Believe It or Not: God's Dreams and Miracles

A sermon on Jesus’ “walking on water” story

The year was 1979. It was seven months before the Olympics. A new coach was hired to recruit 26 young men for the XIII Winter Games at Lake Placid, New York. Over the winter Herb Brooks was working those men into stellar physical condition. Coach Brooks, a one-time member of the 1960 United States team, was also helping them learn how to play not as stars, but as a team.

In words that echo today’s Gospel words of Jesus, Coach Brooks told the young men, “Do not be afraid.” Don’t be afraid of the Soviet team, he said, even though they had dominated world hockey for fifteen years. You need to work hard enough to beat them at their own game. Get into shape, be creative, discover all your options. Brooks surprised everyone by adding a new player, one he had coached, near the end of training. “Coach will do whatever it takes,” the players said.

“Great moments are born from great opportunity,” Herb Brooks told them before their semi-final game with the Russians, many of whom had played together nearly all the time they had been the world’s most powerful team. The US team had met just months before. Their average age was twenty-one.

By the middle of the final period, the youngsters tied things up with the Russians. “They are beginning to believe,” said the sportscasters. In every game of that Olympics, including the final one, Team USA always came from behind. “…Eleven seconds, you’ve got ten seconds, the countdown (is) going on right now,” shouted sportscaster Lorne Michaels. “Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES! Unbelievable!” Sports Illustrated called this US Olympic hockey team victory “the greatest sports moment of the 20 th century.” No one believed it could happen. But believe it or not – it did.

The disciples saw something happen. They believed in miracles. It took a couple of miracles, however, for things to sink in. There was the feeding of the five thousand, a miracle described in all four gospel accounts. And in three of the Gospels, we find today’s miracle story: Jesus walking on water. We also hear, only in Matthew’s account, about Peter’s typically courageous-then-fearful attempt to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. “Command me to come,” Peter crows, confidently. Then he notices the strong wind and panics. “Save me!” he cries, as he sinks. I wonder if Peter thought, why, oh why, did I ever get out of that boat?

On Wednesday night, more than 100 of us saw something happen. We came together for what we called “Dream Night.” Folks broke into six smaller groups, where they shared dreams about worship, Christian formation, outreach, stewardship and administration, pastoral care, hospitality and fellowship. Much of what they shared was written down and will be available to all of you in the very near future. There were some inspirational moments, when someone shared a dream with all of us. Our final sharing was to offer Holy Communion to one another. Overall, it was an uplifting evening, led by God’s Spirit.

And yet, there were some difficult, painful, perhaps even panicky moments. We are, after all, human, just like Peter. We want to know why things go wrong. We begin to ask questions, such as: If there are miracles, why is there so much hunger and poverty in the world? Why is there so much violence? Is church conflict something we just have to learn to live with? Our questions may get even deeper and more Olympic in scope: How might we be part of the problems we face? How can we be part of the solutions?

In every congregation I’ve served as priest, there have been divisions between a church’s newcomers and their seasoned veterans, those present for a few years and those who have been around for a few generations. Truthfully, clergy always fit more into the “newcomer” camp, because as one Episcopalian said at a parish meeting years ago, “you clergy come and go, but this is my church.” Older and younger sisters and brothers know all about sibling rivalry. So do folks who have been in a church for longer or shorter periods of time.

So I was not surprised to know that some of the most passionate feelings expressed at our Dream Night had to do with tension between the two largest siblings in our four-sibling All Saints’ family. We don’t seem to say much about the Saturday evening or the early Sunday morning siblings. But when it comes to our Historic Church and our Great Hall sibs, our older big sister and her younger big brother born in the early ‘80s, there’s ALWAYS something to say.

By the way, I am the one who made the change from “Nave” to “ Historic Church.” I did it because the word “Nave” is not a word known to guests and non-Episcopalians. It describes that part of the church building that makes up the largest part of the worship space. It does not include the narthex, where people enter, or the chancel, where worship leaders sit. But did you know that “nave” comes from the same root as “Navy?” Just look up (in the Historic Church): you’ll see what looks like a boat, only inverted. To float our church boat, let alone get out of it? We would need to turn the church upside down.

