Pentecost 8A/13A, 2011
Matthew 14: 22-33
A LIturgy is also available
‘FEAR’ AND ‘STONY GROUND’ IN TIMES OF CHANGE...
With Matthew’s fictional Jesus story still ringing in our ears,
I want to share with you a couple of contemporary cameos.
The first one is influenced by the world renowned psychologist, Abraham Maslow.
“One day [Maslow] asked his students: ‘Which of you expects to achieve greatness in your chosen field?’ The class looked at him blankly. After a long silence, Maslow said: ‘If not you – who then?’ [Only then] they began to see his point” (Wilson 1972: 15).
The second again comes from the world of psychology, from Eric Fromm.
“…the real crisis of today is one that is unique in human history: it is the crisis of life itself… We are confronted with the probability that within fifty years – and perhaps much sooner – life on this earth will have ceased to exist; not only because of nuclear, chemical and biological warfare… but also because technological ‘progress’ makes the soil, the water and the air unfit for the sustenance of life… However who can give up hope as long as there is life? Who can be silent as long as there are billions of human beings, living, breathing, laughing, crying and hoping” (Fromm 1970:159).
I hope these cameos might serve as the matrix
for some comments I want to offer today
about the storyteller we call Matthew
and the particular ‘Peter’ story we heard from Matthew this morning.
oo0oo
Generally speaking, the writer of Matthew’s gospel had a problem.
How to reshape and enlarge the number of Jesus stories
so the jewish Jesus Movement members of his Syrian church
could hear them anew,
could be reassured against the likes of Paul,
and could grow in their faith.
When the writer of Matthew’s gospel was shaping his material,
his small church community was facing significant change.
Their society was changing... becoming multicultural.
So they had to stay the course, and both
preserve and develop their own authentic niche identity.
Could they achieve their goals? Even continue as a movement?
From where could they find the energy to hope?
Or would they succumb to their fears?
And if so, fears or fear of what?
Change was indeed happening all around them.
The Temple was gone. Judaism was being reshaped.
A bloke called Paul was gaining both jewish and ‘god-fearers’ converts
to his personal “mystical experience” (Wilson 2008:126) movement.
The jewish Jesus Movement was having battles on all fronts.
And so with a copy of what we call the Gospel of Mark in front of him,
along with some other writings we now call The ‘Q’ Gospel, and maybe
even Paul’s letter to the Galatians espousing his ‘new religion’,
Matthew sets out to tell his version of the Jesus Movement story,
some 50 years after the ‘new Moses’, called Jesus,
and some 20+ years after Paul.
And to give his story extra meaning, he often talks about some of the
so-called heroes of the Jesus Movement,
especially Simon, or Peter. But never about Paul of the Christ Movement.
oo0oo
Simon is an interesting, if not complicated, sort of bloke.
He seems to believe and disbelieve in almost the same moment.
‘Trust’ and ‘fear’ coexist within him, as does ‘faith’ and ‘little faith’.
So it is interesting if not a little ironic that he was given the nickname
‘Petros’ or ‘rock’, or perhaps more accurately, ‘stony ground’.
Tradition says his origins were ordinary.
He left his home, his wife, his livelihood, to follow.
Australian sociologist John Carroll says of Simon:
“When Simon the fisherman was called to follow, he heard the word with joy. But the forewarning is that he has no roots, so the moment there is stress, or fear… he will wither” (Carroll 2007:31).
Unfortunately all this gets lost in the English King James version of his name - Peter.
And lost, because Simon has been put on a theological pedestal,
at least by Matthew and those who followed him.
For it is Matthew, as we will hear in a couple of weeks time,
who says Peter the ‘rock’ will be the ‘foundation stone’
on which the church is to be built!
Sure Simon was there for all the teaching and all the so-called ‘miracles’.
But the real question is: what did he hear? Will he learn? Will he understand?
What if the ‘rock’ is indeed ‘stony ground’
as the earlier parable of The Sower suggests?
Again John Carroll is suggestive:
“[Simon] had responded with enthusiasm and joy to the call to become a fisher of men; but, as he has no roots… he withers. He exemplifies what it is to have no roots. Weak characters wilt under pressure. Boldness is not enough, if there is no anchor… On stony ground, men stumble” (Carroll 2007:138, 139).
Likewise biblical scholar Walter Wink says:
“We fall in love with our mentors or set them on pedestals, refusing to see their flaws and regarding them as bigger than life” (Wink/LookSmart web site).
o0oo
In this morning’s story, water has become Peter’s ‘stony ground’ rather than proof of Jesus’ divine identity.
Simon is afraid.
Initially bold, under pressure he has lost his courage.
He had developed a dependency on Jesus.
Matthew’s Jesus seems to respond by saying to Simon:
Confront your fears.
Forget your dependency.
You have the resources.
Don’t be terrified of life.
Exercise your own faith!
Could this be the answer to one of my series of questions earlier on: Fear of what?
oo0oo
Abraham Maslow asked his students:
which of you expects to achieve greatness in your chosen field?
Eric Fromm said the real crisis of today is one that is unique in human history:
it is the crisis of life itself.
Matthew’s story, I reckon, was told to encourage the community of his day to:
Confront your fears.
Don’t be terrified of life.
You have the resources.
Maintain your links to the ‘historical’ jewish Jesus.
Matthew’s story can also encourage our church community today,
in its time of pending change... if we
are open and honest and courageous enough to let it.
Notes:
Carroll, J. 2007. The Existential Jesus. VIC: Melbourne. Scribe Publications.
Fromm, E. 1970. The Crisis of Psychoanalysis. Essays on Freud, Marx, and social psychology. NY: New York. Holt, Rinehart, Winston.
Schweizer, E. 1975. The Good News According to Matthew. GtB: London. SPCK.
Wilson, B. 2008. How Jesus Became Christian. Canada: Toronto. Random House.
Wilson, C. 1972. New Pathways in Psychology. Maslow and the post-Freudian revolution. GtB: London. Victor Gollancz.