Much of the literature and most of the sermons on this lesson focus on the miraculous nature of the event. Very few try to peer through to the meaning.

The reason that so few people are spending the time to understand the lesson rather than merely trying to convince themselves that this event is believable is that most clergy and interpreters have been trained to explain the faith to the world around them. We’ve become what is technically called “Apologists” for our beliefs.

But the issue with that is that it leaves us little to say to people who have been given the gift of Faith by the action of Holy Spirit in their lives. And for those people – which I trust includes the overwhelming majority of you listening to me talk this morning – the fact that you are not the typical audience that a preacher is trained to preach to leads to a weekly diet of pretty thin gruel.

So I’m going to do something different this morning than perhaps you’re used to hearing when this lesson comes up in the lectionary rotation. I’m not going to deal with the question of did Jesus actually walk on the water, or the question of how he did it. Instead I’m going to take that all as a given, and speak as one who believes to others who believe.

You can go directly to the sermon video page here.