MT 14: 22-36

Matthew in the Margins…10th S. After Pentecost…Revised 2017

Jesus eventually gets the quiet time He missed out on last week! Now, He sends the crowds home, & sends even His disciples back across to the other side of the lake. If we don't engage with God in the silence, deeply & meaningfully, can we ever be well enough prepared to engage with others? As Jesus makes Himself available to others then, & us, now? As when Jesus feeds the crowds last week, when we make time & space apart, we find when God fills, God fills!

We can rationalise the walking on water miracle if we want: bad light, shallow water low tide, sand bar, etc., but note v. 24! (I once read of a tourist spot in Israel where a jetty’s been built just below the waterline so tourists can walk where Jesus walked!) Or we can accept, teasing as it may be, that God-in-Jesus does what God's got to do, & does whatever it is when & where God’s got to do it! The same goes for us!

If Jesus can't walk on water, neither can Peter! Not even briefly! Whatever we preach about Peter's role in the story, at least credit him with getting out of the boat! Preach the positive! Would I have ventured out there? I very much doubt it! Are there other 'boats' representing relative safety, we mightn’t want to get out of to 'walk to Jesus' across today’s stormy seas? Jesus, John’s ‘In-the-Beginning-Word’, can still bring order out of chaos. Bring good to birth out of the most unlikely situations. When we trust Him! Let it happen His way.

Peter’s big ‘If’ (v.28) is right up there with the biggest of life’s ‘Ifs & Buts’. Let’s not draw too hard & fast lines between our 'physical' situation & our ‘spiritual’. Nor twixt the things of heaven & those of earth, as those of us with Celtic back-grounds may appreciate. Where are our own fears seated? And the fears of those to whom we're preaching? Of those we’re called to pastor? God really can reach out to save us from our demons, no matter what deep water we’re trying to tread! Providing we first call to Him to call to us. More, we can always count on Him reaching out a hand to save us as He does for Peter, & Peter himself later goes on to do for others.

Did that terra-firma at Gennesaret feel good under their feet, or didn't it! We can find God in Jesus in all kinds of places, situations, needs. Remember, though, that God has always found us before we realise we’re lost, or in danger of being so! Touching the fringe of His cloak' sounds a bit superstitious today. Can we recognise, though, lots of folk on today’s ‘Gennesaret' shores? Those who feel as close as they can get is only ‘touching the fringe of God’s cloak’ as it were. People who feel they can’t, or shouldn’t, or just plain don't want to touch God. If, that is, God, in some form, exists for them. Let’s accept & welcome anyone who does attempt ‘touching God’s hem’ if that’s the best they can manage at this point. Their very attempt may be the start of something bigger!