Doubters to believers

 For my text this morning I’m not immediately going to use one of the Bible readings but rather words from the Liverpool Echo from October 9th2015, and the words of Jurgen Klopp who had just been appointed the Liverpool Football Club Manager. 

He said, “We have to change from doubters to believers. Now.

At this moment we (all the LFC family is) are a little bit too nervous, a little bit too pessimistic, a little bit too much in doubt,” he said. 

“They all celebrate the game and there is a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium, But they don’t believe at the moment. They only see five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago.

History is great. But only to remember. Now we have the possibility to write a new story if we want.”

At a time when we’re really being challenged to consider our faith and our churches, I don’t think there could be more appropriate words than these and today’s gospel (Matthew 14:22-33) could not contain a more appropriate message. 

Think about the gospel reading – just before the section we heard Jesus had fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish and now he wanted to get away and so he asked his disciples to get into a boat and go on ahead over the Sea of Galilee while he spent some time in prayer…. 

And that’s one thing to note immediately – the importance of prayer in what we do, in everything we do. I don’t know how the lockdown period has worked for everyone but I do know that for some people it has actually been a time of real discovery, discovery of an ability to just pray – to pray without formal words or liturgy, just to offer our thoughts to God in simple, heartfelt words… 

We must never under-estimate the need to pray…. 

But back to the disciples. They were out on the water and their boat was getting a bit battered around and suddenly they saw this ghost like figure coming towards them – naturally they were terrified until they heard the words of Jesus, ‘Do not be afraid.’

And suddenly they weren’t – they were excited, they knew they were safe – Jesus was right there with them. And Peter, often the most excitable of all, was first in line to ask Jesus whether he could get out of the boat and walk on the water as well – and he started to do it… 

And it seems that it was going fine, until Peter realised that there was a nasty wind and he got scared and began to sink… 

That of course wasn’t the end of the account though because Peter asked Jesus to save him and he did and eventually all the disciples again praised Jesus for his incredible saving power and care… 

So there are lots of lessons to learn from this one short account. 

The first is the need for prayer – we need to pray regularly. We need to recognise that God is alongside us always, looking out for us, loving us, inviting us to get closer to him – we need to accept that invitation more often… And I can pretty confidently say we need to do it more often because I don’t think any of us pray enough because we’re imperfect and things get in the way and we get distracted or we get our priorities wrong… 

Pray regularly !

The second thing is to remember those words of Jesus, ‘Do not be afraid.’ He says them a lot – they occur in the bible over 300 times… 

Life can sometimes be scary, it can be uncertain. Jesus knew that and he knows that… At the moment lots of people are facing all kinds of problems that they never expected – life is different, but to every problem, to every fear, Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid.’ 

And those could be taken as rather glib words except for the fact that time and time again Jesus has proved not just his love for us, but also his power to guide us, to strengthen us, to care for us… 

Jesus, who in his time on earth, gave an example of how to live and love, showed his power through miracles like the feeding of the 5,000, like the ability to walk on water… 

He showed his power through the prayers he offered for the very people who were torturing and killing him on the cross. He showed his power and love in the forgiveness he offered to all those disciples who’d abandoned him when things got really bad… 

‘Do not be afraid.’ These words of Jesus are not empty words, but a promise of eternal love, guidance and protection…

And so we’ve thought of the gift we’re given of prayer, of talking to God, and we’ve thought of the fact that we can trust Jesus who will always be there with us and for us, and finally I want to think of Peter… 

He was excited when he knew it was Jesus walking on the water and he wanted to do it too and so Jesus let him – he called him towards him and gave him the power to do it, and Peter was doing it, until his own doubts got in the way…. 

How often does God give us strength to do things but we allow our own worries and fears to get in the way ?   

More bluntly, how often do we fail to really trust Jesus ?

I think this lockdown period has to have taught us a lot of things and one of them is to really think about our priorities... 

Where is our trust being placed ? If it’s in material things, they can disappear very easily – money can’t buy everything. 

If it’s in a particular church building, that won’t last – churches can be locked up as they have been for the past few months. A building, however beautiful and useful as a tool for our worship, will not give us all we need…. 

It is only by trusting in Jesus and building a relationship with him, that we find real life, that we find someone to whom we can talk to in prayer confidently, honestly… It is only in Jesus that we can truly know that we don’t need to be afraid because he’s with us and he has faced the worst that the world can offer and come through it… 

Back to Jurgen Klopp, who in case you’re wondering I’m not likening to Jesus, but back to his words –     We need to turn from doubters to believers, to not just look at the glories of the past and talk about years gone by, but to be confident of the present and the future. 

In other words let’s stop talking about incredible buildings being full of people of all ages with plenty of money to pay the bills and not a leaking roof in sight…   Let’s look to Jesus and seek his vision for us today, for his church today… 

Like Peter, let’s step out of the boat, keep our eyes fixed firmly on Jesusand walk confidently…  

AMEN