Gotcha!
Commentary
Object:
The longer I go in life the more I become fascinated with words: how we use them, where
they come from, how their use changes over the years. The Christmas carol, "Deck The
Halls" now takes me to a different place when we get to the line, "Don we now our gay
apparel." I don't mean to be overly cute, rude, or crass but it is an example of how
language can go off in directions that we never anticipated.
In considering these texts, one word kept jumping out at me -- Gotcha. Hold on to your hats. As the readers of Moby Dick learn more about whales and whaling than they thought possible, so in the telling of this Charting the Course be prepared to learn more about this one word than you ever imagined. The Thematic Dictionary of American Slang by Richard Spears gives us three understandings of the word: 1) arrest noun from the underworld; 2) contraction for I have got you; and 3) phrase for I understand you. The Merriam Webster Dictionary, while reminding us that the word first came into common usage in 1974, adds this understanding: "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch"; also "an attempt to embarrass, expose, or disgrace someone (as a politician) with a gotcha." The American Heritage Dictionary adds this: "Interjection: used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another. Noun: a game or endeavor in which one party seeks to catch another out, as in a mistake or lie. Etymology: contraction of got you."
Wikipedia offers this twist: "A gotcha is a detrimental condition (usually of a contract or agreement) that is designed to sneak past the other party. For example, many 'free' credit report sites have gotchas that automatically sign you up for a monthly credit report service unless you explicitly cancel. Gotcha is also a frequently used programming term." Okay, I can imagine that you are ready to make a beeline for the Cliff notes' version of these texts. However, having charted the course I think that we are ready to set sail for the meanings that these texts hold.
Each of the lectionary readings assigned to this Sunday embrace the various dimensions of gotcha. Certainly in the saga of Jacob, Joseph, and his brothers, the brothers want at the end of the day to be able to say to Joseph, "Gotcha! under our power to arrange things according to the way we think the world should be ordered." The youngest among us, the folk with the least seniority, should not be given preferential treatment. Quite literally, Joseph's brothers have him where they think they want him, "So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it" (Genesis 37:23-24).
Interjection: "Used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another." Yet this is far from the end of the story. All the participants even as they proclaim, "Gotcha," and in this story they all do, are caught up in another reality that will overtake them and bring about a surprising result -- "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch."
In a very real way, one can describe Paul's life as one who moves from believing that he can say of most people, "Gotcha," to realizing that God has him in God's heart. Paul is destined to be at the heart of the movement to include the Gentiles in the faith community on an equal basis -- for one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him" (Romans 10:11-12).
Jesus' disciples are forever in the position of facing, "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch." Initially, there is the fear that they have been had. As it turns out it is not a ghost after all but much more that has got them in heart and mind.
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
"This is the story of the family of Jacob." This can be nothing less than shorthand, for this is our story. It is the story of families that get so caught up in patterns of life that they inherit, they slip into unaware of the consequences or find themselves acting out in response to, the realities that are part of all of our lives.
"Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves" (v. 3). For whatever reason it does happen, doesn't it? How could it not happen? Human beings have a way of coming down on the side of certain people and of having deep feelings for others that reflect the mysterious chemistry that can happen between people. Joseph was the son of Rachel who was stunningly beautiful and whom Jacob loved. How could he not be taken to special places each time that he saw Joseph? Such things are part of all families. Jacob could join in a rousing chorus of "I've Got You Under My Skin" as he thinks about the child of Rachel. Yet, the rest of the family is quite naturally not ready to join in. They have got Joseph on the brain.
The real question is how we handle such things. Once we see it we know that it may not have been the wisest choice to have given Joseph a long robe with sleeves. All the family would be caught up in a story line that would lead toward tragedy. There is a catch to this family that involves putting up with paying heed to the inordinate extra attention that will be given to Joseph. Like the first definition of gotcha given in The Thematic Dictionary of American Slang this family will remain arrested in their development by dark forces from their shadow side.
