Once upon a time there was a land of snow and cold. The winters were long and hard, the wind fierce and frigid. For months on end there was blizzard after blizzard. The snow piled up as high as the roofs so that the people could be trapped in their houses for weeks on end. This was hard on everyone, but it was especially hard for two young girls. Their names were Sophie and Nadia, and they were best friends.

Forgiveness can be hard. Sometimes very hard. So, Peter’s question is a good one. “If someone sins against me,” he asks Jesus, “how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Peter had clearly picked what he thought was an impossibly large number. And yet what is Jesus response? “Not seven times,” Jesus replies, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” Essentially, Jesus was saying, “Don’t even ask. Just keep doing it.” This is how God forgives us, after all. Why should we expect to do any less for others? That’s the point of the parable that follows.

“Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be among them,” Jesus says in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Many of us know this quote very well. We hear it often in church. Sometime people say it when it’s time to start a service. Other times they say it when not as many people have shown up as they expected. “Well,” someone is sure to say at some point, “as Jesus says, ‘Wherever two or more are gathered in my name…’ Often they don’t even have to finish it. We all knows what comes next: Jesus will be among us.

Today Matthew comes to a critical point in his story. He’s already half way through. So far, Jesus has called his twelve disciples. He’s healed many people. He’s proclaimed an astonishing message of forgiveness, openness and peace to a crowd gathered around him during his sermon on the Mount. He’s even calmed the storm and walked on water. He’s been busy, in other words, but he really hasn’t said that much about himself. And meanwhile his followers have just tagged along after him and formed whatever conclusions they could about all this. Now, suddenly, probably late at night as they are all sitting around a fire after dinner, Jesus asks his followers what they think this all means. “Who do people say that I am?” he asks.

You know, over the years I’ve become convinced that most people know the right way to treat others. I know it does not always seem that way. Still, I believe it’s true. I believe this for two reasons. The first is that, when it comes to those we really care about, most of us do try to treat them well. Oh, I know, we often go off the track. We go off the track a lot of the time in fact. As the old song goes, “You always hurt the ones you love.” We get irritated and take it out on those closest to us. We build up resentments that can become very hard to heal, but still, we do try to heal them. We make amends. We go to marriage counselors. We may even go so far as to say we’re sorry. — Yes, it happens. — The fact is, most people are really doing their best. They are making a genuine effort to treat those they care about well. Just because they often miss the mark doesn’t mean they’re not trying.

Sooner or later we all need to learn to walk on water.

Perhaps that seems a strange thing to say. I mean, human beings really aren’t meant to walk on water, are they — unless the water has frozen, of course.

So, what do I mean when I say that sooner or later we all need to learn how to walk on water? I mean just this. I mean that sooner or later we need to learn how to put all our trust in God to help us with things that would be impossible for us without that help.