I don’t know about you, but some of the best school days ever were the days the scholastic book orders came home, do you remember these? I would get out a marker and start circling all the books that were an absolute necessity (which for me were all of them – except the ones about football and basketball stars). Not much has changed, except the addition of Aiyana barely tolerating my enthusiasm as I go through her order forms with her. This last order, I chose Salam Alaikum: A Message of Peace and A Pig in a Wig and Aiyana picked Mulan’s Lunar New Year and You Hold Me Up. After we read You Hold Me Up for the first time, Aiyana said – “Mom, the next time it’s your turn to talk to the kids in church, I am going to read them this book because it’s a really good church book.” I agreed. I thought this notion would pass, but every Sunday for the last 5 weeks, Aiyana has asked “Am I reading the book today?” Finally, this week, I was able to tell her “yes.”
Kids understand spirituality with an innate awareness that is unique to their magical minds. They understand what it means to be safe, loved, and in community. They understand that when you hurt someone – physically or emotionally, you have to say you are sorry. They know that when you have a cookie and someone doesn’t have a cookie, you should really share your cookie (even when you really don’t want to). They will chase a plastic bag all over a parking lot- while giving their parents a panic attack- because they know that litter is bad and it may hurt a bird if they don’t capture it. And they know that sometimes you just can’t put things into words, but that certainly doesn’t make the feeling less real. They know when the message is right and when a book is a really good church book.
Kids understand that church is a place where we hold each other up and take care of each other. But, there is something else that you need to know specifically about Aiyana. She has what has been diagnosed as “specific reading disability” – she has received 6 separate reading evaluations this year and she struggles through more than 5 hours of one-on-one reading intervention every week. Reading is more than hard for Aiyana, it is painful and demoralizing and she will do everything in her power to avoid it. I know it’s kind-of a bit much to have the preacher’s kid do the children’s story, but when Aiyana told me that she wanted to read you all a book – it was the first time she has ever said the phrase “I want to read” and I couldn’t say no. She has been practicing for weeks to read that book to you and that’s a big deal. You held Aiyana up today. She feel safe here, she feels loved here, and she has the most amazing friends here (both kids and grown-ups). Thank you. I bet it wouldn’t take long for each of us to think of a time when we ourselves were held up here. When someone shared with us, treated us with kindness and respect, when we sang, laughed, played, and learned together. When we were comforted, listened to, and cared for – we hold each other up. We create buoyancy for each other. It’s hard to sink when you have several hundred people holding you up.
Unless, of course, you get out of the boat. In the story from Matthew’s gospel I read a minute or so ago, Peter, one of the great Bible boundary testers, thought he’d give it a try. Calling out across the water, Peter challenges Jesus – “If it is you out there, command me to walk out to you” I can almost hear a smirk in Jesus’ voice, “Yeah, Sure, Peter, come on out!” So, Peter got out of the boat and started out ok – he was bold- he’s got this – he’s walking on the water- and then he felt the wind and remembered that people aren’t meant to walk on water and he started to sink. He remembered perhaps, that he wasn’t Jesus, and when he tried to walk out into the storm alone, he needed help to get back to the safety of the boat. The Rev. Dr. Janet H. Hunt, a Lutheran minister who writes a blog called “Dancing with the Word.” (I found it while searching for a different kind of dancing with the word, but I found that her less literal sense of dancing led to some great insight, nonetheless). She wrote: Indeed, so far as I can recall, never again in scripture do we hear about the followers of Jesus trying such a stunt. No, they reserved their ‘walking on water’ for baptizing the searching and teaching the curious and preaching to the crowds and healing the sick. Any and all of those would seem to be just as miraculous.
So, get back in the boat, Peter! The boat is full of your friends and you are headed toward something together. The boat was afloat in the storm and the story tells us that the disciples weren’t scared until they saw what they thought was a ghost out on the water. The boat was safe because it was filled with skilled fisherfolk – it was filled with a team of people who had the gifts it took to sail through the storm and to arrive safely at their next destination.
