- John 7:37-44 - read this passage online here »
The text for this morning’s message is from John’s Gospel, Chapter 7, verses 37, 38 and 39:
But we will miss the point if we merely respond to Jesus as a poet who knows how to make us feel good with beautiful words and positive images. Because these very moving words refer to something real and true. These words are not meant to make us feel good because of their beauty and natural associations; they are meant to put us in touch with something hopeful – actually, Someone powerful and real. Jesus is offering to connect us with his life-giving Spirit.
Last week my wife, Marg, titled her message “Why I DO believe in God.” Here is my extension of her meditation: Jesus stands up in the middle of our feasts – our religious festivals, our church services – and cries out to us through his Spirit too, as he did 2,000 years ago, that he has come to satisfy our deepest thirsts and longings for a life of fullness, wholeness and love. Jesus has come to satisfy our deepest thirst and longing for the very presence of the life-giving, loving, living God. His invitation includes a promise: if we come to him, he satisfies our thirsty hearts. That’s the “Come and Drink” part in the message title.
Two years ago, I spoke about Jesus as one who is worth following in our time. Not only does he satisfy our own thirst but he also pours into us a deep desire and compassionate need to care for one another – to care for a hurting and broken humanity. That’s the “Go and Pour” part in the message title. As believers in the Risen Christ, we not only drink the living water of life but we also become channels of that same living water in order to bless a thirsty world.
In the midst of all the distractions and other noises around us, we, too, are invited by Jesus – “in a loud voice,” the Scripture says -- to come and drink. The invitation is universal. There are no ethnic, cultural, intellectual, gender or social qualifications for drinking at Jesus' fountain. The invitation goes out to everyone, everywhere. No one is excluded. Anyone, anywhere, has a personal invitation from Jesus himself to come to him and drink. There is, however, one condition: we have to be thirsty. An obvious condition, you would think! We are not likely to want to drink unless we are thirsty. But, we might ask, thirsty for what? What do we really desire?
I believe all people thirst. But – and this is the decisive point of the issue -- not all realize and understand that the thirst deep down within them for all that is good is ultimately a thirst for the living God. We are the only species of God's creation afflicted and blessed with chronic longing. Dolphins seem content to frolic in the sea. Cats seem content to lie in the sun. Frogs seem happily content to bump on their bellies from lily pad to lily pad. But human beings are not content. We are afflicted with chronic restlessness. Some even fight without success against an epidemic of personal boredom. Fad after fad, fashion after fashion, and challenge after challenge – all leave us still thirsty in the end. Why? I wonder if our chronic thirst is really a hidden blessing. I wonder if our thirst is one of the ways God nudges us to seek him.
But I don’t find this matter of conveying thirst easy. How do I encourage people to be aware of their thirst – and not to ignore it or seek to quench their thirst with what does not truly refresh or satisfy their thirst?
Are you thirsty for the things of God? This is a simple question from your pastor who cares for your soul. Only you carry the answer in your heart.
If we are thirsty, then what does it mean to come and drink? Jesus is not with us in a visible or tangible way today. So we know he cannot be approached in the same way his followers did when he was with them in the early first century. But even in that time, our text indicates that coming to Jesus was more than simply hearing his teachings and even acting on them. (Although you and I know that coming to him includes learning what he taught and obeying him.) Coming to Jesus Christ also involves an act of the heart – that place inside us where we live with our conscience and soul. That place inside us where dreams and hopes and plans grow that affect our character and our actions and the rest of our life. Our heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity but also the centre of all the operations of our human existence.
What might this movement of the heart – this coming and drinking with our soul -- look like?
I remember the first time I travelled at night in northern Saskatchewan and saw the Aurora Borealis -- the Northern Lights. I stepped out of the car and “drank in” that awesome glow of colourful lights in the clear night sky. What do we mean when we talk about standing before a scene of beauty and drinking it in? We mean, don’t we, that we have put ourselves in a position not only to behold the beauty but also to intentionally enjoy it. In effect, we have said “Yes” to all that it is. We do not disregard or dispute or debate the beauty or call it unreal. We affirm its worth enthusiastically and with awe and we let ourselves enjoy it all – even to be affected by it because we trust its beauty for our good. In that sense, we “drink” in the scene.
