The Water Of Life
Sermon
Cross, Resurrection, And Ascension
First Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
Knowledge that water is an integral ingredient of life was a concept not lost on the ancients. The great civilizations of the world located themselves near water and used it in most every aspect of their daily lives. The Egyptians built the world's first great empire along the Nile. In the midst of the desert a flourishing community existed and grew in size and strength. The water of the river provided the source of life for the people then as it does today. On both sides of the Nile a rich and fertile area exists for farming and grazing of livestock. Periodic floods enrich the land with the silt from the river bottom. Besides providing nourishment for crops and animals the river was the principal means of transportation, ferrying products and people to destinations north and south. In modern times the Nile is Egypt's main source of power generated at the Aswan Dam in the southern region of the nation.
The Egyptians were only the first of many peoples who understood the importance of water and the life it brought. Contemporaneous with the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians established a highly cultured and advanced civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Known as the Fertile Crescent, the area became home to the Babylonians, where the Hebrews would spend fifty years in exile. Throughout human history peoples have located themselves near water because of its life-giving qualities and aid in transportation. In our own country we can look to our history and note that most all great cities were established near some significant source of water.
Water has always been seen as a necessity for life. Greek philosophers, in their attempt to explain the world around them, proposed the idea that all matter was a composition of four basic elements: earth, fire, air, and water. All the visible things of the world contained some amount of water and were thus dependent upon it for their existence. Humans learned quickly that they could not long survive without water. The body can function without food for many days but not so without water. We use water to cleanse our world as well, whether that means washing our clothes, scrubbing the floor, or bathing ourselves.
The Hebrews, like the Egyptians and other ancients, understood the importance of water. From the setting described in today's reading from Exodus, water played an integral role in the life of the community. The "deliverer" Moses was saved from death when his mother placed him upon the waters and he was rescued from the river by Pharoah's daughter. God turned the waters of Egypt into blood in an attempt to convince Pharaoh to free the captive Hebrew nation. It was water that provided the escape path for the Israelites as they fled Egypt, and it was this same water which brought to ruin those who pursued the people as they escaped to the desert.
Water had in many ways brought the people to the desert, yet now we hear it is the lack of water which has generated a crisis in the Hebrew camp. Obviously the people needed water to meet their physical needs and the desert would prove a poor source, but the people seem to have forgotten that God had always provided for their needs in the past, especially in the recent past. The people think God has abandoned them and thus they grumble against God's servant Moses, the one drawn from the waters by God to lead the people to freedom. The people need the water, but they need God even more, and they cannot perceive it. The people fail to understand that God is the source of the water they so desperately need. Where can the people obtain water in the dry vast spaces of the desert; how can a rock bring forth water? The Hebrews miss the whole point of God's test; they failed to understand that God is the source of water. God is the source of all that they need. As David and other writers of the psalms would state generations later, God is the rock, the foundation of the people. God, their rock, can provide the living water the people need.
Like the people of earlier generations we need water to drink, for transportation, and to cleanse our world. Modern science has unlocked many of the mysteries of the miraculous qualities of water which allow us to understand our need for this ordinary substance which we often take for granted. But we also often find ourselves in the same dilemma as the Hebrews. Our needs are not met, the many "waters" of life are not satisfied, and we fail to seek God for solutions. As ancient philosophers believed water to be a part of all things, so we must understand and believe in the universal omnipresence of God. There is nothing in which God does not exist; there is no event wherein God is not present.
People have always needed water for transportation; we need God in the same way. There are many ways to get around, to travel from one place to another, but there is only one means of travel which will lead us to salvation. We need the providential hand of God to direct our often wayward lives back to the road that brings us to life. We can use so many other vehicles of society -- addiction, escape from reality, or pleasure -- to aid the thirst for our needs, the waters of life, but in the end all such solutions fall short, are found to be empty, and fail to satisfy.
Water was the great source of sustenance for the ancients and it continues to be for us today. We need all the physical properties which water provides, but we need God, the source of living water, more in the multiple ways that the Lord feeds us. The water which God provides is found in words, the Scriptures we read, sacrament, the bread of life we share, and what is most available yet seldom recognized, the presence of others. We know that water is integral to our lives; we cannot live long without it. In a similar and most important way God, the source of all good things, of living water, must be integral to our lives. We must drink of the Lord as assuredly as we drink water. Water nourishes our body; God nourishes our soul.