So, Why did the disciples cross the sea? To get to the other side. (I know, Shelly’s Pinocchio joke was WAY better). They needed to get to the other side because that’s where there were people who needed help and healing and hope. So stop worrying about how to walk on water, and get in your boat and get to where people need you – and go knowing that you don’t go alone, the spirit of love and peace goes with you, even in the midst of turbulence. Sometimes that spirit is experienced like in this story, as Jesus, Emmanuel, or “God with us” – the specter on the sea. Sometimes the spirit is the simple, steady beat and still small voice you summon from within. Sometimes, the spirit is simply being in the presence of those you have chosen as a family of faith. We have all chosen each other. We are a congregational church, and, no matter what, that means we get where we are going together or not at all. We gotta stay in the boat moving with common purpose and mission. We have to remember that no one is going to be able to maintain walking on the water out on their own for very long – they are going to burn out and start sinking and they are going to need their buddies on the boat to throw them a life preserver and haul them back in. It might not always be comfortable, the storms will still come and the deck can seem crowded with opinions about whether to use the compass or the stars to guide us, but the clouds will clear and we know, after all, that we carry the same destination in our hearts and minds. And the company is great…
Let me remind you who is in our boat –
-Seminar and Small Group Committees are in our boat giving us opportunities for information, inspiration, and the vessel to share our gifts in community
-The Board of Business and Board of Endowment are in our boat, who not only keep literal holes from causing us to sink, they give us the means to put our mission into tangible action.
-The Board of Children’s Ministry, Youth United, and Middle School Together are in our boat- sharing their wisdom and enthusiasm with us, keeping the trip fresh and magical for all of us, a constant reminder of the river rolling on
-The Board of Membership is in our boat, welcoming and sustaining us – and making sure everyone knows where to find a good chair on the Lido deck
-Compassion in Action and Family Promise are in our boat, reminding us that while our boat may be small, the waves we make can be huge
-Open and Affirming, Racial Justice, and Social Justice Committees are in our boat – making room for all and helping us build a world where no one fleeing from injustice will ever have to wade in the water again
-Board of Parish Ministry are in our boat, keeping our spirits fed around the table
-Lively Arts are in our boat- giving us new ways to see and experience and immerse ourselves in the world, lest we go by too quickly and forget to stop and use all of our senses
-Kairos is in our boat with the first aid kit, life preserver, warm towel, and a snack at the ready
-CMRB and the Council Executive Committee are in our boat, because every boat needs people capable of sailing it and this group knows how to take a great crew and build it into an even greater team.
-Lisa, Catherine, and Shanna are in our boat – keeping us all watertight and on course.
-Andy and Shelly are in our boat – Shelly may be ferrying out at our next port, but spectacular spiritual leadership is a gift that sends you on with the very best tailwind and it is a wonderfully safe and secure feeling to know you have a person of great vision and commitment like Andy still on the team ready to let out the sails.
-And even if you haven’t joined a board or committee yet, you are still a critical part of our crew. All of us, each and every one matter and our buoyancy depends on each other’s inspiration, motivation, and desire to keep our gaze fixed ever on the horizon – that love may continue to rise in us every day.
Remember how the story of Peter and Jesus ends, “when they got in the boat, the wind ceased.” I hear that as affirmation that the disciples already had everything they needed in that boat, perhaps Peter simply served as a reminder.
Perhaps I am wrong, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to try walking on water every once and while. As long as we remember, when we sink, to reach out in gratitude and joy to the ones who can lift us up again. It’s not as though we aren’t called to do amazing things. Only never for ourselves alone. We don’t have to be Jesus, we don’t have to walk on water -alone- in a storm, and we have a boatload of reasons why not. So, at least for today, I ask you, please stay in the boat, and grab an oar or help us chart some stars, because the river of peace is rolling us where we need go, and we get to run down to the sea together. It’s as simple as this: You hold me up, I hold you up, we hold each other up. Because, together, UCG, we are buoyant.
