Isaiah
55; John 7:37-39
Pentecost 2014
When a woman named Cathy Sky was
forty years old, she found herself totally stressed out trying to complete her
Master’s degree thesis. That’s quite understandable
whether you’ve been through the same experience or not. Miss Sky woke up on one of those
muscle-knotting mornings determined to loosen her writer’s block. So she turned on the television and tried to
channel surf the stress away.
Suddenly, she found herself having an
unexpected reunion with a comforting, very wise friend known best to her back
in her childhood. All kinds of tensions subsided upon seeing the
soft-blue sneakered man wearing the red cardigan knit by his mother. Mister Rogers. He was working on a greeting card craft. In that gentle yet profound way of his, he
offered these words to his through-the-television screen neighbor – “It’s fun
when you have a project. You have an
idea for something to do, and the think about how you want to do it. It takes a lot of planning. I know it’s hard work. And I’m so proud of you for trying.”
Cathy Sky immediately interpreted
this as no coincidental encounter. She
quickly understood it to be a living, loving, compassionate, and totally
empowering word from God. The empowering
words nestled deeply and wonderfully within her heart. She was able to start writing productively
once again. In the space between the
television screen and her La-Z Boy recliner, she was certain the very real
power and presence of God flowed to her through the spiritual gifts of Fred
Rogers.
Having been trained and ordained as
a Presbyterian Minister, the late Reverend Rogers knew a lot about heavenly flow. He
believed it happens as the Holy Spirit works within, through and around us all.
He trusted that his good words of
affirmation, education, and character formation would be used by the Spirit in
the lives of all who heard them. He perceived this world as thirsty for the
living water of Jesus Christ and believed the Spirit slaked the thirst of and
flowed forth from faithful hearts.
In Mister Rogers
neighborhood of the heavenly kingdom, God’s Word was streamed through countless
encouraging, caring, Spirit blessed words.
These did not return empty. They
accomplished the good purpose for which they were sent. “I’m so convinced,” he once said, “that the
space between the television set and the viewer is holy ground. And what we put on the television can, by the
Holy Spirit, be translated into what a person needs to hear and see, and
without that translation, it’s all [rubbish] as far as I’m concerned.”
I don’t think there could be any clearer words on how much he
depended on the Spirit! When you and I
independently and collectively study the Bible, the same holds true. We do so while standing upon the holy ground
through which flows the Spirit-driven Good News of our Risen Lord.
On this Pentecost Sunday, I felt
drawn to today’s text from John’s Gospel.
Perhaps it’s because it’s the time of year when many of us spend more
time beside and in and on bodies of water.
Of course, the beautifully rich symbols of fire, dove and wind are also
outstanding teachers of the third person of the Trinity’s power. Throughout the Bible, the dove symbolizes
God’s peace and covenant with all creation; fire represents being led, inspired
and refined by God’s wisdom and will; wind represents the creative breath of
life.
When thinking of the Spirit as a river of living water, it’s
helpful to reflect on the geographic fact that ancient Israel had numerous dry
river beds. The only time water flowed
through them was when there was runoff from rain. People waited and waited and waited. This wasn’t something that could exactly be
predicted and planned upon in that pre-scientific time. The image of dried up rivers was therefore
often used by religious teachers as an image of drought – the physical kind and
it’s damage to life-sustaining vegetation, as well as the spiritual kind and it’s damage to hopefulness. Have you ever experienced either or both kinds
of drought?
But the despair of droughts would simultaneously yield a deep
longing within people for the arrival of a mighty flow. Ancient preachers therefore also spoke of
them to inspire hope. They preached that
living a righteous life is like a mighty, ever-flowing river … a life convinced
that God does not abandon God’s thirsty children to dry riverbeds of despair
and death. In addition to today’s Old Testament
lesson, Isaiah spoke of this in the following way – “The Lord will guide you
continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places … you shall be like a
watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” (Isa. 58:11)
It’s not surprising at all that on
the last day of a great Jewish festival celebrating God’s provision and care
for our lives, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to
me.” In other words, anyone feeling parched in
spirit, abandoned by God on some dry, cracked stretch of life. All were invited into the holy flow of Jesus
to be rejuvenated and sustained.
Earlier in John’s Gospel, we are told of a time when Jesus
demonstrated what this experience was like.
It happened after Jesus approached a foreign woman. She was a Samaritan, part of a people long
despised by upstanding Jews. She was
regarded as no cleaner and no more significant than a wild a dog. And, more generally, as a woman she suffered
the oppressions of a male-dominated culture.
Talk about living in a parched place.
Rabbis certainly did not approach Samaritan women. Yet Jesus did, as she stood by a well. Then he made a promise to her saying, “The
water I will give you will become in you a spring of water gushing up to
eternal life.”
Even as he proclaimed this to her, and declared a related
message to his disciples on the last day of the Festival of Tabernacles, Jesus
knew the day was coming when he would no longer be physically present. He knew what his death, resurrection and
ascension would be like for his followers.
He knew how much anxiety they would have that the holy flow of his
teaching and healing and loving would evaporate and leave the world behind more
arid than before his miraculous arrival.
But Jesus also knew his full identity. He knew he was in complete accord with the
Trinity. He knew the life-sustaining
power of the Spirit that had been flowing through him on earth had been doing
so since the beginning of time. It had
touched many lives before him, though never as fully. Our Lord understood his death would not stop
the forever flow of the Spirit. And he
knew that the only way to really flood this love-parched, sin-dehydrating world
was for this power to flow through and beyond the Cross and the tomb. As one man, living in one region, at one
time in history, Jesus of Nazareth was limited.
However, as our Savior, and in the Spirit, there are no bounds. Like water and rain coming down from the
sky, the Spirit of the Living God’s reign brings forth flourishing buds of new
life, peace, and joy. What fresh buds
are you in need of today?
This is what we celebrate every Pentecost. It’s what quietly rushed through Mister
Rogers with way more might than the Mississippi River. It’s what covers the sacred space between
pulpit and pew, between all our faithful conversations. It’s what fills and unites us as we share in
communion. In the Spirit, we are all
pipelines of God’s redeeming power in Jesus Christ! Where will you help direct the flow
today? Amen.
