Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 29 June 2025) and the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, so that these days are sometimes known as Petertide.
Today also brings us into the second half of the year. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Henry Venn (1797), John Venn (1813), and Henry Venn the younger (1873), priests and evangelical divines. 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.
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 Reflection:
This morning’s reading at the Eucharist (Matthew 8: 23-27) comes after yesterday’s account (Matthew 8: 18-22) of 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 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 words of Christ among us.
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 1 July 2025):
I am sorry to miss the USPG Annual Conference which takes place over three days this week at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire. The theme of the conference this year is ‘We Believe, We Belong?’ and centres around the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (AD 325). Updates of the conference as it happens are available by following USPG on social media @USPGglobal.’
‘We Believe, We Belong?’ is the theme this week (29 June to 5 July) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 1 July 2025) invites us to pray:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the first day of the conference. We pray particularly that you will use the speakers to inspire and encourage all to grow in your likeness.
The Collect:
Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son 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:
Loving Father,
we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son:
sustain us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you here on earth
until our joy is complete in heaven,
and we share in the eternal banquet
with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflections
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
