I’ve had my latest motorcycle 10 years now and will soon spin the odometer over 50,000 miles.  Still, I like to stop at motorcycle showrooms and look at the latest models.  Invariably a salesman will walk over and start appealing to my prurient interests.  He’ll say, "That bike you looking at will do 130 miles an hour" or "You should hear the sweet exhaust note on that baby" or "I’ve got a buddy who bought one and he says that it turns the ladies heads wherever he goes."

Then, to make sure I’m a serious customer, he’ll ask what I do for a living.  My first reaction is to lie, because when I tell him I’m a preacher his whole demeanor will change.  You can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tries to remember whether or not he has used off-color language.  Then he will launch in about the great gas mileage that can be expected of motorcycles and what practical vehicles they are.

Lawnmower salespersons are never surprised to find clergypersons looking at their merchandise; motorcycle salespersons are.  Why?  I think it tells us something about clergy and about the church.  Lawnmowers are slow, safe, sane and practical.  Motorcycles are fast, dangerous, wild and thrilling.  Is being a Christian more like mowing a lawn or riding a motorcycle?  Is the Christian life safe and sound or dangerous and exciting?

I know it was dangerous and exciting for the early church and for the likes of Paul and Peter, and certainly for Jesus.  If it is going to be that way for us, then we are going to have to learn how to master our fears.  Fear can be paralyzing.  You definitely do not want to become paralyzed by fear while weaving a motorcycle through the twisties at, ahem, a crisp pace.  No, you want to keep your wit about you at all times and the way you do that is by focusing upon what you are doing and where you are heading.

The title of our message is "Fear or Focus."   Do we allow our fears to paralyze us, or do we keep our focus upon Jesus, what he is calling us to do and where he is calling us to go?   In our text Jesus is calling Peter to step out in faith in a pretty amazing and miraculous way.   Let us turn our attention to this biblical story and see how it relates to the unfolding story of our own lives as we find ourselves called to step out in faith in amazing, miraculous and exciting ways.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.  After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray (Verses 22-23).  Jesus has been ministering to the multitudes and feeding body, mind and spirit just as The Church in Aurora is attempting to do through various wellness initiatives of late, but I digress.  In the verses immediately preceding our text Jesus fed the multitudes with the loaves and fishes.  He has also healed the sick and cast out demons.  He has also been preaching and teaching—all in the towns and villages surrounding the Sea of Galilee.

Now the Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater lake (also known as Lake Gennesaret) which is about 15 miles long and 8 miles wide.  It lies 650 feet below sea level in a great depression geologically scooped out of the earth.  If you want to get a good look at what it is like from the water’s edge, go up to Port Promise in our Promiseland Educational wing for an accurate artist’s rendition.  The entire lake is surrounded by heights, such as the Golan Heights.  So when the text says that Jesus went up on a mountainside by himself to pray, it means that he ascended the heights surrounding the Sea of Galilee.

Preaching to the multitudes is wearying work, and Jesus needs a little "me-time."  So he dismisses the crowds and sends his disciples across the Sea in their boat (several of the disciples had been fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, still had access to boats and knew how to use them).  Jesus would meet up with them later and reach the crowds on the other side with the Gospel.  Still, we are talking about at 30 mile hike to get all the way around to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

But Jesus has other plans.  When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.  During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake (Verses 23-25).  The fourth watch of the night would have been between 3:00 and 6:00 AM.  Normally a boat would have made it across by then, but the disciples are only a few miles out because the wind is against them.

Jesus had previously demonstrated his miraculous wonderworking power over and over for his disciples, including the calming of a storm on the Sea of Galilee.  You would think that his disciples would be used to his miracles.  But notice their reaction as they watch Jesus walking on water to get to their boat: When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It’s a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.  But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid" (Verses 26-27).

In the Bible, fear is the most common reaction of human beings to an encounter with the Divine.  And the Divine’s reaction to fear is always the same.  "Don’t be afraid."  God’s angels said "Don’t be afraid to the likes of Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament, and Mary and Joseph in the New Testament.  Indeed the words "Don’t be afraid" occur over 100 times throughout scripture because the Lord does not want his people to fear what he is calling them to do.  Fear is the opposite of faith according to our text.

"Lord, if it’s you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water" (Verse 28).  When Peter was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee with his brother Andrew, Jesus had said to them: "Come, follow me… and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19).  Jesus had called Peter and his brother to participate in his wonderworking power.  Now Peter wants Jesus to call him to participate again.  Jesus obliges: "Come," he said.  Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus (Verse 29). So far, so good.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.  "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (Verses 30-31).  As long as Peter is focused on Jesus and what his Lord is calling him to do he is able to walk on water, he is able to participate in Jesus wonderworking power, he is able to do amazing and miraculous things.  But as soon as his focus upon Jesus becomes distracted by the ominous waves he begins to doubt Jesus’ wonderworking power and that is when he also begins to sink.

Fear is the opposite of faith.  When people lose faith in the full faith and credit of the United States to back its debts, fear and a sinking stock market are the result.  Even though our nation did not default on its debts for the first time in its history on August 2, it did come close enough to evoke fear in investors who were already jittery over the Euro debt crisis and other world economic woes.  As a result, on Thursday the Dow punctuated 2 weeks of terrible trading and effectively wiping out the year’s gains.  And it may not be over yet as fears of a double dip recession loom.

It has been interesting to watch this from my perspective as a board member of an organization where endowment managers responded to the Great Recession by selling its stock holdings and putting the proceeds into US Treasuries.  After the market bounced back, the managers at long last decided to buy back in to the market.  Now that the market is tanking again, I am hoping the managers will avoid the knee jerk reaction of locking in losses by selling the stock and buying back into Treasuries.  Why?  Because selling low and buying high do not make for a good investment strategy.

It would have been better for the managers to just sit tight.  So long as you don’t sell, you haven’t lost a dime.  The market won’t go down forever.  Eventually it will go up again.  Indeed a down market represents a buying opportunity.  Even before this past week the market’s collective price/earnings ratio stood at 12 as compared with an historical average of 16.  This is the time to jump in and pick up some shares at a bargain, not sell them!

My point is not to play financial advisor, nor is it to appeal to greedy materialism.  My point is to illustrate how fear can drive us to make irrational decisions which are contrary to our best interest.  That is why, at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said "…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

I suppose a lot of us are struggling with economic fears these days.  I can tell you that those fears are nothing compared with fears for our health or the health and wholeness of those we love.  But whatever our fears the antidote is always the same—focus.  Focus on Jesus who calls you to come to him.  Don’t let waves of fear distract you from his promises to bear you up.  Don’t let doubts reduce you to a man or woman of little faith.