Walking on water

The readings for Sunday August 10, 19th Sunday of the Year: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 or 1 Kings 19:9-18 ; Psalm 105, 1-6, 16-22, 45b or Psalm 85:8-13 Romans 10:5-15 ; Matthew 14:22-33

The story of Jesus walking on the water is not without its problems! Do we believe in a God who contravenes the laws of nature, and who walks on water?

Do we believe that if we trust that same God, then we, like Peter, will do the same thing?

Like many of these stories, my response is that I actually don't know the answer to these difficult questions.

I do know that we should be careful not to trivialise these stories

by either dismissing them out of hand

or (strangely) by just accepting them as bland fact.

There is more to it than all that

Here are some thoughts I put together on this passage for a festival of
MU during the wqeek

On the occasion of the 110th Anniversary of the founding of MU in the parish of Coromandel Valleyreflecting on Matthew 14:22-

Shall we sink or swim?

The MU webpage tells the story of Mary Sumner

“In the village of Old Alresford in the south of England a young Vicar's wife,
Mary Sumner, looked at her first born child. Amazed at the enormous
responsibility of nurturing a human life, and conscious of her own inadequacies,
she dreamed of a union of mothers coming together regularly for encouragement, support and education.”

I had a similar experience the night our first daughter was born.
Not of forming a Fathers’ Union! But of the amazing responsibility that was now transforming my life.
There was for me as there was for Mrs Sumner
an invitation to step out of the boat
and to live life in a new way.
At times I have sunk! No doubt Mary did too. No doubt you have
At other times, MU has walked proudly alongside Jesus
knowing that there is for this task a comfort and responsibility
which comes from putting our faith in God.

I am not terribly happy about the words of the hymn we have just sung, which I didn’t read carefully enough before I agreed to its inclusion.
Because it speaks too much of a sorrow and sadness about being a mother and a wife.
As though the lot of MU members is to put up with drudgery and sadness, which is the inevitable lot for us all.
This seems to me the language of sink or swim. Not the language of faith

But the language of faith is that of neither sinking or swimming,

but walking on the water.

It is the adventure of faith.
Quite a different experience altogether.
MU is successful not by putting up with the pain of family life
but in so far as it seeks to transform family life into a life of faith

This is more than just putting up with a bad lot! I suspect Mary would ask for more.
Could I then just add one walking verse?

Transform our lives O Lord, that we might love
Fulfilled by faith, by challenge, ventures new;
as here on earth we join with those above
and live a gospel that we know is true
That loving you for us will ever be
A bold adventure walking on the sea