an apology and took a seat in a pew at the rear.
Boscastle (SX098909) is located on the north Atlantic coast of Cornwall. Cornwall's most distinguishing feature is its long and thin peninsular character which influences the regions weather. This peninsula is one of the warmest and wettest regions in the country, and there is significant variation within the area largely influenced by proximity to the coast and topography … with the effects of altitude having a clear influence with Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor all receiving on average 1231–2584 mm of rain a year.
Special Boscastle Flood Issue,
Journal of Meteorology 29, no. 293
four
Heads turned to regard the stranger who had joined them. Lee grinned at him and waved. The priest looked across the tiny congregation and smiled.
“Welcome,” she said, in a voice that was gentle as a breeze but nonetheless carried the length of the vaulted nave. “I was just about to tell one of my favorite stories.”
The priest's informality—so unlike the sour, doctrinaire Presbyterian minister of his childhood—won him over immediately. Andrew smiled back and nodded. She began.
“I'm sure you've all heard variations of this joke: A mountain climber loses his footing and begins to fall from a cliff—perhaps a cliff like those along the coast path here in Boscastle. He grabs the branch of a shrub growing from the cliff face—perhaps it's gorse, or heather—and it arrests his fall. But the branch is slender and brittle and he knows it will not hold him long.
“‘Help!’ he cries. ‘Is anyone up there? Help!’
“And a deep voice answers, ‘I am the Lord, your God. I can save you if you believe in me. Do you believe?’
“‘Oh yes, Lord, I do—with all my heart, and especially right now!’
“‘Good,’ says the Lord. ‘Let go of the branch.’
“The climber hesitates.
“‘Is there anyone else up there?’ he asks.”
There was a faint titter of laughter in the congregation. Lee, Andrew saw, had her hand over her mouth to disguise her giggles.
“The Bible tells a similar story,” the priest continued. “Actually,” she said, with what Andrew thought was almost a wink, “I think we get a lot of good jokes from the Bible.
“In this case, Jesus has just performed the miracle of feeding the multitudes. Five thousand people gather to hear him preach. Afterward, he tells his disciples to feed them. They reply that they have only two fish and five small loaves of bread, and it is impossible.
“But Jesus takes this meager larder and somehow manages not only to extend it to the entire crowd, but to have leftovers as well!
“Now, I don't know about you, but I think that would have made me a believer for life. But apparently some of the disciples were slow learners. When the crowd disperses, Jesus tells his disciples to get into their boat and set across the sea. He stays behind to pray and reflect, and tells them he will join them soon.
“That night a storm rakes the sea and the disciples' boat is tossed for hours. Finally, as Matthew tells us, on the fourth watch, early in the morning, they see Jesus walking toward them on the surface of the water. They cry out in fear, ‘It is a ghost!’ But Jesus says, ‘Take heart; it is I. Be not afraid.’ Then Peter jumps up and says, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you over the water.’
“And here's where I think Jesus shows us his sense of humor—in a way not all that different from the joke we began with. What does he do? He says, simply, ‘Come.’ And so, Peter clambers out of the boat. He lets go with one hand. He lets go with the other. And he walks across the water toward his Lord.
“So here is Peter, striding across the surface of the sea, when he sort of wakes up and looks around. He sees that the sea is rough and the sky is stormy. And suddenly he is afraid. He has, to put it simply, a crisis of faith. He fears that the branch of salvation, like the branch our climber was clutching, is slender and brittle.
“What happens next? Well, it's useful to remember that the name ‘Peter’ means rock … which is exactly what he begins sinking like.”
“‘Lord, save me!’ Peter cries.
“And Jesus reaches out, pulls him up, and returns him to the safety of the boat. ‘O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?’ Jesus asks. And the rest of the disciples, in awe, declare, ‘Truly, you