Spirit Like a River

by Robert Hamerton-Kelly

"Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."

-- John 7:38

On Pentecost, when the Jewish tradition celebrates the giving of the law to Moses, and the first of the spring grain harvest, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our text from John’s gospel is set in another Jewish festival, the autumn feast of Tabernacles, but the setting makes no difference to the message that Spirit is life in all its fullness, and the power to communicate that life to others. It is for this purpose that the church exists, to be a channel of the Spirit and of life, and it is quite appropriate that water be a metaphor for the Spirit, because water is perhaps the most fundamental building block of life. When we look for possible life on remote planets we look first for signs of water.

The ritual of the seven day feast of Tabernacles (“Sukkoth” in Hebrew) in the time when the temple still functioned, included the daily carrying of a golden pitcher of water from the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem to the temple, where it was ceremonially poured out, while prayers were said for rain, to remind the people of the water from the rock struck by Moses in the desert (Exodus 17:1-7;Numbers 20:2-13) and as a symbol of hope for the coming messianic deliverance (Isaiah 12:3). According to the prophet Ezekiel (47:1ff.), in the messianic time a spring of water would well up in Zion and flow down to the Dead Sea, whose poisoned waters would be made fresh and sweet by it, and fish would spawn there again. Jesus is this water of life. He says, “If anyone thirst let him come to me and drink” (vs. 37).

John is known for the powerful symbols he uses to identify Jesus, the vine, the shepherd, the bread, the light, and the water. The most memorable presentation of the water symbol is in John 4 where we have the dramatic story of Jesus and the woman at the well.  He says to her that he is the water of life and that whoever drinks of him will never thirst again. She takes this literally and asks for a drink of this wonderful water so that she need not come to the well every day.

This literalist misunderstanding exposes an ongoing anxiety of the human race about access to water. Before too long water will be up there with oil as a precious commodity. The infamous Enron was developing its market in water futures and Bechtel corporation, through stealth companies, is buying control of water around the world, most recently the entire water supply of the city of Cochabamba in Bolivia, where the poor discovered that overnight they ceased to own the well they had dug with the help of a Danish relief agency, because the municipality had sold it the stealth company, and the price of their water had skyrocketed beyond what most of them could pay. There are now water guerillas in Bolivia and a water war is under way (Wm Finnegan, “Leasing the Rain, The Race to Control Water turns Violent, “ The New Yorker, April 8, 2002, pp.43- 53).

In the children’s sermon Rosemary developed the symbol of wind for the Spirit, which focuses on its energy and unpredictability. I suggest that we adults meditate on the symbol of water, and see what it emphasizes.

First, I suggest, it means creation and creativity. In Genesis 2, where there is a story of the creation different from that in Genesis 1, the beginning is a parched desert; then a spring of water begins to flow and saturate the earth, and God molds the first human being from that mud. Water is one indispensable element in the creation of human being. Thus Genesis tells us that without water there is no human life; John tells that without faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit he sends to such faith, we are as those not fully alive. So then firstly the Holy Spirit means creativity; he is the power of creativity in us and in the church community. In touch with the Holy Spirit our lives create life for others, in many, many ways. The Spirit may use our apparently casual remarks to create awareness and opportunity in others. The Spirit may use our gift of singing to bring a creative energy to our worship, our gift of flowers to bring serene beauty, our gift of friendship to bring hope and joy, our gift of kindness to encourage and attract. Yesterday, two prospective new members said to me that they found our people very kind. That is a testimony of the creative presence of the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, water means cleansing and hence purity. It is a sign of our baptism, of the washing away of original sin which occurs is baptism. In baptism we are also sealed with oil, to mark our souls with the claim of Christ, and that sealing is the work of the Spirit. So in the waters of baptism the Holy Spirit purifies us and seals us. In addition to baptism and initial cleansing, the Spirit, as symbolized by water, purifies us, or in the traditional word, “sanctifies” us, makes us holy as Christ is Holy. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime, nothing less that the work of God in our lives as we will allow Him, changing us into the divine image in which He originally created us and from which we fell away.

Thirdly, John calls this water, “living” water. That is Hebrew idiom for running water, and we know that running water is more likely than standing water to be pure. Our dear, aged cat Rusty attests the importance of running water. Although he has a bowl of water by his food he seldom drinks from it but goes a long way, upstairs, to drink from another bowl we set for him. Instinct tells him not to drink where he eats, probably because the remnants of his wild ancestors’ prey polluted any nearby water. His favorite place to drink is the shower, and then from the little ornamental fountain in my study, where the water is always living, pumped around by a small electric pump. So take Rusty’s word (meow) for it: In the wild, running water means life, standing water means death. In our lives, spirituality that is self-centered, that takes in spiritual feelings and ideas but does not give out in sharing and giving will stagnate and do more harm than nothing at all.

In the Holy Land there are two great seas, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The former is delightfully fresh, and on the hills around it grow the poppies in the spring, and the orange groves. The Dead Sea is as its name. The Greeks used to call it, Lake Asphalitis. What is the cause of this great difference between the two seas? Just this, while one takes water in at one end and lets it out at the other, the latter sea only takes it in. Living Galilee takes and gives, dead Asphalitis takes and keeps. The one is full of living water the other is a Dead Sea. I think this is a good symbolic representation of the creative kindness and generosity of the person in whom the Holy Spirit lives. “Out of his/her heart shall flow rivers of living water.”  The message is clear, I trust: the presence of the Holy Spirit makes us generous, forgiving, eager to share, and very kind.

Let us in conclusion return to our text. Jesus promises us who believe in him, that we shall be sources of life for others. I know that in many ways many of us are already such sources of life so that I can truthfully say of you, “Rivers of living water flow from your heart.” To you I say further, “Bravo! And keep on flowing!” But remember that this living water is not yourself, but Christ, he not you is the savior of the world. Why is this important to remember? Because we might pour out that part of ourselves that we should not give away, our emotional capital, our physical strength. If we do give it away we shall suffer “burnout,” or rather, in the terms of our present metaphor, “washout.” On the other hand, if the Spirit in us and through is truly the Holy Spirit of Christ, its flowing through us will fill rather than drain us.