I wonder: is it not something like that with Jesus? We first put ourselves in a position to behold him as clearly as we can. One way we do this is through the words of Scripture -- when we read the Bible ourselves. When we hear God’s Word proclaimed in a sermon. When we sing God’s Word in a hymn. When we see God’s Word in action in someone’s life. Earlier in John, Chapter 6, verse 63, Jesus said,
In one edition of the devotional booklet Our Daily Bread, the writer put it this way:
But the passage in John says more.
I have discovered that I am blessed when I drink the refreshing and thirst-quenching words of Jesus. I am also most blessed – and most satisfied – when my experience aligns with the Scripture from the Book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 35, which says: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” There is a wonderful sense of blessing that happens because of giving to others. I have also discovered that the overflow of my heart for the good of others is an essential part of my contentment. My deepest soul-thirst is not simply to be a receptacle but also to be a river – to be a channel of blessing for others.
When we drink of the water Jesus gives, we are also drinking the water of the Holy Spirit – the water of eternal life in God. The Holy Spirit is the unseen yet all-pervasive presence of the living God in the lives of those who believe in him, love him and obey him [John 14]. When Jesus shouts out his invitation to anyone who wants to have the water of life bubbling inside them and flowing out to the world around, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit as that water of life. Jesus is promising, for anyone who believes in him, that the Holy Spirit, God’s refreshing personal presence, will come to live within. Do you sense God’s Holy Spirit within your heart and soul?
A minister friend calls the Holy Spirit “the gracious and quiet Helper.” He writes about how the Holy Spirit is with us and quietly helps us in the following ways:
May this blessing of the life-giving, thirst-quenching water of the Holy Spirit’s presence be so for you and for me. Amen.
Rev. Chris Miller
May 22, 2011
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto
On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice: “Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, ‘Streams of life-giving water will pour out from [within].’” Jesus said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time, the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory.Some images are quite appealing. This is one of those. Most people, I imagine, would like their hearts to be like a deep mountain spring overflowing with rivers of life-giving, thirst-quenching water. Even before we have a clear idea of what this image is referring to, we yearn for it. We yearn for it because it implies fullness and completeness to the point of overflowing. Because it implies sweet coolness and refreshment. Because it implies moisture, not dryness; growth, not decay; and life, not death.
But we will miss the point if we merely respond to Jesus as a poet who knows how to make us feel good with beautiful words and positive images. Because these very moving words refer to something real and true. These words are not meant to make us feel good because of their beauty and natural associations; they are meant to put us in touch with something hopeful – actually, Someone powerful and real. Jesus is offering to connect us with his life-giving Spirit.
Last week my wife, Marg, titled her message “Why I DO believe in God.” Here is my extension of her meditation: Jesus stands up in the middle of our feasts – our religious festivals, our church services – and cries out to us through his Spirit too, as he did 2,000 years ago, that he has come to satisfy our deepest thirsts and longings for a life of fullness, wholeness and love. Jesus has come to satisfy our deepest thirst and longing for the very presence of the life-giving, loving, living God. His invitation includes a promise: if we come to him, he satisfies our thirsty hearts. That’s the “Come and Drink” part in the message title.
Two years ago, I spoke about Jesus as one who is worth following in our time. Not only does he satisfy our own thirst but he also pours into us a deep desire and compassionate need to care for one another – to care for a hurting and broken humanity. That’s the “Go and Pour” part in the message title. As believers in the Risen Christ, we not only drink the living water of life but we also become channels of that same living water in order to bless a thirsty world.
In the midst of all the distractions and other noises around us, we, too, are invited by Jesus – “in a loud voice,” the Scripture says -- to come and drink. The invitation is universal. There are no ethnic, cultural, intellectual, gender or social qualifications for drinking at Jesus' fountain. The invitation goes out to everyone, everywhere. No one is excluded. Anyone, anywhere, has a personal invitation from Jesus himself to come to him and drink. There is, however, one condition: we have to be thirsty. An obvious condition, you would think! We are not likely to want to drink unless we are thirsty. But, we might ask, thirsty for what? What do we really desire?