They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. When someone's gotcha, the frequent response is to turn the tables so that one can reestablish the old order of things. Interjection: "used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another." We should not be surprised at the brothers' conspiracy. This is very much a part of this family's pattern. Even Joseph himself indulges in the same pattern. "Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father" (v. 2) -- gotcha!
When the worst impulses of jealousy, fear, anger, and projection gotcha, people are likely to be thrown into pits that are hard to climb out of on their own. The reader senses that Reuben and Joseph recognize this: "Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him' -- that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father" (v. 22). The emotional pulse of the other sons and their determination to play the gotcha game to the max has gotten them in over their heads. If they lay hands on Joseph they will have crossed a threshold that will leave the family in tatters.
However, gotcha also indicates understanding. The final sentence reads, "When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt" (v. 28). The returning exiles must have taken great comfort in these words. Though you have engaged in conduct that certainly warranted exile, God's still gotcha. Though you have been in over your head, some even trying to pass into the Babylonian culture God still gotcha in God's heart. Though we have made a mockery of God's intention for justice and peace God's still gotcha in his plans to make all things new and wipe away every tear. Though we are in over our heads and are plummeting toward the pit of slavery in Egypt, God's still gotcha for that is also the place from where we will be raised from the pit and have our feet set in the direction of the promised land. Though you face the precipice of death we shall be raised from the pit to new life, because God's gotcha even though you are betrayed by your family.
Gotcha!
Romans 10:5-15
Paul is hoping in light of his intention to come to this church that he has not founded, that the outcome of his writing will be that he will be able to say, "Gotcha," regarding Paul's fundamental understanding of what Christian faith is about. The letter is an attempt to get down to some fundamentals so that his visit will be the most productive it can be.
The context is that there are those Christians in Rome who still believe that the law is the fundamental basis of the relationship between God and human beings. We need to note that Romans still bears relevance because there is something about legalism that gets hold of us. Perhaps it is because legalism affords us the opportunity to say to another, "Gotcha,": "a game or endeavor in which one party seeks to catch another out, as in a mistake or lie." That is a pathway to a certain kind of power in our society.
I write this in the midst of the American political campaign for the presidency. If you can catch your opponent in a grand gotcha moment, with an inconsistency exposed, it could be the turning point of your campaign. The media, as well, steers the campaign toward a legalistic understanding. Languishing careers can be jump-started by finding the slightest indiscretion, the smallest deviation in message, or the most minute error in judgment and then reducing a candidate's entire effort to righting one mistake. Needless to say, this does not open the door to understanding human complexity or divine simplicity. It concentrates our focus on what human beings can do to fix things rather than being open to God's presence that can redeem things.
Eugene Peterson's translation, The Message, puts it this way, "The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy -- every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story...." This might not have the appeal one would expect in either the capital of the Roman empire or in our capitalist society: 1) power and prestige comes from what we do, not what God does; 2) allowing God to shape our lives is problematic if it means believing in a society of distinctions "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved' " (vv. 12-13); and 3) in a society that counts on manipulation and calculation to achieve its goals Paul says what counts is connection to the one who proclaims the word and brings good news.
It is not surprising that neither Rome nor in our day many would believe that Paul's words are a sort of gotcha according to the Wikipedia definition: "A gotcha is a detrimental condition (usually of a contract or agreement) that is designed to sneak past the other party. For example, many 'free' credit report sites have gotchas that automatically sign you up for a monthly credit report service unless you explicitly cancel."
The core of Paul's argument is found in verse 8, but what does it say? "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim). However, counterintuitive or countercultural check out your heart. Say it out loud and see how it sounds -- "Gotcha!"
Matthew 14:22-33
In the cops and robbers shows on television and movies there often comes the scene where as the police prepare to go in, and the lead officers ask the others if they have their backs, meaning will they cover them as they lead the way? That is a question that, for most of us, is more than a line from a police drama. As we make our moves in life, we wonder if anyone has got our backs. When we go down, go home, or go off will anyone cover us? Peter is fairly brave but, in many ways, foolish because we know that sooner or later in one form or another we are going down.
