Isaiah 44:3–4; John 7.37-39; Revelation 21:1–7
So much of the Bible speaks to us through the power of the images it uses
Not least because no one has ever seen God: no one knows what God is really ‘like’
All the writers of Scripture can do is think of things God can be compared to
God is like a king: or rather, kings are a little bit like gods
God isn’t like Juan Carlos of Spain
He doesn’t rule just one country
God is love; he doesn’t have to worry about popularity
God is power; he doesn’t have to negotiate with politicians
God is righteous; he doesn’t embarrass his followers with political mistakes
He won’t grow old; he’ll never have to abdicate
The first images used in the Bible are images of darkness and light, and images of water:
The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.
You know these are images, because this verse speaks of the time before creation
A point when nothing we know as real had come into existence
But before there was anything, there was God
Bringing everything into being, through the agency of his Spirit
The spirit of God is the power of Creation that brings order out of chaos
It separates light from darkness, the heavens from the earth, and water from dry land
It brings all things into being, and sustains them in being
In short, we can see the Spirit in all things
And that makes any attempt to limit the manifestations of the Spirit to the kind of phenomena we see in the book of Acts a real distortion of the truth
The Spirit isn’t just tongues of flame, and people talking in languages they never learned
The Spirit is what creates the church; it brings it into being
The Spirit animates the church; it gives it life
The Spirit gives the church its mission and its power
Paul usually describes the Spirit of the church as the Spirit of Jesus
I think it’s very clear from the Hebrew Bible why he does this
And what he thinks is so distinctive about the church’s proclamation of the coming of the Spirit
We didn’t hear the obvious passage from Acts about Pentecost today
Instead, we heard a very short passage from John’s gospel
What is striking in this passage is that Jesus promises how the coming of the Spirit will turn things which now are only symbols, into realities
Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
And the narrator helpfully adds, he said this about the spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
To understand these words, and why Jesus says them at just this moment, you have to picture the scene
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the festivals of the farming year in Israel
The narrator tells us this happens on the last day of the festival,
The festival he’s referring to is the Feast of Booths; the Feast of Tabernacles
The time of sowing, when the people lived out in the fields in temporary shelters, and remembered the years in the wilderness
The last day of the festival is the great day
That means it’s the eighth day
The anniversary of the day Solomon dedicated the temple
The Talmud tells us more about this festival
It says that every day, water was taken in a golden vessel from the Pool of Siloam to the Water Gate and carried in the procession up to the Temple and the altar’
– There it was poured out on the foundation stone (?), which was believed to be at the very centre of the earth
– Jews believed one day, rivers of living water would flow out across the earth from that spot
– Founded on Zechariah 14 and 47
Picture this scene
– Jesus and his small band of followers, standing apart from the crowds of eager faithful and curious tourists surrounding the procession of priestly bucket-carriers
– Jesus raising his voice and crying out above the chanting of the priests
The week of ritual has ended, and once again nothing has happened:
– But now, Jesus speaks up
– He presents himself as the source of the living waters that will flow out across the earth
– His followers, those who receive Jesus in their hearts, will become sources of the same living water for others
In other words, this passage is a prophecy of how the Spirit will equip the church for mission after Christ’s resurrection and ascension
The question for us is, who are we in this story?
Have our hearts been filled with living water? Are we ready to start pouring it out to others?
Do say we believe in Jesus, but still go on waiting for the spirit to come and clothe us with power?
Or are we just priestly bucket carriers? Going through the motions?
Constantly enacting rituals that are nothing more than symbols, ignoring what the spirit of God is doing to make them real?
heatonsaints 