EXPERIENCING JESUS

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON JULY 30, 2006

Mark 6:50 " Take heart, it is I; have no fear."

What was the experience of the gospels on the Lake of Galilee that day? What did they really think?

The last two weeks I have been preaching about evangelism and ministry, and today's gospel continues not only last week's gospel reading which ended with the feeding of the 5,000, but also continues the theme of evangelism - because the points out that all evangelism and ministry leads to an experience of Jesus Christ.

The apostles were not quite sure what was happening on the lake that day, and it reminds us of those two significant questions Jesus asked in Matthew's gospel: "What think ye of the Christ?” and “Who do you say that I am?". They are the two questions that every Christian needs to answer. The problems of the church today are that many people are not sure what they think of Jesus, nor could say exactly who he is.

I am sure that is where the apostles were at that time - not quite sure - otherwise surely they would have known that it was Jesus walking on the water. But St. Mark says that they thought it was a ghost and were therefore afraid. So Jesus says: "take heart, it is I; have no fear." This reminds me that many people go to church looking for security. They either live fearful lives or they are conscious that we live in a fearful world, and going to church gives them strength, reassurance and security. There is nothing wrong with that - as long as our strength, our peace and security comes from Jesus.

I found these thoughts very pertinent yesterday because I was engaged in a conversation with a lady who belongs to one of those Hollywood ”churches”. It could be Scientology, or the Church of Religious Science, or whatever. She was delighted to be seated next to an Episcopalian priest - because she assumed that we believe in anything, and that we think we are all going the same way, and everyone believes in the same God! So she began criticizing organized religion. Then she said that we all need to be spiritual. For a moment I thought she had mistaken me for Bishop Swing! I tried to point out to her a few facts of the Christian gospel. She gave me a number of leaflets and bookmarks to take home, which I did read. I can tell you not one of them mentioned Jesus. That is the problem. Even though we have big churches that talk about Jesus, those mega-churches that abound all up and down California, the gospel they preach is slanted. It's been called the prosperity gospel - you need or want will be supplied through faith and worship in that particular church. These can range from financial security, to relationships, to a parking place.

This sort of gospel is attractive because we all have needs - but it is a thin reading of today’s gospel - which is probably why a lot of preachers would say Jesus didn't really walk on the water and you don't have to believe it.

For a start the last verse reveals a deeper meaning: "They were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves." The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 had been lost on them. They saw Jesus feed the 5,000 - and they didn't understand.

What think ye of the Christ? Who do you say that I am?"

Jesus wasn't just a miracle worker, or a teacher of a way of living. Today's miracle, bizarre as it seems, shows Jesus transcends creation. That is why he could walk on the water - not because he was some demi-God or miracle man, but because he transcends creation. If you could feed 5,000 from two loaves I think walking on the water is a piece of cake! But the apostles couldn't see that he transcended creation, even though they had seen all those people fed. They couldn't see because they were human. Because they couldn't understand the feeding of the 5,000 they couldn't see him walking on water. They thought it was a ghost, not the word made flesh, dwelling amongst us. Not the Son of the Father, the second person in the Trinity. Their experience was all too human. Their experience did not allow them to see Christ as the Son of God - not yet anyway.

It is about experience, isn't it? We hear a lot about experience. People go to church hoping for an experience of God. I'm sure you are anticipating some experience of God this morning. And why wouldn't we? On the other hand we are told that human experience should be taken into account in re-assessing our faith, and in church tradition, and doctrine. And there has been an avalanche of changes in liturgy, creeds and prayer books over the last 40 years.

An essential part of a healthy Christian life is the experience of God. A sense of God's presence when we pray, worship and meditate. But that experience is an objective reality, it is about the God beyond us coming into our lives. An objective reality which has a subjective impact upon us. It becomes personal. It is my faith, my way of praying. It is a very personal thing.

For Anglo-Catholics with our strong sense of liturgy and sacraments, the sense of a personal relationship with Jesus finds particular focus in the Blessed Sacrament, the celebration of the Eucharist, and Holy Communion. This sense of divine presence which we see particularly localized here energizes and motivates us for our daily Christian walk and ministry. Though such experience is essential to authentic Christian living it has never been used in the history of the church as primary source of doctrine.

We don't experience the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist because it feels that way.

We feel the experience of the presence of Jesus because we know he is present.

Because the ritual, the ceremony and the words tell us that Jesus is present.

And because it is the unbroken teaching of the church.

And because we find that teaching in the bible.

Unlike the apostles we have the advantage of 2,000 years of teaching, plus the creeds and the bible. By contrast it seems many of the changes in liturgy and doctrine in recent years have been justified more by experience of the world. And suddenly they become common place and part of the tradition.

Whereas the Christian way has always been to interpret our experience in the world by the teaching of the bible and creeds. This is how it was with slavery and the civil rights movement. Equality of different races was no new doctrine suddenly realized by the church. It was always there in the bible - and the liturgies did not have to be changed to reflect that.

By contrast the modern trends in some Protestant mega-churches and the myriad New Age groups are not about interpreting experience in the life of authentic Christianity but about the" God within". You may think this is about the Holy Spirit - but don't be fooled. Even such harmless things as labyrinths, centering prayer and the eneagram are all inward looking - all about me. When we talk about the God within we are actually talking about ourselves. We like to center on ourselves. But it is the spirituality of Hinduism or goddess worship.

The real point of today's gospel is the question "what think ye of the Christ"? The apostles had not yet arrived in their faith. That was to come. They did not understand yet the uniqueness of Jesus. In fact, in a devastating comment St Mark says: "their hearts were hardened." What a terrible thing to say.

So a lesson for us in today's gospel:

Let us be confident in our faith and its practice.

Let us be generous in living out that faith.

And never let us have 'hardness of heart.'