Rivers of Living Water

"On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."  - John 7:37-39

There were many feasts in ancient Israel but three of them stood out as especially important; Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles.  The Passover Feast celebrated the deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.  Of course, this feast continues to be a significant day for modern day Jews and also for Christians since the "last supper" Christ had with the disciples was a passover meal.  The Feast of Weeks was a harvest celebration and is so named because it was celebrated seven weeks (a week's worth of weeks) after the beginning of harvest.  In Greek speaking Judaism, this festival also came to be known as Pentecost, the "pente" denoting the 50th day, the first day after the seven weeks mentioned above.  This festival also has enduring significance in Christianity since Acts 2 describes the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit on the apostles on Pentecost, which we celebrate this coming Sunday, seven weeks after Easter.  

The third important feast in Israel was the Feast of Booths (a.k.a Tabernacles).  This feast was also connected to the Exodus story.  During the seven days of this feast, the people of Israel were to dwell in booths, small tent like structures, to remind them of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness after God delivered them from their slavery in Egypt.  However, over time this feast began to take on other meanings and significance as well.  By the time of the prophet Zechariah, the Feast of Booths had also become connected to rain.  In last chapter of Zechariah, God says that rain will only fall on those nations that come to Jerusalem and keep the Feast of Booths (Zechariah 14:16-19).  By the first century, a practice of pouring out libations at the altar of the Temple had also been added as part of the festival's observance.  Water would be gathered from the Pool of Siloam, carried to the Temple, and poured around the altar, perhaps as a symbolic act of the prayer for rain.  

It was likely after this water drawing ceremony that Jesus stands up and says "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.   Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  Jesus' first sentence here seems to be an allusion to Isaiah 55:1.  "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."  This verse is a part of God's promise to Israel that they will be restored from their exile in Babylon.  

The other part of Jesus' statement, about rivers of living water, is a bit more difficult to pinpoint to any particular verse in the Old Testament, especially since the river is flowing "out of his heart".  However, one passage where a river of living water takes center stage is Ezekiel 47.  Like Isaiah 55, Ezekiel is also conveying a promise of Israel's return from exile.  However, Ezekiel's vision speaks not only to Israel's historical return from Exile but also has a kind of supernatural quality to it in which the actual land of Israel itself is restored and teems with life.  Ezekiel describes a stream that flows from the base of the Temple, past the altar (where the libation for the Feast of Booths were poured) and toward the Dead Sea.  On its way to the Dead Sea, this stream becomes a mighty river despite having no tributaries and when it arrives at the Dead Sea, it turns the salt water fresh.  The Hebrew here literally says that it "heals" the water of the Dead Sea allowing the once lifeless body of water to teem with life.  This is literally a river of living water.  

But this river flows from the Temple.  Why then does Jesus say "out of his heart"?  Many English translations make this sound like a reference to the heart of those who believe in Jesus.  However, the "his" could just as easily be referring to Jesus himself.  Additionally, the Greek word in this verse is not heart (kardia) but gut or belly (koilias).  The verse would then read "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and whoever believes in me drink.  As the Scripture has said, "Out of his gut will flow rivers of living water."  The image of water flowing from Jesus' gut or side should not be lost on those familiar with John's telling of Jesus' crucifixion.  Water and blood will indeed flow from Jesus' side when the soldier pierces him with a spear as he hangs on the cross.  

So what does all this mean?  It means these few simple verses are a profoundly in depth but succinct summary of John's understanding of Jesus.  All of this takes place in the midst of a festival which reminds those gathered of the Exodus; God's greatest act of deliverance for his people.  This festival also reminded them of God's continued sustaining of creation with rains.  Jesus then alludes to two verses which remind those gathered of another of God's greatest act of restoration; return from Exile.  But Jesus does not simply remind the people of this.  He says he is now the source of deliverance, sustenance, and restoration.  "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me."  Jesus is the source of living water because he is the God who did all these things now made flesh.  The water and blood which will flow from Jesus' side at his crucifixion are the beginning of Ezekiel's vision of a river of life which will restore the land of Israel, healing it and giving it life.  

