In the Hole
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Matthew 14:22-33

August 7, 2005

Way down in Egypt-land a camel driver named Macarius decided to get religion. Eventually, he dwelt on the outskirts of a village weaving baskets for a living. A virgin in the village became pregnant, but wanted to protect the identity of the father, so she pointed the finger at Macarius, a name that means “blessed one.” The villagers were outraged and came close to beating him to death. The parents of the girl insisted that Macarius support her, so Macarius doubled his efforts night and day to be able to feed his wife. The time came for the girl to give birth and there were complications and she was in labour for days. Finally, they asked her what was the problem, and she confessed that she had slandered Macarius. The father was a certain other young man. Only once she had confessed was she able to give birth. The whole village went out solemnly to do penance before Macarius, but he wanted none of that so he ran away to live in the desert. Making all those baskets when you have been falsely accused was like walking on water. Think about any other direction than forward, then your emotions will sink you.

Walking on water is not an Olympic sport. If you are an aficianado of the recent series of Chinese martial arts movies, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you have seen marvelous visual examples of what it looks like to walk and run on water. In nearly every movie the kung fu masters, male and female, are pursuing one another across lakes and ponds, sometimes the camera shots focusing on a master momentarily standing still with his or her feet barely beneath the surface of the water before taking off again in the combat.

That’s not what Jesus was doing. He did not walk across the stormy lake as a physical skill. The Gospels do not record Jesus ever doing it again. It was a unique event beyond our comprehension - real, yet symbolic and metaphorical. Jesus walked in faith and that took him where he needed to go. I am not sure that if someone were to walk on water today that it would be anywhere near the same phenomenon.

What does it mean to have faith? There have been lots of answers and volumes of print attempting to put something unspeakable into spoken words. Faith is living for the moment grasped by God, moving and being in the presence and power of God. It is not easy to control faith, because you are faith-full only once you have allowed God to envelope and take you over.

Jesus is still trying to get away from the crowds. He sends the disciples on ahead across the lake while he dismisses the 5000 fed, and then once again heads up to the mountain to pray in solitude. That is what a true person of faith does, of course, pray ardently in solitariness of one’s heart.

The words of the narrative do not tell us explicitly, but we catch the spirit that Jesus and his disciples are connected at the soul. Jesus is alone on the mountain and the disciples are floundering against the wind and waves in the middle of too big a lake. No decision is mentioned; Jesus is simply there walking towards them on the rough waters. Aren’t they surprised!

Peter, as is his wont, understands what this is about and approaches Jesus on the water, fully absorbed in the consciousness of his teacher. For a few steps Peter was swallowed up in the mind of God. Then the human part of his mind slipped through, and he was distracted by his feet and the wind and water. Naturally, he started to sink until grabbed by Jesus. “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” The waters calmed down the moment Jesus stepped into the boat. “Truly you are the Son of God!” they exclaim in one voice.

This is a wonderfully dramatic story and I get the point clearly, but I am not sure I can ever be capable or worthy or absorbed enough in the awareness of God to walk on water. I’m glad there is no parallel instance of a disciple moving a mountain by his or her faith as Jesus had said a minimally faithful one is capable of doing. I am not too good with water and mountains, yet there are other ways in which faith carries us.

The longest biography in the Old Testament begins with an eleventh son, but the first son of the favourite wife. All those numbers are a wonderful formula for vicious family feuding, and the equation was exactly that. And one more number, Joseph was seventeen years old, the same age as David would be when he was discovered by and anointed as king by Samuel, and both as they enter the stage are out shepherding their flock. Watch out for 17-year-olds.

Joseph was favoured, and naive as the day is long. He gave bad reports about his older half-brothers as if that’s what one is supposed to do in any family. His father Israel doted on him and made no pretense of not doing so. That famous amazing technicolour coat of Broadway, the coat of many colours, was his gift to Joseph, but perhaps it was a curse. He was a young man who dreamed dreams, and the dreams always seemed to cut out everybody else. Joseph had trouble being liked by his own family. Very shortly, he would have trouble liking his family.

Sent on a checking them out mission by his father, Joseph tracks down his brothers finally with their flocks, but they already have him in their sights. Far away from home, no one else around to observe their treachery, the ten brothers make their own rules. Talk of killing him and pretending it is a beast is cheap, but Reuben is the responsible one who saves Joseph for his father’s sake. So they throw him in a dry cistern, leaving him there to dream other kinds of dreams.

Along comes a caravan of traders, those Ishmaelites again, or were they Midianites. They agreed to take the strapping lad with them down to Egypt and would sell him to an Egyptian official named Potiphar. The brothers have profited from their jealousy. Reuben has been on an errand and is distressed to find out what has happened. But in the end he comes up with the blood-stained coat of many colours to fool his father Jacob into believing he had been killed by a wild animal. Jacob had fooled Isaac with a sheep cloth, and now another coat fools him.

What of Joseph? Not a sound he breathes for us to hear. But after all, in the lonely darkness of the hole, there is no one he can call to rescue him. He is no longer a free man, no longer a man with a family, no longer a man with his own country. It is amazing that he survived, physically and emotionally. The Lord is with him and he prospers in Potiphar’s house until the Egyptian’s wife accuses him falsely of sexually assaulting her. Joseph is thrown into prison where one usually does not sit out his sentence, but dies. How could Joseph go on, except that in his peculiar way he had the ability to walk on water, for by his faith, by his living from moment to moment grasped by God, Joseph was able to walk through the forces of injustice and deception that should have dragged him under the waters of chaos and drowned him. I think it is easier to walk on water than not to grow bitter and cynical and full of the need for revenge.

You and I have not lived a complete life until we have encountered a situation of injustice or misfortune or natural disaster that we did not deserve or cause. It can be a hereditary illness, West Nile virus or SARS; or a false accusation, the collapse of the company you have long worked for, a cyclone or fire, a robbery, a terrorist attack or a plane crash. Possessing the faith that all the evangelical mega-churches loudly proclaim will bring you prosperity and power in the world is one kind of faith. But to continue walking in faith when bad things have happened to a good person, knowing that you are firmly in the grasp of God, makes walking on water a refreshing task.

That makes living in faith, possessed by the consciousness of God, the most powerful state of being in the world. Nothing is able to cripple your soul, no injustice, no tragic act of God is able to destroy your dignity and humanity. Remember how they tried to break the body and soul of Nelson Mandela, imprisoned in South Africa for 25 years for his opposition to apartheid. He exercised, he wrote, he talked, he prayed every day and as time went on, he became less, not more bitter. A modern-day version of Joseph, he too rose to be the president of his country.

Yet most of the time we prefer to stay down in the dark hole of our injustices, prefer to stay in the uneasy shelter of the boat rocked about by the storm. You will only be saved when you get out of the boat and get out of the pit, and keep walking. Just keep walking, don’t look down.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan