Come To the Waters

“TAKING THE PLUNGE”
John 7:37-44
Faith United
May 11, 2008



I was fifteen when I first went to summer church camp
We didn’t have a Camp Comeca or anything
nearly as nice
but the camp I went to was held in a prep school
in a town called Pennington, New Jersey
I wasn’t big on the idea of going away for 6 days
I was a very shy kid
and the kind that felt much more comfortable
hanging around in the background
I wasn’t good at sports and didn’t go out for much
extracurricular activities
I didn’t think I was all that smart
or had any exceptional gifts that would
make me stand out in a crowd
I just felt like nothin’ special
which I suppose isn’t so odd at 15
I think we all need someone to notice us
someone in our lives to say, “hey, you’re beautiful”
someone that sees some potential in us
and isn’t afraid to tell us
I went to summer camp
and I was so nervous about it
I lost 10 pounds in 6 days
I simply didn’t eat the whole week
I was there
I was homesick
By day two I wanted to just go home
and in fact, convinced my parents to come get me
However, they ended up insisting that I stay
I suffered through most of the week,
not eating, drinking 7UP to calm my stomach
and sitting on the sidelines
The director of the camp
was a pastor named Ed in his mid-thirties
and he was just kind of whacko
I didn’t like him
He was way too extroverted and nuts for my taste
He kind of scared me, in fact
When I saw him coming down the hall
I usually turned around
kind of afraid that he’d talk to me
I was just that self-conscious at 15
One day, later in the week,
I finally gave in and agreed to go swimming
during the swim time
instead of holing up in my room
with a book
When I walked into the swimming area,
I wore my towel around my neck
shorts over my swimsuit and a Tshirt
and sneakers on my feet
I carried my camera in my hand
I figured since I was staying,
I might take a few pictures after all
As I walked into the swimming area
suddenly I felt an arm around my waist
and I was being jerked toward the swimming pool
It was Ed
I got so mad
I started kicking and screaming
someone else reached out and grabbed my camera
while Ed lifted me off the ground
swung me around
and threw me into the pool
I came up to the surface
spitting mad
my sneakers still on my feet
my shorts and T shirt drenched
and stuck to my body
And there was Ed, standing by the side of the pool
looking a bit self-satisfied
with his hands on his hips
I started toward the side of the pool
and was at first held back by my towel
that was still around my neck
and all of a sudden I started to laugh
I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe
Everyone else was laughing, too
including a cute kid
that ended up being my first love
by the end of the week
Ed helped me out of the pool
and gave me a dry towel
Later we sat in the snack bar
and just talked
talked about everything
talked about stuff I wouldn’t talk to any other adult about
like what it felt like to be a nerd
and to feel like nuthin’ special
That was 28 years ago
Ed and I still keep in touch
Looking back, what happened that day
felt like a baptism to me
He literally knocked me off guard
drew attention to me
when I felt like no one knew I existed
and got me to lighten up
That was my first experience of God’s grace
A dunking, an immersion, a cold bath

