Storms don't make appointments. They turn up unannounced, uninvited, and hit you face on.

On Sunday 9th August, St. Peter's, Château-d'Oex, welcomed Revd. Paul Cowley MBE to preach on Matthew 14:22-33, the storm on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus walking on the water. Paul, an ordained Church of England minister, spent 17 years in the army and 28 years working in prisons, including as a chaplain in two of London's toughest, and has founded charities helping men and women rebuild their lives after release.

The encouraging thing about this passage, he suggested, is that the disciples were exactly where Jesus had told them to be. They were obedient, and the storm came anyway. Following Jesus was never a promise of an easier life — what is promised is his presence in it.

Peter is the one who sank. He is also the only one who walked on water, because he was the only one who got out of the boat. He began to sink not when the waves grew, but when he looked at the wind instead of at Jesus — and the hand that caught him came immediately, with no lecture attached.

As Paul put it: the miracle wasn't that Peter never sank. The miracle was that Jesus never let him down.

Read the full sermon: https://stpeters.ch/sermons/jesus-walking-on-water/

Paul Cowley is Managing Director of the Second Chance Partnership, which helps UK employers give jobs to men and women leaving prison. We have gathered what he has said about that work — in his own words, from his sermons here and from interviews recorded at St. Peter's: https://stpeters.ch/second-chance-partnership-paul-cowley/