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Vicar Todd Liefer
July 26, 2009
Right off the bat, I want to tell you what a joy it is to be here. It has been a real pleasure meeting you, getting to know you — and Kelly and I can't say enough how much we appreciate the open arms you have given us to St. Paul. It will be a true joy to serve the Lord with you this upcoming year. Thank you for this humbling opportunity.
So now, you're thinking, it's Vicar's first sermon. What is he going to talk about? Well, I want to talk about me! So, I have a question for you. Am I what you expected? Now, please don't answer that out loud! But just think for a second. Am I what you expected? You might have seen a picture of me or read a quick biography before I came...but since we've gotten a chance to meet, I'll bet there's a few things that have taken you by surprise. It's just natural. Maybe you took one look at me and thought, boy...he's young! Or like one person said to me when Pastor and I were out on a call, "Does your Mom know you're here?"
Maybe I'm taller or shorter than you expected. Maybe I'm louder or quieter than you thought I would be. And you might have expected that I liked baseball, but another Cardinals fan? No way you saw that one coming!
You've known for several months now that St. Paul was getting a vicar. You've probably known for months that his name was going to be Vicar Todd. But I'm sure there have been some things, some qualities about me that were a little unexpected. So, in a way, now that I'm here, I'm kind of an "unexpected" person—a person with qualities and gifts you didn't expect. So we could say that, through me, the Lord has brought an unexpected person here to do God's work, to learn how to serve as a pastor, to preach the Gospel, to proclaim forgiveness, and to promote ministry in Royal Oak. And boy am I excited to do those things.
In a way, there is an unexpected element to all forms of ministry, and we certainly see that in our Gospel reading for today. Here, Mark tells us a pretty unexpected story. The disciples are on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee; it's the middle of the night. So you can just about imagine what's going through their minds when they look out and see a person walking by them on the water. Actually, you don't have to imagine; the text tells us. "They thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified." It turns out though, that it's not a ghost at all, but Jesus himself. He comes to them, and he calms the fears of the disciples by saying, "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."
Well there are lots of unexpected things going on in this text. First of all, Jesus is taking an evening stroll on the Sea of Galilee! This is not what normal people do! And let's just be honest – this isn't really what you would be expecting the Son of God to be doing. Far be it from me to explain what Jesus was doing walking on water, but one reason might be that Mark wants us to know Jesus was God—beyond a doubt. This was Jesus showing his divinity on earth.
But I would contend, even more unexpected than Jesus walking on water is the reaction of the disciples. You have to remember, these are men who are around Jesus all the time. They have walked, slept, and eaten beside this man for at least a year—probably two. They know Jesus. They even just saw Jesus feed five thousand men with food that would normally feed about two. If anyone should be able to recognize this man, if anyone should be able to get that this is the Son of God, it would be the disciples.
But at this point in Mark's account, they are just plain confused. Now this is unexpected! They see Jesus walking on the water, and they don't even recognize him. Afterwards, the text says that the disciples are amazed. But this isn't the kind of amazed that makes you say, "Wow..." No this kind of amazed makes you say, "WHAT?" The disciples are just baffled. They don't know how this man, Jesus, was walking on the water. They don't get that this is God himself sitting beside them. They didn't get that God himself was walking on water. And the text is pretty clear – they didn't get that God himself just created enough bread to feed an army. No, the very people that you would expect to understand Jesus, those people react very unexpectedly.
In fact, in the book of Mark, from this point in his Gospel, it is a BAD thing to be a disciple! Because the disciples, the ones you would expect to get things right, always mess things up. Throughout the book, the disciples are confused, their hearts are hardened, they ask all the wrong questions, and eventually they desert Jesus just before he’s crucified. So if you've ever thought that it would have been easier to have faith if you were one of the twelve disciples, Mark shows that you are wrong.
But...there may be something even more unexpected in our text. Even more unexpected than the reaction of the disciples is the reaction of the people in the countryside. In our text, when the boat docks, the people flock to Jesus. In contrast to the disciples, the common people are the ones who get Jesus. They get that this is the Son of God. And they go to him to hear him and be healed. Now this is unexpected! Clearly, Mark's story is full of surprises, things you never would have expected.
Well, now, let me tell you another story, a story about something else you wouldn't expect. It's the story about your own life.
I'll bet that there are some unexpected things going on in your life. Now we could probably talk about health problems, a loss of a job, or even good unexpected things in your life. But today let's talk about the sin – the unexpected sin – in your life. You are a baptized child of God, and that means that Jesus lives inside of you. So you wouldn't expect a person like that to be so rebellious. You wouldn't expect a person like that to be so covered with sin. You wouldn't expect a person like that to be so quick to have a lustful thought. You wouldn’t expect a person like that to be so quick to offer an unkind word to a spouse. You wouldn't expect a person like that to be so quick to go back to that website on the internet. You wouldn't expect a person like that to be so quick to raise his temper, share a piece of gossip, throw out a lie or two, or have a few too many drinks at night. Now this is unexpected.
