Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV, 28 June 2026) and yesterday was the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so that these days are sometimes known as Petertide.
Today also brings us to the end of the first half of the year. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him’ (Matthew 8: 35) … five minutes by the river in Oxford with boats, scullers and swans (Patrick Comerford, 2026)
Matthew 8: 23-27 (NRSVA):
23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ 26 And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. 27 They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’
Today’s Reflections:
This morning’s reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 23-27) comes after the account usually read on the Monday of this week (Matthew 8: 18-22) of how the crowds following Jesus being so great that he tried to get away to the other side of the lake. Now in this morning’s reading, Christ and the disciples are leaving the crowd and crossing to the other side of the lake or sea. But a storm blows up, and the disciples show how weak they truly are, with all their doubts and fears.
As we work our ways through the storms of life, we have many questions to ask about the purpose or meaning of life. Often, we can feel guilty about putting those questions to God. Yet, should we not be able to put our deepest questions and greatest fears before God?
In this Gospel reading, the frightened disciples challenge Christ and ask him whether he cares that they are perishing (verse 25). But he offers them words of peace before doing anything to remedy the plight in which they have been caught, and goes on to ask them his own challenging questions: ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ (verses 26). They, in turn, end up asking their own challenging question about who Christ is for them.
I enjoy being on boats, whether it is on punts or by the boat clubs in Cambridge or Oxford, island hopping in Greece, or cruising on rivers from the Shannon to the Seine or Sarawak. But I also recognise the fears of the disciples in this reading, having found myself in unexpected storms on lakes on the Shannon and on the waters of the Mediterranean. In retrospect, they were minor storms each time, but those memories give me some insights into the plight of refugees crossing choppy waters every day in the English Channel and in the Mediterranean.
The plight of the disciples in this reading seems like the working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type many of us experience at different stages: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.
Christ is asleep in the boat when a great gale rises, the waves beat the side of the boat, and it is soon swamped by the waters. He seems oblivious to the calamity that is unfolding around him and to the fear of the disciples. They have to wake him, and by then they fear they are perishing.
Christ wakes, rebukes the wind, calm descends on the sea, but still Christ challenges those on the boat: ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’
Instead of being calmed, they are now filled with awe. Do they recognise Christ for who he truly is? They ask one another: ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’ (verse 27). Even before the Resurrection, Christ tells the disciples not to be afraid, which becomes a constant theme after the Resurrection.
Do those in the boat begin to ask truly who Christ is because he has calmed the storm, or because he has calmed their fears?
Through the storms of life, through the nightmares, fears and memories, despite the failures of the Church, past and present, we must not let those experiences to ruin our trusting relationship with God. Despite all the storms of life, throughout all our fears and nightmares, we can trust in God as Father and trust in the calm presence and words of Christ among us.
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 30 June 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 28 June to 4 July 2026 (pp 14-15), is ‘Living Stones’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Very Revd Lydia Kelsey Bucklin, President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School.
The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 30 June 2026) invites us to pray:
Loving God, we pray for the Episcopal Church in the US. Make it a spiritual house where truth and justice shape our life together.
The Collect of the Day:
O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide
we may so pass through things temporal
that we lose not our hold on things eternal;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope:
teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus
you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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