I don't know of a church that has not hit those moments when the waves batter and the wind is more likely to blow out to sea than to bring the ship to a safe port: People move away, enthusiasms pass, pastors come and go, the neighborhood changes, the denomination goes off in a direction that many cannot fathom. In such times, we long to hear something like, "Don't be afraid, I gotcha, you are not going to drown."
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, " 'It is a ghost!' And they cried out in fear" (v. 26). This evokes, for most of us, a scene in which the disciples flee from a threatening apparition. Literally, that is the cause of their fear; that what they experience initially is an insubstantial apparition. The Jesus they see is a wish fulfillment or maybe something they ate. Their fear is perhaps that the experience of Jesus is insubstantial -- there is no one covering your back and that we have a negative gotcha moment: "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch; also: an attempt to embarrass, expose, or disgrace someone (as a politician) with a gotcha."
It is not until Jesus speaks that this will be a positive gotcha moment when the disciples can feel reassured that a real benevolent figure has hold of them and there is more than a chance that they will not go under. For Matthew's community Jesus' gotcha is made known through his preaching. It confirms the one development of the Jewish experience that will not let them go under. The community must have experienced some fear and trepidation at the prospect that the ascended Christ has left them facing a storm of controversy where some see Jesus as mere confirmation of Jewish practices, such as circumcision, while many in the early church believed that Jesus had laid to rest the relevancy of the Jewish experience. In large part, Matthew's gospel is written in order to defend and extend the Jewish experience into the realms that Jesus is taking it. The community has much to work out.
It is not surprising that Peter asks Jesus to command him to get out of the boat and come to him. "Peter answered him, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water' " (v. 28). Give me a commandment to venture out into this storm! Yet Peter, like Matthew's community, is frightened and dispirited by the controversy. "But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me' " (v. 30). He feels himself going under in the midst of the storm/controversy. We find that while some have the community in their sights Jesus has them in his heart. "Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' " (v. 31). We may be put off by Jesus' questioning of Peter's faith. However, his question is a statement; if Jesus has commanded it he will not let his people drown -- gotcha.
As the church of today faces storms of controversy, we need to hear that despite all outward appearances, we will not drown if we venture out into a storm when Jesus has commanded us.
Application
In these texts for proper 14, we are given both the negative and positive side of the gotcha. We are presented with a family that plays the gotcha game to the max in a way that diminishes them all as it invariably does whenever we make our aim "an attempt to embarrass, expose, or disgrace someone." Paul writes to the Romans where the understanding of the meaning of the law places them in a position where they can readily succumb to the temptation to play the gotcha game. Matthew's community has found themselves feeling that they are caught up in storms not of their own making and wondering if they have been abandoned.
In all of these texts there seems to be another presence playing the gotcha game - - only by a different set of rules. This gotcha is one that overrides the game playing of Jacob's family; that does not back a legalistic gotcha understanding of the law and that will not let go of us in the midst of the storms of life. On which side of the gotcha dynamic does the preacher come down as they address their congregation when they have them on a Sunday morning?
Alternative Application
Matthew 14:22-33. Almost all of the sermons that I have read or heard on Peter's attempt to walk on water focuses on his bravery at getting out of the boat or his loss of faith that causes him to look more at the storm rather than at Jesus; so that he begins to go under.
Yet, I wonder if getting back into the boat in the midst of the storm is not harder and more challenging than getting out in the first place. I think of the number of years it took for the northern and southern branches of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches to reunite following the Civil War. I wonder if those who would split the Episcopal church in America and the worldwide Anglican community realize how hard it will be to get back into the boat? Do they believe that it was Jesus that commanded them to get out of the boat in the first place? For the most part, we make it harder for folks to get back into the boat. When divorce hits a congregation it is often hard for one or the other or both of the people involved to continue on in the congregation. It can be harder on the couple in their congregation than at their place of work or out in the community.
