Risky Business (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
There is a crazy story about a wealthy Texan who died, and his attorney gathered the entire family for the reading of the will. Relatives came from near and far to see if they were included in the will.
The lawyer somberly opened the will and began to read:
“To my cousin Ed, I leave my ranch.”
“To my brother Jim, I leave my money market accounts.”
“To my neighbor and good friend, Fred, I leave my stocks.”
“And finally, to my cousin George, who always sat around and never did anything, but wanted to be remembered in my will, I want to say, `Hi, George.'”
Poor George. Perhaps he was misunderstood. Maybe George is just a guy who likes to play it safe. What’s wrong with that? We value safety, don’t we? Many prefer being conservative with their life and resources. Many folks would put risk right up there with other four letter words.
The church is filled with people like that. Most people in church are not risk takers. And you know what? That’s always baffled me. I’ll tell you why.
Over the years I have made a lot of trips from Atlanta to Florida. As a result, I have become very familiar with 75 North and South! In particular, I know the interstate Billboard ads real well. The interstate is saturated with them. You have seen them—they advertise everything from pecan logs to houses of ill repute.
The billboards that have always been curious to me are the ones that advertise Christian radio stations. Many of these stations have the same ad. There is a happy middle-class family smiling and laughing in a park or doing some other fun activity. Next to the picture is the traditional fish insignia. And there is the slogan: “Safe for the Whole Family.” Safe? Safe?
I don’t know who created those ads, but whoever it was doesn’t have a clue about what it means to follow Jesus. For you don’t have to read very much of the Bible to see that following Jesus is anything but safe. Exciting? Yes. Fulfilling? Yes. Risky? Definitely. But safe? No.
If you think following Jesus is a safe choice, then I have done a terrible job preaching the gospel and explaining who Jesus is.
So, for the record, let me be clear: Following Jesus is risky business. If playing it safe is your goal, then following Jesus is the last thing you want to do.
Take our scripture for today. The disciples are in a boat in the middle of the sea. A strong wind drove them out there. The waves are crashing against them. In the darkness of early dawn, they see something that terrifies them. There’s a figure walking toward them on the sea!
And you know what they all said at once? “It’s a ghost!”
They have no clue that the figure walking along the roaring waves is Jesus. These 12 people who spent more time with Jesus than anyone didn’t recognize him… Even when Jesus spoke to the disciples on the sea, “Take heart; it is I, don’t be afraid” they still were not sure it was Jesus!
Well, before we get all high and mighty about these clueless disciples let me ask you: If you saw Jesus would you recognize him? If you met him on the street, would you know him?
When we have Holy Communion, we repeat this phrase in the liturgy, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” We believe not only that Christ has come, but that, on some day, in some mysterious way, he shall return.
When Christ returns, would you know him? Would you be able to pass him on the street and say, “Yep, that’s Jesus”?
How would you recognize him? Remember, we have no photographs of his physical appearance. There are no portraits. Jesus took no selfies. Jesus does not have a Facebook page with photos we can stalk.
Many of us take great pride in our love and knowledge of Jesus, but are we really certain we would recognize him?
What would give Jesus away? What unique characteristic would stand out?
Well, what comes next in the biblical story give us a clue how to recognize Jesus. But some of you may not like it very much, especially those of us who like to play it safe.
For Peter said something on that boat that is very strange. I must confess that I have read and preached on this text many times and completely over looked it. But I truly saw it recently and it rocked my world.
Peter says in verse 28, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”
Do you find that strange, crazy? “Lord, if it is you, command me to risk my life, to tempt death, to walk out across 6,000 fathoms of dark, swirling, threatening sea.”
Lord, if it is you, command me to stick my hand into the fire. Lord, if it is you, order me to jump off a skyscraper. That is, if it’s you.”
Don’t you find it strange that Peter was uncertain that the voice from the waves was the voice of Jesus until, unless, that voice commanded him, “Don’t be a chicken. Come on out! It feels great out here”?
But here is the truth. Peter’s peculiar question reveals exactly how we will know Jesus. Jesus is the one who extravagantly, recklessly, commands you to leave the safety of the boat, to step into the sea, to test the waters, and show what your faith is made of. That’s Jesus.
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me,” goes an old gospel song. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling you in today’s scripture to risk your life, to throw caution to the wind, to step out the boat and defy death…
Makes you wonder about those folks who claim to be so close to Jesus, to love Jesus, but never risk anything for him, doesn’t it? How can anyone claim to walk with Jesus when they are never willing to join Jesus on the high waves of faith and adventure? The closer I get to Jesus…….challenges me, more risk…
I heard about a woman who runs a home for young pregnant mothers who have nowhere to go to have their children. They have no husbands and no family to step up and help them. The hours she works are long; the work is hard. There’s never enough money.
That woman’s father is extremely wealthy and left her comfortably fixed in life. Now why would she, at middle age, get mixed up in a ministry like this home for unwed mothers? Is she nuts? Who would have influenced her to do such a thing?
