Matthew's account of Jesus ‘Walking on water’ has given comedians the opportunity for a good joke!

‘The Baptist, the Catholic and the Vicar’

The question for me is not did it happen – I believe it did, yes, but what does it mean?

The early church: For the first Christian believers this account of Jesus and his disciples in the midst of a storm would have had a clear reference to the persecution that the Emperor Nero unleashed against the Church.

The message is, Jesus is with you and will get you to the other side of the sea.

That message has been picked up down the ages as communities and countries have faced the onslaught of persecution, or the overwhelming forces of nature as we witness today is the devastating effects of the wildfires sweeping North America, Hawaii, and recently Rhodes.

The resilience of communities in the face of disaster, to a great extent, is dependent on a determination to ‘smile through the tears’. In other words to hold on to hope whilsts grieving for the lost.

Chagall. The Circus Horse. 1931

The artist who best expresses this sentiment of determined hope and faith is Chagall. Born in Belarus, then part of the Russian empire in 1887, he was a child of a large Jewish community in the city of Vietbsk. The community was confined to settlements within the city known as ‘shetetls’ and constantly menaced by the pogroms that swept Russia in his early years. His art and life were shaped though, not by persecution, but by the rich cultural and religious heritage of his community.

Chagall constantly draws on the images and memories of his early years in Belarus and his gift for happiness and his instinctive compassion sustained his art for more than 70 years. For him, clowns and acrobats always resembled figures in religious paintings. In his later paintings, as war darkened his worldview, the circus performers, indeed, are replaced by prophets and sages in his work, but they float and cavort like the circus performers.

Chagall described his love of circus people in this way:

“Why am I so touched by their makeup and grimaces? With them I can move towards new horizons…Chaplin seeks to do in film what I am trying to do in my paintings. He is perhaps the only artist today I could get along with without having to say a single word.”

So a miracle could be seen as the overcoming of circumstances as we hold on to faith and hope. Faith and hope enable us to ‘smile through the tears’ - even the impossible is possible.

The message of this miracle, as understood by the early church, “Stick together and we’ll be alright” or as Jesus’ disciples would have put it “Stay in the boat and Jesus will make sure we survive the storm”.

But, of course, there is one disciple who doesn’t stay in the boat but gets out and gets his feet wet.

Peter: What are we to make of Peter? In Matthew’s account we see the rash impetuous Peter, but can we maybe, also see the faith of the clown or the acrobat willing to take risks? He fails, but he gets up again smiling, this the same Peter who leads the early Church.

There are several hints that Matthew thought Peter was a clown!

1. Jesus doesn’t ask him to step out of the boat but Peter seems to want to prove that Jesus can do anything!

“If it is you Jesus prove it and let me walk on water” – not a good idea, just showing off really!

2. Not surprisingly Peter ends up in the sea and has to be rescued.

3. When he gets back into the boat the other disciples are not impressed. There is no praise for Peter.

4. Jesus then gets into the boat. He’s going to be traveling with them in the boat. This was an important message for the early church which used the ‘Boat’ as their secret symbol. Jesus is with us.

5. But maybe there is just a suggestion that Peter is destined to be the leader of the Church, even if these first stumbling steps are clownish. Can we even imagine the disciples all enjoying a laugh as they safely reach the shore?

The message for us today: What can we take away with us today from this account? For me the message is all about a God who cares for us, and is in control of the circumstances of our lives. The sea and the forces of nature were deeply troubling elements for the people of Jesus day. We are not in control but subject to the buffeting and sometimes battering of nature, but here is Jesus in control of the sea and sky. We can trust him to get us through disaster and disease. He is in the same boat as us and, though subject to the same forces of nature, has overcome disaster and death, he is the Lord of life and Master of destiny. The writers of this text want us to understand that history has a purpose and meaning because God is able to bring order out of chaos, victory out of defeat, and turn the clowns into heroes of the church.

Peter, as a leader, is certainly flawed and often fails to live up to his promises, but who like all great leaders, learns from his mistakes. When the moment comes he is ready, humbled and obedient. He is ready when his master does call him out from the boat and into the storm. It is a message for us all because faith does involve risk, the risk of looking like a clown. The risk of trusting this God who tells us that our security does not depend on the boat we are in but the person in the boat that will take us to the shore and into the haven he has determined we will go.

Rev. Simon Brignall

We give thanks for the good health of Saskia and baby Estella, still in hospital but out of danger.

We continue to pray for Derek Daley in hospital and Jackie.

Prayer for Ukraine

God of peace and justice we pray

for the people of Ukraine today,

and the laying down of weapons.

we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow,

that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them.

We pray for those with power over war and peace,

for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions

Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear,

That you would hold and protect them.

We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Amen

I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.