FACING THE RAGING STORM

I have always argued that Immanuel, God-with-Us, serves as a powerful theme for the Gospel of Matthew. We can ask while going through the gospel, "What does it mean to experience God's presence in our lives?" More often than not, the answer is, "Be God's presence in someone else's life!" Jesus was such a presence. The gospel begins and ends with the promise of Immanuel!

The pandemic has been described as a raging storm. There are those who say that we are all in the same boat. There are more who cry, no! There are a few in cruise ships. The majority are in boats--really small boats. And there are millions who don't even have boats during this raging storm. 

This Sunday's lection reminds us that it is always safer to be inside the boat, especially during a storm. But there are times we need to get off the boat during a raging storm, because Jesus is not in the boat. Immanuel is not where we want him to be.

He is out facing the storm. And he is calling us out of our boats, like he did with Peter. Do we have the faith to do so? 

*art, "Walking on Water" by Peter Koenig (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).