The second Sunday of Lent

A lot of thought went into Part Twelve of Glenferrie Gospel, which went live today. Re-writing and re-contextualising the story of Jesus walking on the water, from John's perspective (Jn 6:16-21), was hard. It was one of the last parts I wrote - having skipped it and left it for a couple of months, almost sacking the episode altogether amidst laboured cries of "why on earth did you put that bit in, John!?!" Scholars were largely unhelpful as they imported the meaning of the story disciphered from the other gospel accounts. Only six verses long, I understand the temptation.

Whether or not I understand it acurately (should such a position be absolutely possible!) I found a point to the story that both seemed outrageously new and exciting, while also reassuringly familiar. In John's account there is no Peter stepping out on the water, no homily about faith and doubt, no unpacking the geographical significance of where they are going and from where. Rather it is about Jesus' friends in the midst of utter fear (darkness, water and storm represented some of the great threats to life in that time). It is about Jesus calming that fear. Is it mostly about Jesus reassurig his friends that they wouldn't face something which he had not - he wasn't (and couldn't) assure them that they wouldn't die, but told them that it wouldn't happen before he first had died.

"Follow me" Jesus said to them. He wasn't interested in them running on ahead without him.

I had breakfast in Rococo on Glenferrie Road this morning, with my younger brother. I noticed across the road a cafe that had changed hands again - possibily the fifth time in the past few years. Its facade now a different color to what I photographed just a couple of weeks ago. I thought about the "death" of various businesses along the street, which has increased over recent months. I looked around at the other people in the cafe, and those on the street. I thought about the people we had seen last night - old school friends and aquaintences. Each have a story, where death and life - death and re-life, are a part.

Jesus says "follow me" and then promises to go before, to leave only to come back, and to walk with us in this following.

Grappling afresh with the fear of the disciples in this part of John's story of Jesus has brought a new awareness to Jesus' promise. Within the next couple of years I hope to be opening up a cafe with friends; should it "die" or shut down, I am reasurred that this isn't something foreign or beyond the experience of Jesus. I am encouraged to engage in the opportunity and face that possibility, rather than hold back from the fear of it. The same can be discovered for many other parts of my life too.

As I've already said, this little 'lesson' from only six verses of the story, seems so new, yet is so familiar.