We have this rebel living inside of us, and it makes us confused. Maybe the disciples couldn't recognize Christ as he was walking on the water, but sometimes we aren't able to recognize the Christ that lives in us. And maybe the people around us look at us and can't recognize Him either. Now this is unexpected.
But it gets a little worse than that. Because I'll bet that your sin scares you. I'll bet that there are times when your guilty conscience laughs at you and tells you that God doesn't really need you. He can't really use you (or at least, he really shouldn't). Have you told yourself these kinds of things? Have you had these kinds of fears? We tell ourselves, "I'll just leave ministry to someone else, someone better than me. I'm not the type of person God could use to do His work." We tell ourselves, "I'm messed up. God wouldn't want to use me." So unexpectedly, God's people step down in defeat.
Sinful, rebellious, scared, defeated. That's your story.
But guess what. Sinful, rebellious, scared, defeated? That makes you exactly the kind of person Jesus died for. To a sinful, rebellious, scared, defeated person — to a person you would have never expected, God comes to you and tells you: "Take courage! It is I! Don’t be afraid." Just as Jesus was able to calm the fears of the disciples in the boat, he is able to calm your fears with those three sentences. "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."
Jesus' ministry was full of unexpected things. No one would have expected that God would be born as an infant in a feeding trough. No one would have expected that a carpenter would be followed by thousands as he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. No one would have expected this man to become a celebrity. No one would have expected that this same man—the son of God himself—would be sentenced to death and hung on a tree. No one would have guessed that of his thousands of followers, only a handful stayed by his side as he died for the sins of the whole world. A humble beginning, growing fame, celebrity status, betrayal, torture, and death. That is the unexpected story of the Son of God.
But you know that God the Father had more up his sleeve. You know that death wasn't the end of the story. You know that something happened after Jesus was in the tomb for three days – something incredibly unexpected. God the Father raised Christ from the dead. And on that day he was able to calm the fears of the disciples again. Those same words took on an even fuller meaning: "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."
Well today, Jesus says those words of Gospel to you.
Jesus tells you: "Take courage!" Your sin has been washed away. Take courage! The rebel inside of you has been killed. Take courage! Christ has victory over your sins.
Today, Jesus tells you: "It is I." He tells you, it is I — it is Christ — living inside of you. He lives inside your flesh and blood. You are the hands, arms, head, and feet of Jesus. Christ reminds you — It is I! — it is Christ working through you to serve those around you.
And today, Jesus tells you: "Don't be afraid." Don't be afraid to go out and do good works in the name of Christ. Don't be afraid, because your sins have been forgiven. Don't be afraid, because Christ lives inside of you. Be courageous to serve your neighbor. The rebel inside of you has been killed. Be bold. Be courageous! Do good works! That’s what God's love enables you to do.
We have a really great story that shows how courageous God's love makes us. In Matthew's Gospel we have an even fuller account of the walking on water story. In this account, Peter sees his Lord walking on the water. And guess what. Quite out of the blue, Peter gets out of the boat. The account tells us that he started walking on the water, too. And you have to remember, the man can't swim. That is courage! That is faith. That is what God's unexpected love does to people.
Now, I'm not proposing that you should leave here today and go for a jog on Lake Erie. But let me tell you what you can do.
You can come to this sanctuary, every week, where you can expect to hear about God's love. You can come here where you can expect that you will hear God's forgiveness. You can come here where you can expect to be strengthened by God's Word. You can come here where you can expect to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. You can come here where you can expect to be built up by the body of Christ. And having been forgiven, strengthened by God's Word and sacrament, and being built up by the body of Christ, you can expect to leave here with the courage to go out there and do God's work.
I have only been in Royal Oak for 20 days, but I stand here and I rejoice because I can see that God HAS brought an unexpected person to St. Paul Lutheran. And that person is YOU. You were sinful, rebellious, scared, and defeated, but God has brought you here today because he loves you. He has brought you here to tell you that your sins have been forgiven. And though you have faults, he keeps bringing you back to forgive you again and again and again so that you made courageous to keep going out there again and again and again to tell other people about Christ. To tell other people about God’s unexpected love.
Now I tell you this as your vicar, as your partner in ministry: Let's go out there and let's do this together. Let's courageously bring Christ's love to be people in Royal Oak. Let's bring people back here who don't know God’s salvation. Let's turn around our community, and let's bring them Christ. Now won't that be something unexpected! Amen.
© St. Paul Lutheran Church 2009