temple prophet or priest. Verse 11 reassures the people of God’s gracious care. These four qualities—steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace—spring from God and unite to work for the good of God’s people.
The Gospel lesson is the story of Jesus walking on the water. In many of these Gospel stories we know them by the title but there is another secondary story. This is the case with Peter.
The three miracles in this story are: Jesus walking on water, Peter doing the same (and failing ultimately), and the wind ceasing abruptly. Jesus brings comfort from the outside against the elements and faith inside, questioning the disciples own faith and demonstrating by example a deeper faith.
Jesus demonstrates his mastery over wind and sea (which, in the Old Testament, symbolized the powers of chaos and death) and is near to rescue the disciples when they desperately need help. He identifies himself by using the words, “It is I,” which echo God’s own self-description that became the proper name for God in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:10-13).
This story has many similarities to the narratives of the resurrection appearances; the disciples are afraid, they don’t recognize Jesus, they take him for a ghost, and finally they are reassured by him. Matthew adds the story of Peter’s attempt to imitate Jesus, illustrating the themes of discipleship and faith.
The cause of the fear for the disciples this time is not the storm, but the man walking. There is something expected about waves surrounding a boat. The fact that a man is on the water is not even the source of the fear. The fear comes the unidentified nature of the one walking.
The fear and repulsion are here expressed by the perception of Jesus as a ghost, but they are balanced by his comforting words: “Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid.” The disciples by now know Jesus and trust him, even if their faith remains incomplete. Thus, for him to say “It is I” is to bring the fearful awesomeness of the scene under control by relating it to what is familiar.
Unlike Elijah, Peter wants to think that he is capable of more. Peter asks for and receives a share of Jesus’ power, but when his attention is distracted he begins to give way In the context of fear and apprehension as the disciples see the figure of Christ coming to them on the water, Peter’s brash attempt seems heroic until he realizes that he is caught in the same trap of fear. He suddenly needs a “rescuer” ( Psalm 85) to pick him up and save him for future adventures of faith. Especially in Matthew’s time, the “boat” of the Church, “beaten by the waves” of hostility and persecution, needed reassurance that the Lord was always nearby.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian, writes the following about Peter. “Peter had to leave the ship and risk his life on the sea, in order to learn both his own weakness and the almighty power of his Lord. If Peter had not taken the risk, he would never have learned the meaning of faith… The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus. Unless a definitive step is demanded, the call vanishes in thin air, and if [people] imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics.”
In some respects, Matthew’s account is the opposite of the Elijah story. What convinces Elijah does not convince the disciples and Peter, and visa versa. The wind and wave are heady proofs of the danger and their vision of Jesus over coming them seem to be the seed bed of their faith
The Romans reading is less about fear but of faith. You may say that Paul is experiencing a psychological fear. Paul confronted the separation already growing between his beloved Jewish people and his chosen Christian community. Paul wrote this before the expulsion of the Christians from the synagogue—long before the bitter persecution of Jews by Christians began.
In this passage, Paul compares the right relationship to God (“righteousness”) that comes through a strict adherence to the Mosaic law to that which comes by faith. In contrast to a slavish adherence to this law, which is ultimately futile, the righteousness that comes by faith is entirely attainable. It requires no superhuman effort such as ascending into heaven or descending into the abyss. Such feats have already been accomplished by God in Jesus’ incarnation and resurrection.
People need to accept the “word of faith” proclaimed by the apostle. This acceptance is manifested both through inner conviction and outer profession. These signs of faith are rooted in the work of God, affirming that Jesus is God incarnate and that Jesus now lives.
The first of these professions of faith, “Jesus is lord,” was particularly central for the early Church in areas where the people believed in “many gods and many lords” (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). It is the earliest and simplest creed of the Church.
Read more about the Lectionary…
Excerpt from "Forward Movement" for this Sunday
"It is cliche to speak of something that is "out of the box." Perhaps we should replace the metaphor with "out of the boat." That’s what Peter did. He got out of the boat and walked across the water toward Jesus.
"We long for out-of-the-boat thinking—to step out, to be freed of conventional expectations, and to take a risk, like Peter. We forget that doing so is inevitably met by a strong wind resisting us. Like Peter, we are not too far out of the boat before the wind frightens us and we begin to sink. It is as if the forces of nature conspire to keep us in the boat, but there is just no way to Jesus but to get out and take a chance.
