need help on SimpleDateFormat

I seem to need help on *every* class I use! I am trying to simply format a date using SimpleDateFormat, which is proving to be anything but simple! In my jsp program I get:

An error occurred at line: 138 in the jsp file: /pensionDROP.jsp
The method format(Date, StringBuffer, FieldPosition) in the type SimpleDateFormat is not applicable for the arguments (Date, String, int)
131:        SimpleDateFormat MMddyyyy = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/YYYY");
132:       StringBuffer dummy = new StringBuffer();
135:           dummy.delete(0,dummy.length());
138:   <td><%= MMddyyyy.format(rs.getDate("payDate"),dummy,0)

I am assuming this is blowing up because my '0' in the format method is not a FieldPosition. First of all, I have no idea what a 'FieldPosition' is and can't figure it out from the class definition. Secondly, this is a "Simple" date format? You have got to be kidding me! I've got to import at least 3 class definitions ... I really don't even want to use the StringBuffer because the format returns a string. Is there an easier way? If not, can someone help me sort throught this and get my date formatted?
THX