The Slide and the Storm
This sermon was preached at our morning service on Sunday 13th August. The gospel reading was Matthew 14:22-33 ; Jesus walking on the water. I've always found the usual interpretations of this story somewhat simplistic, so it was interesting to think upon and do some research into other potential meanings here. I hope you find it useful. When I was a little boy, I loved playing in the local swimming pool. Now, notice how I phrased that; ‘playing in the swimming pool’. I didn’t love going swimming. I’ve never been a strong swimmer; in fact, I was in high school before I finally learnt to swim without using arm bands or a float. No – I didn’t like going swimming; I tolerated the swimming so that I could play in the swimming pool. The pool was exciting; there was a shallow area with spurting fountains you could manipulate to spray in your playmates’ direction, there were huge foam boards that several would-be-pirate children could climb onto and command at the same time,...