I believe all people thirst. But – and this is the decisive point of the issue -- not all realize and understand that the thirst deep down within them for all that is good is ultimately a thirst for the living God. We are the only species of God's creation afflicted and blessed with chronic longing. Dolphins seem content to frolic in the sea. Cats seem content to lie in the sun. Frogs seem happily content to bump on their bellies from lily pad to lily pad. But human beings are not content. We are afflicted with chronic restlessness. Some even fight without success against an epidemic of personal boredom. Fad after fad, fashion after fashion, and challenge after challenge – all leave us still thirsty in the end. Why? I wonder if our chronic thirst is really a hidden blessing. I wonder if our thirst is one of the ways God nudges us to seek him.
But I don’t find this matter of conveying thirst easy. How do I encourage people to be aware of their thirst – and not to ignore it or seek to quench their thirst with what does not truly refresh or satisfy their thirst?
A man once talked to a minister, asking for some bullet points on Christianity to help him make sense of the dinner conversations he was having with his wife, a new believer in the faith. The man made it clear he was very busy, very successful, and he didn't really have time to study her beliefs. So, just the Christian faith in point form, please!Here was the minister’s effort to raise the man’s thirst by not giving him quick and easy answers.
The minister observed it would have been easy to hand him a book or pamphlet. (That can be helpful sometimes.) But instead, he said, “I can see you are a very busy, very successful person, so I don't think this is a good idea.”
“Why not?” the man asked, frustrated at the response.
I like what the minister said next: “Because, if I were to give you the bullet points, and you were to really understand them, they have a way of working into a person's life so significantly that your life could really get messed up. You would have to rethink the meaning of success, of time, of family … of everything, really. I don't think you really want to do that, do you?”
Are you thirsty for the things of God? This is a simple question from your pastor who cares for your soul. Only you carry the answer in your heart.
If we are thirsty, then what does it mean to come and drink? Jesus is not with us in a visible or tangible way today. So we know he cannot be approached in the same way his followers did when he was with them in the early first century. But even in that time, our text indicates that coming to Jesus was more than simply hearing his teachings and even acting on them. (Although you and I know that coming to him includes learning what he taught and obeying him.) Coming to Jesus Christ also involves an act of the heart – that place inside us where we live with our conscience and soul. That place inside us where dreams and hopes and plans grow that affect our character and our actions and the rest of our life. Our heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity but also the centre of all the operations of our human existence.
What might this movement of the heart – this coming and drinking with our soul -- look like?
I remember the first time I travelled at night in northern Saskatchewan and saw the Aurora Borealis -- the Northern Lights. I stepped out of the car and “drank in” that awesome glow of colourful lights in the clear night sky. What do we mean when we talk about standing before a scene of beauty and drinking it in? We mean, don’t we, that we have put ourselves in a position not only to behold the beauty but also to intentionally enjoy it. In effect, we have said “Yes” to all that it is. We do not disregard or dispute or debate the beauty or call it unreal. We affirm its worth enthusiastically and with awe and we let ourselves enjoy it all – even to be affected by it because we trust its beauty for our good. In that sense, we “drink” in the scene.
I wonder: is it not something like that with Jesus? We first put ourselves in a position to behold him as clearly as we can. One way we do this is through the words of Scripture -- when we read the Bible ourselves. When we hear God’s Word proclaimed in a sermon. When we sing God’s Word in a hymn. When we see God’s Word in action in someone’s life. Earlier in John, Chapter 6, verse 63, Jesus said,
“What gives life is God’s Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God’s life-giving Spirit.”We meet the life-giving Jesus in his words. And when he calls us to come and drink the living water from him, we respond – or not -- to his words. When we read his words with thoughtfulness and love in response, we say “Yes” to all that it is. We affirm the worth of the One – Jesus – who spoke. We give ourselves to Jesus Christ unreservedly and open ourselves to be affected by him because we trust him and his words for our good. We rest in the confidence that here is truth that will not leave us empty!
In one edition of the devotional booklet Our Daily Bread, the writer put it this way:
“Lord, I crawled across the bareness to you with my empty cup, uncertain in asking for any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better, I'd have come running with a bucket.”What Jesus means by drinking is the same thing he means by believing or trusting. After he says, “Come to me and drink,” in verse 37, he immediately says, “Whoever believes in me.” So the essence of drinking in the words of Jesus is trusting him -- banking on him and on what he says with our very life. And the reverse is true too. The essence of believing in Jesus is finding in him the satisfaction of our deepest soul-thirst. Drinking is believing; believing is also drinking.