"The story about walking on the water is about faith taming the forces of nature. Faith is what compels Peter to get out of the boat in the first place. Faith is also what Peter relies on when he encounters nature’s resistance. Faith is how Jesus stills the storm. The choice we face is almost always between fear and faith.
"One is a matter of survival. One is a matter of life. Jesus calls us to come to life. "
Walking on Water in our Time – The Truman Show
When we confront our fears in real life they are no longer fears inside our head and we destroy them. However, that is easier said than done! It is usually a lengthy process with fits and starts.
One of the best examples of this is the 1998 movie, The Truman Show.
The amazing thing is that for much of the movie he is along in dealing with his fears. He doesn’t have an advantage of a counselor in the process.
Truman, played by Jim Carrey is caught inside a 24 hour-a-day comedy-melodrama in which he is the star. The idyllic island town where he grew up and lives is an immersive stage set enclosed in a giant dome (shown in part at the top of the page) with a ceiling that creates the illusion of a sky. Wind, rain, night, the moon, the stars, even the sun is a high-tech special effect. With some 5000 cameras placed around the city, Truman’s life is followed 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a nonstop telethon of reality programming for a public hungry for pathos and vicarious emotion. All of humanity watches as he goes through the stages of life and finds himself in realistic situations that are actually scripted and improvised, to give the show some of the dramatic density that separates entertainment from mundane life.
There is a god-like director that controls Truman’s televised world. His name is Christof. His name is also significant. He’s more like anti-Christ however, making it impossible for Truman to know the truth and have a normal life.
Truman falls in love in a library (symbol of the knowledge of good and evil). They kiss on the beach with the pounding surf in the background (foreshadowing what lies ahead). She is a bit player on the show and is quickly written out. She is banished from the show. Truman is told she moved away across the sea. Truman is now determined to leave Seahaven -the illusionary human-made Paradise. What is Paradise without Eve? Without love?
Dealing with Fear with the help of others – "Gus and the Net"
"Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain."–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Peter had Jesus to give him a hand; Truman was alone in confronting his uncertainties. But the Beaver had fireman Gus!
The plot is simple but effective in an episode of "Leave it to Beaver". In the episode entitled "Beaver’s Fear," (on Netflix) the Beaver was scared to ride the roller coaster at the county fair with Wally, Eddie Haskel, Lumpy, and one other. Before going to the fair, Beaver had a little talk with Gus the fireman, played by Burt Mustin. Gus was telling him this story about jumping from an upper window into a net, so that the other firemen could catch him. He was trying to help the Beav get over what he saw as "being afraid of being afraid". (In some cases Gus was able to talk to Beaver in a more honest fashion that Beaver’s Dad, Ward. But that’s another issue!)
Gus pointed out something that might help. You gotta get over your fear, period. You see, fear has a way of layering upon itself… in layers you really don’t need. So he told Beaver that when he got on that roller coaster, to just repeat the phrase to himself "Gus and the net, Gus and the net."
And it worked! Beaver faced down that roller coaster. He was being hazed by Eddie Haskel half the way through the ride! But the Beaver got over his fear, and by the end of the ride Eddie was bent over in sickness and fear and the Beaver was ready for another go around with Wally at his side.
"The Death Crawl" sequence from "Facing the Giants"
We turn from fear to faith. Jesus reaching an arm to help Peter reminds me of the coach’s inspiration in the movie, "Facing the Giants", to Brock, a boy who thought the football game was lost before it was played. The coach was under his own pressure having coached the team for six years and had not had a winning season. Like Peter, Brock learns something about the challenges of being a leader. As the coach says "You’re the most influential player on this team. If you walk around defeated so will they. God’s gifted you with the ability of leadership don’t waste it. "
The link to the movie excerpt and more about the movie.
Comforts Along the Path -Ten Verses to Inspire Courage
From BeliefNet
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)
"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." (Isaiah 41:13)
"Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again." (Exodus 14:13)
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)
"For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline." (2 Timothy 1:7)
"The Lord is my light and my salvation–whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life–of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)
"But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God." (Luke 1:30)
"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." (Luke 2:10)
"So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can Man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6)
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)
A couple of links:
1. Confront your fears and grow
3. Vernon Coleman on facing fear
6. Facing Fear in Harry Potter
The Miracle of Mindfulness
"Bath into the Light" – Martin Gommel License: Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” Thich Nhat Hanh, from The Miracle of Mindfulness
"The Spirituality Of Surfing: Finding Religion Riding The Waves"
This is a Huffington Post article of finding spirituality/religion in the water. To some surfing is a religion or an activity which allows one to find God in nature. To some, God’s presence envelops one who is surfing like a feeling of being in the womb.
