Welcome to Springfield United Methodist Church! This is an inclusive, multicultural church that loves God and one another.
We have been at the movies together. We began with , and we learned The Power of Letting Go, that sometimes the grace of God is found not in clutching tighter but in opening the hand. We journeyed to the Pride Lands with , and a voice out of the clouds told Simba, and told us, to Remember Who You Are: that our identity is a gift from the One who made us, and no exile can erase it. Last week we sat inside a young girl's mind with , and standing on Philippians 4, we learned to Guard Your Heart: to let the peace of God stand sentry over our emotions. Letting go. Remembering. Guarding. And now the ocean is calling, and the final word of this series is a word of movement: Step forward.
Hear the Word of God from Matthew 14, beginning at verse 22."Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds."
This story sits immediately after the feeding of the five thousand, one of the few miracles recorded in four Gospels. The disciples have just watched Jesus take loaves and two fish and feed a multitude. They are riding a spiritual high. And it is precisely then, at the height of the excitement, that Jesus does something the Greek makes emphatic. The text says he "compelled" them — the word is ēnankasen, a strong verb meaning to constrain, almost to . He put them out on the water on purpose.
God will sometimes push you out into deep water not because God has abandoned you, but because there are you can only learn where your feet cannot touch the bottom.
And they row. The Sea of Galilee sits some seven feet below sea level, ringed by hills, and the cool air rushing down those slopes can turn placid water violent in minutes. By the fourth watch of the night, that is between and six in the morning, the coldest, loneliest stretch before dawn, the boat is being battered, tormented by the waves, straining against a headwind. And then, walking on the water as though it were pavement, Jesus comes to them.
They think he is a ghost. They cry out in fear. And Jesus says three things that are the whole gospel in miniature: "Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid." Jesus is not merely identifying himself. He is announcing that the great is standing on the trouble that is trying to drown you.
Then Peter says, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." And Jesus says one word: " ."
He got out. He stepped over the side. Eleven men stayed dry in the boat. One man walked on water. And the only difference between them was that one of them was to step forward.
What is your reef? What is the boundary somebody told you not to cross, the sail you have never dared to set, the "Come" you have heard in the night and answered with silence?
Step forward, first, because of the for your gift was never given for the boat. Peter did not receive the ability to walk on water so he could admire it from a dry seat. The parable of the talents ends with a fearful servant who buried what he was given and heard the hardest words in Scripture: "You wicked and slothful servant." His sin was not that he lost the master's money. His sin was that he took no risk with it. He played it safe. And playing it safe, in the economy of God, is not a virtue ; it is a form of unbelief. Bishop Tracy Malone reminded us that "God has entrusted us with gifts and that are not meant to be kept to ourselves but shared for the transformation of the world." Your gift is not decoration. It is . Step forward.
Step forward, second, because of the for the presence goes before the promise. Notice the order of the story. Jesus does not wait on the shore for Peter to arrive. Jesus is already out on the water. Before Peter takes a single step, the Lord is standing exactly where Peter is being called to go. This is what our Methodist tradition names prevenient grace — the grace that goes before, the grace that runs ahead of us, that is already at work in the deep water before we ever set our foot down. You are not stepping into the unknown. You are stepping into the already-known presence of a God who got there first. Moana's grandmother tells her the ocean chose her before she chose the ocean. And God chose you before you ever thought to answer. The One who calls you forward is already standing in your future. Step forward.
And step forward, third, because of the for a sinking saint is safer than a settled coward. Yes, Peter began to sink. But look what happened when he did. He cried, "Lord, save me!" and immediately Jesus reached out and caught him. Peter was closer to Jesus wet and afraid on the water than his friends were dry and in the boat.
God did not call the qualified — God the called.
God is calling you; not because you have it all figured out, but because the God who calls you is the God who carries you. Just make yourself .
Somebody in here has been waiting to feel ready. You will never feel ready. is not a feeling. Ready is a decision. The wayfinder does not wait for the sea to be calm. The wayfinder learns to read the storm.
And I hear the theologian Howard Thurman whispering across the years, reminding us where the true summons comes from. "Don't ask what the world needs," Thurman said. "Ask what makes you alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Beloved, the world does not need more people sitting safely in the boat. The world is waiting on you to come alive; to set your sail, to take your gift, to step forward.
Let me tell you why I can preach this with confidence. I can preach it because I know a Savior who never once asked anybody to step where He had not already stepped.
So I am not worried about your reef this morning. I am not worried about your storm. The same Jesus who said egō eimi — I AM — is standing on your troubled water right now, and He is saying to somebody, "Come." The wind is high, but His voice is higher. The waves are loud, but His word is louder. "Come."
Push your past the reef. Set your sail into the deep. Fix your on Jesus and put your foot down on the promise. And when the wind tries to make you doubt, remember: the One who called you forward is already there, His hand already outstretched, His arms already open. Step forward. Your future is calling your name. And it sounds a great deal like grace.
The ocean is calling. The great is standing on the water. And the invitation is still just one word long: .
Step forward, saints. Step forward and go do it. And to the God who goes before us, who walks the water with us, and who catches us every time we fall, be all glory, honor, and praise, now and forever.