(A sermon for Mark 6:45-52 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, July 27-28, 2024)

Four Sundays ago, we heard the Gospel story of how Jesus revived the daughter of the synagogue leader and said the comforting words, “do not fear, just believe.”

Since then, we’ve heard about Jesus commissioning his twelve disciples which led to a great many followers, culminating in them feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes.

After this, Jesus sent the twelve that evening to go to Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee, while He stayed behind to pray alone. In the morning, as the twelve struggled against the wind, Jesus appeared to them. He walked across the water, got into the boat, and the wind ceased.

Mark’s account is that the disciples were still not fully grasping what they were witnessing. Even though they were dedicated followers of Jesus and just witnessed the feeding of the multitudes, the disciples were still ‘hard of heart’. And then they watched this man walk on water, and as the wind coincidentally and serendipitously ceased, he said to them, “Take heart, it is I, have no fear”.

So four weeks later in the lectionary, Jesus is once again saying, “have no fear”. And this time it’s not a recounting of someone else’s pain. It is a recounting of the disciples’ pain and fear. And what we witness is their gradual learning.

Today, to be a Christian, there’s a very laid out path either through a creed or a confession. But for these twelve apostles, there was no road map. There was no manual. There was _ what we now know as the Old Testament. But nobody had ever been an apostle of the true messiah before.

Putting myself in their shoes, if I had decided to follow Jesus and I had just witnessed the feeding of 5000 people, I can see myself thinking _ did I really witness this? And then I’m in this boat because He told me to, and it’s a rough ride (let alone I’m not a good swimmer and it predates life preservers) and then Jesus comes walking across the water and says “don’t be afraid”.

Guess what folks. I would be beyond afraid at this point. I’m not only afraid; I’m questioning my sanity. I’m the “Doubting Thomas” times a zillion.

So I wonder, why does Jesus make such a spectacle? Why did He need to walk on water? Why didn’t He just calm the sea from a vantage point where He could do that and not be seen? Or maybe He could have pulled alongside them in a bigger boat with a bunch of friends to help out?

I think what we’re hearing here is not the tale of a show-off, or the tale of a Superman floating across the water with a red cape, and a “J” on his chest.

This is the story of God giving another example to the human race that He exists, that He exists in His son, and that He loves us and wants to protect us. And that we should not be afraid.

So let us take comfort in that notion.

That said, I know sometimes following God is a bit of a mystery. We wish for a hero to save the day. We wish for someone, anyone, to change the weather OR the things we’re troubled by. We wish for someone to calm the stormy seas in our lives.

What we get is a God who created us to have free will, and with that comes a multitude of possibilities from the choices we make. And from there, despite that we run into stormy seas, or we have negative experiences in life, God is assuring us that fear is not something we have to subscribe to.

So why let us have free will or fear in the first place? Why doesn’t he just calm the seas all the time? Why doesn’t he just come with a bigger boat all the time? But maybe He does come with a bigger boat all the time, and maybe it’s just too big to see.

You’ll find in every Book of Common Prayer on page 855, that the mission of the Episcopal Church is to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ”. Imagine what the success of that mission would look like. I imagine it to be a boat so high you can’t get over it, so low you can’t get under it, and so wide you can’t get around it. In other words, it is a really big boat.

So Jesus walking on water may seem like a strange way to get his apostles’ attention. But He knew they could not see the whole boat yet. So he gave them a keyhole to look through. He gave them something smaller _ a man walking on water.

So, what has God done to get your attention, and what does He show you? Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter if it’s through a keyhole, or if you’re standing at the dock next to the whole big boat. What does matter is, do you want to look? Do you take the free will that God gave you and look?

Then when you do look, look without fear, or hardness of heart.

Look _ as you heard St. Paul today say to the Ephesians, “with patience, forbearing one another in love”, and “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.