Advent Lutheran Church

"Making Sense of Bible Stories (Pentecost 8)"

Grace and peace to you from God, the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Today I’d like to begin by lifting out two “points of interest” from the Old Testament.  These points could be considered “sidebars” to the lesson, but I think they might intrigue you:

            #1 – Notice it is the WORD of the Lord that came to Elijah, (I Kings 19:9) not the Lord.  And, notice as well that the WORD of the Lord will tell Elijah about the Lord.  The Word, (davar in Hebrew; logos in Greek) tells Elijah that the Lord will be passing by.  Interesting.  The point is that God seems to be present here in two of the Holy Trinity’s three expressions, and the second person of the Trinity, who we know as Jesus, appears outside of the New Testament.  In fact, the presence of all the persons of the Trinity are part of the witness throughout the Old Testament, but we do not often make a note of it.

            #2 – The description of the LORD God is the exact opposite of our image of the Old Testament God.  If I asked you to describe the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you would probably use imagery that included long white hair and beard, sitting on a cloud – and the words “omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent” would probably be part of your description.  But in this text, God is NOT in the powerful display of nature, but is present only after the sound of sheer silence.  Now, all you fans of 60’s music out there, don’t you just hear:

                        Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.    

                        But the vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping,      

                        And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains,   

                                    within the Sound of Silence.

            The song, The Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel, has intrigued generations with the search for the true meaning behind the lyrics.  Some say it was the nation’s reaction to the assassination of President Kennedy, while others thought it was the duo’s comment on the casualties of the Vietnam war.  Some found theological themes, others discovered political symbolism, while still others connected their personal stories of loneliness and heartache with the poignant words.             

            Lyricist Paul Simon settled the issue when he told an NPR interviewer that there was no particular meaning to the song, but that he wrote it and others in the same way.  He said that he just liked to play his guitar in the bathroom at night, in the dark, with the water running, because he liked the way it sounded in there.

            And I am reminded of the lines from Shakespeare: 

                        Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

                                    that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

                                    and then is heard no more;

                        It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

                                    signifying nothing. 

            Sometimes, we try so hard to make something mean something deeper, that we lose sight of the simple truth that is right there.  Sometimes, “a kiss is just a kiss,” and a story (even one from the Bible,) is just a really good story.  But let’s take a look at today’s story, for it is one that all of us know very well.

            Chapter 14 of Matthew’s Gospel begins with the death of John the Baptist.  Jesus has just heard the news and has been trying to get away by himself to pray and to be alone for awhile.  But the crowds have followed, and soon there are 5,000 men and even more women and children.  Night falls and Jesus takes a few loaves and fish and miraculously multiplies the meal into enough to feed the entire crowd with baskets left over.  Following that, Jesus makes the twelve get in the boat and leave, so that he can dismiss the crowds.  Again Jesus tries to get away, and does so until morning, when a storm arises.  You know the story:  Jesus walks on the water toward the boat and the disciples think he is a ghost!      He speaks to them, “It is I; Don’t be afraid…” and Peter responds with the challenge, “IF it is you…”  (Do you hear the echoes?  IF you are the Son of God, throw yourself down/turn these stones to bread/explain this piece of the Law to us…”)  Then Peter takes his leap of faith; doubts and sinks and Jesus rescues him, his faith and the twelve, who are finally convinced of who Jesus is. (Wow, it only took 14 chapters!)

            Now, how do we usually make sense of this story from our Holy Bible?  Well, the “standard interpretation” would probably go something like this, “Keep Your Eyes on Jesus and Everything Will be Okay.”  We make the story about our discipleship because we love to be the subject.  And as good Lutherans, we first and foremost attempt to answer the question, “What Does This Mean?”  We ask any number of questions that put us into the situation, for example:

When the waves came up, is that what woke them?  Do we only get afraid by the waves or is it Jesus coming towards us in our fear that freaks us out?

            Or, we study the original language for clues.  Peter’s “doubt” in Greek is the word distazo, literally, “to stand in two ways; to doubt; to waver; not know which way to go. 

            Or, perhaps we look at the dialog between characters: 

                        Jesus:   “Take heart.  It is I.  (You know me.)  Do not be afraid.”

                        Peter:   “OK, I know you – I just don’t trust you;”

            Now, we know we should trust Jesus. But we get distracted, worried, overwhelmed by the waves: economic, relational, political, medical – and knowing we should trust but can't seem to, doesn't help. If anything, it makes things worse!  Trying to make sense of Scripture stories by focusing them on us, just doesn’t give us the whole picture.  It does give us a very clear picture of us, and of our problem…but not so many solutions.  So we come up with “truisms” for Christian living:  If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat; or, Keep your eyes on Jesus and everything will be okay.

            I learned a better way when we studied the book, If Grace is True this summer.  I was reminded that making sense of the whole of Scripture is just like making sense of the Parables – Jesus’ teaching stories.  They are ALWAYS about God.  So we should ask this question first:  “What do we know about God, because we know Jesus?”  That is the reason Jesus came to live among us, after all, to reveal who God is (and not just who we think God is.)           

            In the context of the Old Testament lesson we first see a God who does not choose wind, or earthquake or fire, but is present to Elijah only after the sound of sheer silence.  In the story today, Jesus reveals more about God.  Jesus reveals

                        a God who grieves, as Jesus grieved John

                        a God who nourishes us with the meager offerings we provide

                        a God who saves us from our doubts and fears and death itself

"Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him."  David Lose says, “There it is, the heartbeat.”  This is how we make sense of the story.  It is not simply about how we are to live, but it has the power of who we are living for.  So, perhaps we should simply Keep Our Eyes on Jesus!  Not to discover just what Jesus can teach us or model for us or do for us, but as the Revealer of the God who loves us better than we love ourselves.

            It is this God who is present for you today in the bread and the wine.

            It is this God who is reaching out for you right now.

            It is this God who’s got you, no matter what.  AMEN.