May 28, 2023
Rev. Mary Erickson
Hope Lutheran Church
Acts 2:1-21; John 7:37-39
When Words Are Like Water
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost and the many Sundays within the season of Pentecost take up nearly half our calendar year. During this long season we consider the church, the Spirit-filled mission of the church. So this season is our wheel house; it’s where we live on a daily basis, where we find our purpose.
Jesus had promised his disciples that he would send them an Advocate. They would be clothed with power from on high. Jesus’ promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit made a dramatic entry: the rush of a violent wind, flames of fire, the loosening of the disciples’ tongues, Peter’s bold proclamation.
The disciples are taking over exactly where Jesus had left off.
Some wise-cracker in the crowd jeered that the disciples were just inebriated. But it wasn’t alcohol talking. It was the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit’s river of living water.
Typically, on Pentecost, our thoughts move to flames. The tongues of fire linger over the disciples. The Spirit comes down in the form of fire. But Jesus has a different description in our reading from John chapter 7.
Jesus makes these remarks at a different Jewish festival. Not Pentecost, but the Festival of Booths. It takes place in the fall, not in the spring, like Pentecost. The Festival of Booths coincides with the fall harvest of grapes and olives. Devoted worshipers traveled to Jerusalem and stayed for a week in small booths or shacks they erect – like the ones they’d use in the field during harvest. Each day during the seven-day festival, people prayed for a good and rainy winter season to nourish the soil for next year’s spring. The priest would offer a water libation. On the last day of the festival, the water offering was made seven times.
In this context, Jesus loudly cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!” And then he tells them that this living water will issue forth from the hearts of his believers. That thirst-quenching water was from the Holy Spirit.
Fire and water – both provide images for the Holy Spirit. They have starkly differing dynamics. Fire is consuming and intense. Water is nourishing and sustaining. Fire is life-altering. Water is life-giving. The Holy Spirit appeared like tongues of fires and unlocked the tongues of the disciples. But at the same time, rivers of living water flowed from their hearts.
When Peter addressed the crowd, he likened the Spirit’s activity to water. He quotes the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God declares, I will POUR OUT my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy… Even upon my slaves, both men and women, I will POUR OUT my Spirit.”
At Pentecost, that prophecy was fulfilled. The Spirit flowed like a river of living water through the disciples.
There are times when words are like water. Words spoken at just the right time can quench a deep thirst. They can also act like a cleansing flood, clearing out all manner of detritus.
This morning I’d like to reflect on three ways when our Spirit-filled words are like water.
• Spirit-filled words provide encouragement and comfort.
• They also act like a flood. They correct our direction while forging a pathway into a new future.
• And finally, they sustain us with gospel joy and assurance.
First: Spirit-filled words provide encouragement. When you receive a word of comfort at just the right time, it can give you the strength to go on for a very long time. Years, even.
Martin Luther wrote about what he called the “mutual conversation and consolation of the saints.” You know what this is. Sometimes you come to church on a Sunday for worship and prayer. But then the nugget of grace you really needed came to you in the parking lot after worship during a conversation with a caring friend.
The Spirit moves through our words. They can be like water to the parched soul. There was a disciple in Jerusalem by the name of Barnabas. The book of Acts reveals that Barnabas had a nickname. He was known as “Son of Encouragement.” Isn’t that a great nickname? We could all aspire to be such encouragers!
Perhaps you’ve seen those lists of affirming phrases you can say to children. They suggest phrases like these:
• Way to go!
• I’m proud of you.
• You’ve just about got it!
• That was so kind of you.
• Hang in there, I’m with you!
• You’ve really come a long way.
• I have faith in you.
• You light up my day!
• That was really brave.
• Excellent try.
• Bingo!
• You’ve got what it takes.
Doesn’t it must make you feel good just to hear them? The Holy Spirit works through our words. We can be encouragers. May we all pray to be vessels for the Spirit to speak encouraging and consoling words through us.
Secondly, our words are like water when they act like a cleansing flood. For centuries, God’s Spirit has spoken through prophets. The Spirit uses us to speak truth to power. Our words call society into a new direction. They hold the powerful to accountability.
Prophetic words are like a flood. They clear away the ills and sins of society. But they don’t only destroy. At the same time, they channel a new way forward. They speak into being the vision of a new day. They describe a new future for our life together. They name a new way of being.
• Abolitionists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sojourner Truth called us out of slavery and into a more completely realized freedom.
• In the early 20th Century, Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers called us to “live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ.” As part of the Social Justice movement, they worked tirelessly to eliminate poverty, child labor and the intolerable conditions of slums.
• And during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, our nation was graced by the Spirit-filled words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With courage and passion, he called out the sin of racism. And at the same time, he invoked a vision for a new future.
The Spirit uses our words like water when we call out injustice and give voice to a new and right future. In the words of the psalmist, mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace will kiss. May we pray to be opened by the Spirit to speak the words of prophetic justice.
And finally, our words are like water when they sustain us with gospel joy and assurance.
On that Pentecost day, a Spirit-filled Peter raised his voice and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. And through his words, 3000 people came to faith on that day.
The message of God’s love through Christ always falls tenderly on our ears. In the words of a beloved hymn: “I love to tell the story, because I know it’s true; it satisfies my longings as nothing else would do.” This is why we come here week after week. It’s why we never tire of reading the scriptures. The Spirit speaks through the holy word and shapes faith within. Like water, the word waters the seed of faith within our heart so that it takes root and grows.
For our siblings in the Methodist tradition, last week brought Aldersgate Day. It marks a critical turning point in the life of John Wesley. Young Wesley had fallen into despair. His enthusiasm for preaching had been rejected by his Anglican community. He was ready to give up.
And then on the evening of May 24, 1738, a friend invited Wesley to an evening prayer meeting at the Moravian church located on Aldersgate Street in London. Wesley didn’t really feel like going, but he relented. At the meeting, someone began to read the preface from Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans. As he listened, Wesley felt his “heart strangely warmed.” He came to the meeting weighed down by disappointment; he left it buoyed by the fountain of divine grace and joy.
That night, he wrote in his journal about the experience, “While he (Luther) was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
The beauty of God’s overflowing love washed over Wesley and carried him into his future. May the Spirit wash over us, too, with the joy and assurance of God’s word. And may the Spirit use us, like Peter, as we share the message of the God’s love through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Today we begin the season of Pentecost. It begins as we mark the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Church of Jesus Christ. During the many weeks of this generous season, we journey with eyes on the Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit is our faithful companion.
Let’s pray:
Holy Spirit, we give thanks for your presence within and around us. May we be open to your presence and direction. Fill us completely so that we may channel your abundant grace and wisdom into the world. May our words be like water to the parched soul. May our words be like a cleansing flood, washing away injustice and directing us into a new and just future. And may our words be like water, nourishing and sustaining the seed of faith in divine grace for the world you so love. Amen.
