Water is essential to life. Anyone who paid attention in biology knows this. It doesn’t matter if you are a one celled organism, a plant, or an animal your body is mostly water. Wars have been faught over the control of water. Water is important. Growing up on a dry land farm where ran was often scarce I remember how important water is,many times over the summer we would have to fill tanks up to take galons of water out to our cattle because ponds and well would go dry. Water is important.
When we live in areas where water is so easily come by we often forget just how imprtant this resource is. I’m thirsty so I will just walk all the way over to the sink and turn on the faucet to fill up my glass. Big deal why is it that Jesus is begging for a drink. Water is important and scarce. It wasn’t that long ago that we would have to go out and bring water into our homes. For most of human history indoor plumbing was about as far fetched as sending a rocket to the moon. Just to get a drink was work, it was a sacrifice of time and energy.
Water is so important that it has become an importat symbol of life. And has important places in probably every religion of the world. Our Chrstian traditions are no different. Water is one of the many symbols of the Holy Spirit. We use water to refresh and cleanse our bodies. Which is also representative of what the Holy Spirit does in our lives.
There are really two types of water: stagnate and living. It is not too hard to imagine the difference. Stagnate water is water that is standing still found in pools, wells, and holding tanks. Living water is water that is moving. Living water is the most representative of the Spirit. The Spirit moves it is never standing still. Jesus offers living water (John 4:7-15) a Spirit that is on the move. It is not a religion that stands still but is moving. I consider the difference, am I trying to dam up the stream of water or am I allowing the Spirit to move through me? This question says quite a bit about our understanding of our relationship with God. Trust is hard and when we can’t see the outcome it is easier to stay where we are and start building a dam around what we know. Listening to the Spirit takes faith and intamacy with God, when we are closer and living in the water and allowing it to flow it becomes easier to be pulled along by the current. Today would be a good day to examine your life and consider where God has been active. I’m sure you will be as surprised as I am to actually be aware of how much the living water has flown. Praise God for His many Bblessings and the grace that is new every morning.
I’m fine with people that testify that baptism is important in the Christian disicpleship, although I myself don’t find it an obligation. I find it intresting that the writer of this gospel (John 4:1-3) thought it necissary to mention that it was the disciple nd not Jesus doing th baptising. If I were a requirement obligated by God then wouldn’t Jesus be the one doing the dipping? Theology and methodology aside, what exactly is baptism? The word means to immerse, or to saturate. Those that hold to the idea of immersion as the only way to baptise do have a point, since that is what the word means. But what about the saturate part? To be saturated completly with the Spirit is the essence of what baptism represents. To leave what was before and beng filled completly with something as to change the form. I like to think of it as the little foam animals that used to come in the capsules. You put them in water and they grow several times larger than the original size. That is what life is like before and after being immersed and saturated by the Spirit of God. Yes just like the animal in the capsule has the potential of being enjoyed as a dinosaur or giraffe but it first must be immersed. Without being saturated the potential is never fully seen or explored. This gets me to thinking about my own life, have I allowed the Spirit to saturate me completly or am I trying to hang onto the shell that keeps me from being exposed? And what would my potiental life be if I were to fully immerse my life in the Spirit? Probably a more intrestin question would be what would our churches and meeting look and act like if we were fully saturated in the grace of God.
Then I wonder what is holding me back? I can say that what holds me back isn’t God. I get trust issues at times. I like to see things fully before I act. Which is really hard with God. He doesn’t always show us everything and that’s actually good, He only shows enough to get us going. If He would have said to me, “go to Ukraine teaching English and sharing the Gospel, then come home and enter into the ministry.” I would have gone running the other direction. But he saturated my desire to see Ukraine wth an opertunity that made sense to me (He met me where I was) then he added more Spirit in other areas till I realised that I should pursue something I my life beyond crop genetics. Till I was immersed and saturated enough to become a pastor. I’m sure He isn’t done yet and there are more areas of my life that are still in need of the saturation of His Spirit, but I can say that I am the one holding myself back.
Jesus didn’t baptise his disciples did. Sure he didn’t oppose the use of this symbolic practice, but only because it pointed to a greater reality. God saturates and immerses, we respond to what He is doing. The disipline of baptism is an institution ad requirement men imposed to help us understand that God is washing us clean and making us new. Beyond that it is just a ceremony where a pasto or priests gets to play with water at your expense.
Trinity Sunday: June 19, 2011 Matthew 28:16-21
Adam has worked for a company for several years. He started as an intern and moved into a part-time position after he graduated. When he got engaged he moved from a part-time staffer to a full-time position. This was really good since shortly after the wedding his wife told him they were going to have a baby. The first baby is now five and their other is three when Adam was called to the office where he was rewarded for his hard work with a promotion to a support manager. He is now on the third rung from the top. Everyone is excited for him because this promotion came with a substantial raise. Adam accepted the position but wonders why he needed it since he only relays messages from the manager’s office to the floor staff, but he is reminded of the importance of his role.