Lent is the perfect opportunity to refocus our sights on God, to realize anew our need for and dependence upon God. This is a season when we journey from the desert to the wood of the cross to the empty tomb. We will need to find water in the desert in order to continue our journey, and God will be the one who can provide this basic sustenance of life. We have many needs and equally as many if not more wants in our life. Water is one of the most basic needs of the body which must be satisfied in order to continue life. God is the source of life for the soul and the goal to which our life must be oriented. Let us continue to draw near to God. We will be sustained today, have our needs met, and brought to eternal life tomorrow.
The Egyptians were only the first of many peoples who understood the importance of water and the life it brought. Contemporaneous with the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians established a highly cultured and advanced civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Known as the Fertile Crescent, the area became home to the Babylonians, where the Hebrews would spend fifty years in exile. Throughout human history peoples have located themselves near water because of its life-giving qualities and aid in transportation. In our own country we can look to our history and note that most all great cities were established near some significant source of water.
Water has always been seen as a necessity for life. Greek philosophers, in their attempt to explain the world around them, proposed the idea that all matter was a composition of four basic elements: earth, fire, air, and water. All the visible things of the world contained some amount of water and were thus dependent upon it for their existence. Humans learned quickly that they could not long survive without water. The body can function without food for many days but not so without water. We use water to cleanse our world as well, whether that means washing our clothes, scrubbing the floor, or bathing ourselves.
The Hebrews, like the Egyptians and other ancients, understood the importance of water. From the setting described in today's reading from Exodus, water played an integral role in the life of the community. The "deliverer" Moses was saved from death when his mother placed him upon the waters and he was rescued from the river by Pharoah's daughter. God turned the waters of Egypt into blood in an attempt to convince Pharaoh to free the captive Hebrew nation. It was water that provided the escape path for the Israelites as they fled Egypt, and it was this same water which brought to ruin those who pursued the people as they escaped to the desert.
Water had in many ways brought the people to the desert, yet now we hear it is the lack of water which has generated a crisis in the Hebrew camp. Obviously the people needed water to meet their physical needs and the desert would prove a poor source, but the people seem to have forgotten that God had always provided for their needs in the past, especially in the recent past. The people think God has abandoned them and thus they grumble against God's servant Moses, the one drawn from the waters by God to lead the people to freedom. The people need the water, but they need God even more, and they cannot perceive it. The people fail to understand that God is the source of the water they so desperately need. Where can the people obtain water in the dry vast spaces of the desert; how can a rock bring forth water? The Hebrews miss the whole point of God's test; they failed to understand that God is the source of water. God is the source of all that they need. As David and other writers of the psalms would state generations later, God is the rock, the foundation of the people. God, their rock, can provide the living water the people need.
Like the people of earlier generations we need water to drink, for transportation, and to cleanse our world. Modern science has unlocked many of the mysteries of the miraculous qualities of water which allow us to understand our need for this ordinary substance which we often take for granted. But we also often find ourselves in the same dilemma as the Hebrews. Our needs are not met, the many "waters" of life are not satisfied, and we fail to seek God for solutions. As ancient philosophers believed water to be a part of all things, so we must understand and believe in the universal omnipresence of God. There is nothing in which God does not exist; there is no event wherein God is not present.
People have always needed water for transportation; we need God in the same way. There are many ways to get around, to travel from one place to another, but there is only one means of travel which will lead us to salvation. We need the providential hand of God to direct our often wayward lives back to the road that brings us to life. We can use so many other vehicles of society -- addiction, escape from reality, or pleasure -- to aid the thirst for our needs, the waters of life, but in the end all such solutions fall short, are found to be empty, and fail to satisfy.
Water was the great source of sustenance for the ancients and it continues to be for us today. We need all the physical properties which water provides, but we need God, the source of living water, more in the multiple ways that the Lord feeds us. The water which God provides is found in words, the Scriptures we read, sacrament, the bread of life we share, and what is most available yet seldom recognized, the presence of others. We know that water is integral to our lives; we cannot live long without it. In a similar and most important way God, the source of all good things, of living water, must be integral to our lives. We must drink of the Lord as assuredly as we drink water. Water nourishes our body; God nourishes our soul.
Lent is the perfect opportunity to refocus our sights on God, to realize anew our need for and dependence upon God. This is a season when we journey from the desert to the wood of the cross to the empty tomb. We will need to find water in the desert in order to continue our journey, and God will be the one who can provide this basic sustenance of life. We have many needs and equally as many if not more wants in our life. Water is one of the most basic needs of the body which must be satisfied in order to continue life. God is the source of life for the soul and the goal to which our life must be oriented. Let us continue to draw near to God. We will be sustained today, have our needs met, and brought to eternal life tomorrow.
