Do Not Be Afraid
And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”  Matthew 14.25-27
 The ancient belief of the many people was that chaos lurked below the water, kept back by the hand of God. In that chaos (tohu wa bohu), people believed that all manner of evil and threatening resided. When God created (Genesis 1) there was only chaos. God brought forth the land and the chaos was contained in the waters. So, a figure walking on the water might well mean that evil had risen up to consume them. Imagine. You’ve had a rough night at sea and early in the morning you see something rising up on the horizon, headed your way. Poor fellows. Even when they hear Jesus’ voice, they aren’t sure who it is. In response to Peter’s request, Jesus tells Peter to get out of the boat and walk toward him, so that Peter can be assured that it is the Lord.  Peter jumps out of the boat and begins to walk toward Jesus. But then, Peter loses his focus. He begins to think of all that lurks beneath his feet. He panics and starts to sink. When he cries out to Jesus, he is lifted up by Jesus’ hands and all is well. Jesus remarks to Peter about the smallness of Peter’s faith. Peter had taken (as I once heard it preached) “his eyes off the prize”; he had begun to think about all the “what-ifs”, and faltered.
Peter truly is all of us, isn’t he? We are so often fearful people. Fear is perhaps the most common emotion that underlies our actions. There are things we want to do. Things we want to accomplish. Yet, we are afraid. Perhaps the fear is that we aren’t good enough, or that we will be mocked, or rebuffed, or fail. We step out, headed for the “prize”, eyes fixed on what we believe God has called us to do. But then…someone challenges or mocks us, unkind things are said, the waters get rough, the task grows more difficult. We begin to focus on the “what-ifs” and all the “chaos” that seems to lurk around us. Yep. Fear grabs us by the ankles and threatens to pull us under. All the goodness, all the affirmation, all that could keep us focused and moving? That stuff disappears, drowning in a sea of doubt or sorrow or worry or pain.
I don’t believe that God brings chaos into our lives. I believe that chaos lurks deeply within us and around us. It surfaces its ugliness and we surrender without fulfilling what we were sure God intended us to do all along. We take our focus from the One who loves us, and surrender to our own fears or biases. The good news is that God calls us not into but out of chaos. In those darkest and most hellish times, we can call out and know that God is with us and has not abandoned us to the deep fears of our lives. Of course, this is easier said than remembered. More good news, we have one another, the Body of Christ, to remind us and reach out when we flounder. In those times when we begin to surrender to fear and doubt, when we believe we might not be good enough or handsome enough, or smart enough, or any “enough” that might distract and weigh us down; the Holy One has given us one another so that Love may drown out fear. God hears our cries. We are enough for whatever lies before us. We need to keep our “eyes on the prize” – that Great Love beckoning us forward, and link arms together to remind one another we are never alone. Link arms, dear friends in Christ. The world is struggling, and so are many of the people within it. Let them see Jesus in you, refocus their lives, and live.