In the story, the wind does not cease until they are back in the boat. How do we make it possible for people to get back into the boat? Perhaps "getting back into the boat" might help us still the storms that surround us.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b
Sometimes it's hard to keep the big picture in mind. When the exigencies of the present moment conspire against us it's nearly impossible to look past the current struggle. Whether it's an argument with one's spouse or a disagreement at work, most people find themselves caught up in the heat of what's going on and forget -- too often -- that there are bigger things at stake. Often, in moments like this, well-intentioned individuals earn our anger when they remark that God has a higher purpose in mind or comment that what's taking place in the moment is "God's will." Imagine saying to someone like Joseph that his enslavement is part of God's plan.
The whole question is a thorny one. If God has some huge master plan in which every person is playing a part, then how do we deal with the likes of Adolf Hitler or with the story of human slavery in the Americas? Or to make it more personal, how does a pastor tell a grieving mother that her son's death in a gang shooting is part of the bigger picture? How indeed?
The question lifts up ways of viewing God's presence among us. The first is an image of God as master puppeteer. In this vision, which it would seem our psalm supports, God manages the universe down to every last detail and calls upon the people to trust that the end result is in God's hands. The second vision involves a creator God who has given the people "free will" and called them into relationship with "him." In this vision, it's not God, but we who are the masters of our fate. Here, God did not initiate the holocaust, human beings did. God did not pull the trigger on the gun that cut a young man's life short, a human being did.
The challenge to human understanding in this context is to engage a God who is all powerful while also engaging a God who gifted us with free will. It seems that the understanding of this psalm might be found at the nexus of this challenge. It should also be pointed out that this understanding dances back and forth between one's sense of the immediate and one's ability to see a bigger picture.
When kidnapped and sold into slavery, can anyone maintain a sense of the bigger picture? When cradling the lifeless form of your son in your arms, can you think about God's providence? Perhaps such a view is better seen through the lens of time passed. Certainly, these concerns can be better unfolded in forums more substantial than this. But whether it's Joseph sold into slavery or any one of countless circumstances crying out for understanding, these questions will always live at the core of our faith.
In considering these texts, one word kept jumping out at me -- Gotcha. Hold on to your hats. As the readers of Moby Dick learn more about whales and whaling than they thought possible, so in the telling of this Charting the Course be prepared to learn more about this one word than you ever imagined. The Thematic Dictionary of American Slang by Richard Spears gives us three understandings of the word: 1) arrest noun from the underworld; 2) contraction for I have got you; and 3) phrase for I understand you. The Merriam Webster Dictionary, while reminding us that the word first came into common usage in 1974, adds this understanding: "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch"; also "an attempt to embarrass, expose, or disgrace someone (as a politician) with a gotcha." The American Heritage Dictionary adds this: "Interjection: used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another. Noun: a game or endeavor in which one party seeks to catch another out, as in a mistake or lie. Etymology: contraction of got you."
Wikipedia offers this twist: "A gotcha is a detrimental condition (usually of a contract or agreement) that is designed to sneak past the other party. For example, many 'free' credit report sites have gotchas that automatically sign you up for a monthly credit report service unless you explicitly cancel. Gotcha is also a frequently used programming term." Okay, I can imagine that you are ready to make a beeline for the Cliff notes' version of these texts. However, having charted the course I think that we are ready to set sail for the meanings that these texts hold.
Each of the lectionary readings assigned to this Sunday embrace the various dimensions of gotcha. Certainly in the saga of Jacob, Joseph, and his brothers, the brothers want at the end of the day to be able to say to Joseph, "Gotcha! under our power to arrange things according to the way we think the world should be ordered." The youngest among us, the folk with the least seniority, should not be given preferential treatment. Quite literally, Joseph's brothers have him where they think they want him, "So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it" (Genesis 37:23-24).
Interjection: "Used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another." Yet this is far from the end of the story. All the participants even as they proclaim, "Gotcha," and in this story they all do, are caught up in another reality that will overtake them and bring about a surprising result -- "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch."
