I must admit feeling some discomfiture at the title reflecting my own difficulties with the passage just read as the Gospel. It was one of those passages I would have preferred to pass over quickly. Having studied in a generation heavily influenced by then fashionable demythologization of Rudolph Bultmann and then to study Mark's gospel using the rather dry and clinical commentary by Dennis Nineham as a basic text it was hardly surprising that I found some awkwardness with the so called “nature miracles” especially the stilling of the storm which I preached on recently and today's gospel of Jesus walking on the water.

One of the delights about biblical study is that you keep seeing scripture in new light. It is rather like changing eye glasses: you see things you have never seen before or simply had not thought about seriously. Thanks to several decades of fine Markan scholarship including a new commentary on Mark by a Jesuit contemporary, Brendan Byrne, I have certainly discovered new depths in this previously avoided passage. And it is so appropriate as we near our own Feast of Title, Transfiguration, to make these insights because the stilling of the storm and the walking on the water are indeed of similar order to the Transfiguration itself. All three are classed as theophanies (disclosures of the divine) and together along with several other like incidents play an important role in Mark's overall theological plan. Mark is careful in his gospel to keep a balance between the human Jesus, Jesus who has compassion on the crowds, Jesus who needs a break from the busyness of his life, Jesus who is deeply moved by the suffering around him; and Jesus who is Son of God who stills the roaring waves; who subdues the demons; who cures the woman of a chronic condition; who raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead; who feeds the multitude in the wilderness; and in today's gospel walks on water.

So what about the walking on the water? What is happening here? How can we can as rational sons and daughters of the Enlightenment make sense of this unscientific event? By the by my school chaplain who was a disciple of HE Fosdick from Riverside Church was quite sure there was a convenient sandbar where Jesus walked to give the illusion of walking on water! He was the same chaplain who said the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 was a “miracle of sharing”. No wonder I have difficulty with today's gospel. But there is no place to begin but the text itself and it is full of clues. The first is “After saying farewell to them, Jesus went up on the mountain to pray”. That seems innocent enough. Undoubtedly Jesus needed a break both from the crowds and from the slow to understand disciples. He needed time to himself, some down time as we say; to recharge his batteries; to commune with his heavenly Father; or maybe just to enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountain top and the fine view of the surrounding countryside. All that but more. Jesus was dealing with people steeped in the Hebrew scriptures and so was the community in which Mark's gospel was formed. They knew as we know that mountains in the biblical literature have significance and none more that Mt Sinai which Moses went up to meet God. They knew that it all happened on the mountain. That background is as relevant to the Transfiguration as it is to today's gospel passage. Jesus like Moses of old goes up the mountain to meet God.

Then we are told about the disciples in the boat who struggled against an adverse wind and that “Jesus came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea.” As I said with the stilling of the storm the sea was such a powerful image in the ancient world of primordial chaos. Here is Jesus like the Creator God of old trampling down the waters of chaos and destruction. And then the text says rather strangely “Jesus intended to pass them by.” Was he not going to help the poor disciples who were struggling and frightened? Once again there are powerful allusions from the scriptures at play here which are important to note to make sense of the text. That term “pass by” is an almost technical term uses in biblical theophanies especially those related to Moses and Elijah. When Moses asked to see God's glory in Exodus 33 God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and covered Moses face with his hand while “his glory passed by” so that Moses would not see the face of God and die. And you will remember when Elijah experienced theophany on Mt Horeb he was told “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” And then Elijah experienced the wind, the earthquake and the fire until ultimately he met God in the “sound of sheer silence”, in the “still small voice.”

The gospel text continues: “but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified.” The ghost like figure the disciples see is “nothing less than Jesus the personal revelation of God, the God who created the world out of the watery chaos and saved Israel by parting the waters of the sea.” (Byrne).

And the last clue which gives solid biblical foundation to this theophany is Jesus' words to the disciples: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Given the gloomy light of pre-dawn Jesus act of self identification makes good sense. But with the eye glasses of the Hebrew scriptures on here is a clear reference to Moses encounter with God in the burning bush when God made known his name as “I am who I am”, a reference which underlies the well known “I am” sayings in John's gospel. Here in the person of Jesus the great “I am”, the being of God himself, is present. It is not surprising that the disciples were “utterly astounded”, utterly beside themselves in the presence of divine power. Mark comments dryly that the disciples did not understand about the loaves, that is the feeding that had just taken place, “but their hearts were hardened”. We will see a similar outcome in the Transfiguration. In Mark's gospel with this build up of theophanies and displays of power there seems an almost deliberate restraint placed on the disciples' reaction until they have experienced the Risen Christ which is the ultimate theophany of the gospel. By contrast with us, the readers of the gospel, we see it all through post-Resurrection eye glasses.

But what are all these theophanies for? Are they simply given to the chosen few to enrich there spiritual lives? When you think about the classic theophanies in the Hebrew scriptures to Moses and Elijah and indeed in today's first reading about Elisha's vision of Elijah's ascent in the whirlwind all are related to a calling to leadership and prophetic ministry, to furthering God's work in the world. Moses encounter with God was all related to God's plan of liberation for the Hebrew slaves in Egypt and the leadership Moses was to play in bringing that about. Elijah's encounter with God in the “sound of sheer silence” was related to the role he was to play in bringing about the end of an evil regime and establishing a new one. Elisha's theophanic vision we heard read earlier is all about his inheriting Elijah's prophetic mantle, to continue to speak the word of God to the community and the nation. And in like manner this build up of theophanies when the unbelieving disciples see Jesus again and again filled with divine power reaches its climax in the events of Easter and Pentecost when they are sent out in the Spirit of the Risen Christ to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth; to proclaim the peace, love, truth and justice of God to all people everywhere.