Sermon 10 August 2008

The sermon that I preached yesterday is now available in video format on the preaching page. If I get around to it, I will try to put up an audio version which will be more suitable for dial-up users.

If you are having trouble hearing the audio on these clips, you probably need to download Adobe Flash Player again and let it install itself. Go to this page and follow the instructions.

Here is the text I was preaching from:

I’ve no idea whether any of you aspire to be the provost of this great Cathedral Church. When it happened to me, there was a moment just after my appointment was announced when i realised the significance of coming here. A light blue envelope landed gently on the mat. It was from the company which produces Who’s Who. It goes with the territory. If you are the provost of this place, you get an entry in Who’s Who.

I remember opening that envelope and realising that I was making one of the great transitions in life. No more would I be a rapscallion, a rebel and a rabble-rouser for the Lord. No! That was all behind me. Now, I realised, I had joined the Great and the Good. (At least, that is what I thought until I met you all).

Now, if you take your copy of Who’s Who down from its specially reinforced shelves, you can look me up. And you can look up what I list as my hobbies. Amongst them, you will find something that I list which gives me a straight run into the sermon theme for today.

Asked what my hobbies were, I said,

“Sinking other people’s yachts.”

Yes. There is often a superstition amongst sailors that having clergy on a boat brings bad weather and bad luck.

I know what it is to know fear on the water. I know what it is to sink a friend’s yacht. I know that it is no mere superstition.

This little Jesus and Peter story that is our Gospel reading this morning is often remembered but perhaps seldom understood.

The disciples had taken to the water and gone on ahead of Jesus leaving him on the shore to say his goodbyes to the crowd which he had been teaching.

And the little boat was caught in a storm on the loch.

How terrifying such a storm can be. I know that terror. And the disciples look out in the early morning light and see Jesus himself walking towards them upon the lake.

Can it be true?

Take heart, he says to their fears, it is I.
Do not be afraid. Do not worry. It is me.

And Peter leaps out of the boat, starts to walk towards Jesus but when his fears overtook him started to sink. He appeals to Jesus who reaches out his hand and all ends up safe and well.
This is the kind of story which people often misunderstand and they use them to proclaim their unbelief. Can it really be true that Jesus walked on water.

It is a familiar image – the Lord overcoming the forces of gravity and striding out over the water. Can it be true?

It is the kind of thing that people who wish to make mock of those with a religious faith will pick on. Can it be true? Of course not. People don’t walk on water. People cannot step out and wander across the open water of Galilee.

You can almost hear the mocking voices as soon as you have read the words.

People don’t walk on water.

Yet the truth about this passage tells us a great deal about one of the ways in which we read Scripture.

You see, the question is not whether this was true for Jesus. This is not about whether it was true that Jesus walked on the lake and whether Peter could with his help walk with him.
The point is not whether this was true for Jesus and Peter. The question is whether or not it is true for you?

For gospels were always meant to be read and listened to in that way. Is this true for you?
Is it true for you, whether you are ruffian, riff-raff, rabble-rouser or the who that really is who?
Have you ever felt as though you were in danger of sinking? Have you ever felt as though things were just getting too much? As though the storm would overtake you. Have you ever felt as though you might slip beneath the waves?

Whoever you are, the answer is likely to be yes. It is the human condition.
One of the questions to ask when hearing scripture read is not “was it true for Jesus?”, but “is it true for me?”

And when we start to ask that question, we can see so very easily that the hand that is held out over the stormy water is not just Jesus holding out his arm to prop up a flaky disciple who cannot keep his head above the water.

No it is much more that that. For it is God who holds out a hand to each of us.

This life is stormy and we all get into deep water.

And the miracle is not something about skipping over the water without wetting your sandals. The miracle is that God cares about each of us. And will look us in the eye. And will put out a hand, waiting, longing, hoping that we will grasp it.

“Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid”.

I do not believe that there is anyone who does not share the fears of Peter at some time or another. We all get out of our depth over something. Some of us lurch through muddy waters for years unable to find anything solid to grasp hold of.

The message of this little story is – if you want to know God, know that God is already reaching out towards you.

The message of this little story is – God cares about you as an individual whatever you get yourself into.

The message of this little story is – that it really may all be true.

It may be true that God can be known. It may be true that God cares. It may be true that God has a human face that we can know in Jesus Christ. It may be true that perplexing pieces of Scripture may be the simplest of messages. It may all be true.

It may all be true.

When you next hear something from the bible that you find hard to take or something that you don’t understand, ask yourself, is this true for me? For that is the test that Scripture has to pass if the Word of God is to come to us. And it is my belief that God speaks to us that way.
Eventually the boat was still. Peace broke out. The relief and wonder when a storm stops when you are in a boat is incredible. Awesome. I know it well.
In the peace, the disciples discover that they don’t just have a friend in the boat with them. They discover that God himself is known in the person of Jesus Christ.

When peace breaks out – God is there.

When the tempest ceases, as cease it must, even for you and for me – God is there.

When you find stillness at the end of a long day or a worrying night – God is there.

It is that tangible presence of God that the disciples knew in the boat and which they got to know better the longer they knew Jesus.

The more we reach out a hand to Christ, the more we will be embraced by God.
And we might be wet. We might be soggy. We might be pathetic. We might be covered in sticky mud.

But, that peace, that deep peace which transcends wind and wave will envelop us forever.
Amen.