A guest post by Thomas Worth, master of divinity and doctor of ministry graduate of Northeastern Seminary:
Like Walking on Water
By Thomas Worth
A Christmas Sermon for 2011
Like walking on water He came to us
When the night was half spent
And the wind was against us.
When our best efforts could not move us any further…
Like walking on water He came to us,
In the impossibility of the Virgin,
In the wide eyes of her wonder,
In the humility of her trust.
Like walking on water He came to us:
In the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost,
In the brooding of the Spirit of God
Over the face of the waters of our humanity.
Like walking on water He came to us:
When from the mountainside of heaven
He saw that we were in trouble and toiling,
Toiling against sorrow and sin,
Against the chaos that would whelm over us.
Like walking on water He came to us:
On the fluid, turbulent upheaval of our condition—
Neither hovering above it nor sinking beneath it,
But in contact with the troubled sea of our humanity,
Touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and infirmities.
Like walking on water He came to us:
Solid and real, not a ghost, but Incarnate,
He took hold of the gunwales of our nature with his bare hands
And hoisted Himself into the same boat we are in.
Like walking on the water He came to us,
In the familiar miracle, the startling humility of his birth,
Displaying who He really is and helping us remember
From the heart what we had failed to understand.
Like walking on the water He came to us,
Born to Mary and Joseph long ago
Born our Savior, Christ the Lord,
Coming to us in the fourth watch of the night
And saying, “Take heart! It is I! Do not be afraid!”
Tom Worth, D.Min. 07, M.Div. 03
Community Covenant Church
Manlius, N.Y.
