'Take heart, it is I: do not be afraid.’
Some of you will know that my wife Penny is very keen on labyrinths and, indeed, a qualified labyrinth facilitator. So, when we were priests in Toowoomba, she wondered about building one in the heart of the city, in the grounds of St Luke’s. One of our churchwardens was sympathetic, but amazed and \concerned. Aware of Toowoomba’s conservative religious reputation, she said that: ‘if you can do that, well, you can walk on water!’ Miracles do happen. So, if you happen to be in Toowoomba, do check out the city labyrinth: built with the assistance not only of the local church, but also, the participation of others, not least the Pure Land Buddhist community (who helped access and pay for stone from China). Indeed, the labyrinth was launched with a wonderful multi-cultural and multi-faith ceremony, including dancing and singing from local Muslim men. And yes, there was some reaction, including one protestor at the launch – bless his misplaced heart. He had produced a handwritten cardboard sign with an odd selection of biblical verses. For, as the whole story of Jesus shows us, living by faith, with expansive love, rarely comes easy. However, Penny’s miracle still occurred. For the truth of Gospel faith is that, whenever we are called into walking on water, we can always take heart: even when we are deeply challenged, let us not be afraid...
Some of you will know that my wife Penny is very keen on labyrinths and, indeed, a qualified labyrinth facilitator. So, when we were priests in Toowoomba, she wondered about building one in the heart of the city, in the grounds of St Luke’s. One of our churchwardens was sympathetic, but amazed and \concerned. Aware of Toowoomba’s conservative religious reputation, she said that: ‘if you can do that, well, you can walk on water!’ Miracles do happen. So, if you happen to be in Toowoomba, do check out the city labyrinth: built with the assistance not only of the local church, but also, the participation of others, not least the Pure Land Buddhist community (who helped access and pay for stone from China). Indeed, the labyrinth was launched with a wonderful multi-cultural and multi-faith ceremony, including dancing and singing from local Muslim men. And yes, there was some reaction, including one protestor at the launch – bless his misplaced heart. He had produced a handwritten cardboard sign with an odd selection of biblical verses. For, as the whole story of Jesus shows us, living by faith, with expansive love, rarely comes easy. However, Penny’s miracle still occurred. For the truth of Gospel faith is that, whenever we are called into walking on water, we can always take heart: even when we are deeply challenged, let us not be afraid...
feeling fear - and yet...
'Take heart, it is I: do not be afraid': these words of Jesus are key to today’s Gospel story. Can we live into them? Let me ask a couple of questions to help us with that: with becoming living miracles, even when our moorings are torn away, as when we too are all at sea.
Firstly, who feels like Peter, and the other disciples, in today’s story? Put your hand up, if so… That is surely all of us, if we are honest, at various moments in our lives. Fear, after all, is natural: fear of the unknown; fear of loss and hurt; fear of what might happen; fear even of trying to take hold of new life when it is possible, or offered to us.
What a challenge eh? Can we, to use Susan Jeffries’ famous phrase: ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’? Can we, as Jesus put it, ‘take heart’ and ‘not be afraid’? That is our Gospel invitation, and it is based on who we truly are: on being and becoming love, and not living in fear. For my second question is: how many of us have walked on water? And how many of us have seen others do so? Put up your hand if you can say yes… All of us should be able to do that. For do I mean literally walking on water? No, not necessarily, but who knows what is possible in extremis. I certainly mean, metaphorically, how many of us have walked on water in all kinds of ways - for example: doing something we, or others, thought impossible or unimaginable; moving through very uncertain times and places; or taking steps into the completely unknown?...
I think the answer, in that sense, is that all of us have walked, or will walk, on water.
miracles of love
‘Take heart… do not be afraid’. Part of walking on water is recognising that we are not only born to perform miracles of love, but that we are, by our very nature, miracles of love. After all, none of us knows where we came from before we were born. Each of us is a miracle of grace. And each of us is an extraordinary unique being, with an immense variety of characteristics between us. So, if we are, by nature, miracles of divine love, created by grace and not fear, should we not live as miracles of love, by grace and not fear?
According to today’s Gospel, Jesus certainly thought that all of us can live as miracles of love, and walk on water. For the point of the story is not simply to affirm the loving power of God in Jesus, and to contrast the struggles of the disciples. Nor is it to set Jesus against nature, or to separate God from ordinary life. Rather, our Gospel story is written to encourage all of us to take courage, to trust, and thereby know God in the very midst of the greatest uncertainties and deepest challenges of our lives: miracles of love, even when all of our moorings are lost and we feel altogether lost at sea.