In a very real way, one can describe Paul's life as one who moves from believing that he can say of most people, "Gotcha," to realizing that God has him in God's heart. Paul is destined to be at the heart of the movement to include the Gentiles in the faith community on an equal basis -- for one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him" (Romans 10:11-12).
Jesus' disciples are forever in the position of facing, "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch." Initially, there is the fear that they have been had. As it turns out it is not a ghost after all but much more that has got them in heart and mind.
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
"This is the story of the family of Jacob." This can be nothing less than shorthand, for this is our story. It is the story of families that get so caught up in patterns of life that they inherit, they slip into unaware of the consequences or find themselves acting out in response to, the realities that are part of all of our lives.
"Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves" (v. 3). For whatever reason it does happen, doesn't it? How could it not happen? Human beings have a way of coming down on the side of certain people and of having deep feelings for others that reflect the mysterious chemistry that can happen between people. Joseph was the son of Rachel who was stunningly beautiful and whom Jacob loved. How could he not be taken to special places each time that he saw Joseph? Such things are part of all families. Jacob could join in a rousing chorus of "I've Got You Under My Skin" as he thinks about the child of Rachel. Yet, the rest of the family is quite naturally not ready to join in. They have got Joseph on the brain.
The real question is how we handle such things. Once we see it we know that it may not have been the wisest choice to have given Joseph a long robe with sleeves. All the family would be caught up in a story line that would lead toward tragedy. There is a catch to this family that involves putting up with paying heed to the inordinate extra attention that will be given to Joseph. Like the first definition of gotcha given in The Thematic Dictionary of American Slang this family will remain arrested in their development by dark forces from their shadow side.
They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. When someone's gotcha, the frequent response is to turn the tables so that one can reestablish the old order of things. Interjection: "used to indicate understanding or to signal the fact of having caught or defeated another." We should not be surprised at the brothers' conspiracy. This is very much a part of this family's pattern. Even Joseph himself indulges in the same pattern. "Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father" (v. 2) -- gotcha!
When the worst impulses of jealousy, fear, anger, and projection gotcha, people are likely to be thrown into pits that are hard to climb out of on their own. The reader senses that Reuben and Joseph recognize this: "Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him' -- that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father" (v. 22). The emotional pulse of the other sons and their determination to play the gotcha game to the max has gotten them in over their heads. If they lay hands on Joseph they will have crossed a threshold that will leave the family in tatters.
However, gotcha also indicates understanding. The final sentence reads, "When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt" (v. 28). The returning exiles must have taken great comfort in these words. Though you have engaged in conduct that certainly warranted exile, God's still gotcha. Though you have been in over your head, some even trying to pass into the Babylonian culture God still gotcha in God's heart. Though we have made a mockery of God's intention for justice and peace God's still gotcha in his plans to make all things new and wipe away every tear. Though we are in over our heads and are plummeting toward the pit of slavery in Egypt, God's still gotcha for that is also the place from where we will be raised from the pit and have our feet set in the direction of the promised land. Though you face the precipice of death we shall be raised from the pit to new life, because God's gotcha even though you are betrayed by your family.
Gotcha!
Romans 10:5-15
Paul is hoping in light of his intention to come to this church that he has not founded, that the outcome of his writing will be that he will be able to say, "Gotcha," regarding Paul's fundamental understanding of what Christian faith is about. The letter is an attempt to get down to some fundamentals so that his visit will be the most productive it can be.
The context is that there are those Christians in Rome who still believe that the law is the fundamental basis of the relationship between God and human beings. We need to note that Romans still bears relevance because there is something about legalism that gets hold of us. Perhaps it is because legalism affords us the opportunity to say to another, "Gotcha,": "a game or endeavor in which one party seeks to catch another out, as in a mistake or lie." That is a pathway to a certain kind of power in our society.
