A worship service was held at 10.30am in the church building on Sunday 9 August. The service was simultaneously broadcast on the Church Facebook page.  For the next four weeks, you can listen here.

The Bible passages is Matthew 14: 22-33 and Duncan led the service and preached. (The sermon starts at 37.25)

Duncan also interviewed Audrey Whyte who talked about ‘Sounds Familiar’ the singing group for people with dementia and their carers, which she leads. This very helpful group which those attending (on average about 70 including carers) find very uplifting. It  meets in the church twice a month to enjoy singing and dancing led by a 7-strong band. Look out for details of it resuming in September after the holiday break.

Duncan preached on today’s lectionary passage, Matthew 14: 22-33, the famous story about Jesus walking on the water.

He saw it as a powerful reminder that Jesus draws near to us especially in life’s challenges and struggles.

Duncan also mentioned traditional interpretations of the passage which focus on Peter getting out of the boat and trying to walk over the surface of the tossing see. This is sometimes depicted as an act of heroic faith. But, while there are times for heroic faith, Peter is motivated by questioning, (‘Is it really you?’) rather than by faith.   Jesus didn’t ask anyone to leave the boat, but simply to have faith in him in the situation they were facing.

And so Duncan focussed encouragingly on this drawing-near Jesus who comes to us in the storms.  There’s a link below to the song ‘I can see God’ which Duncan referred to, sung this week by Gary Hansard at his brother Glen Hansard’s funeral in Ireland.

Do read the whole text of his sermon be

Walking on water

It’s remarkable how many phrases in the Bible have become part of the English language. I imagine in many of the situations people would not even know that.

Take for example the idiom ‘walking on water’ which is at the heart of our Bible story today.

Over the years this phrase has evolved from the story of Peter and Jesus to something around being able to perform extraordinary feats. You might say that somebody like Lionel Messi ‘walked on water’.

The focus of our story today is Jesus walking on the water and Peter trying to join him. This story, this gravity-denying experience has captivated the imagination of people down the centuries.

Someone even wrote a book, which I think quite a lot of us have actually read in this congregation, a very imaginative book about the story, which has got the very striking title: ‘If you want to walk on the water, you’ve got to get out of the boat’.

A traditional interpretation

I don’t know if it’s me getting older. Who knows? But I would like to raise a few questions about all the attention which Peter in particular received through this failed attempt at walking on the water. I think there’s a great danger and I think I see it in different aspects of churches today. I think there’s a great danger that this focus on Peter can lead us to a kind of unfortunate view of Christian faith in that we are pointing too readily at what we might describe as ‘heroic Christian faith’.

And that, in my view and experience of life down through the years, doesn’t actually reflect the kind of life which I think God intended us for.

Let’s kind of rehearse what I think the classic sermon is on this text, and I’ve heard that a few times, maybe I’ve even preached on it over the years. Peter gets out of the boat and he begins walking on the water. Peter is doing really well. He’s somehow managing to surf the top. And then he takes his eyes off Jesus. And when he allows the storm to distract him, he starts to sink.

So the sermon conclusion goes, keep your eyes upon Jesus and you will be okay.

But is that ultimately what this story is all about? Maybe that’s one strand of the story. But I would like to argue this morning…. I’m inclined to think that there is far more to glean from this story than just this ‘what is walking on water’ dynamic.

I fear this story so often ends up being unduly focused on this hapless character, Peter, who ultimately becomes a great leader in the church. It becomes about how he has improved his water walking performance. And if Peter can do it we can do it too, we can improve Christian faith and our discipleship if we learn from Peter’s mistakes.. I think actually, for me, as I’ve read the story a few times over this week,

I think the focus should be away from Peter. Ultimately, it should be primarily focused on the fact that we have, a peerless Saviour who is always on our side, whatever situation we might find ourselves in..

Jesus comes in the midst of the storm

For me, the one thing that really matters in the story is not Peter’s faith or lack of faith, but rather that in the midst of the storm, Jesus comes. I think that’s a symbol of hope for us today beyond all other symbols of hope.

Because one thing that we can be sure of is that storms will come into all of our lives. Storms come and strike individuals, families, churches, nations and, indeed you might say at the moment, the whole world. Cancer, relationship breakdown, bereavement, schism in the church, famine, war, you name it.

We can all tell stories this morning of how our lives have been blown off course, how the structure of our lives has been shaken, our plans and hopes damaged or destroyed. Whenever life blown off course,  the questions of faith arise.