I think you know. The same one who had the gall to tell Peter to join him foot surfing in the middle of a sea storm.
But the good news is that when Peter took that leap of faith, even though the going was rough, even though he almost sank and perished, Jesus reached out his hand and he caught him, just at the right moment. He helped Peter back into the boat. He stilled the wind and the waves, and Peter was saved.
If Peter had not taken that risk, that leap of faith, had not obeyed the call to walk on the water, then he would never have had the opportunity to truly recognize Jesus and his amazing strength and power.
I wonder if too many of us are just splashing around in shallow water, never risking for Jesus, never moving beyond our comfort zones to test and deepen our faith…
I believe our text is telling us that if we want to be close to Jesus, you have to take a risk for Jesus. You have to prove his promises by trusting his promises and jumping into…to see what your faith is really made of….
It’s a hard word, isn’t it? I am sure there are many of you right now who wish I would just go back to preaching on prayer and worry and finding inner peace. This Jesus does makes things difficult and daring, doesn’t he? Well, that’s Jesus.
When Will Willimon was the Dean at Duke Chapel, he once complained to a group of students that very few students were attending worship services on Sunday at Duke Chapel.
One insightful student replied, “Go easy on yourself. Duke is a very selective school with very bright students.” Willimon thought, “Yeah, bright but not all that humble.”
But what she said next punched Willimon in the gut: “I think most of them are smart enough to figure out that if they gave their lives to Christ, he would only make their lives more difficult, daring and challenging. I think it’s amazing you get as many students to come to Jesus as you do.”
She is right. It is amazing, isn’t it? Here we are, in worship, willingly worshipping and claiming to follow someone who commands us to….. who commands us to….who commands us to….
The late novelist Reynolds Price explained that he left church in the Sixties not only because it was racially segregated but also because it had forgotten what people need most.
“I’d go to church,” Reynolds said, “and they would ask me to coach kids’ basketball, help in the church kitchen, or attend a fellowship supper. Church is supposed to be where God lives. If a church doesn’t make the outrageous assertion that God is a Jew from Nazareth who rose from the dead and makes our lives much more difficult and demanding, it’s intellectually uninteresting.”
A cynic once said to one of my preacher friends, “At my church we get advice from the pulpit — how to have a happier marriage, how to have a purpose-driven life, how to vote. Sometimes it’s good advice, but it’s no different than I would have gotten from my daily Huffington Post.” (ouch) “Why bother with all the church baggage when there’s nothing said that fundamentally challenges who I am and where I’m headed?”
Those words remind me of the time I played golf on vacation with a man I didn’t know. We were paired together. He told me he stopped going to church. When I asked him why, I thought he would give me the usual excuses: “They made me feel guilty about everything”; “The preacher offended me” ; “The church was filled with a bunch of hypocrites.” I was stunned when he said, “The preacher never said anything I couldn’t get from a Ted Talk or self-help book. I thought you preachers were supposed to be different.”
A colleague of mine had a youth in his church who became an active Christian in high school. He was going through a turbulent period in his life. In an emotional youth worship service, he gave his life to Christ. He said of his conversion, “I have found what I’ve always been looking for.”
My friend ran into him at an airport. He now runs a ministry for inner city kids in East Saint Louis. He lives in a dangerous, tough part of town, sharing the lot of the kids who come to his ministry. He has been the victim of crime on a number of occasions. HE marveled at his faith and his faithfulness.
Now, what possessed him to do this….I think you know who.
When my friend asked him about it, he said, “Well, it’s sort of what you sometimes get when you get Jesus,” he said with a smile. “I thought I ‘found Christ’ when in reality, Christ found me. I thought he wanted to give me something. Well he has given me many good gifts, but mostly what Jesus gave me was a job to do for him rather than to do what I wanted to do for myself.”
The day after the horror of September 11, a couple was being interviewed on the news. They were standing on the street, before the wreckage of ground zero, obviously in great grief. Their beloved daughter had perished in the cataclysm. Through tears, they shared their grief with the reporter.
The reporter, stammering, said to them, “Well, I know that you will be able to go to your place of worship this weekend and there maybe you’ll find some consolation in your faith….”
And the grieving mother replied, “No, we won’t be going to our place of worship this weekend ’cause we’re Christians, and we know what Jesus commands about forgiveness, and frankly, we’re just not yet ready for that. It’ll be some time before we’ll want to be with Jesus.”
Wow. There’s a couple who knows, really knows, what Jesus looks like and what being his followers looks like.
So if in the dead of night, or maybe just before dawn, you should hear a voice, calling your name, a strange voice calling you to rise up, to sail forth, to risk the storm, to defy the waves, there is a good chance that voice could belong to none other than the one who is your very Lord and Savior. Who would dare to call an ordinary, not very spectacularly faithful person like you to such high adventure, to such risk and such struggle?
I think you know who.