But the passage in John says more.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his [or her] heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”What does Jesus mean? The promise is not only that we will be satisfied but that we will be satisfying to other people. Jesus promises not only that our cup will be full but also that it will be overflowing for the good of others. In drinking from Jesus, we become not merely a receptacle that receives but, at the urging of his Spirit who fills us within, we will become a spring or a fountain that gives out. Jesus promises that if we drink him into our hearts, he will flow out from us through the Holy Spirit with rivers of living water for others who are thirsty too. I find that remarkably humbling and challenging!
I have discovered that I am blessed when I drink the refreshing and thirst-quenching words of Jesus. I am also most blessed – and most satisfied – when my experience aligns with the Scripture from the Book of Acts, chapter 20, verse 35, which says: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” There is a wonderful sense of blessing that happens because of giving to others. I have also discovered that the overflow of my heart for the good of others is an essential part of my contentment. My deepest soul-thirst is not simply to be a receptacle but also to be a river – to be a channel of blessing for others.
When we drink of the water Jesus gives, we are also drinking the water of the Holy Spirit – the water of eternal life in God. The Holy Spirit is the unseen yet all-pervasive presence of the living God in the lives of those who believe in him, love him and obey him [John 14]. When Jesus shouts out his invitation to anyone who wants to have the water of life bubbling inside them and flowing out to the world around, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit as that water of life. Jesus is promising, for anyone who believes in him, that the Holy Spirit, God’s refreshing personal presence, will come to live within. Do you sense God’s Holy Spirit within your heart and soul?
A minister friend calls the Holy Spirit “the gracious and quiet Helper.” He writes about how the Holy Spirit is with us and quietly helps us in the following ways:
- in the sincere concern of a friend for our health,
- in those who take a stand against injustice,
- in the grace of folk who go the second mile,
- in the inner resources we discover in times of crisis,
- in those who dare to go against the tide of popular opinion.
- in the grace that enables us to admit when we are wrong,
- in the resilience of people who fight for the rights of others,
- in those who surrender some of their rights for the larger good,
- in times when we share the Gospel despite our inadequacy,
- in taking on responsibilities that we once thought beyond us.
- in refusing to let the greed of society take over our soul,
- in giving thanks always, even through the hard times of life,
- in rising above past failures and putting past hurts behind us,
- in finding a central core of peace in the midst of turmoil,
- in daring to laugh in situations where some would curse.
- in knowing ourselves to be children of God,
- in knowing ourselves loved [by God], even when we have been very unlovable.
A few years ago, a teacher asked her fourth-grade students to name the person they considered the greatest person alive in the world today. Their responses were varied and interesting.That's the good news of our faith! That’s the truth of our message! Jesus is alive! The living God is with us right now in the person of the Holy Spirit, working from the inside out and giving us the true water of life that truly satisfies us and flows through us like rivers of living water. Through the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit, the Risen Christ does quench the thirsty hearts of those who come to him, believe in him and drink. And through the life-producing presence of the Holy Spirit, the Risen Christ makes his people a channel of blessing as we go and pour out our lives in love for the world God so loves.
One boy said, “I think it’s Joe Montana because he led the 49ers to all those Super Bowl wins.” A girl said, “The President.” And another girl named Oprah. On and on it went with the students mentioning a wide variety of celebrities.
But then it was Donnie's turn. Without hesitation Donnie said, “I think it's Jesus Christ because He loves everybody and is always ready to help them.”
The teacher smiled and said: “Well, I certainly like your answer, Donnie, because I'm a Christian too and I also admire Jesus very much. But there's one slight problem. I said the greatest living person and, of course, Jesus lived and died almost two thousand years ago. Do you have another name in mind?”
I love Donnie’s simple, innocent, confident, wide-eyed response. He said, “Oh, no, Mrs. Thompson, that's not right at all. Jesus Christ is alive! He lives in me right now!”
May this blessing of the life-giving, thirst-quenching water of the Holy Spirit’s presence be so for you and for me. Amen.
Rev. Chris Miller
May 22, 2011
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto
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