19th Sunday of Year A

1 Kings 19:9,11-13
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33

Finding God in our storms.

Does doing the right thing always get rewarded? Sadly, no! In fact, in a fallen world like ours, doing the right thing can often bring about challenges to our lives. It is often difficult to navigate these storms, as we feel that we are being punished for doing the right thing. My brother and sisters, if we are struggling with such storms in our lives, let this weeks’ Scripture speak to us. If we are hesitating to do the right thing, afraid of the blowbacks that might come, let this weeks’ Scripture speak to us.

In the First Reading this week, Elijah was running for his life. Leading up to the First Reading text, Elijah stood against and defeated the prophets of the pagan god Baal. This has angered queen Jezebel, who as a worshipper of Baal, felt deeply humiliated. Jezebel swore to kill Elijah, and Elijah had to run for his life. Tired and full of anxiety, in the omitted verse from this week’s First Reading, Elijah said to God, “I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” (1 Kgs 19:10) In his fatigue and anxiety, Elijah adopted a self-defeatist attitude. How do we know that? Elijah knew it was not true that he alone was left because earlier, Obadiah told Elijah how Obadiah “hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water” (1 Kgs 18:13) And later, as God promptly reminded Elijah, “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kgs 19:18) The First Reading this week is wedged between these two revelations of hope.

In the First Reading, tired, exhausted and deflated, Elijah needed encouragement. So God’s said to him, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” (verse 11) Then came a great wind, an earthquake and a fire. But God was not in any of those. Instead, Elijah found God in the “sheer silence” (verse 12) This revelation is important to Elijah. It was in stark contrast to the earlier encounter, when God came to Elijah in great might to defeat the prophets of Baal; sending fire from heaven to consume an altar, consuming “the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.” (1 Kgs 18:38) But now, in the midst of Elijah’s struggle, God comforted Elijah in sheer silence, in a moment of tenderness. God knows, in his exhaustion and disenchantment, Elijah needed to encounter a tender loving God.

In the Gospel, the disciples had a similar experience – this time, a physical storm. In many ways this storm is symbolic of the storm of Elijah and the storms in our lives. For in spite of having left everything to follow Jesus, not only were the disciples were not rewarded with comfort, they met this storm that even the experienced fishermen were struggling against. We read, “the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.” (verse 24) Significantly, Jesus was not with them in the boat. My dear friends, don’t we feel like this sometime? In the midst of our storms, we do not feel the presence of Jesus, and we cry to Him: “Where are you, Lord?” It was in such a moment that the disciples saw Jesus walking to them on water. The disciples were consoled, but seeing this very unnatural sight of someone walking on water, they were also afraid. So Jesus said to them, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” (verse 27) Drawing great strength for this assurance, Peter then said to Jesus, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” (verse 28) Upon being invited by Jesus to come forth, Peter started walking on water. But as “he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink” (verse 30). Jesus caught Peter and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (verse 31) This sequence of events holds a great lesson for us.

In Peter, we see a pattern of human strength and weakness. Peter drew great strength from witnessing Jesus walking on water, so much so that Peter himself started walking on water. Then, when faced with the strong wind, he became afraid, lost his confidence and started sinking. This was when Jesus reached out and caught Peter. We see this pattern of behaviour repeated throughout the Bible. We saw this in the Frist Reading, when after defeating Baal’s prophets in spectacular fashion, Elijah lost his confidence while running for his life. In another example, in the Book of Numbers, the people were joyous that they have reached the promised land. But when Moses sent 12 men to spy on the land of Canaan, the men came back reporting that the people occupying the land are giants and the towns are fortified (Num 13:28). On hearing this, the people became self-defeatists as Elijah was. They said, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size … and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Num 13:32-33). And this was in spite of them witnessing God defeating the Pharaoh’s army and parting the Red Sea! In truth, this pattern of strength and weakness is also in our lives.

Living a life of faith, upholding the truth as Elijah and the disciples were called to do, is never easy. Like Elijah in the cave and the disciples in the boat, we too are often battled and bruised. In these moment, what goes through our mind? Do we regret having answer God’s call? Are we disenchanted, having expected rewards rather than challenges? Are we discouraged, not knowing if we have the strength to carry on? Do we try to overcome the difficulties by our own human strength? Or in humility, are we prepared to call upon God to our aid? Elijah found God in sheer silence. For us, instead of trying to resolve the challenges by our own strength, do we stop, enter into silence, pray and contemplate? Peter started sinking because he took his eyes off Jesus. Often, the reason we do not find Jesus in the midst of our trials is not because He is absent. But it was because our faith is weak and we took our eyes off Him. So my brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves: How close am I to Jesus? Have I kept my eyes on Him in good times and in bad? Have I invested time and efforts in my relationship with Jesus? Do I pray regularly? Do I read the Bible regularly? Do I love like Jesus? Do I foster His love in my family and my workplace? Indeed, could my tardiness in faith be the reason I sometime find Jesus absent in my life? And if this is me, do not be afraid. Jesus understands our weakness, and knows what we need. Seek him and we will find Him coming to us – even if it takes a miracle like walking on water for Him to come to us, come to us He will.

My brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our human frailty, and cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” (verse 30) Do we hear Jesus responding, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (verse 31) Come Lord Jesus to our aid. Amen.