Summary
We spent our holiday up in Troms Fylke, far to the North. When we arrived the sun was still setting after midnight, and rising less than an hour later. We spent our vacation in the arctic, because we have good friends whom live in Tromsø. Darin and Ann Christin and their three children have been dear friends of our family since 2006 when we moved to our previous church in Northern Minnesota. While Emily and I pastored together in one church, Ann Christin and Darin were pastors at different churches in our local area. So we were colleagues.
Yet, we also shared the joys and growing pains of parenting with them, because their two younger children are the same ages as Nestor and Johan. So, we became fast friends in those days. Ministering alongside one another, and sharing tips on raising kids…until 2008, when Ann Christin accepted the call to return to her native Troms Fylke and serve a parish in the city of Tromsø.
Since then we have not seen as much of one another as before, be we still have fun, and enjoy life together as families, so it was natural to head North for a holiday of hiking, conversation, good meals, swimming, more conversation, more hiking, and..fishing.
Our first day at their hytta on Rossfjord, we fished, each catching at least one fish, and Nestor reeling up ten! So, we wanted to try again, but when we had time the weather did not quite cooperate.
Well, a week into our time the boys and I went out in the boat with Ann Christin to try and fish, even though the wind was strong and the waves were high. It might not have been the best decision, but Ann Christin knows her boat and those waters, and I have fished all of my life, in many types of weather, so we loaded up with rods, put on our life vests and rowed out from shore. I should say, we tried to row out from shore, but the wind kept catching the boat like a sail and was trying to push us back into shore.
Anyway, when we finally got out from shore and started the motor, we rocked and bounced our way over and through the waves into the fjord to try and fish. The boys were starting to get nervous, with the up and down movement of certain waves, and the side-to-side movement of others. It seemed a bit like riding a Tivoli amusement ride.
I told the boys, “Trust Ann Christin. She knows what she is doing, because she has done this before. And when she tells you to do something, do it.”
With the wind and waves, we adults decided that we would only fish one rod at a time, because the wind was pushing us through the waves so quickly we couldn’t control where we fished. Then, after hooking the seafloor and having to cut the line, we decided that fishing was out of the question and that it was time to go in to shore, besides at this point all four of us were a bit nervous to be out upon the sea.
As we headed in to land I instructed the boys again, “Trust Ann Christin, and do what she tells you!”
I moved to the front of the boat to jump out and land the boat once we nosed into the shore while Ann Christin instructed the boys that the two of them and her would need to switch places once she got close enough to shore and turned off the motor, because at that point she would need to row the last ten meters.
It was a bit like a Three Stooges comedy movie from the 1930’s when Ann Christin shut off the motor. As the boat bobbed up-and-down, while moving side-to-side, the three of them tried to switch benches in the boat in the same small space without knocking one another into the sea, and then Ann Christin tried to get the oars out so she could row, without hitting either of the boys, or me in the head.
Of course the wind had not quit, and so by the time she put the oars into the oarlocks to try and row, we were 20 meters down the shore from our landing, and only two meters off of the rocks floating parallel to shore. So, I jumped off from the bow onto a big rock that was about 50 centimeters below the surface, and started to haul the boat, step-by-step up the shoreline towards the landing. Ann Christin soon joined me, and slowly, stepping from rock to rock we made it back to the landing…almost.
As I took what I thought would be my last step before turning the boat into its landing place, my foot found no rock under the waves, and not unlike Peter, I sunk, deep, into the water.
What a shock as the cold sea water flooded my boots, filled my rain pants, and soaked my clothes!
Thankfully I was still holding the boat, and eventually found that I could stand upon the bottom. Since I was in already, I just pulled the boat in to its landing, while standing up to my chest in the sea.
After what had become a scary afternoon upon the wind-driven waves, it felt good to have rocks beneath my water sodden feet. I know the boys felt the same way too.
Of course when I read this morning’s gospel scripture, and started thinking upon my sermon for today my recent experience came to mind. Yet, it was not so much my lack of water walking skills that seemed to speak to me, but rather Jesus’ call to, “Come” and walk with him upon the waves.
I think what we need to understand here is that Jesus walks upon the water before Peter, Peter wants to walk with Jesus, and so, Jesus then calls him to walk also. Peter only sinks when he redirects his gaze from Jesus to the threatening waves. It is his fear that overwhelms him, not the waves.
Like my boys and I in the boat, it was our fear that was as strong as the waves upon which we fished. If we had given into our fears and panicked, we might have ended up in the water. Rather though, we listened to Ann Christin, her experience and knowledge, and safely arrived back on land, a bit wet in my case, but safe nonetheless.
Like he did with Peter, Jesus calls us to walk with him, upon the waves that we call life. And like with Peter and the waves, Jesus has walked upon the waves of life before us. He knows what we need to do, and how to do it, we simply need to trust, listen, and follow. We sink only when we redirect our focus from him to the troubles, cares, or allures of life.
Jesus’s call to you, and to me, is the same as it was to Peter, “Come.”
Come…and believe. Come…and be forgiven. Come…and follow. Come…and be my disciple. Come…and learn. Come…and grow. Come…and act. Come…and live out my love. Come…and live.
Upon believing in Jesus, and fully accepting that we are forgiven and saved because we are loved, what does it then mean to follow as a disciple of Jesus?
What does it mean to obey Jesus’ call to, ‘come?’
Well, it means, actually following Jesus, so that we can learn and grow, so that we can then act out our faith, by learning how to love others as Jesus loves.
Following as Jesus’ disciple can at times be confusing. Quite often as Christians we get mixed up in what this means, for too often we get the idea that there is a rule book, or formula, or recipe for the Christian life. And so, we then concentrate upon each rule, or component, or ingredient, that we think is required for a Christian life, trying to obey, or do, or add, each part at the right time, in the right way. The only problem is, that it really doesn’t work that way, faith that is. When we approach our Christian faith as rules, or math, or baking, our lives become focused upon ourselves. Did I follow this rule in the right way? Did I solve that equation correctly? Did I stir in the correct measure?
Did you hear the pronoun that was needed to make each of those questions? I. I. I. I.
Our Christian faith is not about, “I” but rather him, and you, and me. When Jesus calls us to, “Come,” Jesus is calling us into relationship with him, but also into relationship with one another, and then ourselves, but in the light of God’s love.
Relationship is all about communication. Learning and getting to know the other person is a major part of any relationship right? Trust also becomes paramount, doesn’t it? And then, when your relationship is with Jesus, obedience is also needed.
Do you remember what I told my sons in the boat? I said, “Trust Ann Christin, and do what she tells you!”
As disciples of Christ, called by him to, “Come” and walk upon the seas of life, we need to trust in Jesus that he knows what we need, and what we need to do. We need to know that he will encourage us in our lives. We need to trust that he will reach down into the waves and pull us out when we lose our focus, or fall to our fears. And we believe that Jesus calls to us for a reason, that reason being love.
We are loved, and in our faith we are given salvation. God loves everyone else too, and we, you and me, are the sharers of his love in the world. As Jesus’ disciples, living in relationship with him, we need to trust in Jesus, and do what he tells us to do, especially when the skies get stormy, and the waves big. Jesus will bring us safely to shore. We can trust in him. So, listen to Jesus’ call to, “Come,” and then follow.
Amen.
Bible References
- Romans 10:5 - 15
- Matthew 14:22 - 32
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