Troubled waters

Matthew 14: 22-33

"Jesus went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone, but by this time the boat battered by the waves, was far from land and the wind was against them."

That boat carried the first disciples, that first Christian community and it was sailing through troubled waters until Jesus came to them walking on water. Whatever the origins and history of this story it is certain that the primitive church saw in the story, a metaphor for their present predicament.

They must have felt that the wind was against them as they suffered persecution, imprisonment, even martyrdom from a hostile world and there was also internal disagreement within the developing Christian community over relationships and expectations between Jews and Gentiles for that emerging faith. No wonder they wanted to hear the words of Jesus walking on those troubled waters and bringing calm as he said "Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid".

The presence of the risen Lord was vital for that first community. That presence, often understood as the power of the Holy Spirit, was what brought hope in the face of such violence and antagonism, it bought calm when there seemed to be only chaos and peace when all around seemed so troubled.
When the ship of that early Church was battered by forces of its opponents, they held on to the presence of the living Christ among them. They knew that despite all the chaos around them, God's spirit was guiding them.

I sometimes think that not much has changed in 2000 years. The boat, that is the Church, is still in troubled and turbulent waters and the wind is still against us as we are battered by the forces of secularism and materialism. We may not face violence and persecution, but in the so called developed part of the world we face mockery and cynicism. In many places of influence in the West the Church is dismissed as irrelevant. So often in the media what the Church means to say and tries to share is misheard and misrepresented. The wind is certainly against us. And the troubled waters are whipped up even further by disagreements and divisions within the community of faith.

The storms that have surrounded the Anglican Communion of Churches do not seem to have been abated by the Lambeth Conference. The troubles and divisions still exist. There has been no resolution. Nor should we expect there to be. But there was progress and for me, that was reflected in an incident that I heard about where in a small group of Bishops talking together about their differences, an American bishop apologised to an African bishop for the damage his church had caused to the mission of his diocese by the appointment of an openly homosexual bishop. In parts of Africa the opponents of Christianity had labelled the Anglican Church as the homosexual Church and in that African culture it was very damaging to the churches witness to Christ. Equally the African bishop apologised to the American bishop for not fully understanding their position and for condemning their actions so forcefully as being anti-Christian. It seems to me what happened in that group was that in the troubled waters they had recognised the presence of Christ in each other and the anger had abated even if the differences of opinion and interpretation were still as strong as ever. It is as we go through the difficulties and troubles of life, when the sea of life is very rough that we meet the God who loves us and calls us, that we recognise the presence and peace of Christ with us.

We cannot avoid the storm, we cannot do a detour and keep to calm waters. We have to sail through the storm and face honestly and openly the turbulence and the hardships of keeping faith in a hostile world and we discover that in the midst of the storm, Jesus is saying to us "Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid."

What is true for the community of faith is equally true for individual Christians. None of us can avoid the storms of life. For many it perhaps feels we are never in calm waters. The difficult decisions and choices are always with us. The doubts and uncertainties seem to overtake us. Peter stepping out of the boat in many ways represents us. Like Peter, we want to be like Jesus, we want to have faith that with God all things are possible. We want to believe. We want to be alongside the risen Lord conquering the storms of life. We want to have faith that will move mountains but the troubled waters, the doubts and uncertainties threaten to overwhelm us. And it is the Christ who holds out his hand for us, who is alongside us, who keeps our head above water. It is the Christ who helps us back into the boat so that we can support each other through our troubles and doubts. We may, like Peter, be people of little faith but Christ still rescues us, still calms the sea and quietens the storm.

I read a story in last Friday's Church Times of a North London Parish that went on holiday to the seaside and every day went down to the beach to pray. And they faced the sea for their prayers for that was where their troubles lay in those disturbed waters. The reality is that the difficulties and doubts of life will still be with them when they return to North London. We all sail through turbulent times but Jesus who walked on water, the risen Christ who is present and alongside us, and the God who loves us, continually rescues us and brings us to calmer water where we may discover peace and acceptance. Jesus says to us, "Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid".