Skipping Rocks The Texts: 1 Kings 19:9 a, 11-13 a; Matthew 14:22-33

                If you have ever stood by the bank and skipped a rock over the surface of the water, you know the mystery and delight of watching that chunk of stone defy gravity and common sense as it bounces playfully atop the waves like a butterfly. The trick is to find a smooth flat stone, and to keep the speed up as you hurl the rock with the flat side facing the water's surface. But if the rock slows down, it sinks like ... well, it sinks like a rock. And where do you find such smooth flat-sided stones to practice this bit of magic? At the bottom of the water, that's where. The perfect stone for skipping is usually found under the water, polished smooth by the waves that continually wash over it.

                Apparently God loves to skip rocks too. Our Old Testament and Gospel lessons today tell snippets from the stories of two great Biblical heroes, the prophet Elijah and the Apostle Peter. And each of these stories reveals our heroes at one of their lowest moments of failure, and God's finest moments of grace. Like smooth stones scooped up from the muddy bottom of past mistakes, these texts show a God who gives rocks polished by failure a chance to skip again. And, of course, these stories are good news for those of us who are weighed down by the gravity of our past mistakes, who think that God could not—or would not—use us again; who think that we will never feel light enough to skip carefree again. Think again. So, let's look again at these two Biblical heroes, whose stories of success and failure are told with such honesty and hope. What can we learn about the narrative of our own lives from Elijah and Peter?

                First, everyone faces defeat and failure in life; and sometimes the greatest failure comes immediately on the heels of great triumph. Just think about it. How often have you rolled a gutter ball in bowling right after scoring a spare in the previous frame? How often has the company's worst quarter sales followed the best quarter? Or you hit the golf ball into the water on the next swing after scoring the birdie on the previous hole? Or you had the big argument with your spouse the day after the lovely anniversary dinner? Is this fall from the heights of glory inevitable? Of course not. You may roll a perfect 300 in bowling, or set consecutive quarters of sales growth, or make a string of birdie holes in a round of golf, or follow an anniversary dinner with an even finer ordinary day of marriage to the love of your life. But such continuing success, where we ride the momentum of past accomplishment into the next stage of victory, is the expected course after a great moment.

                The crushing surprise comes when our greatest moment is followed so quickly by our greatest challenge, or our greatest failure. That the momentum of victory could evaporate so quickly, or the applause of the crowd change so capriciously to jeers, or that glowing success could so give way so easily to the dark shadows of defeat—-that is the emotional ambush we do not see coming. And at those moments, when our valleys follow so quickly after our mountaintop moments, how deep and dark is the fall! At such times we are tempted to question ourselves, and we may feel abandoned by everyone and everything precious to us, including God Himself.

                This is the exact moment captured by our Biblical texts for today, when utter defeat followed immediately after great success, in the lives of both Elijah and Peter. Elijah had just singlehandedly defeated 450 prophets of a rival deity in a winner-take-all showdown game of "Whose God is Real." It was a defining moment for the Elijah on that mountaintop, but immediately after that great victory Queen Jezebel, whose prophets had been defeated and whose pagan religion had been publicly embarrassed, sent Elijah a death threat, and his bravado and courage melted on the spot. He ran, he hid, and soon he ended up a depressed and broken fugitive feeling sorry for himself and abandoned by God. At this very moment God came to him, took care of him, and led him gently but persuasively back to useful service by teaching the prophet to trust silence more than fireworks, and to understand that his self-absorbed sense of isolation was off by about 6999. Elijah did not need more fire and earthquakes and wind, more theatrics and pyrotechnics like he had witnessed God use against the false prophets. Elijah needed to know the God who is present in the quiet ordinary moments of life. Elijah also needed to know that he was not alone and did not have to serve God all by himself. There were 7000 others who loved God just as much as Elijah. He needed to learn the strength of community.

                Similarly, though just hours after the lofty moment when Jesus fed 5000 with only a few morsels of food, the disciples ended up feeling alone and abandoned while rowing against a storm that had overtaken them on the Sea of Galilee. In the dark and weariness of the early morning, like superstitious sailors, the disciples mistook Jesus for a ghost when he walked on the water toward them, but Peter recognizing it was the Lord offered to come walking to meet him on the raging sea. And for a moment Peter did just that! He actually skipped across the water like a smooth polished stone hurled by audacious faith, defying gravity and common sense out of obedience for Christ. It was a defining moment of great victory for the apostle, but then he thought about the waves and the wind, and all of those common sense whispers came back to his mind, and like a skipping stone losing speed, he began to sink like a rock.

                Ever had a moment like that? You are speaking in front of crowd, and suddenly you hear a whisper in your mind, "What are doing up here in front of all these people? What if you bore them, or tangle your words?'" Or you are trying to raise a child, or start a business, or run for public office, and the whisper says, "You don't know -what you are doing! This is never going to work! What were you thinking?'" And as you consider the whisper, suddenly you begin to fall like a rock. Well take heart, my friends. This is the moment God comes.

                This is the second lesson for us from these texts. On the heels of our greatest failures God comes with a moment of restoring grace. With a gentle stillness, as with Elijah, or with an outstretched hand, as with Peter, God comes to us in our sinking moments and offers to restore us to the surface, to hurl us again with abandon and joy across life's waves, defying the gravity of our doubts and fears and past mistakes. God knows that the best rocks for skipping are lying at the bottom of the water, polished by failure, and more ready—now—than they know, to fly again, if they will just trust themselves to the hand of God. Elijah trusted, and started again. So did Peter. So can we. By God's sure hand, the best skipping we will ever do is yet to come.