Living Water

Today, we began with a scripture reading from Genesis 1, as I think this is the creation story most people know, and we will continue to use it as we also read other creation stories in the Bible.

But in this, we are reminded that water was an element in God’s creation, right after light, according to Genesis 1. We have already recognized the importance of water to life for us, other creatures, and the natural world. Knowing that water is a creation of God, how do we then consider water? Is it holy? How do we steward it – or care for it?

In 2014, we realized the importance of clean water with the water crisis in Flint, MI. But we have our own water issues in Lancaster County. In 2021, Penn State researchers found that 50% of our streams are impaired, primarily from agricultural runoff (fertilizers, sediment, and animal waste) as well as legacy contaminants from heavy industry along urban waterways. Brubaker Run, which travels through Rader Park, is on this list as is the Conestoga River, both of which eventually feed into the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay.

This is one of the reasons we are connected to the Interfaith Partnership for the Chesapeake. On their website is a kit called “Faithful Lawn Care,” which includes a prayer that states: May the waters from this land flow clean and healthy to sustain all life downstream from me.

Although the stream, as we have encountered it in Rader Park, is healthy because it is home to many aquatic critters, we need to consider what chemicals we may be putting into it, even inadvertently, through what is used on the gardens and what we put on our grass to make sure it is “weed-free.”

Where should our priority be as a congregation that espouses being environmental stewards? Do we want to do anything differently? Do we want to encourage any of our neighbors to be mindful of what runs off their properties and into the stream?

Water is also an important component of my spiritual health. There is something about moving water that soothes me.

It can be the ocean, a babbling brook, or a flowing stream. Maybe the sound is similar to being in my mother’s womb before birth. I don’t know why, but I know it brings a peace that few other things are able to do. When I hear Jesus speak of “living water” in our gospel reading, I equate it with moving water. Water that moves is able to sustain life in and around it. Whereas stagnant water can become poisonous if it doesn’t change. Water without enough oxygen in it prohibits life.

Like Deklan’s sermon last week, I want to say that nothing good grows in stagnant water, except the lotus. But as much as living water helps us, we also try to control it. Raging water scares us, which is why we get a thrill kayaking through rapids. But if the water is a tidal surge from the ocean, we are truly terrified.

If we are honest, we have done things like create dams to provide both control and energy, without considering the effect on the rest of creation. We prefer to be in control of things, including water, and for far too long, we have understood some of the latter verses of Genesis 1 to mean that we can do whatever we want with the water, as it was taught that we have “dominion” over the water and everything else.

And we have let our selfishness and greed decide what we do with the water. We didn’t care who put what into the water until the 1970’s when we realized we were starting to poison ourselves.

Personally, I’m concerned that as the climate continues to change, there will be a shortage of water. It will become an element for which we attack one another. And we can begin to change that future by taking steps now to value the water and the Holy Spirit, which is present in the water too.

I just realized that I’m focused on the water because that is easier to talk about than the Holy Spirit – that which makes it “living water” in Jesus’ words.

But the Spirit is in the water just as it “blows where it will.” It is not to be controlled by any of us. It is here to be helpful to us – to encourage us – to remind us that we do not have to prove our worthiness – and to remind us to think of more than ourselves.

God’s creation is not all about us! God’s creation was made for the benefit of all – without exception!

So, how do we shift to be more aware of creation? In what ways is God calling us to be advocates for creation in our area? Jesus’ “living water” offers us new life. What are we willing to do in return?

May it be so. Amen.
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