Some readers dismiss this Gospel story. Either they do not believe Peter walked on water, or they don’t believe they, themselves, ever could. Such faith is beyond their reach, they think, beyond even striving for, so what’s the point? Well, there is a point, and to get at it I want to tell you another story.
You may remember Whittier’s Civil War poem, “Barbara Frietchie.” It tells how Robert E. Lee marched into Frederick, Maryland, one morning, leading his Confederate troops. So far the war was going their way, so Lee may have been shocked to find Union flags, forty of them, fluttering in the morning breeze. He ordered them cut down to be trampled under foot. Having done it, the troops marched on. The citizens of Fredericksburg let the flags lie — all except one citizen, Barbara Frietchie. Bowed with 90 years, Barbara Frietchie took one of the flags, carried it up to her attic window which faced down on the main street, and hung it out on a staff. A short while later Stonewall Jackson, Lee’s implacable general who held his line of battle with the strength of a stone wall, marched into town at the head of his troops. Seeing the stars and stripes flying overhead, he stopped his men and ordered them to shoot. The flag was ripped, the window shattered, the casement splintered. The story, as told in verse by Whittier, goes on as follows:
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
She leaned far out on the window sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will,
“Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country’s flag,” she said.
Jackson stared up at the woman for a long time and finally cried out,
“Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!” he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
The story is known to most high school students of American poetry, and I remind you of it this morning, because Barbara Frietchie illustrates walk-on-water faith. Jackson had all the force, and he undoubtedly thought he had right on his side. Yet a ninety year old nobody had more authority than he did due to her faith. I am calling this walk-on-water faith, because that is what the Gospel writer was getting at with his story of Peter walking on water. If we take it literally, what relevance does it have for us? None of us is ever going to walk across an unfrozen sea. But if we take it as the poetic language it is, the story can inspire us to new faith.
The story is this. The disciples are fighting a losing battle on the Sea of Galilee. They have been rowing for home for hours, after the feeding of the five thousand, but the winds are high, the sea is rough, and they lose headway rather than gain it. Jesus, who stayed behind to pray and regain his spiritual strength in solitude, comes to help them. They see him approaching and are afraid, for what he is doing, walking on water, is against nature. Only an apparition could do that! Jesus senses their fear and, as always, says, “Fear not!” Peter, always impetuous, reasons with himself: if this truly is Jesus a miracle will prove it. What shall I ask for? The first thing that comes to mind is to ask to do the thing that Jesus is doing. All goes well as long as Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus’ eyes. But Peter’s attention wavers and he begins to sink, and cries out for help. Jesus rescues him, but at the same time chides him. What does he chide Peter for? That is the answer we need to know if we aspire to having walk-on-water faith, which is to say faith approaching Jesus’ faith.
The critical moment for Peter came when he turned his attention from Jesus to the surrounding peril, and that was fatal to his success. Why? We could say because he became self-conscious, but I’d like to suggest another way to look at it. All of us live, potentially, on two levels; or in New Testament terms, we have two lives. One is called “life in Christ” or “eternal life” and the other is our life in this world. Typically we live on the latter level, where we depend on our own power, Stonewall Jackson power. Jesus lived on the eternal level. This sounds mysterious, but we can claim that life just as he did. The secret is in the story. Remember how the disciples took off in the boat? Not Jesus! He knew he needed to renew himself in eternal life. So he stayed behind, alone, because the renewal he sought only comes with meditative prayer.
To give you an image of that kind of prayer, imagine yourself as a sponge in water. It takes no time at all to get the sponge into the water, but it takes quite a while for the water to get into the sponge. So time is needed, plus stillness and a degree of silence, for God’s Spirit to fill us. Words are not needed; in fact, they are a hinderance. Just silent soaking in the loving presence of God. In time the sense of oneself as a solitary individual diminishes, and a sense of oneself as being one with all creation increases. In other words, the transition from time-bound life, self-bound life, to eternal life, limitless life has begun. And to give you an image of those two levels of life, think of Stonewall Jackson and Barbara Frietchie.
So the story of Peter walking on water is not the story of a bizarre incident, but a story full of practical hope for us. It says that we need not feel hopeless or helpless, even though we stand awash in waves, be they the S&P downgrading, the unrest in the Middle East, the stock market plunges, the dangers of hydrofracking — we live in a sea of threats. To face them without fear, and with the capacity to act effectively to make a difference, we practice as Jesus did. We seek a place of solitude and quiet, allowing God’s Spirit to work in us, making us one with all creation.
