It was a dark and stormy night

Yesterday's service was a family service. Hence the sermon. Writing a sermon that would, God willing, speak to all age groups is really hard but it is also very interesting. What you try to do is to find a way to put into a simple sentence something of real essence and importance. Wheater I succeeded you are the ones to judge but what I find especially rewarding is the prosess of trying to get there.

I think that the way I write sermons to grown ups has started to be affected by this process and in a good way. I don't, at all, want to oversimplify anything but I do think that the gospel, the good news, is something also a child is able to grasp  especially once we get down to the very core of things such as the fact that God is love. In fact, more often than not children seem to get things better than us adults :).

It had been a long, long day of teaching people. Jesus was tired and he knew his disciples were tired, too. So he sent his disciples to go on ahead of him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee by boat. After that he sent the people who had been listening to him all day home, too.


Even though Jesus was tired he didn’t leave yet but instead he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

The boat, where Peter and all the other disciples were, was already a long way from land. It was being pounded by the waves because the wind was blowing against it. Everyone was tired and some could even sleep but all knew that the winds were heavy and they needed to stay alert to make sure they would be safe.

Early in the morning, after a very long night it felt, Jesus went out to the disciples. He walked on the lake, on the water.

When his disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified. "It's a ghost!" they said. And they cried out in fear.

Right away Jesus called out to them, "Be brave! It is I. Don't be afraid."

Peter then said: "Lord, is it you? If it is, tell me to come to you on the water." This was just like Peter by the way. Always going head on to everything.

Jesus said to Peter just this one word: "Come."

And, so Peter got out of the boat. He walked on the water toward Jesus. He must have felt so proud of himself and also very surprised when he realized he actually could walk on water.

But then Peter realized how much the wind blew and he got afraid. With that he began to sink and he cried out to Jesus, "Lord! Save me!"

Jesus reached out his hand right away and caught him. "Your faith is so small!" he said. "Why did you doubt me?"

When they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those in the boat worshiped Jesus. They said, "You really are the Son of God!"

When all of us were much smaller - with the exception of one :) (our youngest congregation member present is only couple of months old) - there was a time when we took our very first steps and our parents were very very excited for us. Many times what would happen would be that we’d take a step or two and the minute we noticed we were actually moving we’d fall down. As long as we concentrated on where we were going we were doing fine but when we took our eyes from it we’d fall.

Our relationship to God is like that, too. He calls us too look at Him, to concentrate on Him in everything we do and are. When we don’t things start to go wrong, not quite as immediately as for Peter, but nonetheless. But the wonderful news, the good news, the great thing is that the minute we turn our eyes back to Him, He is there and He will always always be.