Jesus in Your Boat
The Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews
Rector, Trinity Church, Wall Street
New York, New York

(This sermon is also available in audio.)

Take our minds and think through them.
Take my lips and speak through them.
Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for Thee,
through Christ our Lord, Amen.

What a joy it is to be back in Memphis, and to be back at Calvary Church with you, participating in this incredible Lenten Preaching Series. It's come to be known all over the country as the gathering of some of the finest preachers in America. You have the blessing of what is considered by most of us some really extraordinary preachers. I am glad I got grandfathered in when that was not true.

It happened just this past Monday morning, and the Tuesday morning New York Times carried the picture. Tiger Woods had his fist up, pulling it down as if to say, "I did it." Yes, Tiger Woods did it again. Unbelievable golfer. Most people think that he may just be the finest golfer who maybe has ever played the game. He did it -- all by himself. We love that, don't we?

You know when I want to do that Tiger Woods gesture? When the dentist says, "No cavities." Dena, my wife, wants to do it when she says, "The checkbook, it balanced, it balanced!" That gesture is so characteristic of us as a people. You and I grow up learning that we have to do it all by ourselves. This individualism so pervades everything you and I do, that that gesture just makes sense. It's, "I did it! I made it happen! I created it."

March 17th in New York is quite a day. It's St. Patrick's Day for those of you who don't know about that. I remember moving to New York, and one of the first questions I got asked was, "Where are your people from?" and I said, "Mississippi." They didn't mean that. In New York they mean, "Are you German? Are you English? Are you from France? Are you Italian, Irish?" (Mississippi didn't go over very well, you can imagine. I wanted to say South Mississippi; that makes it a little different.)

St. Patrick's Day is a huge event. St. Patrick was a Roman Catholic in the Roman Catholic tradition and is revered by Roman Catholics throughout the world, but especially in New York at this huge parade. The parade passes right in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Cardinal leads the parade. So it is really a church-kind-of-day in a curious way.

As the Cardinal leads the parade, he occasionally gives the blessing by making the sign of the cross. For those of us who are not Roman Catholics, your minister may stand at the end of the church and say, "Go in peace," or some such words. He might not move his hand in the gesture of the sign of the cross as the Cardinal does, but it's a blessing, nonetheless.

I often think about the difference in the two gestures: Fist up as in, I did it all by myself; and the sign of the cross signifyng,I can't possibly do it without God's help. Two radically different ways of celebrating the now-- by myself only; only with God's help.

In the Gospel according to Mark there is a wonderful story, you know it well. Jesus and his diciples were pushing off from the edge of the shore in several small boats. They were rowing across the lake at night. Now, those of you who have been to the Holy Land and taken a tour around the lake know that in a twinkling of an eye a storm can come out of nowhere on that lake. That is what happened in this particular reading of the Gospel. Jesus had retired to the back of the boat and was lying on a pillow sound asleep. Suddenly the wind began to blow, the waves began to rock the boat, and it began to fill with water. The disciples were terrified that they were about to drown. They went to the back of the boat, shook Jesus and said, "Wake up, you want to go down? We are about to lose it here." So, Jesus wakes up and calms the sea.

But remember what happens next? It's the strangest thing, Jesus is angry at them for being frightened. You want to say, "Am I missing something here? They are about to go down; the boat is taking water; they are all about to drown, and here he is angry at them for being afraid." Wonderful moment. You see, Jesus is saying that there is something bigger here than the waves.

You and I have a hard time discerning between what is the problem and what is the presence of God in our midst. That's what was going on there. He said, "Wait a minute. There's something bigger here in effect than the waves. There's the trust in the presence and the Spirit of God in your midst. Don't you trust beyond the waves?" What an idea.

Every one of us in this room is in the midst of some waves right now. All of life is waves in varying degrees, and most of us are in our own little boat. This is what this means, isn't it? We are all a culture of, "I row my boat, you row your boat; I'll row better, faster, quicker, longer, harder than you row."

Jesus, of course, is in the back of every boat. Perhaps in most of our boats he is sound asleep. Sometimes we wind up waking him up when the storm hits, and he is angry with us because we only call on him when the waves get beyond what we can do all by ourselves. It's just so very hard not to think of your faith as something you earn, isn't it? It is so hard to think about everything in your life as something you don't win for yourself, accomplish by your own hard work and brains and competence. Now, that is what Jesus was angry about. They forgot where their real trust is to be placed.

We've just come through the Academy Awards. It is very interesting, isn't it, to watch those things? Before the awards, I read a quote about what the person is going to say when he or she gets the Oscar. The quote (I can't remember where I read it) was, "Every actor has been rehearsing since he or she was ten years old what they're going to say." That's a wonderful line, and yet, most of them, when they receive it, act like they're tongue-tied. Not only that, most of them can't say enough thank yous to "all of those people who made this possible for me. I would never have been able to do it without them."

Isn't it true with life when really big things happen to you, something really important takes place, suddenly you are filled with gratitude, and you don't think about the fact that you did it by yourself. Do you have any trouble remembering the surgeon's name who saved your child's life? Do you have any trouble remembering the teacher who made the recommendation that let you get into graduate school? Do you have any trouble remembering that person who gave you that break that got you the job that really made the difference in your life or, maybe, do you ever forget the person who introduced you to your spouse before you dreamed he would be your spouse?

Jesus is in the back of the boat right now. Maybe the waves are not high enough for you to call on Jesus to be central in your life-- more central than yourself. It's hard to do in our culture. The blessings that come our way from God are missed most of the time. When we wake him up, and he calms the sea around us, oh, our hearts are full of gratitude, but he might scold us as he did his best friends, because we didn't trust until we couldn't trust in ourselves. He's in the back of the boat. He's riding with you. Make him central to your life before the waves demand you call on him. Jesus, in your boat, your friend, your Savior. Amen.

Copyright 2001 The Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews

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