When have we done something we were not ready for; something that your brain, your heart, your muscles, your family and friends all said was impossible? You had the means, faith or courage to get it done, to do it. This is what I am calling your walk on water moment, long or short.

Psalm 85:8-13

8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. 9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. 10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. 12 The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.

Matt 14.22-33

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” 28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Spoken Words for “Your Walk on Water Moment” by Rev KellyAnn Donahue

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Our Gospel reading for this week picks up right after Jesus fed the crowd with five loaves and two fish. The crowd was on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He sends the disciples out in a boat, and then he dismisses the crowd. Jesus then goes off to pray. He had tried to go off and pray earlier in Chapter 14, but he came back to land when he saw the crowd. He wanted to pray after hearing that John the Baptist, his cousin, had been killed by Herod. After feeding the crowd and sending the disciples away, Jesus went to pray a second time, in verse 22. Perhaps he needed a break from healing, feeding and caring for others, whether they were strangers or his own disciples. He may have needed more time to grieve for John.

Matthew tells us that he did not stay by himself for long. He prayed in the evening, but by early morning, he noticed the storm that had pushed the disciples’ boat far from land, and he noticed the waves battering the boat. I think he interrupted his prayers to go to his disciples, as he had interrupted them to heal and feed the crowd.

So Jesus went toward them. Matthew said in verse 25, “And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.” Another translation says “in the fourth watch” which means from 3am to 6am. The disciples thought he was a ghost. Jesus said, “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid”. The disciple Peter replies to this by saying, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”. The more I re-read this line, the more it sounded like those in Matthew Chapter 4, verses6-7, when Satan said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God throw yourself down” and Jesus replied…”do not put the Lord your God to the test”. I wonder if Peter thought it was a ghost, and his words were a kind of challenge to the ghost, as if he was trying to show the other men that he was not afraid of anything seen walking on water at 3 am in the morning. Jesus did not rebuke Peter. Jesus called Peter to join him. And here is how Matthew described what happened next. “So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Peter did manage to get out of the boat and start walking toward Jesus. He was, for some distance, able to move toward Jesus on the water. He was doing something that seemed impossible. And then, he wasn’t; he was sinking. He called out to Jesus, who reached out a hand and caught him. Together they did yet another impossible thing, and got into the boat.

Before getting into the boat, Jesus said to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” I wonder what doubt Jesus was talking about. Did Peter doubt that it was Jesus near their boat? Did Peter doubt that he could walk on water with the help of Jesus, the help promised when Jesus called Peter? Did Peter doubt that the appearance of Jesus meant that the storm would not harm them? I do not think Peter’s doubt should be used against him, or to make us compare our faith to his.

I like what Augustine of Hippo, (Saint Augustine) said, as mentioned by Suzanne Guthrie. “You are not walking on the lake like Peter but on another sea, for this world is a sea; trials its waves, temptations its storms, and men devouring each other as fishes do. Don’t be afraid, step out stoutly lest you sink. When the gale blows and the waves rise, and your weakness makes you fear you will be lost, cry out “Lord, I am sinking”, and he who bade you walk will not let you perish.” Rather than doubt, I see trust, faith and strength in this story. I see Jesus reaching out a hand to Peter who had been walking on water by himself. Suzanne Guthrie compared it to a parent teaching a child to ride a bicycle. For short stretches, the child can balance and ride with success, and next minute might fall and get discouraged. A hand from the parent helps right the bicycle, and the right words encourage the child to keep at it, saying something like, “you almost had it, keep at it; remember how great it felt when you were riding!”

The moment the child does successfully ride might be like the moment that Peter did walk on water. There is a point at which we are almost balancing, almost getting it right, then we do get it right, even if we once thought it was impossible for us. When have we done something we were not ready for; something that your brain, your heart, your muscles, your family and friends all said was impossible? Something you wanted more time to master before doing it by yourself. Something you thought you could not ever do. Yet it got done. Maybe it was finishing school, getting married, having children, changing jobs, leaving a bad or troublesome partner, going for surgery or apologizing to someone you hurt. You had the means, faith or courage to get it done, to do it. This is what I am calling your walk on water moment, long or short.

We can have a walk on water moment. I think we all have them. A big one for me was the first time I was asked to visit a patient in the Intensive Care Unit. I had taken some classes; I had prayed in my car and in our prayer room at the hospital. The nurses said it was Ok to visit, yet it took me three tries to walk into that room. I kept remembering how bad I felt when visiting sick family members, how close to tears I always was. How would I know what to say? Did I need to memorize Psalm 23? It was not going to feel comfortable no matter how long I put it off. So I knocked and said I was from the Chaplains office, would you like a visit? It felt like falling. It felt like the kindest thing for the patient was for me to leave the room as soon as possible. It felt like I was bothering the patient, intruding on them. Our conversation started slowly and sounded awkward to my ears. It did get better. By the time a nurse came in to work with the patient, my smile felt less frozen and I made a promise to visit later that week. By the end of that first shift, I was exhausted. I was a little more confident that I had done no harm. Had I helped at all? It was not me alone in that patient room. Somehow, the presence of God, or Jesus or the Holy Spirit was there too, helping me to stick with it, pushing me into the rooms, but also helping me know when it was time to leave. I experienced doubts about my abilities nearly every shift at that hospital. My confidence grew very slowly over the nine months I was there. Then my supervisor asked me to discuss a patient at a “grand rounds” presentation. It was a patient who had improved after I started visiting. I had to speak in front of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff. This time, it did not feel like falling. It felt like I could balance well enough to face that room. Now I knew that what once had seemed impossible was more than possible. I had stuck with it, using prayer, and feeling a strong hand when I doubted. A hand like Peter was given, before he could get back in the boat, in that storm.

What was your walk on water moment? When did you accomplish something that seemed impossible, something that you feel had God’s help? May we all feel that hand reaching for us, no matter how often we call out for it. And may we accept that hand, for it is always offered.

 

©Rev KellyAnn Donahue

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