Our lives are filled with roles they often change over time although sometimes we don’t recognize what just happened. In the short story of Adam, who is fictional so don’t try to figure out who it really is, went through several sole changes. He went from a student to intern, from intern to part-time employee. He moved from a boyfriend to Fiancée to a full-time career man to husband. From a husband to father, to father of two. Now he’s a support manager. Each role is different, demanding something in a unique way; each role has a set of preconceived ideals and real world practices or responsibilities. An intern has less authority than a support manager. A father has a different perspective than an employee.
The passage we read is often called the great commission and rightfully so since that is what is going on. But let’s consider for a moment AUTHORITY. Authority is almost a taboo word, especially among Friends. Authority could also be dominion, power, control or influence. Jesus says His Father has given Him authority over all Heaven and earth. This means Jesus has influence over all the earth. As you consider this just think about it… Jesus has influence over all the earth! He has power over all the earth. I’m sure you mind went directly to the scandalous behaviors of the various people of our culture. Scandals over photos, five year olds that take the lives of babies, and you think no influence there. You are right the influence is subtle but it is there. The congressman caught in an embarrassing moment resigned because of the influence of Christ in the culture. The community is wondering what happened, why, and how a five year old chilled could even consider taking a life. We wonder because somewhere we acknowledge right and wrong, this is the influence of Christ in our culture. Everywhere we turn we can see an influence of Christ, even in the areas we feel are out of God’s hands.
Christ has influence because He lived among us. We often times forget the importance of the life of Christ and focus more intensely on the events of Christmas, the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. Yet every gospel says more about Jesus than He was born, died and rose. My favorite teacher in school, Dr. Kettler, always said, “we need a fat bible and a fat new testament.” Because we need a bible filled with stories and full of stories of Christ. I like this and agree because it is in His life we learn to live our life. It is in Christ we learn what it means to be human because he was and is the perfect human. There’s more. There are countless teachers, rabbis, prophets, and oracles throughout the world that can provide a good ethic to live by. Many of these really have some good ideas, but all lack something. All religion lacks something. This is why our culture smugly says all religions are the same, because all religion is the same. Religion is a system of behaviors established to benefit society and to provide a way for man to achieve the ultimate goal in the unknown future. Christ turns religion upside down. Religion is a system of checks, sacrifices, rituals, and things to do to gain favor with some deity. Christ came to fulfill all the law. He perfectly lives our human existence and through Him we gain the ultimate goal: reconciliation, peace, salvation, and life everlasting with God. In Christ we have security, hope, and grace. In Christ we can stand before the Father who judges justly and can say, “I know You.” In Jesus we are connected again to God the Father in relationship we can again walk with Him unashamed because Christ lived our life for us.
Which brings us back to authority. Christ was sent, was given authority because of his unique position in God as one person of three. He has authority first because he created all heaven and earth but more importantly he has authority because through Him we can become who we are supposed to be, children of God. Jesus passes part of that authority to us.
Adam has authority in his company; he is third from the top. He doesn’t have full authority only the manager has that, but the manager has passed some of his authority to Adam. When Adam speaks he is speaking as and in the authority given through the manager. This relationship is similar to what Christ is giving his Apostles. “I am sent, so I send you.” He says. We as people influenced by Christ have his authority granted to us. Does this mean we have all authority? No. He is still in control while we are His support. The Holy Spirit directs us, we follow His lead and in His authority, Christ gains influence.
Today, June 19th, churches around the world celebrate the mystery of the Trinity of God. A concept that baffles theologians yet one that can be accepted by a child. Can I explain the Trinity? Not fully. It is like a dance where two people share joy as they move to music. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The trinity is like a marriage where two people are united in love. The trinity is like many things but isn’t fully explained by any of them. One thing we do know is God is one God. And we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. God is revealed to us in three ways in three personalities: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Today is also Father’s Day in the United States. Which is a day where we celebrate the unique relationship men have on children as fathers, but also on their emotional and spiritual growth. To be a Father we need to live in Christ because we aren’t perfect, we need His authority and influence to shine through us. To be Christians we also need that relational aspect gained through Christ. We have many roles. The most important is to live with Christ in our various roles in our families, community, nation, and world. Immersing others in God’s influence as we teach and show his ways.
As we enter this time of Holy expectancy, let us reflect on the Triune God, the authority of Jesus and how we can influence or share His authority. Also reflect on those who have shown His authority to us.