I write this in the midst of the American political campaign for the presidency. If you can catch your opponent in a grand gotcha moment, with an inconsistency exposed, it could be the turning point of your campaign. The media, as well, steers the campaign toward a legalistic understanding. Languishing careers can be jump-started by finding the slightest indiscretion, the smallest deviation in message, or the most minute error in judgment and then reducing a candidate's entire effort to righting one mistake. Needless to say, this does not open the door to understanding human complexity or divine simplicity. It concentrates our focus on what human beings can do to fix things rather than being open to God's presence that can redeem things.
Eugene Peterson's translation, The Message, puts it this way, "The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy -- every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story...." This might not have the appeal one would expect in either the capital of the Roman empire or in our capitalist society: 1) power and prestige comes from what we do, not what God does; 2) allowing God to shape our lives is problematic if it means believing in a society of distinctions "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved' " (vv. 12-13); and 3) in a society that counts on manipulation and calculation to achieve its goals Paul says what counts is connection to the one who proclaims the word and brings good news.
It is not surprising that neither Rome nor in our day many would believe that Paul's words are a sort of gotcha according to the Wikipedia definition: "A gotcha is a detrimental condition (usually of a contract or agreement) that is designed to sneak past the other party. For example, many 'free' credit report sites have gotchas that automatically sign you up for a monthly credit report service unless you explicitly cancel."
The core of Paul's argument is found in verse 8, but what does it say? "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim). However, counterintuitive or countercultural check out your heart. Say it out loud and see how it sounds -- "Gotcha!"
Matthew 14:22-33
In the cops and robbers shows on television and movies there often comes the scene where as the police prepare to go in, and the lead officers ask the others if they have their backs, meaning will they cover them as they lead the way? That is a question that, for most of us, is more than a line from a police drama. As we make our moves in life, we wonder if anyone has got our backs. When we go down, go home, or go off will anyone cover us? Peter is fairly brave but, in many ways, foolish because we know that sooner or later in one form or another we are going down.
I don't know of a church that has not hit those moments when the waves batter and the wind is more likely to blow out to sea than to bring the ship to a safe port: People move away, enthusiasms pass, pastors come and go, the neighborhood changes, the denomination goes off in a direction that many cannot fathom. In such times, we long to hear something like, "Don't be afraid, I gotcha, you are not going to drown."
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, " 'It is a ghost!' And they cried out in fear" (v. 26). This evokes, for most of us, a scene in which the disciples flee from a threatening apparition. Literally, that is the cause of their fear; that what they experience initially is an insubstantial apparition. The Jesus they see is a wish fulfillment or maybe something they ate. Their fear is perhaps that the experience of Jesus is insubstantial -- there is no one covering your back and that we have a negative gotcha moment: "an unexpected usually disconcerting challenge, revelation, or catch; also: an attempt to embarrass, expose, or disgrace someone (as a politician) with a gotcha."
It is not until Jesus speaks that this will be a positive gotcha moment when the disciples can feel reassured that a real benevolent figure has hold of them and there is more than a chance that they will not go under. For Matthew's community Jesus' gotcha is made known through his preaching. It confirms the one development of the Jewish experience that will not let them go under. The community must have experienced some fear and trepidation at the prospect that the ascended Christ has left them facing a storm of controversy where some see Jesus as mere confirmation of Jewish practices, such as circumcision, while many in the early church believed that Jesus had laid to rest the relevancy of the Jewish experience. In large part, Matthew's gospel is written in order to defend and extend the Jewish experience into the realms that Jesus is taking it. The community has much to work out.
It is not surprising that Peter asks Jesus to command him to get out of the boat and come to him. "Peter answered him, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water' " (v. 28). Give me a commandment to venture out into this storm! Yet Peter, like Matthew's community, is frightened and dispirited by the controversy. "But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me' " (v. 30). He feels himself going under in the midst of the storm/controversy. We find that while some have the community in their sights Jesus has them in his heart. "Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' " (v. 31). We may be put off by Jesus' questioning of Peter's faith. However, his question is a statement; if Jesus has commanded it he will not let his people drown -- gotcha.