losing our moorings
Isn’t that truly a Gospel, good news, for us, and for our times? For life can be terribly challenging – can’t it? – whether for us as individuals, or as a community, or as part of our world as a whole. What is on each of our hearts today, I wonder? Perhaps some, or parts of us, are feeling strong and energetic, like Peter initially: able to step out, and even leap forward, in the face of uncertainties. However, many of us are carrying, or struggling with, things which are threatening to overwhelm us, filling us with fears and doubts, even to the point that we feel we are about to drown. Any of us who are part of this community of faith are likely to be feeling like that, in the face of what has happened to Christian. Some of us, of course, so, so much more deeply. Meanwhile, we live in a time of very disturbing seas and a lack of shared moorings: in a world which is jettisoning hard-earned rights and deep wisdom for the politics of fear and brute force. No wonder the image of walking on water is so challenging and sadly appropriate today. If we feel that our moorings are lost and we are all at sea, in the midst of a terrible storm, that is exactly the reality into which our Gospel story is speaking.
wisdom from Julian of Norwich
How are we to walk on water today? In addition to its oppressive uses, one of the great tragedies of much religion is when faith is used to offer false comfort, and, still more, false security in the face of the storms and uncertainties of life. For true faith is not about security or not knowing fear and doubt. Gospel faith is not about those things, nor so much about belief. It is rather about trust, however insecure our lives and world are, however real our fears and doubts are. The great English mystic, Julian of Norwich, out of her own considerable sufferings, put it well: “God, did not say, ‘You shall not be tormented, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be grieved’, but God said, ‘You shall not be overcome.'” In other words, like Peter in our Gospel story today, living out our faith is not about not fearing, flailing, and failing. It is about not allowing these things to determine, defeat, and drag us under. For we will not ultimately be overcome. As Julian of Norwich famously also expressed it: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
'it is I'
So, what helps us not to be overcome? What helps us to know and trust in that ultimate strength of divine love? What helps us to walk on water? For Christians, the answer lies at the heart of that key verse in today’s Gospel story: Take heart, it is I: do not be afraid.’ ‘It is I’: the presence of Christ in our midst, even when everything, including all our ordinary religious comforts, have utterly disappeared. ‘It is I’: not the words, the signs, the ordinary wonders of faith, but the ultimate, deep-down, reality. ‘It is I’: when everything else is gone; when we step out onto the waters of complete uncertainty, treading through apparently overwhelming suffering and fear. ‘It is I’…
We can walk on water. We know this because of the ‘I’ that lives in us, between us, beyond us: the awesome ‘I Am’ of God. who comes to us as much in fear and suffering, as in obvious gifts of joy and peace. The ‘I Will Be’, who transcends the waters of suffering and fear, bearing us up, typically unknown and unseen, but assuredly present and active with us. For, as the psalmist and the great Christian mystics put it, God is like a dazzling darkness. Sometimes we cannot figure everything, or even anything, out. Sometimes our fears and sufferings simply overwhelm. Yet, we can still trust and take the next step. As St Augustine of Hippo put it: in the face of the greatest storm, just sing Alleluia and keep on walking.
What helps us and others walk on water? We might like to reflect on those times we have walked on water, or seen others do so – overcoming what seemed like overwhelming obstacles. In doing so, perhaps we can then see something of how the ‘I’ of God is present with us, at all times, not least those of great struggle and uncertainty. Maybe we might also see this eucharistic space in those terms, with the labyrinth carpet beneath our feet like the Sea of Galilee. Then, as we come to share communion, we might take courage. For in our Gospel story today, in the bread and wine we share, and in one another, we may be uplifted once more as the miracles of love we truly are: in the courage and redeeming strength of the One who helps us bear our cross and walk upon the changing waters of life. Amen.
by Josephine Inkpin, Sunday 9 August 2026, Pentecost 11B, for Gosford Anglicans
'Take heart, it is I: do not be afraid': these words of Jesus are key to today’s Gospel story. Can we live into them? Let me ask a couple of questions to help us with that: with becoming living miracles, even when our moorings are torn away, as when we too are all at sea.
Firstly, who feels like Peter, and the other disciples, in today’s story? Put your hand up, if so… That is surely all of us, if we are honest, at various moments in our lives. Fear, after all, is natural: fear of the unknown; fear of loss and hurt; fear of what might happen; fear even of trying to take hold of new life when it is possible, or offered to us.
What a challenge eh? Can we, to use Susan Jeffries’ famous phrase: ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’? Can we, as Jesus put it, ‘take heart’ and ‘not be afraid’? That is our Gospel invitation, and it is based on who we truly are: on being and becoming love, and not living in fear. For my second question is: how many of us have walked on water? And how many of us have seen others do so? Put up your hand if you can say yes… All of us should be able to do that. For do I mean literally walking on water? No, not necessarily, but who knows what is possible in extremis. I certainly mean, metaphorically, how many of us have walked on water in all kinds of ways - for example: doing something we, or others, thought impossible or unimaginable; moving through very uncertain times and places; or taking steps into the completely unknown?...
