We all have problems in our lives – big ones and little ones.
Usually we want to solve the problems.
But I have found after many decades
that most problems are unsolvable.
Why is that?
Because we most often try to solve the problem
with the same mentality that created the problem,
the same perspective,
the same way of looking at the problem.
As long as we are human beings living on this planet
we will have troubles.
If we are Christians, followers of Jesus,
we are advised to look at the problem from a new vantage point:
FAITH
But the world would say, how practical is that?
So today in our Gospel reading we have a biblical example
of an unsolvable problem,
unsolvable from our perspective with our knowledge and understanding
of the laws of physics.
Here’s what we are dealing with:
Jesus spends the night praying
and then walks on water as though that were just a natural thing to do.
Is this just a pious story to encourage faith somehow?
Or is it true?
How could such a thing as walking on water be factual?
Yet there is a long history of such fantastic stories
in various cultures and religions.
We have a long history of such stories in our own faith tradition,
in the lives of the saints:
miracles, healings, transfiguration, stigmata, visions…
You really can’t just dismiss them all.
If it is possible that this story IS true,
then what does that do to our understanding of the laws of nature?
Maybe these laws of nature,
the ways we interpret and define our perception of reality,
are not so firm and immutable.
We have had to change our understanding of science more than once over the centuries.
Our cosmology is no longer that of a flat earth
at the center of the universe.
Against all expectations Jesus somehow appears as light as a feather
for walking on the surface of the water,
without being carried off by the wind,
and despite how the waves were battering the boat!
Jesus operating out of some different set of laws, spiritual laws,
supersedes natural laws.
The whole spiritual realm
is much more comprehensive, pervasive and present
than most would expect or admit.
If hearing this gives you the spooks, like it did the disciples in the boat,
that is probably a good thing.
Seeing Jesus walking on water was bound to have resulted
in someone of those disciples needing a clean pair of shorts,
to be gross about it.
When someone is truly terrorized, frightened beyond understanding,
one tends to lose bodily control.
Has anyone here been in a situation that has generated that much fear?
Maybe a big earthquake, tornado, flood or wildfire?
So even if Jesus reveals God to us as All-Loving,
he also reveals something to show God’s power and capacity over what may have seemed to be firm, reliable laws of nature.
The reality is
that God exceeds all dependable frames of meaning reference.
God is not safe.
God is not tame.
And Jesus, in a fully surrendered state of being,
in full realization of his oneness with God,
is not safe either.
What impact might that have on us?
It might affect how we worship.
No longer could one get away with a patronizing nod of the head
and a vague sense of attention in saying one’s prayers.
Rather there might be a profound bow
with the head all the way to the ground
at the feet of such a One as Jesus,
like for those disciples in the boat.
There would be acute attention given to the Presence of such a God.
There would be prayers from the heart offered with care
so as not to take them for granted,
and profound gratitude for encountering mercy and love
flowing from the All-Powerful One.
To go back to the beginning of this story,
because there are some powerful words here in the Greek text:
The setting is right at the conclusion of the miraculous feeding
of the 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
The Greek says that Jesus immediately
forced the disciples into the boat to get them out of there.
sending them on to the next destination in their itinerary.
Then Jesus sent the crowds away, got them all to go home.
(That may have been another miracle!)
And then he went up a steep hill to a spot where he could be alone,
where there was no room for others to try to tag along,
and there he spent the night in prayer,
in conversation with God.
I think that included meditation.
I don’t think Jesus was praying out of the prayer book all night long.
He was in intimate communication with his Abba, his Father;
intimate communion.
Meditation is hearing,
listening and hearing.
Meditation in the Christian tradition –
I have heard more than one person express grave considerations, mistrust and suspicions about meditation,
believing it to be practicing something from eastern religions,
non-Christian.
This comes from just not being informed enough
about the whole breadth of Christianity,
of our history and diversity,
for meditation has been a part of our faith practice from the beginning.
Jesus sending all away so he could pray, alone, in silence,
in meditative listening,
a two-way conversation that reveals union,
the intrinsic oneness of Jesus and the Father.
For me personally, if I might share with you,
I have found that in sitting in silence
there have been changes that have occurred for me:
There has been healing of past wounds of time,
and letting go of such a tight grip on strongly held opinions
with a softening of my own judgmentalism,
and I found I could open to others
with less need or concern for defending a position,
because of greater confidence in self and trust in Jesus.
As awakening to Christ’s love, God’s mercy, comes,
perception shifts,
and with that also comes a growing awareness about reality,
that every thing is not all as I have presumed.
Meditation lifts what is obscuring or inhibiting our own awareness
so that we can wake to the reality of Abundant Life in Christ,
and come to realization of our true being.
Jesus walking on water - Reality for him was different
His awareness of creation was such
that he could see how it was possible to appear so light
as to walk on the top of the water
and yet not be so light as to be blown around by the strong wind.
And then there’s Peter.
Peter makes a great connection –
if Jesus can do this,
and has invited the disciples into the secrets
of the Reign of God
and has handed them little loaves of bread
that feed thousands of people,
then the disciple can attempt what the Teacher is demonstrating.
How this must have warmed Jesus’ heart,
for Peter to be so bold
as to make a claim on copying his Teacher’s actions.
And, of course,
he doesn’t get the lesson perfect the first time out of the boat.
But he shows us encouragement for our own stepping out in faith.
Peter’s problem was his habitual framework of perspective on reality,
a view of reality in which people don’t walk on water.
Those old habitual thought patterns are hard to shake.
But you can’t always trust what you see.
So how does this translate for us here and now?
How are we doing with exercising our own faith and trust in Jesus?
Maybe we too haven’t gotten the lesson perfect
the first time out of the boat!
Maybe we have felt that the spectacular demonstrations of faith
were only for back then with the disciples
or with the great saints of history.
Maybe we have to admit that we are not feeling ready or capable
of stepping out onto water.
We get pulled back into habitual ways of looking at things,
of perspective, of defining reality.
We are not yet habituated to the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven,
with all its absurdity and abundance.
What are the times when we really need to get out the boat
of our constricted perspectives?
That is the question to ponder
Another question to ask would be,
what are the wind and waves in your lives
that you may be creating for yourself
that are inhibiting and hijacking your faith?
Sometimes in the life of a faith community
it doesn’t have to be huge waves and wind,
it can be a tiny ripple, such as a thought that judges another.
Something as small as:
“They” didn’t put this back where it belongs.
“They” didn’t do this the way it should have been done.
We are creating our own waves for ourselves,
when we afflict ourselves with such thoughts.
Instead – what if the Spirit established a new awareness,
a new habit of perception,
such as in how we trust one another,
valuing relationship over opinion,
opening to each other and in care for one another.
That reflects the different perspective of living in the Kingdom of God.
It’s all a matter of perspective, of perceiving reality,
reality unclouded by our doubts and fears.
God bless Peter.
Even though he didn’t get it perfect first time out,
or second or third time, as seems to be the case
from other subsequent stories about Peter’s stumblings,
he is still encouragement to us to get out of the boat
where we may have the illusion of safety,
and walk by faith
trusting that Jesus is just as present for us,
reaching out his hand in the sweetest of love and abundant mercy.