Do we have faith? Do we have the right kind of faith? Do we have enough faith? These are the kind of questions which are being probed in this story of Jesus and the disciples during the storm.

Talking about faith, can I take you back just two weeks, as I mentioned earlier, to the parable of the mustard seed? Because I think this is also helpful as we look at the superhero Peter on the water. Jesus taught that all that is needed is faith as small as a mustard seed.

Jesus’ teaching isn’t pointing us to a heroic supersized faith this morning, but rather to something which is altogether unimpressive and fragile looking on appearance.

The story is about discovering and expressing faith in God in the midst of the storms of life. The sea in the ancient world was a symbol of chaos and destruction and death. It was a fearful place. And strikingly, make of it what you will, Jesus himself sends his disciples in the story out onto the sea of chaos. Jesus is active in sending his disciples out into the chaos of the stormy seas. And that’s a mystery, isn’t it, that Jesus sends his disciples out onto the storm.

What we can also say is that in the midst of the storm and the uncertainty of it, the faith which the disciples have becomes something altogether deeper. It’s only after the storm and Jesus coming to them in the storm that they can say, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God’.

‘Truly you are the Son of God’. How many of us today can testify to the fact that it was in the deepest and darkest experiences of our lives that, somehow, the reality of faith became more powerful and stronger in our lives. John Bunyan said, ‘I never knew all there was in God until I came into the deep waters’.

God becomes most real in the darkest times

Again and again as Christians we find that God becomes most real to us in the darkest and most difficult times – not after the chaos had passed, but in the very midst of it.

And in the midst of thinking about this faith story –  I love the way that these things happen during the week that just point to the scriptures that I’ve been looking at. I’m not sure if anybody else saw this during this week, but I saw on my feed as I was working on this during the week that a funeral was taking place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

The funeral of a poet and troubadour, Glen Hansard, famous initially for his part in the film ‘The Commitments’, and as an Oscar winner for his songwriting in 2006. He was tragically killed last week in a motorbike accident, leaving his wife and three-year-old son Christy. The service was absolutely amazing. It was filled with tributes, poems and songs, folk like Bono and all kinds of people who were, as it were, at the heart of the music in Ireland were sharing in the service.

But what moved me most was a song sung by Glenn Hansard’s brother, Gary. And the song was called ‘I Can See God’. A song that was sung in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the midst of the most dark experience for this family. You can find it on YouTube. It was so beautifully sung. And the song was reminding us that in the midst of the chaos and the uncertainty of our lives, God is there and he is there.

Indeed, whether we see him physically or not, he is there. Jesus comes to the disciples in the midst of the stormy seas. Jesus offers some comfort and reassurance. He tells them exactly who he is. ‘Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.’

The Jesus who draws near

We don’t know if the silent eleven takes Jesus at his word, but we know for sure that Peter does not. He sets Jesus, an identity test. ‘Lord, if it’s you….’. Lord, if it’s you, invite me to come and to walk on the water. Jesus is in the midst of the storm with us.

And I would like to suggest this morning that Peter actually didn’t need to get out of the boat. He could have stayed in the boat with the other disciples. Instead, somehow or other, Peter needs more.

And so he says to Jesus, ‘Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water’.

Jesus never asks Peter to get out of the boat! . The power of this story ultimately is all about Jesus being there and coming there in the midst of the storm.

Jesus was, in the Gospels, a constant presence and hope for the disciples. At the beginning of the story, Jesus is moving towards the disciples. He moves towards them when they’re struggling at sea He moves towards them when they’re wondering if he’s a ghost. He moves towards them when they’re terrified by his presence. He moves towards them when Peter is reckless enough to set him a dare. He moves towards them when Peter fears that he’s going to drive. He moves towards them when they realize who he is and what he is. He moves towards them when they worship him.

In other words, this morning, Our gospel is telling us that Jesus never stops moving towards us in whatever circumstances we are in this morning. He never stops crossing the dark and stormy seas  to come to us where we are.

He never stops moving towards us. Neither our fearfulness nor our faithlessness ever change his steady approach,  the love of God towards us.

Ours is the boat he climbs into, ours are the fears he comes to meet. Ours are the hands he reaches out to when we begin to sink.

Jesus words to us in the storms of our lives, remain ever thus. ‘Take courage.  It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Our hope today rests not on the strength of our faith, but in the faithfulness of the One who keeps coming across the water.

Jesus will come. Jesus will be whoever forsake us. Take courage.