Last week I thought I was worshipping at St Andrew’s, this week I really am! It was wonderful to be with the people of All Saints last week! Do join me at Clayhidon at 10am, and stay for refreshments afterwards.

It’s another wonderful story, not a parable, a fictional story for teaching, but a real life miracle story. It’s also a well known and much loved passage. Jesus walks on water and encourages Peter to join him. It’s all very dramatic, at first the disciples think they have seen a ghost, then realising it is Jesus, Peter follows him and is astounded when he realises that he too is doing the impossible. At that point he begins to sink, and Jesus has to rescue him.

So often we consider the disciples in the boat, and how, if we are to have such adventures of faith we also need to step out of the boat. Or, we might find ourselves encouraged by Peter who always seems to start out well, and then flounders.

Perhaps we might focus on those words of Jesus to Peter,

You of little faith, why did you doubt?

Matthew 14: 31

We read this as an admonition, Jesus is telling Peter off for not having enough faith, and yet Peter is the only one who trusted Jesus enough to get his feet wet, the only one who experienced walking on water, the only one who Jesus reached out and saved from drowning.

Perhaps Jesus isn’t telling Peter off for not having enough faith, but encouraging him to grow the faith he has. After all he will need faith that can move mountains in times to come.

Peter walks on water. Peter’s ‘little faith’ isn’t something to be sneered at, Peter’s little faith sees him climb out of the boat and walk towards God. Little faith? It seems pretty big to me, so I am left thinking, if this faith that enables Peter to walk on water is ‘little’ how big will his faith grow? Is that what Jesus is seeing as he pulls him up as he starts to sink, and secures him back in the boat? Not the little faith of now, but the faith he will grow into?

And I am also thinking that Peter may have had ‘little faith’ but it is more than the other disciples had, the ones who are still cowering in the boat, still thinking Jesus is a ghost, perhaps; perhaps laughing at Peter for sinking? Peter may have had ‘little faith’ but it wasn’t no faith. Peter believed that if Jesus could walk on water, so could he, and he did. ‘Oh you of little faith’, you did it! You walked on water!

Jesus walked on water. Jesus is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the waters above the sky and under the sky, and said,

Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures… so God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm.

Genesis 1: 20-21

Jesus is Creator and Master of all, including the great sea monsters. Jesus is more powerful even than Leviathan. Jesus walks on water because he has dominion over the seas and the creatures of the sea. Peter is a fisherman by trade, and his aim is to keep himself in the boat. He knows, as do the other three fishermen who have remained on board, that the water can be dangerous. He also knows, as all Jewish boys knew, that evil and danger lived under the sea. As Jesus walks on water he indicates that he has dominion over all that lurks out of sight, the demons of the dark. When Jesus invites Peter to join him, he is inviting him into that dominion. One day soon, he will give Peter the keys to the kingdom. This isn’t just a walk, just anther miracle, this is a foretelling. And Peter does all this with just a little faith.

Despite all this, Peter sinks. Peter looses sight of Jesus, Peter stops seeing himself as Jesus does and remembers that he is a fisherman scared of going under, and as he does, he begins to sink. Jesus knows this will happen, just as he knows that one day, Peter who was prepared to die for Jesus, Peter who drew his sword and cut off the servant’s ear, will falter in his ‘little faith’ and deny even knowing Jesus; and when he does, Jesus will reach out and stop him from sinking. Peter is the one Jesus has chosen, and together, briefly, they walk on water, with just a little faith.

Jesus liked small things. He spoke about mustard seeds, and microscopic elements of yeast, he praised children and called them to him. Jesus isn’t rebuking Peter for the size of his faith. He is encouraging him.

‘Why are you so full of doubt?’ Jesus asks him, ‘when you have this little faith which enables you to walk on water’. ‘Little faith’ is not a condemnation, but an encouragement. What is your ‘little faith’? Do not be ashamed of it, be encouraged by it. Your faith is a gift of God, and the more you use it, the larger it will grow.

You can read the full story here.