Problems into Possiblities:
Trusting

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

 Sunday, February 4, 2007

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I may have found myself a new favorite author, not that I’m leaving the other one behind but one of the things I like about John Ortberg is he really knows how to title a book. He comes up with the greatest titles I’ve ever read before. For instance, back in December, I was reading one of his books and it was Everybody’s Normal Until You Get to Know Them. Isn’t that a great title for a book? It’s a wonderful book. He came up with another one here. Actually, I think he wrote this one first. It says If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat. That’s a great title for a book. It’s blatantly obvious and it’s accurate all at the same time but who would really think of things in that kind of a context? First of all, about walking on water and then stating the obvious that you have to get out of the boat.

Well, Ortberg in this book is talking about the gospel lesson we just read a few moments ago. About Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the lake towards Jesus. Now what’s interesting for us this morning is the context in which Peter does this. What’s happening around Peter and the rest of the disciples when Jesus invites them to walk on the water and come towards Him? Well, Peter and the other 11 disciples are in what could be termed “the perfect storm.” They’re in the middle of the lake and they’re making no headway. They’re experienced fishermen. The wind is whistling. The waves are crashing up against the side and in the midst of this great big problem, this big storm they’re in, Jesus gives Peter the opportunity to do something extraordinary, walk on water.

Often times, when we’re in the most tumultuous time in our life, when we’re assaulted by problems and difficulties, that’s the time when God offers up the opportunity, opens up the possibility of something incredible, extraordinary happening in our life. But it all depends on whether we’re willing to step out of the boat because you’ll never walk on water unless you get out of the boat. In other words, what we’re talking about here is trust. And all that Ortberg’s book is really talking about, the entire story of Peter coming to Jesus is a story of trust. And, My Friends, if we want to learn how God turns problems into possibilities, then we need to learn what it is to trust God.

Trusting God has several things. First of all, trust says you do what you’re told. In other words, you do what you’re told whether you understand it or whether you don’t understand it. For instance, in this scripture lesson, I’m going to read from the New Living Translation. I think it does a better job than the NIV in this case. It says, “Immediately after this,” that is, immediately after Jesus got done feeding 5,000 plus people. He had been preaching to them all day. They didn’t know what they were going to have to eat so Jesus miraculously feeds all 5,000. “Immediately after this, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and cross to the other side.” Pick up on the word “made” His disciples. It could be translated “insisted” His disciples get in the boat. In fact, it could be even stronger than that. Jesus “forced” His disciples to get into the boat and cross to the other side.

We get a little bit of a peek of what’s happening in this situation. Obviously, the disciples are hesitant to get into the boat without Jesus and cross over to the other side, so much so that Jesus has to insist, no, Jesus has to force them to get into the boat and go to the other side. Now why would the disciples be hesitant to go off into the boat? I mean, after all, that’s what Jesus is telling them to do. Well, I think there are probably three possibilities. The first one is why leave now? It must have been on the disciples’ minds. “Why leave now, Jesus? Things are going great. A couple of hours ago, we had a hungry crowd on our hands. But now, they’ve eaten. They’re satisfied. They’re in the palm of your hand, Jesus.” He’s been teaching them all day long. There’s been no pesky Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus has to banter around with. They were just soaking it in like sponges. And then instead of them going off and getting some dinner, Jesus does this miraculous event. He feeds all 5,000 plus of them. At this point in time, Jesus is at celebrity status with this crowd. And if you will, the disciples are His posse who are along for the ride. They’re enjoying this. “Why leave now, Jesus? Things are going great.”

The second thing is why leave without you? That had to be the most curious thing about the whole event, Jesus insisting they get in the boat and go off by themselves. It’s not like Jesus could say, “Listen, you guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up later.” They’re getting on a boat. They’re crossing a lake. How’s He going to catch up later? And then why would Jesus do that? It wasn’t that long ago that Jesus called them to be His disciples. Is He now dismissing them? “You guys go on ahead. I’m done with you.” The disciples had to be really curious. “What’s happening here? Why isn’t Jesus coming with us?”

And the third reason, pure speculation on my part, and that is I wondered if they couldn’t smell the storm coming. Experienced fishermen. They kind of have a strange way about them. Maybe they could feel it in their bones. Maybe they could smell it in the air. They look at each other and say, “Boys, tonight is not a night to be on the lake. I just feel it in my bones.” Whatever the reason was, they didn’t want to go across the lake without Jesus but He insists. He forces them to get in the boat and get out on the lake. And what happens? After this little argument with Jesus, not wanting to do it in the first place, what happens? Jesus dismisses the crowd. He goes up on the mountainside to pray and then scripture says, “Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble, far away from the land, for a strong wind had arisen and they were fighting heavy waves.” Another way of putting that, they were being tormented by the wind and the waves. In other words, they were in the storm of the century. They’d found themselves here before but at least Jesus was with them in the boat. Now this time, there’s no Jesus. All that is there is this lake with this squall that’s come up, this storm that’s bantering and bashing the boat around and these guys, experienced sea-fearing men, are fighting for their lives. They can’t hardly keep up with everything that’s happening. And you have to believe that somewhere along the line, some of them had to say, “Why in the world is this happening? This doesn’t make sense. Why would Jesus insist that we go out on this lake? Why would God call us away from family, from friends, from our occupations to follow this man only to put us out in the middle of this lake so we can die in this storm that’s coming up on this trip we didn’t want to make to begin with?” It didn’t make sense to them.

Problems rarely make sense. Problems, difficulties, things that happen in our lives rarely make sense. We can’t figure out what’s going on, why they’ve happened. How many times in exasperation have you said, “Why is this happening? I just don’t understand. And why now? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

This past week, I was in a conversation and I can’t remember how the conversation turned but we were talking about the sometimes, and maybe not sometimes, brutality of corporate America these days. And what this gentleman was telling me was a person he knew had been transferred from out of state into Des Moines about five months ago. Picked up everything and came to Des Moines. Not too unusual except for the fact that five months later, now that he’s here in Des Moines, his job’s been eliminated. Now how does that make sense? How does that make sense for a corporation to pay for this guy to move to Des Moines? How does it make sense that he has to uproot his family, take the kids out of school, move into a new house in a new community and before he even has all the boxes unpacked, his job’s eliminated so he’s unemployed. That doesn’t make sense. The timing doesn’t really click with us. I’m sure you have lots of stories like that where you say, “I don’t understand the timing in this.” How many times have we heard about a couple who worked their whole life through and they struggled and they saved to get ready for retirement and then once they’re both finally retired, it seems it isn’t six months later that one of them gets diagnosed with some terminal illness and you say, “Why?” All their plans for travel, all their plans to be together, why does that happen? Problems rarely make sense. We search for a cause and effect but we can’t find one.

The point is if we trust God, we trust Him enough to do what we’re told, that is, if you will, we trust Him enough to believe He’s smarter than we are. We trust Him enough to say God has the big picture. We trust Him enough to say God has our best interest at heart. We trust Him enough to say, “Even though I can’t make sense of this, God will make sense of this.” We trust Him enough to say, “Even though this really looks bad, somehow God is going to turn it around and He’s going to make it for my ultimate good and I trust and believe God is making the right decisions and the right choices in this matter.” That’s what trusting God is all about.

Now about right now, some of you who have been with me for the last couple of weeks are saying, “You know, he made a similar point last week.” And more than likely, the person next to you is going, “You think that’s good. Two weeks ago, he made the same point.” Well, there’s one of two things happening here. Either I’m running low on material or it’s a crucial point in dealing with problems. Let’s go with the latter. It’s a crucial point that we can’t forget. We worship a God who is all-knowing and has all wisdom and is all-loving, a God who has always put you first. Even when we don’t understand, our faith tells us we trust Him, that we trust to do what He says because we believe He’s making the right decisions, the right choices. That’s what trust is all about.

