9 August 2026 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 37:1-4; 12-28   Psalm 105.1-6; 16-22   Romans 10.4-15   Matthew 14.22-36

How often have you been successfully achieving something, or doing something and then, for unexpected reasons, you start questioning what you are doing, or you start questioning your own ability to do what you are doing, and you then find yourself unable to continue.

In this passage, Jesus ‘sends’ the disciples away in the boat.  He has fed the multitude, healed their ills, met their needs, and now he sends the disciples away before he also sends the crowd away, so he can finally be alone in prayer with his Father.

And while the disciples are going across the lake, the wind picks up, the waves toss the boat and then, early in the morning, having finished his prayer, Jesus walks out across the water to meet them.  Now I can understand the disciples fear at seeing someone/something coming across a turbulent sea toward them. My first thought would not be ‘oh look that’s so-and-so’, I think I would have been thinking ‘holy …. What the heck is that, how do we get out of here’.

So when Jesus tells them not to fear “it is I”, I admire the courage, or maybe it was naïve daring, of Peter to say (or maybe even challenge) if it is you, call me out of the boat.  And he was then very courageous to actually get out of the boat and walk toward Jesus.  But, getting back to my first question, when does my brain kick in and tell me ‘this is not possible, you can’t walk on water’, which is about the same time I would start to sink.  And when Peter does sink, and call out to Jesus, he quickly rescues him, takes him back to the boat and gets in with them.  But notice, he does not criticise or chastise Peter for sinking, he simply asks, why did you doubt.  You were doing well, what happened.

And that is a question for us all, every day, why do we doubt.  Why do we allow our ‘cognitive brain’ to override our ‘spiritual brain’ when we see or hear things that may not, on the surface, make sense or are difficult to understand.  Why do we doubt that God can achieve things in our lives that don’t have to make sense or conform to a rational explanation.  God is not tied by those restrictions.  Sometimes, it is only in the midst of chaos that we truly see God with us.

Now the thing to remember is, in this area, especially around the Sea of Galilee, windstorms can be quite fierce, and they can arrive ‘out of nowhere’, and, unlike that other occasion when the disciples are in a boat with Jesus, this time there is no indication that they are afraid.  Tired, maybe, in-fact they are probably totally exhausted.  It is now the ‘fourth watch’ of the day – 3am-dawn, so they have been on the water for the better part of the night and trying to row in this wind would be worse than useless, so they are just ‘waiting’ for the wind to die down so they can resume their journey and they are probably hoping beyond hope that when it does, they are still in sight of the shore.

And unlike that last time when they were in the boat and Jesus ‘calmed’ the sea and the disciples wondered ‘who is this, that even the wind responds to him’, this time when Jesus is in the boat with them and the wind calms they ‘know’ who he is – this truly is the Son of Man.

Now I apologise if I have previously shared this story with you.  In 2011 when I was in Israel on the Bethsaida archaeological dig, we had just arrived at the kibbutz in what is modern day Gennesaret, of the edge of the Sea of Galilee.  It was the Day of Pentecost, we had intended to worship in Nazareth but the church was closed because the Bishop had called all the clergy to Jerusalem for a special Pentecost service, so we decided to ‘have our own’.   In our group we had, I think, at least 3 Priests, 1 Deacon, 1 Formation Student, and 4 ‘laity’.  We agreed to gather on the banks of the lake, someone brought a loaf of bread, someone had some wine, we had prayerbooks and bibles, and I had a chalice I had bought in Jerusalem.  So there we were, all gathered round this flat(ish) rock on the edge of Lake Galilee, the wind was very strong and we struggled to keep any paper or books open, bread and altar linen were blowing everywhere, and I was asked to read the Acts reading (formation student that I was) and the minute I did, the wind stopped.  It was a very powerful moment.  From full gale to nothing in a matter of seconds, and we continued the service in total calm.  Now I am not going to suggest it was anything like what is described in our gospel, but that memory is triggered every time I read this passage in our Scriptures.

We also need to remember that this passage is not asking us to ‘do a Peter’ and ‘prove’ our faith by doing dangerous or reckless things; nor is it asking us to ‘challenge’ God, or Jesus to ‘prove’ themselves.  The disciples were right to be frightened seeing someone/something walking across the water toward them.  We are right to be fearful when we learn of sickness; uncertainty; when life pulls us down; when our family turns on us; when our biology betrays us into anxiety, depression, or panic.  This passage asks us - what is our response when we fear.  Peter’s response to fear led him to question Jesus’ identity.  And his challenge to Jesus mimics the one Jesus faced in the desert if your are… do these impossible things.

And that challenge is one we are often guilty of ourselves.  When we fail to recognise God in a given situation and we ask for ‘proof’.  Doubt is often our ‘default position’.  But the tricky thing is, for us to truly trust Jesus, we need to try to hold two pictures of God’s kingdom in active tension.  Sometimes, Jesus reveals the miraculous to us in quite spectacular ways.  And sometimes we just have to trust that his Incarnation – his quiet abiding presence in our wild untamed lives – is enough for whatever the situation is that we are facing. 

And I wonder, was Jesus’ question to Peter about his doubt, related to his sinking or the fact that Peter needed Jesus to prove who he was.  Was Jesus simply asking Peter, why didn’t you believe me in the first place, I told you it was me.  And maybe that is the question Jesus asks us too.  Why do you doubt I will be honest with you, why do you doubt I will stay with you, why do you doubt I will care for you; and why do you need to test me.

When we read this passage, we often forget to take notice of the ending.  This passage reveals more to us than just Jesus walking on water.  Prior to this, Jesus not only fed the multitude, he also healed them.  When they arrive on the shore the next morning, there is another crowd and they also want to be healed, but their faith tells them all they have to do it touch his cloak.  Remind you of anyone?  Think of the woman with the bleeding, she just ‘needed’ to touch the hem of his cloak and she would be healed.  Faith sometimes allows us to do amazing things.  For this new crowd, it allowed them to be healed without Jesus saying or doing anything other than walking past and allowing them to touch his cloak.  Doubt doesn’t enter their minds, they ‘know’, they ‘trust’, that Jesus has the power they need.

Do I? Do we? Can we?