"In the religious symbolism, water is one of the great images of life and energy. It’s a symbol of God’s presence."– Father Christian Mondor
Mondor goes on – "Water as a "symbol of God’s presence" is perhaps never more acutely felt than from a board in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by waves. It is from that place of alternating stillness and activity that the spiritual essence of surfing arises."
Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne (1966)
Cohen is a singer-songwriter from Canada in the 1960’s. From the 2nd verse dealing with the Gospel story:
"And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said ‘All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them’
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom
like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you’ll
trust him
For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind."
Cohen wrote: "The song was begun, and the chord pattern was developed, before a woman’s name entered the song. And I knew it was a song about Montreal, it seemed to come out of that landscape that I loved very much in Montreal, which was the harbour, and the waterfront, and the sailors’ church there, called Notre Dame de Bon Secour, which stood out over the river, and I knew that there’re ships going by… At a certain point, I bumped into Suzanne Vaillancourt, who was the wife of a friend of mine, they were a stunning couple around Montreal at the time, physically stunning..I bumped into her one evening, and she invited me down to her place near the river. She had a loft, at a time when lofts were… the word wasn’t used. She had a space in a warehouse down there, and she invited me down, and I went with her, and she served me Constant Comment tea, which has little bits of oranges in it."
Suzanne writes: "By 1965 I had separated from Armand and was living with our little girl. Leonard would come over and I would serve him jasmine tea with mandarin oranges, and light a candle. It sounds like a seance, but obviously Leonard retained those images, too. I was living in a crooked house, so old with mahogany and stained glass. I loved the smell of the river and the freight trains and boats. Out of my window was total romance. Leonard was a mentor to me. We would walk together and we didn’t even have to talk. The sound of his boots and my heels was weird, like synchronicity in our footsteps. He felt it, I felt it and we got such a rush just grinning at each other. We were never lovers of the flesh but on a very deep level we were."
I first heard this song in my freshman year in college as my roommate sang this song often along with other Leonard Cohen songs. It was some time later that I heard the original version. Such a haunting song!
Links: 1.Leonard Cohen’s version 2. Complete lyrics 3. Judy Collins interview on Cohen with Bill Moyers 4. Meanings of the 2nd verse 5. Interview with Suzanne
Ivan Aivazovsky, Russian landscape painter
The image for our Gospel reading, "Jesus Walking on the Water", was done by the Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900).
When I was in the Soviet Union over 35 years ago, his paintings were prevalent and stood out and I remembered his name. They reminded me of the American school of landscape painters, such as Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church but in this case on the sea.
He is considered one of the greatest marine artists in history and born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia and was mostly based in his native Crimea.
Following his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Aivazovsky traveled to Europe and lived briefly in Italy in the early 1840s. He then returned to Russia and was appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. Aivazovsky had close ties with the military and political elite of the Russian Empire and often attended military maneuvers. He was sponsored by the imperial family and was well-regarded during his lifetime. The winged word "worthy of Aivazovsky’s brush", popularized by Anton Chekhov, was used in Russia for "describing something ineffably lovely."
One of the most prominent Russian artists of his time, Aivazovsky was also popular outside Russia. He held numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. During his almost sixty-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, making him one of the most prolific artists of his time. The vast majority of his works are seascapes, but he often depicted battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture.
Here’s a page with examples of his work.
Musical selections from LYRA
Here are few examples of their music. They will be in concert at St. Peter’s, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 7pm.
1. LYRA – The Russian Vocal Ensemble of St. Petersburg – performed a concert at the invitation of Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday, April 8, 2013, as part of the church’s 2013 Spring/Summer Concert Series.
Bless The Lord Oh My Soul by P. Tchesnokov
2. LYRA at Liberty Grove U.M.C.
Selections: "Dub-Duba" "Wicket Gate" "The Bright Moon Is Shining" "Let Me Look At You" "Let Us Go Home"
3. Youtube link with many selections is here