Taking a Chance!!

Raul Garcia III

August 13, 2017

Matthew 14: 22-33

Let us Pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you my Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

How many of you take risks? Do you take small risks or big risks or do you feel like Indy in this clip I'm gonna show you.

Show Clip:

Are people that take risks more content than others who don’t take risks at all? According to a recent survey by Huffington Post they surveyed 20,000 people who took risks were more content than others who did not. The younger the age the more risk would be taken. So we see here in the gospel of Matthew that during the storm, winds howling, waves are crashing and disciples are scared. It must have been a pretty good storm to scare experienced fishermen. Pete saw from afar Jesus walking towards them. Then Jesus called out to them. So, Peter took a leap of faith by getting out of the boat to walk toward Jesus. This same call goes out to all of us today. We are called to take that leap of faith when Jesus calls us. All the disciples including Peter are safe and comfortable inside the boat. Peter left the security and safety of the boat and took that leap of faith, that first step to face the uncertainty of Jesus’ call. Peter quickly learned that when we leave that boat, or comfort zone, and don’t focus on Jesus we begin to sink. We lose our sight of Jesus being by our side.

Our faith is never constant. It ebbs and flows like the waves of an ocean. Our faith comes and goes with what is happening in our lives. We will have awesome and great mountain top experiences like I just did this past couple weeks with our senior high adventure trip to Idaho and middle school mission trip to Rockford, IL. Both trips were amazing to see our students get outside of their comfort bubble to help serve. To help serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. Such as, our junior high students working in an urban farm garden, working side by side with residents and students in one of the roughest parts of Rockford. Seeing our senior high youth get outside their comfort box, take that leap of faith, to serve the people of Silver Valley by gathering firewood for winter, working a garden, making a forest fire line, helping rehab a house. Plus much more!!

These mountain top experiences help us when we hit the valleys of life. When we think no matter what we do we are stuck. We just can’t seem to get on our feet. I’ve been there.

I’m gonna let you into my life a little. As I resigned from my last church. I made up my mind that I was not going to ever serve in a church again. I was done! No more! I was tired of the whole church politics. I was fed up! So I decided you know I’m gonna get my teaching license so I can substitute teach. I loved kids and being able to teach them and help direct them and coach. Soon enough a couple months after I’ve been subbing I get a phone call from Pastor Paul. Hey Raul, lets have lunch, I heard from a birdie (birdie named Pastor Sarah) you may be looking for a church. I told Pastor Paul great let’s have lunch, free lunch, and I told Pastor Paul while having lunch, honestly I wasn’t interested and I didn’t want to work in a church anymore. Had a great lunch and Pastor Paul talked about Family of God. I think a month passed and I get an email from Pastor Paul saying hey let’s have lunch. I was in my head saying no way but I said okay let’s have lunch. Another free lunch. That lunch Pastor Paul and I had a great heart to heart lunch and maybe this was Jesus reaching toward me to focus on him. I was hurt by the church. The church that I loved. The same church that was suppose to teach about Grace, Love and Mercy was the church that didn’t show grace, hope and mercy and let me down. It took some time to get over that feeling. We all have been at that point in our lives. Where we have been hurt by the church, by a loved one, or hurt by the news of racism in our country or whatever the circumstance. We all know people who have been hurt. It’s time for you to reach out to them and let them know about Jesus’ love. Let them know about Jesus’ grace and mercy. Let them know the church isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago. We are a welcoming church. No matter who you are, we are going to love you as is. Let them know it’s cool to be Lutheran. I’m glad I took that second lunch with Pastor Paul because It brought me here to Family of God.  

When we put our faith in Jesus, he carries our burdens and soothes our hearts. You know it is sometimes only after a difficult period that we can look back at events and realize God was there all the time with us, we just didn’t know it.

Sometimes in our lives we have to take that leap of faith and take a risk. Even when everything is peaceful in our lives we need to take risks.

Our faith in God is our willingness to take risks, to embrace what we cannot see, go shake hands with a congregation member 5 pews behind you, to go speak for the voiceless, to step outside the boat and walk. When we put our faith in God, and keep our eyes on him, there is a risk that the world will reject us. It is better to be rejected by the world and be loved by God than to be loved by the world and be rejected by God.

Wherever we find ourselves today, and we hear Jesus call us by name, we must put our faith into action and get out of the boat. We step out of that boat and trust Jesus, take him at his word, and JUST DO IT!! The result is this life we call being a Lutheran.

Like I told our junior and senior high youth the last night on our trips. It’s okay for us to have a strong faith and also doubt. Faith and doubt can live in the same heart. After all, they lived in Peter’s heart, especially when he walked on the water and began to sink. That’s what happens when we take our eyes off of Jesus.

“So it is with us. Many times we sit on the sidelines watching someone do something, and decide to try it ourselves, just like Peter decided to walk on the water after he saw Jesus walking on water. Perhaps it looks like fun. Perhaps we think we could do it better. Perhaps we’re just looking for a challenge. And then we learn that it isn’t as easy as it looked. We feel the wind and the roughness of the waves underfoot, and wish that we had kept our comfortable seat in the boat.

Or we feel Christ’s call. It might be a call to feed the hungry. It might be a call to serve as a church usher or reader. It might be a call to tithe. It might be a call to speak on behalf of an issue. We begin to answer the call, and then realize it is tougher than it looked. We feel the wind and the roughness of the waves, and wish we had kept our comfortable seat in the pews.” (Excerpt from Craig Condon, Take a leap of Faith and get out of the Boat, April 13, 2015)

We might be safely sitting in our easy chairs in front of the television watching all this news about race issues, but that is not what God has created for us. He has created us to be his hands and his voice in the world and that is seldom easy. Sometimes, when we answer Christ’s call, we will feel the wind and the roughness of the waves and we are afraid. When that happens, we need to remember this story of Peter stepping out of the boat and walking toward Jesus, and the leap of faith he took. If he could do it, so can we. So JUST DO IT!!!

Amen!!