St. Peter's By The Sea

August 10, 2008 - Walking on Water

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Good morning. It’s good to see you and to be here with you this morning.

Last Sunday our gospel lesson was the story of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. I suggested last week that there is a need for us to make room in our lives for the mysterious, and the miraculous, and the sacred. And again this morning we hear another miraculous story, another mythic story, the story of Jesus walking on the water. And I must admit it is a story which is initially difficult to understand. It is certainly a story we all know very well, and you all probably have an image in your mind of Jesus walking on the water.

But what does this story mean? Why did Jesus walk on the water? And what significance if any does this story have for us in our lives today?

The image of Jesus walking on the water initially just seems impossible because of the force we identify as gravity. So first let us consider the spiritual issue of gravity. An anonymous monk once wrote, “Now, the domain of … the spiritual life – is found placed between two gravitational fields with two different centres. The gospel designates them as ‘heaven’ and ‘this world,’ or ‘the kingdom of God’ and the ‘kingdom of the prince of this world.’ And it designates those whose will follows or is submitted to the gravitation of ‘this world’ as ‘children of this world’; and those whose will follows the gravitation of ‘heaven’ as the ‘children of light.’ ”1

First, it should be noted that the force of attraction from above is as real as that from below. We see it in the call of the apostles who left everything to follow Jesus. We experience it in our own lives at those times when we feel called or pulled to prayer, or to solitude, or to a desire to work with God, to be in the divine presence.

In the lives of the saints we find that this attraction of heaven can be so real and so powerful that it affects not only the soul, but also the physical body, which can be lifted off the ground. St. Teresa of Avila, who often had this experience, writes of it in her autobiography. She writes, “Then the cloud rises to heaven taking the soul with it, and begins to show it the features of the kingdom He has prepared for it. I do not know whether this is an accurate comparison, but in point of fact that is how it happens. Here there is no possibility of resisting … rapture is, as a rule, irresistible. In this emergency very often I should like to resist, and I exert all my strength to do so, especially at such times as I am in a public place, and very often when I am in private also, because I am afraid of delusions. Sometimes with a great struggle I have been able to do something against it. At other times resistance has been impossible; my soul has been carried away, without my being able to prevent it; and sometimes it has affected my whole body, which has been lifted from the ground. I confess that in me it aroused a great fear, at first a very great fear. One sees one’s body being lifted from the ground; and though the soul draws it up after itself, and does so most gently if it does not resist, one does not lose consciousness. At least I myself was sufficiently aware to realize that I was being lifted.”2

Let us look more closely at our gospel lesson. Jesus has just performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and he sends the disciples on ahead of him to the other side of the water. Then he dismisses the crowds and he goes up on the mountain alone in order to pray and be with God.

During the night the boat the disciples were in was in trouble, being battered by the wind and waves, and early in the morning they see a figure walking towards them over the water, and they are terrified and they cry out in their fear “It is a ghost.”

After battling the wind and sea all night, the disciples are afraid because they think they will sink and all die, and when they see the ghost their worst fears are realized – it is a sign of their imminent death.

But Jesus speaks to them and says “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” And in the version of the story found in the gospel of Mark we are told “And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” (Mark 6:51-52)

Jesus saw that the disciples’ hearts were still closed and I think part of the meaning of the story is his attempt, by walking on the water, to open their hearts and ours, so that we can see who he is and what is really happening. Surely the healing of the sick, the raising the dead, and the feeding of 5,000 people with some loaves and a couple of fishes and walking on water are miracles. But the deeper and more significant miracle is that in Jesus, God has come directly to us, so that we can see and hear and feel in a new way. So that we can see the world, and ourselves, and each other as fully alive and radiant beings, manifesting the glory of God.

When the disciples see Jesus they are terrified, they are afraid they are going to die and they cry out “It is a ghost.” In their fear I think they are asking two questions: First – Who is this? And secondly – How is he able to walk on Water? And Jesus responds “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” Now the words translated as “It is I” can also be translated as “I am.”

“It is I” answers the first question – who is it? This is the concrete, factual question, and the answer is “It is I – it is Jesus.”

“I am” answers the second question, which is “How do you do this?” For “I am” is the formula for the revelation of the divine in the world. The whole gospel is the gradual revelation of this truth, such as,

“I am the true vine”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life”
“I am the door”
“I am the bread of life”
“I am the Good Shepherd”
“I am the light of the world”

Now, the words “I am, do not be afraid” spoken by Jesus walking on the water amount to him saying, “I am the presence of God and he who holds onto me will never sink or be engulfed.”

And this image of the disciples at sea, in fear of being overwhelmed and drowning, and Jesus walking to them, is an eternal one, and by that I mean: in our life’s journey and especially in those most difficult of times, Jesus is always walking towards us, on the water, to bring us into the awareness of his presence and the reality of God’s love. He is coming to bring us home.

And in the figure of our patron saint Peter, who walks on the water to meet Jesus, I think there is a two-fold meaning. On the one hand Peter, when he leaves the boat, steps out of ordinary consciousness and like St. Teresa he experiences a rapture of the soul in which he is carried into the indescribable joy of the divine presence.

But Peter becomes frightened and he then begins to sink, and here the disciples in their fear of drowning and especially Peter as he begins to sink, represent the fear of death, the fear of being swallowed up by the forces and gravitation of darkness. It is a fear that we all face at some point in our lives.

And here I think we touch upon the true mystery and significance of Jesus’ walking on the water towards the disciples and towards us. For he is showing us that he will never leave us, and that there is a field of gravitation, a celestial gravitation, that is greater than the power of death. This is the message of the immortality of the soul.

When Jesus lifts up Peter, like St. Teresa Peter experiences a foretaste of what comes at death – the experience of being lifted up into the divine presence. This is, I believe, the meaning of the story of Jesus walking on the water: that he is always walking to us: in our times of trial and distress, and in our darkest hour at the time of our death, he comes to lift us into the divine presence and to take us home.

In His Name. Amen.
1 Anonymous, Meditations on the Tarot, p. 306. In what follows I am indebted to this work.
2 The Life of St. Teresa of Avila; trsl. J. M. Cohen, London, 1957, pp 136-138.

Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 9:20 am
Category: Sermons

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