Sunday, May 12, 2013

You Are the Living Water, for Mountain View United Church, Aurora, CO 5-12-2013 based on Rev 22


You Are the Living Water

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United, CO 5/12/2013

Based on Acts 16:16-34 and Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

 

        Water, what an amazing thing it is.  We drink it, bath in it, swim and recreate with it, we need it to grow our plants.  It comes in so many differing forms: it flows as rivers and streams, we pump it from the ground, it collects as ponds, lakes, seas and oceans, and we see it as white caps on mountains tops, and as glaciers at either of the earth’s poles.  It comes to us in the forms of rain, snow, sleet, or hail, all of which we experienced with the storms this past week.  It is a basic part of our need in order to exist.  Water is also permanent.  Whatever amount of water was present at earth’s began still exists today, and will continue to exist in the same quantity as long as we maintain our atmosphere, which is held in by the thin layer of ozone.

        Water is so necessary for the existence of life that scripture is filled with metaphors of water as the key to life, beginning with Genesis where the earth was watered by the dew and springs to the closing chapter of the book of Revelations saying:  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.  Jesus often compared the gift of life with that of drinking water, with the last example being found in this morning’s scripture text where Jesus was speaking to the author of Revelations saying, “Let everyone who is thirsty come.  Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

        This summer Paul and I are starting to shape our back yard into the sanctuary that every back yard should provide.  At present the back yard at our house is an open canvass, ready for, no begging for an artist to apply their gifts of order, texture, and color.  I have suggested to Paul that he needs to spend more time at Home Depot in order to increase the possibility of bumping into the guy on T.V. who does extreme makeovers of deserving yards – and if there is ever a yard that is deserving and in need of a makeover, it is at our house. 

This summer we are in phase 1 water rationing, so rain fall is going to be more important this summer than normal.  In fact as we move into the future with climate change, we are being told by scientists that we can expect less rain fall in our area.  A report was issued not long ago, saying that the Colorado River in less than twenty-five years will not be able to supply the current 40 million people who rely on its flow of water. 

One of the problems that as a gardener Paul and I face is choosing plants that will correspond with the amount of water available.  Paul is more easily adaptable to this process as he has spent a number of years reading up on drought tolerant gardens, where I am less able to adapt; having spent twenty-five years in the Pacific Northwest, I have become accustom to not only abundant rain fall but to a variety of plant life that just doesn’t grow in our region.

So if the earth still has the same amount of water today as it had as the earth was formed, how can we be in a phase one water rationing?  The fact is, the climate is changing and with that change the weather patterns that we have been accustom to also is changing.  The same amount of water is still falling, only in differing locations.  

The church in the United States has also been operating at a phase one shortage mentality since the 1970’s.  With fewer and fewer people attending worship the American church has been operating from an attitude of scarcity.  Over the history of Mountain View, we have seen a slow decline in our own membership and attendance in worship over the past couple of decades.  How are we viewing our congregational life?  Is it through the lens of scarcity, of a phase one rationing because we believe that we are not receiving the life giving waters that God promises for us?

Yesterday, about twelve folks attended a workshop titled “Walking toward Tomorrow”.  We started off the workshop with a video that spoke about possibilities which can only be seen once we believe that there are possibilities.  Once we believe, then we can start to see the abundance that is within our midst.  The question is, is the church in decline because it isn’t being sufficiently watered or is it because the church has lost its belief in possibilities?

 The relationship between me and my garden is very much a living metaphor to the churches relationship and its environment.  The church has become accustom to particular habits, activities, and ways of looking at itself and the world around it.  We think that the world around us should bend to the way we experience God, instead of the reality that we need to be pliable enough to adjust to the changing world around us.  It is similar to those Aurora home owners who plant bluegrass in their yards which naturally grow in areas abundant in water, instead of planting grasses that are accustom to growing in arid climates.  We pump water into Aurora from far off reservoirs forgetting that Aurora is actually built in a desert climate.

In Revelations Jesus says, “See, I am coming soon;” When Jesus gets here, what will he find?  Will he find that his message of abundance has been scorched by the heat of the sun and lack of life giving water?  I wonder if the church over time has miss understood what Jesus meant about his returning?  What if Jesus has already returned?  What if Jesus wasn’t speaking about his personal physical return after his crucifixion, but rather was speaking about his return coming through the church?  How would that possibility change how we view ourselves?  As followers of Jesus’ message, would not we be that life giving water to a parched world?

In the story of the Garden of Eden, we learn of two trees that are at the heart of the garden, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.  Adam and Eve were given permission to eat anything in the garden except from the tree of knowledge.  Once they did, they were expelled from the garden before they were able to eat from the tree of life.  Living in the Garden of Eden is the example of abundance and living life outside of the garden speaks to life as scarcity.  As we read in the last chapter of the last book of the bible, we read, “blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.  Once again we see the roll of water as providing a new possibility with the washing of the robes and now those who have washed their robes will have the right to the tree of life and are able to enter through the front door into the city, that place where God lives or I would compare it to the understanding of the Garden of Eden that place of abundance      `.  I think this is how Jesus’ relationship was with God, he was able to see the possibilities that come through God because Jesus drank the water God provides.

We at Mountain View have the opportunity to “Believe” that God has given us the living waters, which allows us to see the possibilities that are in our midst, that tree of life, so that we grow into the river that provides the living water to all who are wanting to drink from it.  As we walk toward tomorrow, I challenge you to think of yourselves as being the living Jesus that so many are waiting for and to be the living water that brings the abundance in life into fruition.  Amen

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