Sunday,March
7, 1999
Rev. Shirley B.
Coll
"Living
Water"
Ex 17:1-7, John 4:5-15.
Jim had planned to preach this morning and if it were not for the death of his stepfather on Tuesday, he would have been here. I spent from Tuesday until Friday evening this week in Florida with my sister Mary and Cousin Barbara re-connecting after a long time. It was an opportunity to talk and remember in a way that we had not done for many many years. Knowing that Jim would probably be away this weekend and that I would have little preparation time when I returned, I expressed some anxiety to Mary and Barbara and they, (both being religious women), suggested that this one time I should try going into the service unprepared and open only to what God would tell me to say when I was standing in the pulpit. I might have been tempted to try that but I remembered that Martin Luther, on the urging of some of his more charismatic members had once been urged to do the same thing. His friends had said to him, "The Lord will tell you what to say". Martin Luther reports that the Lord did say something - The Lord said, "Go home, Martin and write a sermon." It wasn't difficult, because sermons on Living Water write themselves. There is something wonderfully universal and democratic about the Christian church, fragile and imperfect as it is. So I did that.
It wasn't difficult, because sermons on Living Water write themselves. There is something wonderfully universal and democratic about the Christian church, fragile and imperfect as it is.Where else can you go and be warmly greeted, made to feel at home, and asked to share in the most intimate kinds of experiences of fellowship, mutual searching for answers to unanswerable questions, and joint work for the good of others? I think that the church is so familiar to many of us that we sometimes forget what a miracle it is. Even it all of its imperfection, it is amazing. It is a "one of its kind institution". It is the one place where we are free to take the spiritual journey in all of its various ramifications. It is where we come to drink the water of life.
In the past twenty-five years since I began my professional journey as a clergywoman, I have heard the stories of many and have told my own story many times. Stories vary in their details but they also contain common threads and many of those threads have to do with the power of Christian community - the power of the church as a community of faith to transform lives and empower people.- the power of small groups within the church to heal through acceptance and mutuality.
After my years in ministry, I am convinced that all of us have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, the desire is our deepest longing and our most valuable treasure.
We experience this desire in different ways. In some of us it is a longing for fulfillment, in others it is a longing for wholeness, but regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for something outside of ourselves. This longing or desire for God is at the core of the human spirit; it is the source of our highest hopes and dreams. This yearning has been there since the beginning in primitive cultures all over the world, and has found its expression in many different forms and beliefs and rituals.
A colleague of mine once described this as being born with a hole in your soul. We spend our lives trying to fill that hole, sometimes relationally. Sometimes through achievements that we can point to and take the credit for, sometimes simply with activity of all kinds. What we often miss in this process of trying to fill the hole is the truth of encounter with the mystery that is God, which is, that instead of trying to fill the empty space, what we really need to do is to accept that it is there, that we are not God, but that we live as wounded people. When we do accept this fact that we are not God and that there is nothing we have to do to please God, only then are we able to experience both God's love for us and our love for God. It is then that grace happens.
Grace happens not because we "have the holy spirit" but because the holy spirit has us. When we keep the church alive we keep ourselves alive. Both demand not only our time and our resources, but our hearts as well. Ultimately it is not what is outside of us that influences us and gives us the power to act but what is in us. The indwelling of God in us gives us the ability to respond.
There is a story of a father who came home from work one day utterly exhausted. He went directly into the bedroom and stretched out across the bed. His two young children came in from playing outside a little later and asked their mother, "Is daddy home yet?" She answered that he was but that he was very tired and was resting in his room and that they should not disturb him. When their mother left the two, the children headed for the hall and walked slowly by the door of their parent's room. Sure enough, there was their father sleeping on the bed. They tiptoed into the room and then went over and stood silently by the bed. "Don't get too close", the older brother warned But the younger one paid no notice. She went over to the side of the bed and put her face right over the face of her father. She turned her father's head and tried to look under his eyelids. Finally she reached up and with one finger slowly lifted the lid of her father's eye and peered in as if she were looking into a deep hole. Then turning to her brother, she said, "He's still in there!" Isn't that a parable of our relationship with God? We constantly seek more assurance.
We would like to lift the closed eyelids that cover the mystery that is God and peer in to see if God is really there.
We're a lot like Charlie Brown and Lucy who were on a cruise ship. Lucy was being her usual philosophical self and said, "Notice, Charlie Brown, that many passengers are facing their deck chairs toward the front of the ship. These are the persons who are always looking toward the future with their lives. Then there are those who face their deck chairs toward the stern or rear of the boat. These are the persons who are always looking in the past. Which way are you going to put yours, Charlie Brown? Charlie looks up at her and sighs, "I can't even figure out how to get my deck chair open."
There are times in all of our lives when we can't seem to get our deck chairs open much less decide which way to face them. This happens when important relationships in our life end or begin. The loss of a spouse or a child or a parent or a close friend throws us into a tailspin full of memories that will not let us alone. The beginning of a new phase in life, the beginning of a new job or a new year at school, or a new relationship also has its anxiety.
We wonder what it will be like and whether whatever the new is will be capable of fulfilling our expectations or whether we will be able to perform as desired. And then there are those times when illness or tragedy strikes us or those we love. The hole in our souls stretches to the point where we feel like we are not going to be able to stand it. In all of these times we need each other. We don't need people who will tell us everything is going to be OK - we need people who know us well - people who believe in us and love us and who will sit with us even when we are being ugly. And we need people who love us even when we are being difficult.
When I was in Florida this week I went to a church women's luncheon with my sister and my cousin (who was the one who cooked the lunch) and after lunch was over we were in the church kitchen waiting for Barbara when I noticed a sign on the wall. It read "I can only be nice to one person each day". Then under that is said, "Today is not your day" and then under that, "Tomorrow doesn't look too good either."
We all have days like that, don't we? The good news is that when you are bound together by something as large as the meaning of life - when what you have in common is the journey of faith - then you can be honest - you can be yourself - and it doesn't frighten those around you.
The opportunity that we have before us today is an important one. I believe that where two or three are gathered in God's name - power and grace happen. Community is shaped and formed by the needs of those that make up the community - the opportunity you have today is a life changing one - for it is in community that living water saves. - it is in community that our lives touch one another - it is in community where we love - it is in community where we experience God.
Let us gather around the well of living water - lets even dig a few new wells,
and let us give thanks that the water is there for us to drink.
Go in peace - May the community of the Spirit - Living Water - be with us all. Amen.
Back to Table of Contents.
