At that time, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they entered the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.

This has to be one of my favorite passages from Scripture. I love the image that we see here. We have all of the apostles in the boat and the weather gets bad. Jesus comes along and straight away everyone thinks he is a ghost. Let us not forget he has healed the sick, raised the dead, etc. why not walk on water?

So then we see my hero Peter. I love Peter, he is what it is all about. When I went into Monastery years ago I choose the name Peter as my name in religion. My given name is Michael. The abbot asked me why I chose Peter and I said, well his name day is my birthday, and he always seemed to be putting his foot in his mouth. I love Peter!

So Peter steps out of the boat and does fine for awhile, then he figures out where he is and gets scared and starts to sink, so Jesus saves him and brings his back to the boat.

Peter is a symbol of the church in this passage as well as many others. Peter is the church, the church steps out in faith at the call of Jesus. Then we start to want to do it on our own, and what happened to Peter, he started to sink, and that is what is happening to the church. We have taken our eyes off of Jesus and we are sinking!

We need to focus on what we are supposed to be focused on. Jesus will guide us and save us if we but follow Him. So what about the ones left in the boat? They are the ones that are afraid to step out and make a difference. There are some that like to stay out of the wind and rain and just go on with life and don’t bother anyone. I am sorry but Christians are supposed to bother people. We are the light that is supposed to shine in the dark places. We are the ones that are supposed to say, HEY that’s not right, and work to change things. We can no longer hide in the boat. To stay withe fishing theme, it is time to fish or cut bait!

Step out of the boat. Step out of your comfort zone, but don’t do it alone, do it with Jesus and you too will walk on water!

Icon and Gospel Passage from www.goarch.org

So far I like what he is writing, I don’t always agree with everything but he has a nice way about his style and I like what I have read. I have two other books by him so I have some reading to do.

In this particular book he speaks of his own life and why he is what he is. I am not going to give too much away in case you want to read the book, and I will post a review once I have finished it. In one particular chapter he speaks about the word saved. How many times have you been asked, are you saved? How does one answer this question? Let me quote from the book:

Let’s start simply. In the Bible, save means “rescue” or “heal”. It emphatically does not automatically mean “save from hell” or “give eternal life after death,” as many preachers seem to imply in sermon after sermon. Rather its meaning varies from passage to passage, but in general, in any context, save means “get out of trouble.” The trouble could be sickness, war, political intrigue, oppression, poverty, imprisonment, or any kind of danger or evil. (pg 93)

Okay let’s unpack this a little. Rescue or heal, I like that and how that sounds. God will rescue me in times of trouble and he will heal me when I am sick. “Get out of trouble,” man we need this! How man times have we been in a place in our life that we would rather not be in and ask for God’s help. So with this definition in mind then we are all saved! We are all in the process of being saved everyday. There really is no end as there is no end to the mercy and love of God. Every time we fall, He picks us up, he saves us.

Let us look further at this term saved:

God, throughout the Hebrew Bible, repeatedly saves from danger and evil, so to say that God saves means that God intervenes to rescue. God compassionately and miraculously steps in, gets involved, intervenes, and protects his people from their enemies and themselves. (pg 93)

I like this. This is the image of the shepherd that Jesus will pick up in the Christian Scriptures. God intervenes to rescue. He will do this, but we have to ask for it. We have to ask for Him to help us and to save us he will not just do it on His own. His hand is always there before us all we have to do is reach out and take it. The last part of that quote is great, protects his people from their enemies and themselves. He will protect us from ourselves. Nice.

McLaren goes on to say that God saves in three ways; judging, forgiving, and teaching. This is nice as well. Judgement in the sense of bringing truth and justice into our deceived and oppressed world. God forgives, I have spoken of this in the past so I wont bore you again. And He teaches.

…because we are so often ignorantly wrong and stupid, Jesus comes with saving teaching, profound yet amazingly compact: Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, Jesus says, and love your neighbor as yourself, and that is enough. (pg 97)

That sums up the life of a Christian very well. If we worked on that for awhile I am sure things would get better and God would save us from ourselves. We need to stop hitting each other over the head and start working together. But aside what we disagree about and focus on what we agree about. Stop being arrogant and say we have the only way, and get on with the work of the church! It’s that simple, get on with the work of the church.

So are we saved? Have we been saved today? Have you saved anyone today? Think about it, love your God, love yourself, and love your neighbor.