Now, these two siblings, these two congregations at All Saints’ really do seek peaceful co-existence. I know they do! That’s why, when we have an event like Dream Night, both Great Hall and Historic Church folk are strongly represented and passionately vocal. And yet, to be truly loving siblings, to become a real family that moves past divisions and dysfunctions into forgiveness and reconciliation, to believe in miracles, to become a church dream team – all of that is Olympic-sized work, indeed. Regardless of which service you normally attend, I know that some of you who dream, some of you who believe in miracles will sometimes feel stifled, ignored, even wounded. You might take comfort in today’s Joseph story. Joseph’s siblings wanted to kill or at least send away their “amazing, technicolor,” seventeen-year-old dreamer of a brother. But read the whole story. God ultimately prevails. Joseph and his brothers become a true family, a real dream team.

The phrase “dream team” came into use after the 1980 Olympics, when older, seasoned professional athletes began to replace younger, college-age amateurs. Here’s another word root. “Amateur” comes from a word that means love. Amateurs love what they do, no matter how good they get at it. Those Olympic amateurs became a dream team nearly thirty years ago, a dream team that was given a chance – not just to dream, but to believe, even in miracles.

We are God’s amateurs. We are God’s lovers. We are God’s dreamers. And we are God’s dream team. We are a dream team that has been given the chance, not just to dream, but to believe in miracles. There will be some who will want to get rid of the dreamers. There will be some who will not be able to believe in miracles. Can this church really get out of debt? Can we actually grow from potential into reality, from a really good church into a truly great one?

I wonder: What if a trained team of twenty-one-year-old amateurs ran this church? What if we believed, not just in the wisdom of our elders, but also in the wisdom of our youngers? What if we truly listened to children and youth, when they speak to us of our increasingly shrinking global village, our international human family?

Just before the loaves and fishes, another miracle moment, the disciples pleaded with Jesus to send the hungry crowds away. Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.” In preaching on that text last week, I quoted writer and priest Barbara Crafton. “Today,” she says, “we are beginning to realize that there is no ‘away.’ Everything is everybody's problem.….It isn't just the case that we shouldn't ‘send them away.’ The truth is, we can't” (www.geraniumfarm.org). In other words, in our 21 st century world, there is no “them.” There is only “us.”

Worldwide internet connection, worldwide environmental consciousness, worldwide celebration of the diversity and dignity of every human being – these are simply “givens” for those born since the 1980 Olympics. I believe American children and youth want to create a world where more effective communication, more care for creation, more welcoming of all God’s children are challenges to embrace, not reject. I wonder: What if we loved young people enough to listen to them about all this? What if we believed that they are not “the future” of the church – they ARE the church, right now? Now that would turn our church upside down! We could float our upside-down boat. We could get on board with Jesus. Walking on water would be a miracle we could believe in.

In one church I served there was a sign in the office that said, “We don’t believe in miracles. We count on them.” Dear friends in Christ, we stand on the edge of what could be a great moment in the life of All Saints’ Episcopal Church. A great opportunity lies before us. We may not have dreams. We may not believe in miracles. We just need to count on them. We need to count on God.

Are we functional atheists, talking about God’s dreams and miracles but acting as if we must do all the work, because we’re the stars? Or are we a functional Christian family, playing together as a team, doing what we can together, always trusting together in God’s love and grace, always praying and saying, “We will dream, with God’s help. We will believe in miracles, in Jesus’ name. We will get out of this boat or this mess, so help us God”?

God has a dream for us. God believes in us, just like the coach believed in his team, just like they came to believe in themselves. God dreams for us and believes in us, even when we don’t dream or believe in ourselves. Even when we don’t believe in God the Dreamer. Even when we don’t follow Jesus the Miracle-Worker. Even then, we can count on God, we can count on Jesus.

Believe it or not.

The Rev. Thomas A. Momberg, Rector
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Frederick, Maryland
August 10, 2008