"Grace for the Journey, Part I: Water for the Journey"
Avoiding spiritual dehydration
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Text: John 6:25-35
Now, I don't want to insult you, but you are nothing much more than a water balloon. Yes, I mean it! And, so am I - a self-confessed water balloon! I say that because 80 per cent of the makeup of the body is H2O. Take away the 80 per cent, and there is not a lot left that would be attractive, let me tell you! If you don't see or feel how 80 per cent of your body is water, one need only unfortunately see the effect of dehydration and the absence of water to realize just how important it is for your makeup and your being.
It was the fall of 1980, and I was on a fact-finding tour from the university to the southern part of Mozambique, a country that had been torn by war between competing groups. Because of this war, people were forced off their land and met some time later by a natural drought because of the winds and heat that had beset that country. I saw people living in squatter camps in the southern part of the country bordering South Africa who had not had anything to drink for days.
I asked one of the aid workers precisely how long these people had been without water. He told me it was only - and I say “only” - a matter of days. What I saw were emaciated people with shrivelled skin, children who looked like they were aged, and mothers of little children who looked like they were old. Just a few days without water and the effects were devastating. I have never forgotten that sight.
So, it is true that water is the building block of life. Without it, you cannot live, you cannot flourish, you cannot think, you cannot build bone or muscle - everything would dry out and you would shrivel and die. We can do without food, so my dietician likes to tell me, with no problems at all, but we cannot do without water.
I want you to keep that in mind when I revisit a moment in Jesus' ministry. It was probably around the month of October, and it was one of the great festivals of the Jewish calendar. It commemorated the great passage in Exodus 17 where the people of Israel were saved when Moses struck a rock and water poured out from it. The festival was a remembrance of God providing for the people when they were in need. It is a follow-on from today's reading, where they remember the manna from heaven, and that it was God who had provided for the people when they were in need. There was a great tradition, a great drama built around this. The priests, for example, would go to the Spring of Gihon with a jar of water. The streets would be lined with people as the priests carried the water into the temple and poured it as a symbol of God providing for the people of Israel. They would do this for seven days over this feast. Then, on the seventh day, there was what was known as the “Jericho Loop.” Remember when the people of Israel walked around the walls of Jericho and the walls came falling down? Well, this time, the priest took the water from Gihon and walked around seven times doing the “Jericho Loop.” He then brought the water into the temple as the climax at the end of the week. A magnificent moment! The crowds were plentiful. It was a reminder of God's covenantal love for the people.
We read in John's Gospel that on the last day, at the climax after the great “Jericho Loop,” Jesus was present. He cried out, and John tells us this very clearly, in “a loud voice”. He shouted it, “All you who are thirsty, you can come to me and drink.” The people of Israel were celebrating God's work, grace and protection, and Jesus said, “If you are thirsty, you can come to me.” He was identifying himself with the work of God, the work of the Father, who had provided for the people when they were in need. In a loud voice for all to hear, he said, “Here I am. You can come to me, all you who thirst.”
This is one of the most dramatic moments in the whole of the New Testament. Why is it important? What was Jesus saying when he was crying out to those people? Why in a loud voice for everyone to hear it? It was because he knew that people have a spiritual thirst. It was not just about the water they received by the stone being hit. It was not just about the manna that was provided by Heaven. It was spiritual nourishment that the people needed. We might be 80 per cent water, but we are also spirit. As spiritual beings, we also need to be replenished and renewed in a spiritual sense. As important as water is for our physical nourishment, so too the power of God's spirit is crucial to our everyday lives and existence. Believe you me, when you are thirsty spiritually, just as if you were physically dehydrated, you know it.
When you are spiritually thirsty you know it because of your emotional and psychological state. You know that you are frightened, that things bother you, that the future is uncertain and you question whether there is hope. You know you are spiritually thirsty when you have lost your faith, and you are not sure that there is a God who cares for you. When you are concerned about your own sinfulness, when you are in need of forgiveness for something you have done wrong, when you are uncertain about your own ability to live the life you want, you are spiritually thirsty. When you simply feel dry, as though you have lost your soul, and that all the pressures of life are bearing in on you and all the pleasures of life are found wanting, you are spiritually thirsty.
