Sermon on August 9, 2026
“Faith and Trust“
By: The Very Rev. Pamela Dolan
May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
2026 has been a tumultuous year for me. Rounding out my final semester of seminary, getting engaged, moving across the country, and getting ordained. So many pieces of my daily routines have been upended right in front of my eyes. I knew most of these changes were coming and yet it felt kind of like being tied to the train tracks watching the train barrel towards you.
I don’t know that the disciples knew the changes that were coming their way when they agreed to give up everything in their lives to follow Jesus. At this point in their journey with Jesus, they would have already witnessed him healing the sick, casting out spirits, and they just helped Jesus feed five thousand people with a couple loaves of bread and some fish.
Early Christian history scholar, Teresa Morgan, has focused her scholarship over the last fifteen years on faith in the lives of early Christian communities. More specifically, she has examined how the ancient Greek word pistis was understood in the context of those early Christians. What she found, was that pistis meant faith yes, but it also meant trust. Maybe most importantly, that pistis was always used within the context of a relationship.
God has been building relationships with us, God’s creation, for thousands of years making the nature of our relationship both mundane and particular. God has had a lot of practice at building relationships, probably having most anything you can think of thrown his way over time. I do wonder though, if Jesus was expecting the response he got when he walked on water.
Jesus has again, gone off to pray by himself. He probably needed to decompress after what may have been the largest dinner party ever. When he is finally ready to regroup, he sees how far off the disciples are and plots out how he is going to find his way back to them. Apparently the most straightforward path won out, and Jesus decided to walk on the water all the way back to the boat, through some rough terrain no less.
If I saw someone walking on the water towards my boat in the middle of the sea, I too, would probably think it was a ghost. I do not think this would have surprised Jesus. But Peter, he needs some proof that it really is Jesus, so he asks him to have him walk on the water too. I don’t think Jesus expected that. Yet he obliges Peter and says ‘sure, walk on over here’.
Now, we have the gift of the big picture of the New Testament where we can see the trajectory of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. While Jesus throws a lot at them in the beginning for sure, there is still an ‘on ramp’. Jesus does not immediately raise the dead and say ‘see, I told you I am the Son of God’. Instead, there is a gradual progression. So, Jesus and Peter walking on water is one piece of the relationship building between Jesus and the disciples.
Poor Peter once again seemingly did not realize what he was getting into, because walking on sea with rolling waves, is scary! I imagine Peter must have been caught up in the absurdity of it all when a brief moment of clarity strikes him and he realizes that he is actually walking on water and that certainly cannot be real. Peter panics, falls into the sea.
Our lives also follow a trajectory of our unfolding relationship with God. There is a reason that early Christians were required to study for three years before they could be baptized. The relationship God is offering us, while rewarding, is not an easy one. We are asked to trust in what we cannot see.
Peter had trouble trusting even what he could see and was himself doing. Yet amidst the panic, Jesus reaches his hand out to Peter, helping him out of the water while saying ‘you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ As if faith, or trust, is an easy thing. Jesus had been slowly building up the miracles in the disciples’ presence over time but Peter still panics.
I have been Episcopalian my whole life, I have been building trust and confidence with God for almost 30 years. This past year though, there was so much unknown coming my way. I knew too much too fast while also not knowing enough. I had fallen in the water and succumbed to the panic. Sometimes people say it is hard to remember the pray and seek God in the good times and not just the bad. But for me, it is often hard to remember to pray and seek God when times are rough. It is easy to get preoccupied with trying to fix everything ourselves.
Peter panics yes. Peter also calls out for help and Jesus answers that call. Jesus did not put Peter in a situation he could not handle, but he also did not abandon him when the confidence literally fell out from under his feet. The trust between Jesus and Peter was deepened amidst the mess that comes when you fall into the pool with your clothes on.
Throughout this year, I have panicked in the water quite a bit. It has been hard at times to see where God is moving in my life as things moved at a pace both quicker and slower than I would have liked. The life I had built came to its natural ending and the new life was…is… trying to find its footing in tumultuous waters.
My life experience of my relationship with God has taught me to trust that God is still working on my life even when I cannot see it. When I am most uncertain, I am reminded of all the times where God was holding things closer to the chest, waiting for me to be ready.
Peter was a fisherman before Jesus found him, probably spending most of his time on the water. The very nature of Jesus’s relationship with Peter does not begin or end with friendship, though that was important too, it is a preparation. For Jesus and Peter both. Jesus is preparing for his inevitable death on the cross, and Peter is being prepared for what will be asked of him in Jesus’s absence.
God extends his hand to us, inviting us to trust in something we cannot see. When we take God’s hand, we are entering a history of relationships while embarking on our own journey of faith, and trust. In the beginning we are not ready for the end, we need all of the intermediate steps, including the panic in the water.
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