Jesus said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
and let the one who believes in me drink!”
I think of the old Nestea commercial
where the person is so hot and sweaty
takes a sip of iced tea
and falls backwards into a cool,
pool of water
and the water envelopes him
as he goes under, fully refreshed
That’s how I imagine God’s grace
“Out of the believer’s heart shall flow
rivers of living water,”
Jesus said
and he said this about the Holy Spirit
That same Spirit that brooded over the dark waters
before the creation of the world
the same Spirit that drenched everyone
at Pentecost 2,000 years ago
is the same Spirit
that God says flows through us
each of us and all of us who want it
I love the image of water
I get that
Rabbi Irwin Kula,
who wrote a book called “Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred
Messiness of Life”
said in that book that the Hebrew word for “blessing” is “bracha”
and if you change one vowel of that word
the word means “pool of water”
The word “blessing” was first used by God’s people
who lived in the desert
Just imagine coming across a reservoir of water
in the middle of the stark, dry, endless and hot wilderness
When your tongue feels like cotton
Imagine kneeling by that water and dipping your face in it
cupping your hands in it
to bring the cool, fresh water to your mouth
Ancient Israelites saw water as a blessing
It was a gift
So the word for blessing
was essentially born out of a very physical yearning
a deep, harsh thirst
and the absolute wonder of quenching that deep thirst
I’ve always been drawn to water
When I was in college and was homesick
and feeling out of place
like I didn’t fit in there either,
I’d walk down to the Creek
and find peace there
I’d find God there
Sometimes I’d wade into the numbing cold water
and splash my face in it
get my clothes wet
When I was a little girl
my best friend had a swimming pool
in her backyard
and I’d dive in straight to the bottom
and lay on the bottom of the pool
and look up at the sun coming through
the surface of the water
There was always something precious to me
about water
and I’d stay down there as long as I could hold my breath
come up for air
and go back down again
Today is the day of Pentecost
what we refer to as the birthday of the Christian Church
because the Holy Spirit that created the heavens and the earth
was let loose on Pentecost
let loose on God’s people
filling them with power and life
filling them with joy and the ability to communicate
with one another
The Holy Spirit came among them
and made all those individual people
into a community
a body of believers
people who didn’t speak the same language
and yet were given the language of God’s love and blessing
to draw them together
and make of them a people
Pentecost is awesome
It’s a day that beckons us to keep breathing
It’s a day that lures us, draws us
into the fold of God’s loving arms
and helps us get a life
a life we could not have previously imagined
Things on the outside may not change
circumstances, or bare facts
but we can change on the inside
we can be made stronger
we can be made more alive
Anne Lamott, a Christian writer,
writes that Christianity is all about water
“Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,” Jesus says
She writes:
“It’s about baptism—full immersion,
falling into something elemental and wet
Most of what we do in worldly life
is geared toward staying dry,
looking good, and not going under
But in baptism you agree to do something
that’s a little sloppy
because it’s also holy and absurd
It’s about surrender,” she writes,
“giving in to what we can’t control
it’s a willingness to let go of balance
and decorum and just get DRENCHED.”
It’s about surrender
On the day of Pentecost,
the followers of Jesus
were overtaken by the Spirit of God
Blown away by it, you might say
They were caught up in it
before they knew what was happening
And they spoke languages that they’d never spoken before
so that others outside
those that were different, foreign
could understand
and hear the words of God’s blessing and love
They didn’t ask for it
They were kind of assaulted by Grace
knocked over by the Spirit
and they didn’t know themselves
when they came up for air
They were different
They looked the same,
sounded the same, dressed the same as before
but they were new inside
There was power, and there was joy
and there was life gushing up inside of them
like a river running through them
a constant flowing stream of blessing
always feeding, always nourishing
always quenching
I was still a nerd when I went back home
after camp
but I still believe it was the beginning of a new journey for me
a journey of accepting that God loved me after all
that there were hidden gifts inside of me
that would someday blossom unexpectedly
and they did
All because one person SAW me
saw more to me that I believed there was
and he drenched me with God’s grace
before I could protest and resist
It’s about surrender
It’s about realizing that there are a lot of things in this world
that we can’t change
things in our own lives that we have no control over
it’s about surrendering to God’s grace
about letting God take over
and doing with us what God wants to do
Why do we join a church?
What’s the point?
Why do make a big deal out of it?
Why do we make promises
that we are very likely to break?
Because here at church we pray
we give, we feed, we hug, we cry with each other
When you’re at the end of your rope,
we’ll tie a knot in it to help you hang on
We come in here from the craziness of our lives
and pray about it
we pray about all those things in the world
that we can’t change
but we believe that God CAN and WILL someday
We bring our tears
and allow them to become a baptism of blessing
We bring our broken hearts
and find healing and strength with each other
and with the Spirit that lured us here to begin with
We join a church
to help us find a path and light to live by
We come here hoping to develop our sense of purpose
to help give us heart, balance,
to learn gratitude and experience joy
all in the midst of community
We hurt each other sometimes
and sometimes that makes people go away
but families hurt each other too
people do that sort of thing
but we’re coaxed back by a chance to start again
to be forgiven and to forgive
to offer each other a cup of cold water
when we’re so desperately thirsty
To feed each other
when sometimes we forget how to feed ourselves
Sometimes, we’re here to push each other
into the pool of God’s grace
and allow it to overwhelm us
enfold us
fill our lungs, wash us, cleanse us, refresh us
I find it strange that Jesus caused so much division
among the people
some people thought he was a miracle
and others wanted to arrest him
and lock him up
And I think that goes to show that we as humans
have a very hard time with blessing
We have a hard time giving them
because it takes something out of us
and leaves us vulnerable
And we have a hard time receiving it
as if we feel embarrassed or undeserving
And yet I believe we all hunger for it
hunger for a blessing
for the gift of knowing that we are beloved
that we are someone precious
that we have gifts inside of us
that God put there
to help make us and the world more beautiful
and peaceful
So wherever you are, and wherever you come from
however deep your thirst
however long you’ve been wandering
and feeling lost
Come to the waters
and drink deeply
drink long
Feel the goodness, the coolness
and the nourishing waters of God’s blessing
fill you to overflowing
wash you and make you clean
refresh you and put you back on your feet again
Let anyone who is thirsty, come and drink…..