As the church of today faces storms of controversy, we need to hear that despite all outward appearances, we will not drown if we venture out into a storm when Jesus has commanded us.
Application
In these texts for proper 14, we are given both the negative and positive side of the gotcha. We are presented with a family that plays the gotcha game to the max in a way that diminishes them all as it invariably does whenever we make our aim "an attempt to embarrass, expose, or disgrace someone." Paul writes to the Romans where the understanding of the meaning of the law places them in a position where they can readily succumb to the temptation to play the gotcha game. Matthew's community has found themselves feeling that they are caught up in storms not of their own making and wondering if they have been abandoned.
In all of these texts there seems to be another presence playing the gotcha game - - only by a different set of rules. This gotcha is one that overrides the game playing of Jacob's family; that does not back a legalistic gotcha understanding of the law and that will not let go of us in the midst of the storms of life. On which side of the gotcha dynamic does the preacher come down as they address their congregation when they have them on a Sunday morning?
Alternative Application
Matthew 14:22-33. Almost all of the sermons that I have read or heard on Peter's attempt to walk on water focuses on his bravery at getting out of the boat or his loss of faith that causes him to look more at the storm rather than at Jesus; so that he begins to go under.
Yet, I wonder if getting back into the boat in the midst of the storm is not harder and more challenging than getting out in the first place. I think of the number of years it took for the northern and southern branches of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches to reunite following the Civil War. I wonder if those who would split the Episcopal church in America and the worldwide Anglican community realize how hard it will be to get back into the boat? Do they believe that it was Jesus that commanded them to get out of the boat in the first place? For the most part, we make it harder for folks to get back into the boat. When divorce hits a congregation it is often hard for one or the other or both of the people involved to continue on in the congregation. It can be harder on the couple in their congregation than at their place of work or out in the community.
In the story, the wind does not cease until they are back in the boat. How do we make it possible for people to get back into the boat? Perhaps "getting back into the boat" might help us still the storms that surround us.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b
Sometimes it's hard to keep the big picture in mind. When the exigencies of the present moment conspire against us it's nearly impossible to look past the current struggle. Whether it's an argument with one's spouse or a disagreement at work, most people find themselves caught up in the heat of what's going on and forget -- too often -- that there are bigger things at stake. Often, in moments like this, well-intentioned individuals earn our anger when they remark that God has a higher purpose in mind or comment that what's taking place in the moment is "God's will." Imagine saying to someone like Joseph that his enslavement is part of God's plan.
The whole question is a thorny one. If God has some huge master plan in which every person is playing a part, then how do we deal with the likes of Adolf Hitler or with the story of human slavery in the Americas? Or to make it more personal, how does a pastor tell a grieving mother that her son's death in a gang shooting is part of the bigger picture? How indeed?
The question lifts up ways of viewing God's presence among us. The first is an image of God as master puppeteer. In this vision, which it would seem our psalm supports, God manages the universe down to every last detail and calls upon the people to trust that the end result is in God's hands. The second vision involves a creator God who has given the people "free will" and called them into relationship with "him." In this vision, it's not God, but we who are the masters of our fate. Here, God did not initiate the holocaust, human beings did. God did not pull the trigger on the gun that cut a young man's life short, a human being did.
The challenge to human understanding in this context is to engage a God who is all powerful while also engaging a God who gifted us with free will. It seems that the understanding of this psalm might be found at the nexus of this challenge. It should also be pointed out that this understanding dances back and forth between one's sense of the immediate and one's ability to see a bigger picture.
When kidnapped and sold into slavery, can anyone maintain a sense of the bigger picture? When cradling the lifeless form of your son in your arms, can you think about God's providence? Perhaps such a view is better seen through the lens of time passed. Certainly, these concerns can be better unfolded in forums more substantial than this. But whether it's Joseph sold into slavery or any one of countless circumstances crying out for understanding, these questions will always live at the core of our faith.
