{"id":3143,"date":"2023-08-13T05:38:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-13T05:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3143"},"modified":"2023-08-13T05:45:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T05:45:22","slug":"nineteenth-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3143","title":{"rendered":"Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Matthew 14:22-33<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year I watched the film Titanic again and was struck by the poignancy of the scene where the assembled passengers enthusiastically sing: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm has bound the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
It’s own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our ancient ancestors and for us too the sea has always held a certain terror. In the Jewish thought world it was God alone who could save people from disaster at sea. For the hearers of Matthew’s Gospel a story that involves water, a strong wind, an element of danger and a rescue of some form would almost certainly have been familiar. Matthew’s Gospel has clear parallels with the story of Israelites in the wilderness and their triumphant rescue from the Egyptians. The Crossing of the Sea of Reeds is a seminal story in the history of salvation. It functions on two levels: a story of deliverance and a manifestation of the majesty and mystery of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Matthew’s story telling we see Jesus emerge from his wilderness experience and then enter the waters of the River Jordan. Here Jesus is the new Moses. He will go on to preach a lengthy sermon in Ch 5-7 and this parallels the speech that the Deuteronomist writers put on the lips of Moses in Deuteronomy. Jesus will feed the 5,000 with a very small quantity of bread. There are clear parallels here with the manna which God provides for his people in the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the disciples find themselves at the mercy of the sea, Jesus comes towards them walking on the water. Matthew would have got his hearers’ attention by mentioning the ‘fourth watch of the night’. This was traditionally the hour when demons were thought to be at work. The disciples are afraid and think Jesus is a ghost. When Jesus says ‘Courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.’ we can hear this being addressed to the whole Christian community. They had every reason to be afraid. In this scene on the stormy waters of the lake we meet again the twofold dynamic of rescue and manifestation of the majesty and mystery of God. Peter is being invited to step into the mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our baptism has plunged us into the waters of rebirth and we too are invited to step into the majesty and mystery of God. We can’t know where this journey will take us. But we can be sure that Jesus will come to us across the waters with an out- stretched arm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where have you seen God’s majesty and mystery this past week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 14:22-33 Last year I watched the film Titanic again and was struck by the poignancy of the scene where the assembled passengers enthusiastically sing: Eternal Father, strong to save,Whose arm has bound the restless wave,Who bids the mighty ocean deepIt’s own appointed limits keep;O hear us when we cry to TheeFor those in peril … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3178,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions\/3178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}