The second thing about trust, trust requires patience. In fact, sometimes it requires a lot of patience. For the disciples, it certainly required a lot of patience on their path. So after dinner, they get dismissed across the lake. Jesus goes up on the mountainside. He’s praying there. They’re out in the middle of the lake. They’re fighting the storm and it says this, “About 3:00 in the morning, Jesus came to them walking on water.” Alright, let’s dismiss the part about walking on water. Let’s deal with the 3:00 a.m., shall we? You figure once dinner is done, they’re cleaned up, Jesus puts them in the boat, it’s what, 7 p.m? So from 7:30-8:00 at night until 3 the next morning, they’ve been battling this storm? They’ve been fighting the wind. They’ve been fighting the waves. They had to be asking themselves, “Isn’t this ever going to end?” They had to be asking themselves, “You know, I’m not sure how much longer we can last in this. I’m not sure how much more strength I have within me, how much more I can take of this storm. It seems relentless. It never seems to end.” They have to wait on God until 3:00 in the morning before Jesus appears and then automatically things don’t get better. It’s a little while after that. They had to have patience.

All of us have said at one time or another, “Isn’t this ever going to end?” How many times in exasperation have you sighed and said, “I don’t know how much longer I can take of this.” Whatever the situation may be, whether it’s family, whether it’s health, maybe it’s financial, you just cry out to God and you say, “I can’t do this any longer. How much longer is this going to go on?” Problems are rarely solved according to our timetable. It doesn’t happen. If it were left up to us, problems and difficulties we had in life, they’d be done rather quickly. We’d get past them. We’d move on. Our motto is “the sooner the better.” For God, that isn’t always the case. Sooner isn’t always better. Again, God knows more than we do. So when the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months and the months turn into years and we say, “How much longer can this go on?” and yet God is asking us to be patient, we’re waiting on God and waiting to see what God’s going to do with our life. Sometimes, sooner isn’t better.

Whenever I think of patience, I can’t help but think of Hazel. You’ve probably heard me talk about her before. Hazel was a member of my first parish in Van Horn, Iowa. Her husband and she were residents at the Marshalltown Vets Home and I got to know them after her husband had suffered two strokes. After the second stroke, he was completely in a vegetative state and he stayed in that vegetative state for over ten years. So when they moved into the Vets Home in Marshalltown, she didn’t really need the care but he did so she moved with him. And then he had the second stroke shortly after they were moved into there so they couldn’t even stay in the same room. So she was in another wing and he was in this other wing. But yet every single day, for over ten years, every morning, every night, Hazel would first of all walk down to his room and then in the later years, someone would have to wheel her in her wheelchair down to his room. Every morning, every night, she’d read scripture with him, she’d do daily devotions with him, and she’d end every night by saying the Lord’s Prayer with him. Day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year, he never moved. She never stopped.

You’d look at Hazel and say, “Oh, man, Hazel, I’m sorry for what you’re going through.” And she’d get this look on her face like, “What planet did you come from? Going through what?” She didn’t see it as a difficulty. She says, “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll be together again. God knows when. I don’t know when but we’ll be together again.” She had incredible patience, incredible trust in God. Why did she have to wait over ten years for that to happen? I don’t know. I don’t know. What I do know is the impact Hazel had on everyone who knew her, everyone who worked at the Vets Home. They knew about Hazel. They knew about her commitment to her husband and they knew about her faith in God. And her simple actions, day after day, week after week, were a more powerful witness than any words could ever express about her faith.

Sometimes we just have to be patient. Why is it taking so long for you right now? Why does it seem that the problem just won’t go away? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I do know God is in charge and I do know trusting God requires us to be patient and to believe God has perfect timing. Perfect timing.

Whenever I think of God’s perfect timing, I cannot help but turn to Galatians 4:4. It says this, “But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman subject to the law. God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so He could adopt us as His very own children.” God’s perfect timing. God sent His Son at just the right time. Hundreds of years have passed since He first promised His Son. Generation after generation has passed, each generation hoping, believing, praying that their generation would be the one in which God would send His Messiah, God would send His Deliverer. But at just the right time, at just the right moment in history, with just the right couple, God sent His Son. And at just the right time, God’s Son was nailed to a cross. And at just the right time, God paid the debt of all of our sins and in God’s perfect timing, three days later, He walked out of the grave and He declared His victory over sin, death, and He said that victory is now yours through faith in Him. Because of God’s perfect timing, all of us will spend an eternity with Him. Sometimes it requires us to be patient, waiting for God’s perfect timing.

