Well, the local Baptist church had been without a minister for some time when they finally called a pastor to serve the congregation. One day the newly acquired pastor was in his office unpacking his boxes when there was a knock on the door. He opened it up and there stood two men. The two men introduced themselves as two of the local clergy . . . one was the town priest at the Catholic Church and the other was the Lutheran pastor. As they were talking it was discovered that they all loved fishing. So the two men invited the Baptist pastor to go fishing with them the following Saturday.
Saturday arrived and the two swung by the Baptist preacher’s house and picked him up. After driving for a while, they arrived at a beautiful lake with a nice cove to fish in. The two hosts got out and grabbed their tackle and headed over to the boat, telling the Baptist preacher to come along. Once they got all of their gear on the boat they pushed off and went a little ways into the cove. They began fishing.
Pretty soon the priest stood up and said he forgot his thermos of coffee back in the car. He told them he was going to go back and get it. Then he stepped over the side of the boat and began walking across the water. The Baptist minister was amazed at what he was witnessing . . . a person actually walking on water! He was in awe. The priest meanwhile stepped out of the lake, got his coffee, and walked back to the boat. The Baptist couldn’t believe it and just sat there staring.
Another hour went by and suddenly the Lutheran pastor stood up and announced that he was feeling a little chilly and he was going to go back to the car and get a coat. He stepped over the side of the boat and began walking across the lake towards the shore and the car. Again, the Baptist minister couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was awestruck. Amazed. And the Lutheran got his coat and skedaddled back to the boat. The Baptist preacher just couldn’t believe his eyes.
For the next hour he sat there contemplating what he had seen. Surely these two had faith, they could walk on water. Well, if they could do it surely he could do it . . . after all, Baptists have faith. Shoot they have more faith than anyone else. If those two guys could do it surely, he could too! He decided he was going to show them all that he could do it too. If a Catholic and a Lutheran could do it . . . a Baptist could easily do it. Baptists have faith!
The Baptist pastor stood up and announced that he had forgotten his lunch and that he was going to go back to the car and get it. He stepped to the edge of the boat . . . lifted one leg over the side, then the other . . . and like a rock he sunk to the bottom of the lake. Soon he was splashing and climbing back in the boat. The other two ministers just watched.
Of course, the Baptist was going to let the Catholics and Lutherans show him up. So, he did it again. Again, he sunk to the bottom of the lake. The other two just watched. Repeatedly the Baptist pastor attempted to walk on the water to the point he was nearly drowning. He was determined that anything the other two could do, he could do.
Finally, the Catholic priest looked over at the Lutheran pastor and said, “You think that we might want to tell him where the rocks are?”
Long ago when I was a child learning how to shoot a gun, my father and others would always remind me to “keep my eyes on the target”. In the case of this Baptist minister, it is a matter of keeping your eyes on the rocks. Isn’t that the lesson we are being told this morning with Peter’s attempt at walking on the water like Jesus. Peter took his eyes off the target. Peter quit looking at the rocks. Everything was fine and dandy until he took his eyes off of his objective—which was Jesus. As soon as he got a little confident and cocky, he took his eyes off that which he was heading towards—Jesus. The result is that he sunk. Isn’t that a lesson that we all need to learn?
Jesus asks us to “stay the course” on our journeys of faith . . . to follow him . . . to be like him . . . to keep our eyes on the target, on the rocks, on the final objective. The final objective is to build and realize God’s kingdom built up loving God and one another. If we can do that, we can do anything . . . even walk on water. It sounds so easy, yet we live in times in which we are easily distracted . . . easily pull in other directions . . . easily led down bunny trails that pull us away from our journey of faith. We allow other things to get in the way of our faith, our journeys, and building the Kingdom of God. It is the “human” way.
Jesus tells us that the kingdom can come if we focus on kingdom building . . . focus on loving God and one another. In W.P. Kinsella’s novella, Shoeless Joe, that became the movie The Field of Dreams, the main character keeps hearing a voice telling him, “If you build it, they will come.” What is it that the character is supposed to build? A baseball field in the middle of his corn fields out in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. For the main character he does not lose sight of his objective and doggedly go about plowing under his cornfields to make the baseball field much to the dismay of his family and friends. They attempt to talk sense to him . . . that is money in the bank he’s losing. It makes you look crazy to the community. Over and over, they argue in hope that he will come to his senses and do what they think is the right thing.
Well, if you have seen the movie, you know how it ends. The people come . . . they come from all over to see this field in a corn field in the middle of nowhere Iowa. This guy keeps his eyes on the rocks . . . his eye on his target and objective no matter what.
That is not easy to do.
Distractions come from all directions in our lives when it comes to our faith. Lots of things make us take our eyes off Jesus. It can be the pull of the culture or society that we live in when the mores of that community become more important than the witness and teachings of Jesus to love God and one another. It can be groups and organizations we belong to where we find affirmation, acceptance, and place where we belong knowing that the loyalty is not with Jesus but the group or organization. It can be the causes that we embrace . . . the politics we follow . . . and even our own families and friends. Did Jesus not warn his followers of this?
They all have the potential to pull us away from Jesus and his vision of the Kingdom’s reality. And they do. They distract us making us take our eyes off the target, off of the rocks, off of our objective which is Jesus, his witness, his teachings, and his Kingdom.
Jesus would tell us to keep our eyes on the target . . . to keep our eyes on the rocks . . . to focus upon him. After all, he is the way. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV) In the early “church” there was no church, there was the “way” . . . and, Jesus was the “way”. Jesus . . . the way that he lived his life in love, respect, grace seeking peace and justice showed us the “way”. The words that he spoke and taught showed us the “way”. The miracles he showed, showed us the “way”. That is the target he calls us—his followers—to keep our eyes upon. That is the objective . . . to keep our eyes on the rocks. To keep our eyes on the rocks until we can proclaim the Kingdom come.
That is the “way” . . . keep your eyes on the rocks. The Kingdom will come. Amen.
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