John Wesley was preaching one...
Illustration
John Wesley was preaching one day, when the town bully started to tease him. The bully shouted, "We've had Christianity for 1,700 years and what difference has it made? What's it ever done? We're in just as big of a mess now as we've ever been in."
Wesley replied, "My good man, don't you know that we have had water for much longer than that, but you've still got a dirty face. You've got to use something before it works." Water is an ancient symbol for what we need.
Keith J. Egan cites some illustrations.1 For example, Francis of Assisi in his "Canticle of the Sun" praises the Lord for "Sister Water, who is useful and humble, Precious and Pure." Again, Teresa of Avila said, "I don't find anything more appropriate to explain some spiritual experiences than water ... and [I] am so fond of this element that I have observed it more attentively than other things."
T. S. Eliot wrote, "The river is within us, the sea is all about us (Four Quartets, "The Dry Salvages)." No wonder Christ seized the symbol of water. Commenting on today's passage, William Temple wrote of Christ: "He claims that in Him may be found the fulfillment of all which this ritual [the drawing, carrying and pouring of water during the Feast of Tabernacles] represents. Not only so, but those who slake their spiritual thirst at that spring will become themselves fountains for the spiritual refreshment of others."2
1. Keith Egan, "Water," The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1983, p. 390.
2. William Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel, New York: Macmillian, 1939, I, p. 130.
-- Chinn
Wesley replied, "My good man, don't you know that we have had water for much longer than that, but you've still got a dirty face. You've got to use something before it works." Water is an ancient symbol for what we need.
Keith J. Egan cites some illustrations.1 For example, Francis of Assisi in his "Canticle of the Sun" praises the Lord for "Sister Water, who is useful and humble, Precious and Pure." Again, Teresa of Avila said, "I don't find anything more appropriate to explain some spiritual experiences than water ... and [I] am so fond of this element that I have observed it more attentively than other things."
T. S. Eliot wrote, "The river is within us, the sea is all about us (Four Quartets, "The Dry Salvages)." No wonder Christ seized the symbol of water. Commenting on today's passage, William Temple wrote of Christ: "He claims that in Him may be found the fulfillment of all which this ritual [the drawing, carrying and pouring of water during the Feast of Tabernacles] represents. Not only so, but those who slake their spiritual thirst at that spring will become themselves fountains for the spiritual refreshment of others."2
1. Keith Egan, "Water," The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1983, p. 390.
2. William Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel, New York: Macmillian, 1939, I, p. 130.
-- Chinn