But this is not only a statement about Jesus.  As a statement about Jesus' death, it is also a statement about the  Spirit.  John says as much in the very next verse.  "Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."  In the Gospel of John,  Jesus' glorification refers to his crucifixion.  John repeats several times throughout his gospel what he says here; the Holy Spirit can not come to the disciples until Jesus has been crucified.  That is why Jesus' death is the beginning of Ezekiel's vision of new creation.  It means the outpouring of the Holy Spirit who will carry out this work of restoration and renewal.  The Holy Spirit is the river of living water which renews and sustains all that it touches.  

This is the essence of Pentecost which we will celebrate this Sunday; God's Holy Spirit, God's river of living water has been poured out on those who place their trust in Jesus.  This is why we expect lives to be transformed, attitudes to be changed, and the chains of sin to broken.  This is why we expect that these old creatures that we are and this old creation that we live in can both be made new.  This is why we believe there can even be such a thing as church.  Because in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we believe that God has opened up a spring of water right here in the midst of our otherwise very dry world and from that spring flows a river that brings life to everything around it.  May we see that river flowing through our church this Sunday and may we who are thirsty come and drink.  

What Does God Look Like?

What does God look like?  An old man with a beard?  Or perhaps you see God more like a mighty warrior or judge?  An ominous cloud of fire and smoke?  An indescribable and overwhelming light?

It seems Philip is looking for something along those lines in John 14 when he says "Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us."  This seems an honorable request on Philip's part.  It is not unlike Moses' request in Exodus 33.  But Jesus is extremely disappointed in Philip's request because it shows that Philip has not yet understood who Jesus is.  Jesus says "Have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father."

Earlier in John's Gospel, Jesus is teaching in the temple courts.  The scribes and the Pharisees interrupt Jesus' teaching by dragging in a woman caught in adultery.  They say to Jesus "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.  Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman; what then do You say?"  This is a litmus test of Jesus' orthodoxy.  It is a way for the religious leaders to put Jesus in a difficult position to see if he really follows God's law.  The crowd Jesus has been teaching is waiting to see what he will do.  Will Jesus condone the stoning to death of this woman or will he go against the law of Moses?  But Jesus sees that the woman's sins are not the only ones that need to be dealt with here and he says "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  And one by one all of the woman's accusers walked away, leaving her alone with Jesus who said to her "'Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?'  She said 'No one, Lord.'  And Jesus said 'I do not condemn you either.  Go. From now on sin no more.'"  Philip says "Lord, show us the Father."  Jesus says "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

Later in John's gospel, a close friend of Jesus is sick, very sick.  The friend's sister sends people to find Jesus and they ask him to come heal his friend so that he won't die.  Jesus says that his friend's sickness will not end in death but a couple days later this friend dies.  Upon arriving at his friend's tomb, John tells us that Jesus wept.  While Jesus is weeping for his dead friend, others are standing by saying to themselves "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?"  Jesus instructs those who are present to remove the stone that seals the tomb to which they protest "Lord, by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead for four days".  Nevertheless, they remove the stone and Jesus calls out to his friend Lazarus and Lazarus, who had been dead, walks out of the tomb alive.  Philip says "Lord, show us the Father."  Jesus says "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

Sometime before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus and the disciples were sharing a meal together.  After the meal, Jesus took a towel and a basin of water and began to wash the disciples feet.  This was a regular practice in the ancient world...but it was the regular practice of servants, not of teachers and people of status, not of someone who had disciples.  It was the disciples who should have been washing Jesus' feet.  But Jesus insists upon taking this lowly position upon himself even though he is their teacher and their savior.  Philip says "Lord, show us the Father."  Jesus says "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

You want to know what God looks like?  Look at the compassion and mercy that Jesus shows to an adulterous woman while he also shows those who think of themselves as righteous that they are not as spotless as they might think.  You want to see God?  Look at the one who can not only heal the sick but also raise the dead.  You want to know the heartbeat of the God who created and sustains the entire universe?  Look at the teacher who holds the towel and the basin.  If you want to know God, look at Jesus.