You can also be spiritually thirsty in a positive sense. You can have a thirst for justice and righteousness; you can have a thirst for truth and goodness; you can have a thirst for the good of others and for peace. You can have a spiritual thirst that is a positive thirst, a thirst that is borne out of a desire for a better world. Either way, spiritual thirst can be dramatic. Its effects can influence your whole life. But, often, we do not see the signs of this thirst until it is too late, and then, we avoid them. This can lead to all manner of problems.
There is a parable about a man who was flying over the desert in a plane that started to sputter. He had to land in the middle of the sand. He got out in the middle of the dry desert and started walking around with no idea in which direction to go. After a few hours, he was extremely thirsty. Finally, a man came up to him and said he was a necktie salesman. The salesman asked, “Sir, is there anything that you would like?”
The man replied, “Well, I am extremely thirsty.”
The salesman said, “I am sorry, but I think you should buy a necktie.”
The first man scolded, “Oh, be off with you, I don't need a necktie. Why would I need a necktie?”
He walked on, staggering as the heat got to him. The thirst dominated him; his mouth was bone-dry. Finally, he saw some neon lights and a sign that said, “free drinks.” It was a nightclub with music playing, limousines parked outside and valet people. He staggered up to the front door and said, “I am so glad to find you! I am so thirsty! I would love to come in and have a drink in this magnificent club.”
The doorman replied, “Sorry, we can't let you in unless you're wearing a tie.”
Often, we are not prepared for what may or may not lie ahead. Health experts will tell you that if you already feel thirsty, you haven't been drinking enough. You need to prepare for whatever might come along in your life, and you should be ready for it by “drinking” ahead of time. When Jesus said to the people gathered there on the day of the feast, “If you are thirsty, come to me and I will give you drink,” he was saying, “Prepare yourself. Prepare yourself spiritually and prepare faithfully for what lies ahead.” So, what impact does that have on our lives? How does what Jesus said change the way we live?
I think the first thing that water does is flush out impurities. One of the problems with dehydration is that you get a build-up of bacteria, your kidneys shut down, your liver doesn't function properly and your eyes don't focus correctly. There are all manner of impurities that build up that fluid helps wash away. So it is with our spiritual lives. I agree with John Calvin, who in his commentary on this passage in John's Gospel suggests that Jesus had the words of Isaiah in mind when he spoke. In Isaiah, Chapter 55, there is this vision of the people of Israel coming home after the exile. Isaiah said,
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me! Eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest affair.
This is important. Make sure you eat what is good. He says, “Those who are thirsty, come.” What does he mean by this? Well, most scholars believe this is actually a passage to the people of Israel telling them that they are forgiven. The problems they have had in exile are now washed away and now cleaned away, and they no longer have to worry. They no longer have to worry about what they will eat or drink, or where they will get wine or milk. All of it will be provided for them. Why? It is because of God's grace.
It is God's grace, love and forgiveness that washes away all the sins of the past. It is Christ's love and grace that take away the impurities of life. Calvin, writing on this, says that this is what Jesus came to do - he came to wash away the impurities of our lives that we might freely be able to turn to God. Jesus said, “Come to me all you who thirst, and you will never ever thirst again.” This is the living water that you are going to receive: the water of forgiveness, the good water, the water that flushes away the sins of the past.
But it is far more than that! This water needs to infiltrate the whole of your being. When you drink water, you don't drink a glass of water and say, “This particular amount will go to my eyes or to my kidneys or to my pancreas or to my liver.” You don't have specific water for specific organs in your body. You simply drink the water and it goes where it is needed. So, too, it is with our faith and with Christ. You don't just drink of Christ's water of the Spirit when you have a particular need in a particular part of your life. Rather, you let the grace of Christ infiltrate your whole being. Part of the problem with many people's lives is that they treat Christ and their faith as if it is just a sort of religious thing. By a “religious thing,” I mean something you pick up then put down every now and again. It is natural that if a person has a specific thirst in their lives, they will turn to God. Sometimes, we are rather rough on people and we say, “You are treating God as if God is something that is there for you when you ask for it and need it.” I mentioned a few weeks ago that we sometimes treat God like room service.
But, that is not always wrong. Sometimes, when we are thirsty in one part of our lives, it is okay to come to Christ with that concern. If you are thirsty in one facet of your life, whether it is your job, your health, your family, the state of the world or concern about a neighbour - whatever it might be, it is okay to be thirsty in one area of your life, and come to Christ and say, “Here.” But, imagine how much better prepared you would be for life, how much richer your existence would be, if you had that water infiltrate every part of your life - not just the part that happens to be there at any given moment in which you feel the thirst.
