Trinity 12
By Mark Oakley, Sunday 10th August, 2008
One of the secrets about me that you may not know, but which I shall let you into just before I leave, is that I love musicals. I love nothing more than chorus lines, foot tapping, spotlights and big finales. And in my last church, known as the Actors’ church, I once worked with an excellent drama school in producing the musical Jesus Christ Superstar in the church for a week. It was great – talking through the gospel story with the actors, and then seeing them bring that story to 2000 young people, and to see Jesus in the story set up the last supper in front of the altar and be whipped in front of the silver cross. It was an amazing experience. The churchwardens only got nervous at the dry ice needed for Gethsemane. And those of you who know that musical will remember the song that King Herod sings when Jesus is brought before him. He wants Jesus to perform for him to prove he is who they say he is and in a 1920s type number sings “Prove to me that your divine, turn my water into wine”. And then my favourite line: “Prove to me that you’re no fool, walk across my swimming pool”.
Now, the story we just heard of Jesus walking on the water can be understood in King Herod terms and then Jesus becomes a sort of spook or magician, someone who could be booked for your children’s birthday party. It is therefore the sort of story that many people will say stops them from taking religion seriously. They can learn from the teachings of Jesus but these fantastical stories about him leave them cold and sceptical.
So lets try and take ourselves back 2000 years to try and uncover how the first hearers of this story would have reacted to see whether there can be overlaps with our own response today.
In the Middle East of Jesus’ day and before, the sea was especially associated with evil powers and chaos. A sea monster called Rahab personified this. In later Jewish religion the sea was one of the places where demons lived, which is why in the famous story of the Demoniac and the Pigs the demons go back to their proper place in the sea. In fact, in the story we just heard what Jesus says to the storm is exactly what he says to the Demoniac, literally, “ be muzzled”. Just like in Genesis where God brings order over the waters, so peace is created by Jesus.
The first Jewish heroes of this story would have heard so many overtones from their tradition. I’ll give you an example from the psalms, which are of the course the hymn book of Jesus’s contemporaries. Psalm 107 says this, “some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wonderous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths and their courage melted away in their calamity. They staggered like drunkards and were at their wits end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he brought them out from their distress. He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed.”
Only God rules the waves, only God controls the uncontrollable powers. So when that question is asked, who is this that even wind and sea obey him? The answer is clear. Jesus is the goodness of God walking on the earth, Immanuel, God with us.
You might also have noted that it says that Jesus intended to pass them by which seems to make little sense when we’ve been told that he set out to walk towards them. It begins to make sense though in the light of a number of passages in the Jewish scriptures where God reveals himself in passing by his people, people such as Moses to whom God said, “I will make all my goodness pass by you and I will proclaim before you my name – YHWH.”
That name of the Lord YHWH might be translated “I am” and it is no accident that having passed by them on the water what Jesus says to the terrified disciples is not, “it is I” but literally in the Greek “take heart, have no fear, I am”.
Remember too that the first hearers of the story were Christians facing political hostility and persecution. In face of danger they may have felt that they were going under and that Christ was slow to act. This story would have reminded them that though their boat of faith was being knocked about, as long as Jesus was in their midst there was no need to be afraid. They needed to hear his words, “I am”. The story of Peter which is only in Matthew’s version perhaps spells this out more. His faith falters and he has to call on the Lord to restore it. Through storms we cling to our conviction that God is God and that he is able to bring us through.
This is a rich story then, full of overtone, reference, and insight. It is not a story about Jesus the magician. It is exactly the opposite. This was a story that laid out in no uncertain terms the early conviction of Christians, that in Jesus God himself was encountered. Jesus is God’s body-language, his self-portrait, his musical expression in life that invites us to play and become a part of the harmony. It is a story that also teaches that in all our confusions and chaos, whether they be from outside in the world and daily living, or inside in the mind or heart, when we feel we are sinking, those words I AM bring a peace and serenity to the human self that it can find no place else. The divine name assures us of the divine presence.
Two examples of this made the news this week. The first was Alexander Solzhenitsyn who has died, who was taught to pray by a fellow prisoner in a Soviet gulag. And the second story was to be reminded on the Olympic gold medallist, Eric Liddell, who later worked as a missionary in China. Imprisoned by the Japanese in 1943, Churchhill successfully petitioned for his eventual release but Liddell instead gave his place to a pregnant woman. Malnourished and beaten, he died 2 months later. A fellow prisoner later recalled that Liddell had given him two things to look after before he died – his pair of worn out running shoes and what he called his “baton of forgiveness”. Two men who continued listening to and hoping in the divine presence even in the worst storms.
I am going to end with a prayer today, written by St Augustine in the 5th century:
“Blessed are all thy saints, O God and King, who have travelled over the tempestuous sea of this mortal life, and have made the harbour of peace and felicity. Watch over us who are still in our dangerous voyage;and remember those who lie exposed to the rough storms of trouble and temptation. Frail is our vessel,and the ocean is wide; but as in thy mercy you have set our course, so steer the vessel of our life towards the everlasting shore of peace, and bring us at last to the quiet haven of our heart’s desire,where thou, O God, art blessed and livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.”