But that is perhaps not the most remarkable truth of this week's sermon text.  Jesus goes on to say "I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these he will do."  Jesus says that his followers will do even greater things than he did during his time on earth.  Want to see God?  Jesus says "Look at my followers."  This isn't because Jesus' followers are perfect.  Like anyone else, we are broken, corrupted, painfully inadequate, sinful people.  Jesus can say this because of what he goes on to say in verses 16 and 17.  Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to his followers.  This Spirit is the one that enables us to do the the things that Jesus did; to forgive with mercy and compassion, to find life where others see only death, to take upon ourselves lowly positions of service and humility, to reveal the heart of our heavenly father in everything that we do.  After all, this is what we say every week in our church; that "we are called to be a community that is faithful image of God's love."  Our task, our calling as the Church is nothing short of revealing our heavenly Father.

We throw around the titles "Christian" and "Church" and "follower of Jesus" pretty loosely sometimes.  But we should not take too lightly what we are saying when we call ourselves those things.  By calling ourselves the Church, we are saying nothing short of this; "If you want to know God, look at us."  Such a statement would be blasphemous, heretical, and down right arrogant if we didn't also believe that the only reason we could say such a thing is because on Pentecost God poured out his Holy Spirit so that anyone who chooses to can be re-shaped by that Spirit into the image of God.  We should not call ourselves "Christian" or "the Church" unless we are willing to allow this Spirit to have full reign in our lives, for to call ourselves "Christian" without allowing the Spirit to work in us is to misrepresent God.  But if we are willing to let the Spirit of God reign in us wholly and completely then we can rejoice that this Spirit can make us into the holy people that God has called us to be.  Pentecost is the promise that we can indeed be a community that is faithful image of God's love.

Pondering the Power of Pentecost

God has poured out his Holy Spirit.  

I have been pondering the significane of that statement for about the last hour and a half and I am finding it difficult to write.  This is not because there is nothing to say but because there is too much to say.  It is difficult to overstate the significance of the story of Pentecost that Luke narrates in Acts 2:1-21.

Pentecost is a reversal of the Tower of Babel.  Genesis 11 tells the story of some of the earliest human beings trying build a tower that would reach to heaven, apparently a monument to humanity's own greatness.  God prevents this idolatry by causing all the people to speak in different languages so that they could not communicate with one another.  In contrast, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit enables the apostles to speak so that those present can all understand them in their own language.  God's action at Babel divides so as to prevent idolatry.  God's action at Pentecost unites those who hear to the glory of God.

Pentecost is the beginning of the harvest.  Before it was a Christian festival, Pentecost was a Jewish festival also known as the Feast of Weeks.  This feast was celebrated seven weeks from the time "you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain" (Deut 16).  Luke's mentioning of this festival at the beginning of Acts 2 may be a pragmatic explanation as to why there were Jews from so many other parts of the world present in Jerusalem on that day since they would have gathered for the feast.  However, it is also likely that their presence in the story is an indication that through the pouring out of the Spirit, the great harvest has began.  

Pentecost is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel.  Peter, empowered by the freshly outpoured Spirit, stands up and begins a speech by quoting Joel 2:28-32 and saying that what the crowd is observing is what Joel spoke about.  This appears an odd statement at first since part of what Peter quotes is to say that there will be "blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The Sun will be darkened and the moon turned into blood", none of which happens before or during Peter's speech.  However, when we look at Joel's words in their context, we realize that these words are a metaphorical way of saying that one day God will pour out his Spirit on all people and when he does it will be a world changing event.  It will be such a cataclysmic event that it will be like the sun being darkened or the moon being turned to blood in its world altering significance.  

Pentecost signifies a new age in which Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promises.  It should be obvious from the three Old Testament references above (Babel, Feast of Weeks, and Joel) that Pentecost is not something that can be understood apart from the story of Israel.  Pentecost is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promises to his people.  That is why Peter quotes the prophet Joel.  It is a way of saying "This is what we've been waiting for!"  The irony, of course, is that the promises were fulfilled in an unexpected way; through a crucified and resurrected Messiah who has now ascended into heaven rather than staying to rule over his kingdom.  We do ourselves a tremendous disservice when we limit salvation to "Jesus died for my sins."  Salvation is the fulfillment of Israel's hopes through Jesus and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon Jews first and then Gentiles alike.  

