Prejudice Against Miracles

A prejudice against any sort of miracle may be a buried uncertainty about the unfolding presence and action of the Creator, about that burning intensity of divine action that is always around us. It may reflect a version of the watchmaker image, a world wound up by God long ago and ticking steadily on, uninterrupted. (Rowan Williams)

Walking on Water

Pentecost 13, August 10, 2008. Sermon preached at Holy Innocents. The reading was Matt 14:22-36, Jesus walking on the water.

The thinking behind this sermon began with the simple point of not getting lost in the miracles of Jesus. Some people get very excited about the miracles of Jesus to the extent that he becomes something more like a pagan wonder worker. We must remember that the miracles were a significant part of the ministry of Jesus, not the totality of or key to his ministry. And we should also remember that for all of us miracles will account for a very small percentage of our total life experience. if Jesus is going to be important in your life it will be because he meshes with the other 99% of it that is non-miraculous.

But this then led me further. Sometimes it is possible to lose the point of the miracles of Jesus because of the miraculous. Take Jesus walking on the water today. The point of the miracle is not that Jesus proves he is divine because he is able to suspend the laws of nature. That is not the point. Some make it the point because they have in their sights an atheistic scientism that tries to lock God out of our lives. The way to respond to that ideology is not by making this miracle into an anomaly for science.

The point of this miracle is deeply theological. In this regard two points to note. First, the sea and what it represents in biblical terms as chaos over which God's sovereignty is exerted. (See, for example, Gen 1:1-10; Job 9:8; Ps 144:7; Dan7; Mk 5:13; Rom 6:3-4; Rev 13.) The sea is a place of chaos, demons, fear and possible death. And Jesus can walk on it and control it just as God does. (See also Matt 8:23-27.) Second, the great "I AM" that Jesus uses to identify himself. (Matt 14:27) The translation just has him say, "It is I." But we lose the force of the Greek which is an echo of the name of God from the Old Testament" I AM. (See Exod 3:14; Isa 51:12; see also John 6:35; 8:58; 10:11; 11:25; 15:1)

With this background the point of the miracle becomes clearer. By walking on the water, and claiming to himself the great I AM, Jesus is identified with the God of Israel, creator and saviour, the God who rules over the chaotic seas and brings life out of (Gen 1:20-21) and through the sea. (Exod 14:21-30). To get lost in the miracle as a suspension of the usual rules of science not only misses the point, is anachronistic, but also deflects us from the true meaning of the miracle!

And just in case we should miss the point, the gospel does a strange thing with this identification of Jesus with God. Yes, by walking on the waters of chaos Jesus shows himself to be imbued with the actual authority of God. But the gospel does not allow us to remain at the miracle as the point of recognising the true identity of Jesus. It is not enough. Indeed, it can lead to the wrong conclusion if we end up focusing on the proof of his divinity lying in breaking the rules (of nature). Jesus is divine, one with the creator and saviour of the world, and this will be displayed preeminently on the cross. The disciples struggled with this, as do most people staying away from church. [The miracle worker seems more comfortable, and perhaps more distant, indeed controllable: there when we need a miracle, the rest of the time back in heaven.] It is important to maintain the identity of Jesus on the cross with the Jesus of the miraculous walking on water because the God of creation and redemption will bring both to their fulfillment in the cross of Jesus.

Walking on Water (Kids' Talk)

Pentecost 13, August 10, 2008. Kids' Talk delivered at Holy Innocents. The reading was Matt 14:22-36, Jesus walking on the water.


If I pick up this heavy box, do you think I prove myself to be God? (Get some answers, then lift it. Make the box empty, but put on a face, just so you don't do your back in!)


I did it! So am i God? No. What would I have to do to prove I was God? (See what they say.) Move a mountain, change the colour of my car by clicking my fingers, walking on water, feeding 5000 people from one loaf of bread? (Get answers as you go.) The first disciples recognised Jesus as God because he walked on water.


What about dying on a cross? Cross on the one hand, and walking on water on the other. Which one. (Weigh it up in front of them. Both! Most people can see the first, but the second is just, even more true.

The Bible says the cross. God might be able to do pretty special tricks and they impress, but dying on a cross for us, now that shows Jesus really was God.

Feeding the 5000 (Kids' Talk)

Kids' Talk, Pentecost 12, Aug 3 2008. Reading is Matt 14:13-21.

Have chalice with cruet of wine and paten with host sitting in front of you.
Start with the refrain: when you think of Jesus, think of God.

Then...

Do you know what it is like to feel hungry? ... How does it feel? ...

Tell story of feeding.(Break the host as you tell the bit about Jesus distributing the bread.) Points to emphasise:

• crowd
• Jesus' compassion for their hunger
• not enough food to go around (miss by a mile)
• Jesus makes it enough and feeds everybody
• with tons left over!

What could this story mean? Possible answers:

• Jesus didn't want the people to be hungry, and given the refrain above, God doesn't want people to be hungry
• Jesus fed the people, God feeds us
• when Jesus feeds there is always enough to go around

Point to chalice and paten: like at the eucharist, Jesus feeds us because God doesn't want us to be hungry, and there is always enough to go around, and even more people could come to be fed.

Feeding the 5000

[Sermon for Pentecost 12, August 1, 2008 @ Belair. The reading was Matthew 14:13-21.)

What did you notice in the reading? The miracle is pretty hard not to notice! I'm not one of those who in principle disbelieves in the possibility of miracles. That Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes seems possible to me. But it in this case is is easy to let the miraculous take us away from the point of the miracle.

Some things to notice about the story:

• the compassion of Jesus leads him to heal and feed
• the disciples thought there were just too many people to feed from their meagre resources
• Jesus asks the disciples what they have. 'Just this little bit' is their reply.
• the eucharistic overtones of the feeding (Jesus takes, looks to heaven, blesses, breaks, and gives; see Matt 26:26)
• the huge amount left over

There was so little to share, but in the end so many more could have been fed! A recurring theme in the Bible:

• the mustard seed (Matt 13:31-32)
• the yeastin the loaf (Matt 13:33)
• a cup of cold water will get the reward (Matt 10:42)

But pre-eminently, the cross of Jesus. The defeat of a peasant by the might of Rome, yet a defeat that saves not only those who directly sinned by crucifying and deserting him, but the whole world.

And a recurring theme in the history of Christianity:

• St Francis of Assisi
• Charles de Foucauld
• Brother Roger of Taize

But they are famous examples. What about putting yourself in that list? What about putting this church in that list? Have you ever felt that, in comparison to the world's needs you are just five little loaves and two fish? Of course.

Now continue the story. Christ takes the loaves and fish, blesses, breaks, and distributes. And all are fed, and it turns out more could have been fed.

Does it feel like I am stretching the story a bit? Not really. Think about what we are about to do at the Eucharist. We will say that we are the body of Christ, then we will, at the altar, take bread, bless it, break it,and distribute it. We, the body of Christ will receive the body of Christ; we will eat it, it will become one with us. At the end of the service we will say, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In the name of Christ. Amen." We are that bread, we are that body in the world.

Today it doesn't perhaps matter all that much whether you believe this miracle happened or not. What is of real interest is whether you think you could be that miracle, the church you are part of could be that miracle, taken, blessed, broken, distributed, with much left over.