The problem is that many people treat religion as if it is just a compartment of their life. When they do that, it has no meaning. It says all the right words, it might repeat all the right phrases, it might know even all the right Scriptures, but unless it has been drunk into the soul and become part of every fibre in your body, then it loses so much of its power.
It is like the story that I read many years ago about a minister who was out visiting on the prairies. One cold, dark night he went to see a family in a remote farmhouse. He arrived late and he asked if he could stay the night because the weather was very inclement. The family said, “Of course, Reverend. We'll make sure there is a lavish breakfast for you in the morning.”
So, the minister stayed overnight and when he got up in the morning, he heard the most beautiful sound. There was a soprano singing Nearer My God to Thee, and he thought, “Wow, this is a religious household!” He went downstairs to breakfast, and there was a young woman, the daughter of the household, singing. He said to her, “This is wonderful! You are so committed and so religious. It does my heart good!”
She replied, “I always sing this when I am boiling eggs. Three verses for soft; five verses for hard.”
You can have all the outward words, all the nice phrases, all the pretence of faith, but unless you have drunk it in, unless it is part of your soul, then so often life is weaker because of it. Let the water of Christ infiltrate the whole of your life and live with him. Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “If you are thirsty, come to me and I will give you drink.”
There is also a need for consistency. You need to consistently replenish your water. I always have a concern about what we sometimes call “submarine Christians.” Do you know what I mean by submarine Christians? They are those who only show up above the water maybe once or twice a year at Christmas and Easter, and the rest of the time you never see them. Well, a submarine Christian can be very wet on the outside, yet very, very dry on the inside. For all the show and all the outward manifestation of religiosity when it pleases them or when it might be convenient, the fact of the matter is, people who do that often have no consistency in their lives.
I had a friend in Ottawa who was a very, very good marathoner. Every morning, he would get up and he run all along the river right on into Wellington Street - it is a magnificent run. But, there was a period in his life when he started to have the most terrible cramps. Despite all the brilliance of his running, the more he trained and the harder he tried, the cramps overtook him, until he just stopped running completely. He went to many different therapists and exercise coaches; he did everything he could. He even took a break for a few months to give his body a rest, but it still didn't work. Then, he received one crucial piece of information. A doctor from the Civic Hospital said, “All I suggest is that you double your intake of water and drink regularly throughout your run.” So, Paul picked up a bottle of water and sipped from it constantly as he ran. The cramps stopped - his problem was solved. Consistency. Taking in water when it's needed.
Have a source of sustenance on a daily basis. Jesus says, “Come unto me all you who thirst and I will give you drink.” Be consistent; stay in that relationship with him. Don't treat it as a momentary thing, just when you feel thirsty or dry. Make it a constant part of your life.
There is also a need to make sure that the water you drink is good water. We all know the dangers, especially here in Ontario, of drinking polluted water. Who could not think of the tragic deaths and illnesses in Walkerton? The effects continue today. We know that bad water, water that is impure, can have a devastating effect on the system. It has to be good water - water that comes, not just from our own efforts, but come from God.
What I am talking about is daily living with a spiritual foundation for your life that should result in obedience: the good water. It is not only for the sake of being able to say that I am a religious person and I have Christ in my life, and whatever problems come my way, I am okay. It must result in obedience.
One person who absolutely disdained the show of religiosity was Mark Twain. He had an acquaintance who was very powerful and wealthy. He ran one of Boston's successful banks. One day this person approached Mark Twain, full of bravado about himself and his abilities, and said, “I am going off to the Holy Land. I am going to climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments from the top of the mountain.”
Mark Twain looked at him and said, “You know what I would do? I would just stay in Boston and live 'em.”
Never mind the show; have the obedience.
So often, the living water of Christ and the filling of the Spirit becomes, for many Christians, a show. Not sincere, not deep, and not obedient - not good water. When that happens, it makes a mockery of the infilling power of Christ's spirit. But, when you are genuinely open and honest, when you come to the living water and receive it daily, it becomes the good water, the water of obedience and the water of life.
My friends, I know many of you are thirsty in some facet of your life. There is a need to renew your faith and your sense of hope, to have the courage to live every day, to face whatever challenge might come or whatever opportunity might present itself. I say to you what Jesus said when he stood before the crowd at the feast, and cried with a loud voice, “If you are thirsty, come to me and I will give you living water.” Amen.