I BELIEVE IN SANTA
A sermon by Rev. Dr. Jack E. Skiles

In the old family farmhouse that I grew up in, that my dad had grown up in, that his dad had grown up in, that had been built by his dad, my great grandfather Daniel; in that old farmhouse up near Rossville, just east of Lafayette and that University that will not be named, that house has a marvelous old and creaky staircase. From my adolescent years I can tell you that there was no way to silently escape down that stairway at night without being heard. I discovered that early on and used a roof and downspout combination to achieve those aims.

The first Christmas that we spent in that house after grandma and grandpa moved into town so that we could be closer to the farm, I was about five or maybe six years old. We slept, my older brother Jim and I, right beside that staircase. I remember being pushed and prodded to bed, bemoaning the reality that if Santa came down our chimney he would be scorched to cinders in the firebox of our wood and coal burning furnace down in the basement. I remember my Dad said not to worry, but for us to listen to the staircase noises. He said that in all his years of growing up in the house it was down those stairs that he always heard Santa coming into the house, bypassing the furnace.

Yes, I can still recall falling asleep to the sounds of Santa bringing Christmas that year. It is a magical staircase.

A funny thing happened as I got older, much older. We used to set out a cold glass of milk for Santa along with some frozen shrimp that Santa is known to enjoy. While we had Aaron and Kali in the house we discovered that Santa had become lactose intolerant, so now we leave soy milk and Santa still likes shrimp with cocktail sauce. I love Santa even more as I get older. I look into the faces of parents who still believe and I see Santa and I remember anew the magical staircase and the lessons of surprise, of giving and believing in the joy and simplicity that can be childhood on those nights like Christmas Eve.

I've gone through years of unbelief about Santa. I have made some transitions in my belief structure that have allowed Santa to reemerge and I am able to celebrate, Santa, again. Now walking on water, there is an interesting belief. I've tried walking on water. Seriously. In college, sober from intoxicating substances, a couple of us sought to see if we could believe enough to walk on water at an outdoor lake. One of the things I learned from that experience is that if one is going to test the natural laws governing water, one should preferably do such experimentation in the summer time, like in August, not in February. At the time, I was supported by many in the general belief that seeking to walk on water on a 33 degree day in February was a mark of increased faithfulness.

Let us now most seriously and with anticipated hope that God will move in and through us in new and refreshing ways, let us examine the Word of God for the People of God.

I get vibrantly excited to study our Holy Scriptures both academically and spiritually. At our house on Monday through Wednesday the conversations between my wife Lynn and I can sound awfully biblical. Who would have thought that is what our lives would come down to. Lynn and I preach on the same biblical texts every Sunday as we follow the Revised Common Lectionary. She is a phenomenal preacher. But, she didn't listen well in seminary during her Bible classes. She has an uncanny ability, however, to relate the Scripture to very concrete living experiences. The counselor side of her is phenomenally connected to the spiritual. We like to think that we support each other very well in the study each week for this time of preaching. (We hope to do a pulpit exchange between us sometime yet this year.)

This section of Scripture containing Jesus walking on the water is part of a larger section of material given to us by the writer of the Gospel that we know as Matthew. Matthew is a very stylized author, who we now know, after centuries of study of his work, has a built in structure and spiritual message that can easily escape the notice of the unaided reader. It is a shame what we everyday readers of the Scripture miss because we are reading it culturally, socially and academically not only some 2,000 years later, but also in a foreign tongue.

This is the third week in a row where Matthew has been seeking to strike a similar theme. The contrast that Matthew is seeking to communicate to his late 1 st century audience, around the year 80 CE, is between the Ceasars and the Roman Government and God and Jesus. His audience, those first hearing Matthew's gospel, were acutely aware of the subtleties he employs in his word choice and references.

In today's world I can't tell you legally, or ethically, whom to vote for in any election. If I tell you a positive story about John McCain and the Republican Party, I must by the law of this land balance it with a positive approach to the Democrats and Barack Obama. Because we are people embedded in our culture who watch CNN and FOX and ABC, CBS and NBC Nightly news and are avid listeners to and financial supporters of our local PBS station I don't have to name names in order for you to understand my bias.

Nor did Matthew. Two weeks ago Matthew compared God and Jesus to the one who goes out and sows good seed, wheat, and at night the enemy comes and does what? The enemy, whose name is Herod, comes and sows weeds so that not until the harvest can the good seed be separated from the bad seed. Not to worry, Matthew exhorts us, God will take care of Herod in the end.

And then last week, Matthew tells the story of two great banquets, one in which the head of John the Baptist is served by Herod after a steamy dance of seven veils and lots of alcohol, a little theme of incest, perhaps. That story is contrasted with the great banquet presided over by Jesus and God who blesses all, where 5 to 20 thousand are fed in one setting, bread and fish and probably some very good wine. You remember, and can hear Matthew saying, there is this pretender to the throne, the rent-a-king-and-queen and then there is the Kingdom of God where Jesus invites the crowds, not the just the wealthy, sniffling few who don't even have the courage to protect the prophet of God, John the Baptist. And God serves a banquet to thousands and there are leftovers and there is justice and peace and hope. You choose who you are going to vote for.

And this week brings this section of material to a closure on Matthew's part. Jesus has again just been working himself to the bone. The crowds have been everywhere with the greatest of needs. Like last week, Jesus pulls away to go up the mountain to refuel himself. He sends the disciples across the water by a small boat that they must paddle. It is probably safe to say there wasn't even adequate room for all of them.

A storm comes up and Jesus comes walking calmly across the water to save them and to restore peace and calm in the midst of the rolling waters of the sea. In ancient literature, both biblical and otherwise, beneath the waters of deep seas and lakes was one of the primary places where evil could have easy access to those of us who walked on this plane of existence. Our God who is in heaven. Holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The hope of our spiritual ancestors rested in God coming down and bringing peace and order to this world where storms too often raged. Jesus is shown walking in the midst of the stormy sea and bringing peace and order, God's reign, to bear upon the unpredictable and evil that existed buried deep in the seas. Who is the real ruler of the heavens and the earth? Who can bring peace to this world torn asunder by the Herods? This is the message that Matthew wanted to communicate then and today. Who do you put your trust in?

Remember some three or four years ago? You do. We were as a people and a country newly embroiled in war in Afghanistan and then Iraq . In what I might consider to be a very “Herodesque” move called “shock and awe” our country's military was sent into Iraq , where Saddam Hussein was served up on video for all the world to see his hanging. This administration has not been without great symbolic attempts to seek to justify war not for the sake of revenge, but so that freedom might come to all the world through our bringing democracy to Babylon , I mean Iraq . And one great show of might will be talked about for years in the midst of war, in the midst of our brave soldiers dying, our leader swooping down from above in a jet fighter to land smoothly of the deck of an air craft carrier to announce “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.”

I have great admiration for the attempt made by this administration to bring religious symbolism to bear, however strongly I might disagree with their policies and compare their methodologies to those triumphed for centuries by the Herods that have preceded them. Matthew's Gospel is asking us as compellingly this morning, as it did when it was first read to a congregation: With whom are you aligned? Are you with God or the rent-a-rulers, the pretenders of this world?

I am most thrilled, at this juncture in politics, with a current ad being run by an organization that comes from my age group and older, the AARP. Their ads that are currently running say that health care is a number one priority, the number one issue, and list the name of and numbers of both presidential candidates, saying, “Let them know what must happen to gain your support.”

I get calls at home from both political parties and they start out by stating, “Can we count on your vote in November?” My answer is a fairly quick, “You may not!” Here is what you must do to get my vote. My vote has nothing to do with personalities or skin color or gender.”

I am armed to the teeth with information locally about the astounding rate of poverty in Monroe County . What is your candidate's concrete plan to help me, a religious professional, deal every day with the phone calls that come into just our office from real people living economically destitute lives who have already exhausted most of the food pantries' resources down to their bare shelves. We will, through our love fund, help them survive in the short term with utility payments and food vouchers.

I have more than enough food personally and I trust that 99.9% of you here this morning do as well. I would dare suggest that nearly the same amount of us have health care, the cost of which is enormous, but we have health care. My phone response is this, I am voting to stand alongside Jesus and the people that Jesus stood beside, you count on my vote when your candidate stands beside those people in very concrete ways.

Have you ever walked on water? Have you ever seen someone else walk on water? I have humbly done both in the way that I understand the reality of this Scripture. If you are just waking up because you know the sermon is about over¦..here is the meat, hopefully the whole sermon, in a few short sentences.

Matthew's Jesus walks on the water because God and Jesus are this close. Jesus knew himself to be fully supported by God. Jesus trusted God in ways that are just as available to you and to me as they were to Jesus.

When I went through Seminary the second time, I was required in one class to spend two months in an addiction group to see and experience its value, its methods, its realities. Two months in an AA group up in Indianapolis . These people in AA move my heart and soul.

The first timer to an AA group, to any similar addiction group, does not want to be there. But, they have somehow come to terms that their life is out of control, the addiction is controlling them and they have heard it said that only a power greater than themselves can bring them home, to peace on earth, good will to all.

They come to their first meeting and they are dripping wet. They have been trying to walk on water by themselves and they have been lied to by their addiction and supported way too long by family and friends. They have been sinking deep and are nearly drowned. They walk into the room and they have to test the solidness of the walking surface. I look at the floor and I see hardwood or concrete. They don't. They see fluid water and they are scared to death that God is not able to sustain them and hold them up.

They see others that are walking on the floor that they see as water and they discover that those water walkers have learned to trust in a power greater than themselves and that is how they do it, by trusting in God. That is Matthew's message, “People, he asks, “do you want to trust in God or in rent-in-rulers, in liquor, pot, crack, love, sex, wealth, academia?”

People will come back the next day or the next week dripping wet. Some are beginners and some have been walking on water for some time and they go back to trust in the bottle. Their shame is deep and their pain is deep and awful. “What do I do, how can I ever make amends?” And the answer is, “Start over right now and live today trusting in your higher power and we'll do the same tomorrow and we will live the rest of life when we get to it. Today, begin anew, begin again. Be sober today.”

God loves not only the ones who walk on water but also equally well those of us who are just sinking. Be the hand of God and show not only those who are down, but also those who are watching, like our children, like our comrades at work, what it looks like to actively trust God with all our heart, souls, minds and strengths.

I believe in Santa and I believe that walking on water is something we each must do if we are trusting in God. Let us dare step boldly forward from the security of our boats, like Peter and live up to that overused but under-lived adage, “IN GOD WE TRUST.”