Skipping across the surface

The readings for Sunday August 7,2011, 8th Sunday After Pentecost: 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, might 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 a couple of years ago

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.

We sometimes caricature 
the lot of a parent
as one of sadness and woe
and particularly of women 
As though our lot 
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. 
We, along with MU are successful 
not by putting up with the pain of family life 
but in so far as we seek 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 to the traditional MU hymn?

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