God's Holy Spirit abiding among us, making us to be the presence of Jesus in his absence, destroying the barriers that divide us, leading us to uncommon people in uncommon places, overturning the process of death itself, and causing us to point away from ourselves and toward Jesus, is the agent of God's promised renewal in our world.  

May God's Spirit renew us this Pentecost.

Unity in Diversity

I took piano lessons for years as a kid and a teenager and eventually practiced enough that I could read music and play some songs pretty well. However, I eventually gave up playing the piano because it was such an enormous amount of work for me. Vast amounts of effort could cover up my lack of natural ability to some extent but it eventually became apparent that something about me just wasn't gifted for this specific task. As a result, I am genuinely impressed whenever someone sings or plays an instrument as if music were actually their first language. It is as if their brains are wired a bit differently in a way that allows them to very naturally translate black dots and lines on a page into a pleasant and impressive mixture of sounds.

It is because of this experience and many, many others like it that I often find myself reflecting on the truly amazing variety of ways in which God has gifted people. It is simply fascinating to me to see the way that God has gifted other people to do things that I simply can not do. Of course, committment and harwork can take you pretty far. I was able to play the piano, after all, despite my lack of talent for it. It just became more obvious with every hour that I practiced that even enormous amounts of practice could only take me so far while others seemed to have a God given ability for creating music. Their hours of practice and dedications would enable them to do things with an insturment that I could not.

I find this variety of gifts even more fascinating as a pastor when I think about the various ways that people in our congregation are gifted. Obviously, as the pastor, I have a pretty important role in our congregation and as I look back on my life, I can see ways that God has gifted and shaped me to fulfill that role well. As a result, I pour enormous amounts of time and energy into further developing the gifts that God has given me to be a pastor just as someone else might spend hours developing their gift in front of the piano. However, a congregation full of me would be a pretty dysfunctional church. The budget would never be balanced. The building would fall into disrepair. Our children wouldn't have anyone who knew how to communicate the gospel on their level. People would think that music had ceased to exist as an artform. And we would probably be more likely to write a lengthy paper about the mission of the Church than we would be to actually carry out that mission.

This is similar to one of the problems (possibly the problem) Paul addresses when writing 1 Corinthians. It seems that the christians in Corinth were all seeking to acquire the same spiritual gift, that of speaking in tongues, because they felt this was the most superior spiritual gift and if they could acquire it then they could wear it as a badge of their spiritual superiority. This pursuit of the same gift seems to have led to divisions and factions in the congregation as some boasted of their spirituality as being greater than that of others.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes to this congregation to show them that their thinking about spiritual gifts is wrongheaded in two closely related ways. First, he wants them to see that the Holy Spirit has gifted them in a variety of ways and therefore, they should not all pursue the same spiritual gift. Secondly, he wants them to see that spiritual gifts are just that; they are gifts and not badges of spiritual honor to be boasted about. God has not gifted them to build each of them up individually. God has gifted them so that they might use that gift in cooperation with the gifts of those around them to build up the church. Paul then compares the church to the human body and says that the different members of the church must be unified in purpose just as the members of a human body are unified. If one part of the body were to somehow decide that it wanted to do its own thing, it would harm the whole body and the body might even fail.

Therefore, as the Church, we are called to exhibit unity in our diversity. Somewhat ironically, when the church at Corinth sought uniformity by all seeking the same gift, they actually ended up with arrogant boasting which led to division, the very opposite of unity. In contrast, Paul encourages the diversity that exists in his congregation and commands these Christians to use their diverse gifts for the good of the whole community, which will lead to a genuine unity.

If we are to succeed as a church we must exhibit this same kind of unity in diversity. We must use our various gifts and talents for the good of the community. This is true in a very practical sense just because it takes so many different talents and abilities to carry out the many different ministries of a church. However, I think it is also true in a much deeper way. Exhibiting unity in diversity is part of our very identity, it is a part of what it means to be an image of the Triune God. The Trinity exhibits this same unity in diversity because even God is not an isolated, uniform being. God exists as three separate and diverse persons who are so intimately bound together and united that they are one. As our congregation functions less like individuals who are loosely associated to each other and more like a body that is united in identity and mission, a body of variously gifted people bound up together in a common salvation; we will not only carry out more successful and efficient ministry. We will actually become a truer image of the God we were created to reflect in this world.