Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Go to iTunes or SoundCloud for Audio Podcast
Original Manuscript:
In today's Gospel from Mark, we hear of Jesus walking on the water. This is right after the miracle of the fishes and loaves, and we are told that the disciples were "astounded" and "their hearts were hardened."
Scripture talks a great deal about the hardening of hearts. It happens to Pharaoh when Moses tries to take the Israelites out of Egypt, in spite of all the miracles Pharaoh witnesses. Basically, it means a person is struggling to have faith.
Jesus is going all around the area by the Sea of Galilee (which is really a lake, as we hear in the text, and Gennesaret is at its shore) healing people and performing miracles, and yet the Disciples struggle to believe.
It's easy for us to look down on the Disciples. Why did they struggle to have faith? Why didn't they just immediately believe?
The thing is, we are just like the Disciples. If it weren't for their testimony, we would have as difficult a time believing. I can say this because we have a difficult time believing now. So often we hold ourselves up with pride in our belief, only for it to come crashing down when the right, or rather wrong, circumstances come about.
The good news is that while God does demand faith, God also lets us build our faith up slowly. The Disciples didn't become the masters of faith until they received the Holy Spirit as Apostles. Even then they struggled. Peter needed a sign in order to bring the Gentiles in, and even then, Paul still calls him out in Galatians for not living up to God's vision to him in Acts.
But we are called to continue to grow in our faith, just as Peter had to. God does give us the time to do this. Sometimes God nudges us sharply, as Jesus often did with His Disciples and others, but God does give us the time to get things right.
The Disciples' hearts were hardened, even in the face of miraculous wonders, and sometimes ours are too. Jesus takes the time to meet us on the way, so why don't we do the same? That is God's call to us, that we take the time and the effort to un-harden our hearts and let God in.
Scripture talks a great deal about the hardening of hearts. It happens to Pharaoh when Moses tries to take the Israelites out of Egypt, in spite of all the miracles Pharaoh witnesses. Basically, it means a person is struggling to have faith.
Jesus is going all around the area by the Sea of Galilee (which is really a lake, as we hear in the text, and Gennesaret is at its shore) healing people and performing miracles, and yet the Disciples struggle to believe.
It's easy for us to look down on the Disciples. Why did they struggle to have faith? Why didn't they just immediately believe?
The thing is, we are just like the Disciples. If it weren't for their testimony, we would have as difficult a time believing. I can say this because we have a difficult time believing now. So often we hold ourselves up with pride in our belief, only for it to come crashing down when the right, or rather wrong, circumstances come about.
The good news is that while God does demand faith, God also lets us build our faith up slowly. The Disciples didn't become the masters of faith until they received the Holy Spirit as Apostles. Even then they struggled. Peter needed a sign in order to bring the Gentiles in, and even then, Paul still calls him out in Galatians for not living up to God's vision to him in Acts.
But we are called to continue to grow in our faith, just as Peter had to. God does give us the time to do this. Sometimes God nudges us sharply, as Jesus often did with His Disciples and others, but God does give us the time to get things right.
The Disciples' hearts were hardened, even in the face of miraculous wonders, and sometimes ours are too. Jesus takes the time to meet us on the way, so why don't we do the same? That is God's call to us, that we take the time and the effort to un-harden our hearts and let God in.