If you want to walk on water...

If you have a really good memory you might remember that we’ve been this way before. March last year to be precise. Just after we’d done the floor and bought the chairs. I said then and I’ll say it again now, “It can’t stop here.”

It can’t stop here because there is much yet to do. Not just the buildings, but the ministry and mission of the church. It can’t stop here, because there are people in our communities that are far from God, and they need our help to find their way into his arms. It can’t stop here, because God isn’t finished yet.

Paul reminds us that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

It’s not finished yet.

Walking on the water

We’re back in the boat again and we’re back in a storm. Maybe not as fierce as the earlier storm, but this time Jesus is not on the boat. This time, he’s on the mountainside praying. According to Mark he sees what is happening and the compassion of Jesus seems to get the better of him and he walks across the lake to pass them by.

It’s Matthew who tells us about Peter and his step of faith. It’s Matthew who tells us about the worship and the exclamation, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Peter’s question

Is it you Lord?

They all thought they’d seen a ghost, so it seems quite reasonable to check it out. You’d expect Peter to ask, “Is it you Lord?” But actually he doesn’t. He doesn’t actually ask a question. What Peter actually says is: “If it’s you, call me to come to you on the water.”

Jesus called his disciples and trained them to carry on the work he began. When Peter says call me out, it’s because he wants to be like Jesus. If the master walks on water, then the disciple must be willing to follow. The point is not the walking on the water, it’s the willingness to follow.

Water-Walking and being like Jesus

If the point is not walking on water but the willingness to follow, what’s the connection with being a disciple?

Clearly the first connection is a willing heart and a willing mind. Peter could have sat in the boat and said, “My heart is willing Lord, I’ll come to you on the water if you really want me to, but I know it’s my heart that’s really important. He could add, “And I know in my head that’s it’s possible too.” But is that enough? Is it okay simply to believe but not act on those beliefs? To be a disciple means to be a follower, which means we have to get up and go.

You can’t follow Jesus from an armchair.

For Peter, getting out of the boat was an act of a true disciple wanting to become more like his master.

Walter-walking and faith

It takes faith to get out of the boat.

But what kind of faith? How much faith? Perhaps the key to Peter’s faith, and to his failing faith, is that Jesus calls him to follow, to become like him, to walk on the water because that’s what he’s supposed to do. Perhaps the issue isn’t Peter’s lack of faith in Jesus but his lack of faith in Jesus transforming him into a whole-hearted follower. You will do greater things than this, Jesus once told them. The point is not walking on water.

Am I more like Jesus now that I was a year ago, two years ago? Am I more able to do what Jesus wants me to do? Am I ready to step out of the boat and follow him wherever that might take me? I am probably more ready for this than I realise.

Options

#1 Stay in the boat

Of course you could stay in the boat. Declare yourself “not ready” to take this step. But Jesus believes in you. If you listen carefully you might hear him whisper, “You’re ready for this.”
If there had been the proverbial English disciple in the boat that night, they would have come up with at least half a dozen reasons for not getting out of the boat, and another half dozen when they saw Peter begin to sink. “See, I told you that would happen, we were never meant to walk on water, it’s impossible”, would have been their contribution. Eleven disciples thought that way too. Peter risked everything, they risked Peter.

Maybe Jesus is calling you to do something that’s never been done before? It’s risky, it will mean getting your feet wet. But will you listen to his voice and step out of the boat?
He believes in you.

O you of little faith may not have anything to do with whether you believe enough in Jesus, it might have more to say about whether you believe in his call to you to do the things he did.

#2 Get out of the boat

Easier said than done. And once you’re out you get a better view of the storm. In the boat you can feel the waves moving the boat around, now it’s directly in contact with your feet. You and thousands of gallons of shifting water. And then there’s the wind and the rain. So hard, you can hardly see a thing. On the boat you’re preoccupied with looking after the boat, stopping it facing the wrong way on the waves, looking out for rocks, pulling on oars and sails. Working with the team. Out on the water all you can see is the storm.

It’s hard on the boat, it’s even harder on the water.

It takes courage to get out of the boat.

Without courage you’ll stay in the boat. Fear will keep you there. Fear of the storm, fear of the unknown, fear of the apparently impossible. Courage doesn’t take away fear, it overcomes it. Courage tells fear that it cannot set the agenda. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s moving ahead in spite of your fear.

Every time I get the opportunity to share something of my faith with others I can feel my tongue trying to twist itself into some version of knot. You’d think it had just decided to join the boy scouts and is desperate to get its knot-tying badge.

I worry about what words I will use, what I will say. How come all the people I ever talk with ask all the awkward questions and none of the easy ones for which I practised answers? I’d rather stay in my boat, but I know that Jesus wants me out there on the water.

So out I get.

What’s your boat?

Whatever you’re particular boat looks like I know one thing about it. It’s safe. Relatively safe anyway.

Caught up in a storm you know about your boat, you know how it handles, you know how to steer it. You don’t know about water-walking. Your boat is the safest place you know in a storm, but Jesus calls you to get out of your boat, even in the storm and walk on the water.

Do you want to walk on water?

Imagine the scene. You’re sitting around a fire having shared a meal with your friends. Some of those friends are the people who spent three whole years in close company with Jesus. “Tell us a story about the Lord”, someone asks, and one of the disciples obliges and begins to describe the night when they got caught in a storm on the lake. They talk about the fierceness of the storm, they talk about the struggle to stay in control of the boat. They describe the waves and their first thoughts when they see a figure coming towards the boat appearing to be walking on the churning water.

They mimic Peter’s voice as he calls out, “Lord, if it’s you call me to come to you.” And they talk about the scene as Peter steps out of the boat and all that happens.

At then end of the story someone asks, “What’s it like to walk on water?” And out of the eleven people who were in the boat that night, only one knows the answer.

I don’t want to stay in the boat.

I want to get out and walk on the water.

I want to know the answer.

I want to know what it feels like to walk on water.