Sermons

Walking on Water

Preached by Ms Josephine Houghton on 13th Sunday after Pentecost (Sunday, August 10, 2008)

Gen 37.1-4, 12-28; Ps 85.8-13; Rom 10.5-15; Matt 14.22-33

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

ÊIn the name of God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.

There is a wonderful cartoon picture of a baby sitting alone in a paddling pool. In the middle where he is sitting, it is completely dry for all the water is banked up on either side of the pool. The caption reads:” Moses at an early age”.

Water is a powerful thing as those who sail or whose livelihoods depend on the sea are only too aware; while it is essential for life, and nourishes us, it is also dangerous. The sea may bring forth fish which sustain whole communities, but many also have drowned in its waters. The image of water is an ambivalent one: it brings forth life but also reminds human beings of their limitations. Interestingly, therefore, in the Bible, there are numerous references to seas and wide rivers which act as obstacles to human beings but, and this is the interesting bit, they present no hindrance to God or to those through whom God chooses to act. God created the seas according to Genesis, or stilled the waters of chaos at creation according to another ancient tradition which crops up occasionally, and so God has the power to command the waves as we see in various narratives in the Hebrew Scriptures, and also in our Gospel reading this morning which takes its meaning from those earlier Jewish miracle stories.

In the account of the Exodus, for example, God commands Moses to part the waters of Red Sea so the Israelites may pass through on dry land. If we needed any confirmation that Moses is on God’s side, as it were, and that God acting through him, we find it when he exercises God’s authority over water: Moses stretches out his hands and the seas part; not of course something a human being can usually do in the normal way of things. And Moses is not the only one: the motif of waters parting miraculously is repeated again and again in the Hebrew Scriptures and always demonstrates that a particular individual is acting with God’s authority. We see next it in Joshua, Moses’ successor, who parts the waters of the river Jordan shortly after Moses’ death. We see it in Elijah in the second book of Kings who also parts the waters of the Jordan, and after Elijah has been taken up to heaven, his successor Elisha parts the Jordan again, and crosses back over it. These narratives indicate that God is working through Moses and Joshua, and Elijah and Elisha and that their mission is God’s mission because they are not subject to the usual human constraints and, through God’s mercy, can part the waters. Joshua and Elisha, both in the difficult position of following great leaders, are shown to be true and worthy successors, who have been chosen by God, because like Moses and Elijah before them, they demonstrate control over water.

And so the story of Jesus walking on water and calming the seas in our Gospel reading today, stands within a long tradition in which God’s servants are empowered to share in God’s supremacy over water. This episode is not merely an account of how Jesus got from A to B, how he travelled from the mountain where he was praying to the disciples’ boat in the middle of the sea, but rather is a narrative which reveals something fundamental about Jesus’ identity. Jesus, like the great Israelite leaders and prophets before him, participates in God’s control over water so the sea is not an obstacle to him, nor the storm a hindrance as it is to his disciples: he walks with the sea beneath his feet and calms the wind which had prevented the disciples from reaching the shore. The story is making a powerful statement that God is acting in and through him, and that Jesus stands within the line of great leaders of Israel.

Yet there is one major difference, I think, between this account of Jesus’ mastery over the waves, and the stories of the others who came before him, and it’s a difference which comes out most clearly in the encounter between Jesus and Peter. Whereas we are told quite specifically that Moses and Joshua were enabled by God to part the waters, and it was God acting through them, when Peter walks towards Jesus on the water, it is on account of his faith in Jesus. At Peter’s request it is Jesus who commands Peter to walk on water, and Peter is able to do so for so long as he places his trust in Jesus. In other words, Jesus is fulfilling the part which was traditionally played by God in the older stories. It is Jesus who commands Peter to walk on water, and this is making a profound claim about the identity of Jesus. Although Matthew’s Gospel was composed long before the later debates about the precise makeup of the Trinity, we have a clear hint in this narrative that unlike Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Jesus is more than simply God’s faithful servant: he is God incarnate, the Word made flesh, as John’s Gospel puts it.

Now all this does, I realise, sound rather theoretical for 9:30/11:30 on a Sunday morning, and you’ve been tremendously patient. But the reason why it matters, and the reason I think it has been worth unpicking, is that it can give us a confidence about what we’re doing here this morning. The Christ whom we worship is not only a great leader who has been equipped by God for his ministry, but is God. When we receive Christ in the Eucharist in a few minutes’ time, we are receiving God.

And the image of God which we encounter in this story is the image of Jesus who says to the disciples “take heart” and “do not be afraid”, and the Jesus who puts out his hand to catch Peter when Peter is sinking. The story of Jesus walking on water reveals to us a God who loves us and comforts us and saves us. And the disciples’ response of awe and wonder invites us to respond in the same way to such a revelation: “those in the boat worshipped him, saying “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Amen.