Theme: When God breaks into the ordinary, miracles occur.

The word, “miracle,” and the experience of the miraculous, is in no way confined to Biblical times or the first century.  The word, “miracle,” and the experience of the miraculous, is very much part of our modern world and our everyday lives.

Let me illustrate.  You open the refrigerator door and you pull out a jar of Miracle Whip, a mayonnaise that spreads so nicely across your bread.   Or you pull out a small, flat bag and put it into the microwave, and “wallah!,” it puffs up and you have instant popcorn, and you say, “What a miracle!” You go out to the garden  and you pour Miracle Grow onto your plants and they flourish so splendidly,  thanks to Miracle Grow. 

A rocket is shot up into the air and a man for the first time plants a footprint on the moon, and everybody called it a miracle. … It wasn’t that many years ago that penicillin was discovered and everyone called it a miracle drug.  Soon after that, in the early 1950s, Dr. Salk discovered the Salk vaccine to vaccinated against polio and all of our parents said it was a miracle,  that children didn’t have to fear polio any more. The smallpox vaccinate was given to children throughout the whole earth and there is not one case of smallpox anywhere on the globe and everybody would agree that is a miracle.  And when a vaccination or the equivalent is discovered for cancer or cancers, the headlines will shout for joy:  “Miracle drug found for cancer!”

There was a car accident the other day and the body of the car was totally smashed, and those who saw the car exclaimed:  “It is a miracle that anyone came out of that car alive.”  …  Births and adoptions often evoke the word, miracle.  A baby is born, and the parents almost automatically say, “This is a miracle.” Parents who have been struggling with infertility for five, ten, or fifteen years, when their child is born or adopted, truly believe that their child is a miraculous gift from God.  You could not convince them otherwise.

What I am suggesting to you is that the word, “miracle,” and the experience of the miraculous is not confined to Biblical times and the first century; but that the word, miracle, and the experience of the miraculous is interwoven throughout our modern lives. We use the word, “miracle” all the time.

Miracles aren’t necessary Biblical magic which confound the mind such as the body levitating or floating in air; or the magic of a shorter leg miraculously stretching out three or four inches.  The focus of miracles isn’t on some magical voodoo or natural laws that have been violated.  Rather, a God given miracle is a series of events and the timing of events in such a way that convince us that God has intervened in our lives.   The result of such miraculous intervention is the experience of awe and adoration.  That is, we go “wow!” and then we worship God in thanksgiving for the miracle. 

For example, a man goes in for a heart bypass surgery because of a blockage in his arteries, and he receives a double bypass for which he is grateful to God and the doctors.  But another man goes in for an angiogram;  they take only one picture of his arteries and he begins to have a heart attack on the table.   Instinctive fear takes over; he feels sharp pain in his heart like he has never felt before and he overhears the doctor’s intense conversation as they go to work to calm his heart down.   He thinks life is over.  A surgeon is immediately found and an emergency bypass is done; and when the patient wakes up several hours later and is alive and comprehends what happens, says “That was a miracle.  That I am alive is a miracle.  I was a walking time bomb and to have a heart attack in the hospital, the timing couldn’t have been better.  Incredible.”  That’s what happened to one of our church members. If you know David, you know he is the consummate rationalist, the scientific thinker…who believes he experienced God’s miraculous intervention in his life.  

It was the sequence of events and the timing of events; having an angiogram, a heart attack on the table, a surgeon immediately available; and David was convinced that God intervened in his life. David’s response is awe and adoration, wow and worship to God.  You will not convince David otherwise.

What I am suggesting is that the word, “miracle,” and the experience of the miraculous is very much part of our modern lives, even in a scientific age.  What I am suggesting is that our intuitive definition of a miracle isn’t so much “magic happened” or natural laws were violated; but that the sequence of events and timing of events convince us that God has intervened and saved us or helped us.  And miracles are very much part of our lives.  

In Matthew’s gospel, we have seen Jesus do several miracles in a row.  Jesus stilled the storm on Lake Galilee and this demonstrated his power over nature.  Jesus then raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead which demonstrated his power over death.  Jesus cured the sick, demonstrating his power over disease. He cast out demons, showing his power over the demonic.  And in the previous story, he has just fed five thousand men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish.  In other words, the miracle of the walking on the water occurs immediately after all these other miracle stories in the Gospel of Matthew.

And Jesus, after feeding the five thousand, Jesus sent the crowds home and the disciples out in a boat in Lake Galilee, a large lake, eight miles wide by thirteen miles long.  Jesus himself went up into the hills to pray.  Meanwhile, a vicious storm came up on the lake; the waves were enormous as the disciples were rowing in the middle of the storm in the middle of the night.  It was about three o’clock in the middle of the night, and the disciples were frightened, terrified, by the storm.  Suddenly, Jesus appeared to the disciples, walking on the water.  The Bible says that the disciples were frightened, terrified, crying out, utterly astounded by what they saw, as if they were seeing a ghost.  Their reaction wasn’t, “There is Jesus, just like we expected, walking on the water. He must be God,”  No, they were frightened, shocked,  and terrified by what  they experienced. 

And so are you and I when in those particular moments in life we are convinced that there is a God, that God is real, that God is truly God, and sees every movement of our lives.  There are times when we finally and really believe in the existence of a personal God, and we are frightened about the last judgment, the possibility of eternal judgment, the reality that God has seen everything we have done and thought, and our reaction is to be frightened at the very thought of the reality of God, saying to ourselves, “O my God, am I in big trouble now.”  Yes, people are frightened when we finally are convinced of the reality of God, the reality of a personal God. 

And Jesus, seeing their fears, said to them, “Do not be afraid; it is I.”  And so also, God seeing our fears and insecurities, says to us:  “Don’t be afraid of me.  Do not be afraid.”

And then Peter, being brave of heart or a bit foolish, asked, “Jesus, can I come onto the water?”  Jesus said, “Come,”  Peter came and he kept his eyes focused on Jesus, on the face of Jesus, on the eyes of Jesus, on the presence of Jesus;  and then suddenly his eyes were diverted and he focused on the wind, on the water raging about him, on the storm;  and doubts overwhelmed him and he started to sink, crying out, “save me.”  And Jesus, immediately, not waiting for five seconds or five minutes to teach Peter a lesson; immediately, the Bible says, Jesus reached out to Peter and saved him.  And when they got into the boat, the storm calmed and the disciples were in awe, in fearful reverence of Jesus, and they worshipped him as the Son of God; they praised him in thanksgiving for saving them.

Not being able to explain what happened or how it happened, those disciples believed that they had experienced a miracle; that the sequence of events and timing of events convinced them that God, that Christ, had intervened and saved their lives.  They experienced God’s saving presence. They couldn’t explain it anymore than we can explain miracles that happen to us.

I am always amazed at the large number of people who tell me that they are a “walking miracle;” that God has intervened and saved them, rescued them, healed them, strengthened them for some tragedy; that they couldn’t have made it without God.  I hear such comments all the time, and the focus is never on the how the miracle happened or rational explanations for the miracle or the magic of it.  The focus is always on God’s intervention in their lives and their deepest appreciation for God’s deliverance.  The focus is not on the how but on God’s miraculous deliverance.  The focus is not on explanations but on deliverance.  And such people worship God, praise God, and thank God for all God’s goodness.

Even today, God breaks into the ordinary routine of our lives and miracles occur.

Sermon by Rev. Ed Markquart