The third thing about trust is this. Sooner or later, you have to step out of the boat. In other words, trust says sooner or later, you have to step out in faith. You have to do something that normally you wouldn’t do. You have to look at things a different way. You have to demonstrate that trust in God in a bold and dramatic way. That is, sooner or later, you have to step out of the boat if you’re going to walk on water.

Now Ortberg, when he talks about that in the first chapter of this, he says one thing kind of as a disclaimer, if you will, a caution, he says, “But you have to make sure you discern between faithfulness and foolishness.” Discern between faithfulness and foolishness. In other words, Peter didn’t just go running off to the side of the boat and sort of, in a sprint, just jump over the side and start trotting to Jesus. No. He asks first and he acts second. He checks in with Jesus. He says, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water.” And then Jesus says, “Yeah, come on out.” You see, God doesn’t tell us to take our common sense and all of our intellect and just throw it to the wind and just say, “I’m just trusting God,” and then not do anything about it. In other words, I’m not going to go out this afternoon and go up to 235 and say, “I’m trusting God to protect me,” and walk out in front of a Mack truck. I think I know how it’s going to turn out. Okay? Trusting God means we pray to God first and we act second. We ask God for that power of discernment. We ask God to show us how are you leading us God? What are the possibilities out there? What are the opportunities you’re going to open up in front of us? What I’m saying here is what we do is we open up our spiritual eyes and we look for possibilities, we look for opportunities that we normally would not see. We look for God showing us solutions we wouldn’t normally think of as a solution. When we’re faced with a problem, don’t we usually look for a solution that 1) doesn’t take us out of our comfort zone; 2) is pretty safe for us to do; and 3) happens quickly so we can move on to something else. God doesn’t always see it that way. Sometimes God opens up completely different doors. And if we’re going to get out of the boat to walk on the water, that means we open up our eyes to see things normally we wouldn’t see.

For instance, Peter’s taken a lot of abuse over the years in many a sermon, at least the ones I’ve listened to. Usually the preacher zeros in on the fact that Peter is sinking into the water and then says, “Tisk, tisk, he just didn’t believe enough. He just didn’t trust God, did he? See, we have to keep focused on Jesus and trust God. Look at that Peter, little faith Peter.” Well, answer me this. There were 12 disciples in the boat. How many of them got to walk on water? How many of them got to experience walking on water? To step out of a boat, to feel the cold, cool water below them and yet it be just as solid as a rock? Only one. The other 11 did not. Because Peter was willing to step out of the boat to see something differently, open himself up to the possibilities, he got to experience something extraordinary. He’d have never experienced that unless he stepped out of the boat.

Sometimes, My Friends, you and I have to step out of the boat. Ortberg puts it this way. He asked a question, “So what’s your boat?” He says, “Your boat is whatever represents safety and security to you apart from God Himself. Your boat is whatever you are tempted to put your trust in, especially when life gets a little stormy. Your boat is whatever keeps you so comfortable that you don’t want to give it up, even if it’s keeping you from joining Jesus on the waves.” In other words, sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zone. We have to leave behind the things we normally put our trust in, the things we normally put our security in. Anything that’s apart from God, we leave that behind and we put our complete and total trust in Jesus. Yes, Peter ran into problems. He started sinking when he started looking around and seeing the waves and that. But for a few moments, for a few glorious moments, he knew what it was to walk on water. More than that, he knew what it was to put his life in God’s hands completely, to just surrender himself over to God and trust Him implicitly.

Sometimes, God’s calling us to step out of the boat. Maybe the problem or the issue you’re dealing with right now is just such an opportunity where God is opening something up that you never even thought about, a solution you never even conceived of, but you’ll never know until you step out of the boat. Because when you step out of the boat, all of a sudden problems become possibilities. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church