Pentecost 8

Pentecost 8 (Matthew 14:22-33) “Why did you doubt?”

Doubt from the reaction of fear erodes faith. Doubt from the response of love produces faith.

Doubt is a very curious human phenomenon. As far as we know, only humans experience doubt. Even Satan does not doubt the existence of God. Most, perhaps all, humans doubt the existence of God.

There is passive inherited doubt. This doubt is grounded in superstition, assumption, and a more powerful faith. It is reactive.

Some people doubt the reality of God because they have experienced pain. Some doubt because they have been taught that the world is a dangerous place filled with a myriad of supernatural powers that will just as likely hurt us as help us. Some doubt because they have been taught a very narrow limited and one dimensional world view which has no room for miracles or for God.

There is also an active aggressive doubt. This doubt is grounded in self will and pride. This doubt aggressively attacks faith because it does not want God to be personal and real. It will use the vocabulary of empiricism, materialism and science in order to make an external God vanish. The voice of this active aggressive doubt is the voice of pride which says: I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

Frequently, aggressive doubt is the justification for self indulgence. Some people actively reject and repudiate an image of God as a moral police man who seeks to inhibit the natural human desires for pleasure. This isn’t true. It isn’t true that God seeks to inhibit natural human desires. But, it also isn’t true that the path of self indulgence has any thing to do with natural human desire. Self indulgence is a distortion of natural desire that always produces suffering.

The soul that actively rejects God as a way of asserting the will to power to reject moral boundaries is a soul that seeks to define the universe by will and will alone.
Where passive doubt produces fear that the universe is meaningless, active doubt produces anger and arrogance as it seeks to impose its narrow vision and self will on a universe that is more complex and amazing than any of us can possibly imagine.

There is also an active doubt grounded in a substitute faith. This form of active doubt is what many modern atheists and agnostics practice. They simply believe the material world is the only reality. They also believe the only knowledge available to human beings comes from the experience of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Of course, they also believe that there can be no evidence of any other reality. They have embraced faith in a very narrow materialistic world view that is stuck in a blind feed back loop of absolute certainty.

There is one other form of doubt. This is the doubt of open, honest inquiry. This is the doubt Holy Mother Mary expressed when she heard the words of the archangel Gabriel, when she saw him standing before her. Mary said: how can this be? This is the doubt a scientist cultivates to explore and understand the world. This is the doubt many believers experience as they seek to follow God and understand God’s will. It is doubt in conjunction with humility that seeks understanding.

Certainly, Jesus walking on the water was a miracle. Of course, the disciples did not understand it that way. The Bible is brutally honest as it records how the disciples reacted to Jesus with fear and superstition as they watched him walking on the water. Despite all of the miracles they had witnessed Jesus perform they still thought in terms of the religious culture of their day.

It is important to note that the disciples were frustrated and exhausted by a long night of rowing against the wind. They were experiencing fatigue and that fatigue diminished both faith and reason. They saw Jesus walking on water- not something they or we see every day. In fact, of the thousand year history of the Bible only Jesus is recorded as having walked on water and only on this one occasion.

The disciples saw Jesus and despite their experience of his teaching, actions and character they reacted with fear and superstition. They cried out ‘It’s a ghost”.
The Bible does not teach the reality of ghosts, the spirits of the dead walking the earth. Most religions in the Middle East did not teach the reality of ghosts. Only once does the Bible reference a departed spirit speaking to a living human being, King Saul. The message recorded is one of utter condemnation for King Saul abandoning faith in God and seeking out a medium to summon a spirit from the underworld.

Superstitious people sometimes interpreted dreams or unexplained events in terms of ghosts. Jesus was no ghost. The religion of Israel did not teach the reality of ghosts. Strangely, the presence of Jesus walking on water inspired a reaction of fear and terror amongst the disciples.

The disciples were trapped in passive doubt that comes from frustration, confusion, fatigue and fear.

Jesus allays the disciples’ fear by speaking to them. They hear and recognize his voice. He says three things that can help us in the moments of passive fearful doubt.
First, Jesus says: take heart. Compose yourself. Center your self in the truth of who you are. Find your courage to meet the world from a place of calm confidence.
Second, Jesus gives them the reason for confidence. It is I. He invites them back into faith through friendship and loyalty.

Third, Jesus addresses the fear. As you center yourself in the reality of who you are in the present moment and as you recognize the real presence of Jesus Christ you can access the very essence of the divine: steadfast holy love. Love transforms fear into faith.

Peter shifted his perspective. He no longer saw a ghost. He no longer felt paralyzed by superstition and fear. His passive doubt shifted into active open and honest inquiry. Peter expressed this honest doubt by saying a single word: if.
If it is you, Lord, command me to come to you on the water. Peter had not yet embraced active faith. But he no longer existed in passive doubt.

Jesus replies with a single word of command: “Come!”

It is Jesus inviting Peter to faith by taking an action based in courage, confidence and love.

Peter expresses this courage, confidence and trust by keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus. When he takes his eyes off Jesus he falls back into passive doubt, fear and despair.

As Peter keeps his eyes fixed on Jesus, Peter does what his belief systems teaches is impossible. He walks on water. Once Peter takes his eyes off Jesus, those old beliefs and unquestioned certainties reassert their hold on Peter. He looks at the wind and the waves and despite his own experience he says: this is impossible. I can’t walk on water. No one can walk on water. At that point, he creates his worst fear as he turns a miracle into a tragedy. He begins to sink.

Peter cries out in panic: “Lord save me!”

And Jesus does just that. He does it immediately without hesitation or delay. He picks up Peter, puts him back into the boat, and then enters the boat himself. Then he looks at Peter and says: O you of little faith. You were doing it Peter.

You were doing the impossible, Peter! You were walking on water. And, despite the record of your five senses you chose to reject the reality of the moment. You chose fear. You chose doubt. And in that choice, you sank.

Jesus speaks to all people everywhere in the single powerful and compelling word: Come. Many hear the word and say: not possible. This cannot be real. Others hear the word and say: I don’t want this Jesus to be real. If Jesus is real then my life will have to change and I don’t want to change. Still others react with defiance. No. I will not come to Jesus. I refuse to accept that he even exists. I am the lord of my own life and I will yield to no one.

It is OK to doubt. It is OK to respond to the teaching of Moses and the Prophets with an open honest inquiry: how can this be? It is OK to say to Jesus: if. If you are real help me to experience that reality. Help me to move from fear to faith.
Jesus is the assurance of the infinite and eternal God that human fear can transform into faith through love.

Christian faith is a reasonable trust in a real person. The enemies of Jesus made many accusations against him in the first generation after his death and resurrection. They never asserted he did not exist.

They rejected what Jesus taught but they never said this was not his teaching. They claimed he could perform miracles by deceit or by demonic activity. But, they never said he performed no miracles. They struggled to explain the empty tomb but they never disputed that the tomb was empty.

The evidence for the historic reality of Jesus Christ is compelling. But no amount of evidence can overcome the passive doubt of fear or the active doubt of self will and pride. At the risk of over generalizing from only thirty or forty personal experiences, most atheists and agnostics in the United States simply do not want Jesus to be real. No amount of evidence will convince them other wise.

Only a personal experience in the real presence of divine love can reach the lost masses of people who are enslaved by passive doubt. Only Jesus himself can speak the word to reach past the pride of self will that maintains the invincible fortress of active doubt.

Jesus actively asks the question that can open our minds and hearts and wills to the process of self examination and personal transformation. That question is: why do you doubt?