Lake Galilee Today

I first heard about this lake and Jesus’ ministry around it from my grandmother, or as I called her, Mungama. As a kid, she taught me to sing “Peter, James, and John on a sailboat!” Followed by another repeating verse for a child’s song, “fished all night didn’t catch any fish”and concluding with a third verse, “then came Jesus walking on the water.”

Actually, I think there were several more verses. But these are the main ones that came to mind as I watched the sunrise over the eastern ridge of the lake this morning and then while the boat for pilgrims-tourists took us for an afternoon prayer ride.

Mungama had a strong and palpable sense of the presence of Jesus Christ and readily conveyed that to me as a child. She was a spontaneous pray-er and wouldn’t hesitate to ask you what church you belonged to. She loved the carpenter man who was also God. She loved him and knew him well.

Mungama never actually came to these places around the lake that she so often told stories about. But I saw her here today.

I saw her on the boat with us as we sang How Great Thou Art, one of her favorite. The music was a little loud from the synthesized music on board, and our singing captain was a little “over board” himself, but a true and devout believer, and believable even if a little pat in his 15 minute routine for tourist-pilgrims. I still saw Mumgama there.

I heard her speaking in our afternoon Eucharist, as I read the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 5. I read these at a chapel on the Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus is believed to have taught the multitudes these verses. My grandmother knew them by heart. She called them the be-attitude’s.

She and Jesus Christ, were both with me today, very palpably.