I think the answer, in that sense, is that all of us have walked, or will walk, on water.
miracles of love
‘Take heart… do not be afraid’. Part of walking on water is recognising that we are not only born to perform miracles of love, but that we are, by our very nature, miracles of love. After all, none of us knows where we came from before we were born. Each of us is a miracle of grace. And each of us is an extraordinary unique being, with an immense variety of characteristics between us. So, if we are, by nature, miracles of divine love, created by grace and not fear, should we not live as miracles of love, by grace and not fear?
According to today’s Gospel, Jesus certainly thought that all of us can live as miracles of love, and walk on water. For the point of the story is not simply to affirm the loving power of God in Jesus, and to contrast the struggles of the disciples. Nor is it to set Jesus against nature, or to separate God from ordinary life. Rather, our Gospel story is written to encourage all of us to take courage, to trust, and thereby know God in the very midst of the greatest uncertainties and deepest challenges of our lives: miracles of love, even when all of our moorings are lost and we feel altogether lost at sea.
losing our moorings
Isn’t that truly a Gospel, good news, for us, and for our times? For life can be terribly challenging – can’t it? – whether for us as individuals, or as a community, or as part of our world as a whole. What is on each of our hearts today, I wonder? Perhaps some, or parts of us, are feeling strong and energetic, like Peter initially: able to step out, and even leap forward, in the face of uncertainties. However, many of us are carrying, or struggling with, things which are threatening to overwhelm us, filling us with fears and doubts, even to the point that we feel we are about to drown. Any of us who are part of this community of faith are likely to be feeling like that, in the face of what has happened to Christian. Some of us, of course, so, so much more deeply. Meanwhile, we live in a time of very disturbing seas and a lack of shared moorings: in a world which is jettisoning hard-earned rights and deep wisdom for the politics of fear and brute force. No wonder the image of walking on water is so challenging and sadly appropriate today. If we feel that our moorings are lost and we are all at sea, in the midst of a terrible storm, that is exactly the reality into which our Gospel story is speaking.
wisdom from Julian of Norwich
How are we to walk on water today? In addition to its oppressive uses, one of the great tragedies of much religion is when faith is used to offer false comfort, and, still more, false security in the face of the storms and uncertainties of life. For true faith is not about security or not knowing fear and doubt. Gospel faith is not about those things, nor so much about belief. It is rather about trust, however insecure our lives and world are, however real our fears and doubts are. The great English mystic, Julian of Norwich, out of her own considerable sufferings, put it well: “God, did not say, ‘You shall not be tormented, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be grieved’, but God said, ‘You shall not be overcome.'” In other words, like Peter in our Gospel story today, living out our faith is not about not fearing, flailing, and failing. It is about not allowing these things to determine, defeat, and drag us under. For we will not ultimately be overcome. As Julian of Norwich famously also expressed it: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
'it is I'
So, what helps us not to be overcome? What helps us to know and trust in that ultimate strength of divine love? What helps us to walk on water? For Christians, the answer lies at the heart of that key verse in today’s Gospel story: Take heart, it is I: do not be afraid.’ ‘It is I’: the presence of Christ in our midst, even when everything, including all our ordinary religious comforts, have utterly disappeared. ‘It is I’: not the words, the signs, the ordinary wonders of faith, but the ultimate, deep-down, reality. ‘It is I’: when everything else is gone; when we step out onto the waters of complete uncertainty, treading through apparently overwhelming suffering and fear. ‘It is I’…
We can walk on water. We know this because of the ‘I’ that lives in us, between us, beyond us: the awesome ‘I Am’ of God. who comes to us as much in fear and suffering, as in obvious gifts of joy and peace. The ‘I Will Be’, who transcends the waters of suffering and fear, bearing us up, typically unknown and unseen, but assuredly present and active with us. For, as the psalmist and the great Christian mystics put it, God is like a dazzling darkness. Sometimes we cannot figure everything, or even anything, out. Sometimes our fears and sufferings simply overwhelm. Yet, we can still trust and take the next step. As St Augustine of Hippo put it: in the face of the greatest storm, just sing Alleluia and keep on walking.
What helps us and others walk on water? We might like to reflect on those times we have walked on water, or seen others do so – overcoming what seemed like overwhelming obstacles. In doing so, perhaps we can then see something of how the ‘I’ of God is present with us, at all times, not least those of great struggle and uncertainty. Maybe we might also see this eucharistic space in those terms, with the labyrinth carpet beneath our feet like the Sea of Galilee. Then, as we come to share communion, we might take courage. For in our Gospel story today, in the bread and wine we share, and in one another, we may be uplifted once more as the miracles of love we truly are: in the courage and redeeming strength of the One who helps us bear our cross and walk upon the changing waters of life. Amen.
by Josephine Inkpin, Sunday 9 August 2026, Pentecost 11B, for Gosford Anglicans
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