Living Water
Sermon
Readings:
Jeremiah 17:5-10 - those who trust in the Lord are blessed, but not so those who put their trust merely in human beings.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 - St Paul proclaims the resurrection of the dead.
Luke 6:17-26 - the sermon on the mount.
Reading:
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the LORD.
[6] They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
[7] Blessed are those who trust in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
[8] They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
[9] The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse--
who can understand it?
[10] I the LORD test the mind
and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings.
Theme: Living water
Sermon:
Last April we had a group of visitors from a parish in Northen Sweden. They stayed in homes in our deanery, attended our churches and went out and about in our region. For many of them it was their first visit to England, so their first impressions of our country were interesting.
Before they came, they had been anxious about being separated and isolated in England. Ideally, they would have preferred to stay together in a hotel or guest house rather than being split up and staying in individual homes. It was a natural anxiety about not knowing the language as well as they might have wished, and not being familiar with foreign customs. But in fact they were quite overwhelmed by their first impressions of England and their abiding memory was not of the sights and outings which we arranged for them, but of how much they had enjoyed staying in English families.
They came from a country which was still under six foot of snow into a country which was well in the grip of Spring and they couldn't believe how green everything was. And the other great impression was of English gardens. They exclaimed again and again about the beauty of the flowers and plants in quite ordinary English gardens.
The spring-like green which is always around us and which we take pretty much for granted, and our gardens which we also take pretty much for granted, were seen by our Swedish visitors with fresh eyes. And they were seen to be beautiful.
There's something very important and something very special about living things, whether those living things are plants or animals or human beings. In today's wonderful passage of poetry from Jeremiah, the prophet describes those who trust in the Lord as especially blessed. And he describes that blessing in terms of living plants. "They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream," says Jeremiah. "It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit."
The tree is protected from drought or the damage caused by excess heat because it is planted by the water and has its roots by the stream. It will always have sufficient water to keep it alive and to keep it beautiful. Jeremiah says that those who trust in God are like that. They will always be kept alive and beautiful by the living water which comes from God, because they are planted by the water and their roots are by God's stream.
But according to Jeremiah, the converse is also true. "Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD, " he says. "They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land."
The analogy is abundantly clear. Those who trust in God and live their lives according to that trust, will be full of life. Not only that, but they will become so deeply rooted in God that when life gets difficult, as it does for every human being from time to time, they will be able to draw on their inner resources and discover hidden strength to help them through the tough times. They won't need to fear when things get hot, because they'll have roots deep enough to continue to receive sufficient life-giving water from God himself.
Those who rely on their own strength will find tough times more difficult. They will be like those desert shrubs which struggle to survive in a parched landscape where the only water they can find has such a concentrate of chemicals that it's poisonous. Jeremiah may have been thinking of the Dead Sea and its surrounds when he wrote those words.
The Dead Sea looks glorious. A wonderful stretch of tranquil blue water, which appears to be very inviting on hot and dusty days. But the appearance is deceptive, for the Dead Sea is so full of poisonous salts that no living creature can survive in its waters.
Those who think they can manage fine without God, or who arrogantly decide that God doesn't exist, are mistaken, says Jeremiah. He tells us that the heart is devious and perverse. It can deceive us so that few of us really know ourselves as we think we know ourselves. But God tests the mind and searches the heart, and God gives to all according to their ways.
Trees and plants which don't receive sufficient water shrivel up and die. Human beings who are not sufficiently rooted in God, receiving living water from God, also shrivel up and die. Like the Dead Sea, this process may not be obvious from the surface. There are many apparently beautiful people who are gradually shrivelling up and dying inside, because they receive no living water. They think they can manage fine without God, or they have decided that God doesn't exist.
Jeremiah was writing at a time when Babylon was the great power threatening the Ancient Israelites. The previous great threat, Assyria, had fallen and so the Israelites, cock-a-hoop, had returned to their old ways of worshipping other gods and paying no heed to the demands of Jahweh, the one true God.
But along with worshipping other gods went all sorts of abuses which were against God's law and which damaged people. Abuse not only damages the person who is abused, but also damages the abuser so that they themselves shrivel up inside. Jeremiah could see the degradation and debauchery which was going on and knew that unless the community mended its ways, it would certainly fall prey to yet another great power, that of Babylon. But his warnings and threats were rewarded by arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace.
However, Jeremiah was proved right in the end for the nation did indeed fall prey to Babylon, who dragged the people away from their own country and into exile in Babylon in 587 BC.
Jeremiah was right too about the need to be rooted in God and this need is true for all time. Those who receive living water become beautiful from the inside out. “The fruit of their doings” as Jeremiah puts it, is good and wholesome and luscious. And in the New Testament, St Paul spells out exactly what that fruit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23.) These are the fruits that grow in those who are rooted in God, for God gives us living water which in turn gives us eternal life.
Living water is necessary for our life and our growth. Without it we shrivel up and die inside. Let us make sure we are firmly rooted in God, so that we may receive a constant flow of his living water and so become beautiful people.
Jeremiah 17:5-10 - those who trust in the Lord are blessed, but not so those who put their trust merely in human beings.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 - St Paul proclaims the resurrection of the dead.
Luke 6:17-26 - the sermon on the mount.
Reading:
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the LORD.
[6] They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
[7] Blessed are those who trust in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
[8] They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
[9] The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse--
who can understand it?
[10] I the LORD test the mind
and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings.
Theme: Living water
Sermon:
Last April we had a group of visitors from a parish in Northen Sweden. They stayed in homes in our deanery, attended our churches and went out and about in our region. For many of them it was their first visit to England, so their first impressions of our country were interesting.
Before they came, they had been anxious about being separated and isolated in England. Ideally, they would have preferred to stay together in a hotel or guest house rather than being split up and staying in individual homes. It was a natural anxiety about not knowing the language as well as they might have wished, and not being familiar with foreign customs. But in fact they were quite overwhelmed by their first impressions of England and their abiding memory was not of the sights and outings which we arranged for them, but of how much they had enjoyed staying in English families.
They came from a country which was still under six foot of snow into a country which was well in the grip of Spring and they couldn't believe how green everything was. And the other great impression was of English gardens. They exclaimed again and again about the beauty of the flowers and plants in quite ordinary English gardens.
The spring-like green which is always around us and which we take pretty much for granted, and our gardens which we also take pretty much for granted, were seen by our Swedish visitors with fresh eyes. And they were seen to be beautiful.
There's something very important and something very special about living things, whether those living things are plants or animals or human beings. In today's wonderful passage of poetry from Jeremiah, the prophet describes those who trust in the Lord as especially blessed. And he describes that blessing in terms of living plants. "They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream," says Jeremiah. "It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit."
The tree is protected from drought or the damage caused by excess heat because it is planted by the water and has its roots by the stream. It will always have sufficient water to keep it alive and to keep it beautiful. Jeremiah says that those who trust in God are like that. They will always be kept alive and beautiful by the living water which comes from God, because they are planted by the water and their roots are by God's stream.
But according to Jeremiah, the converse is also true. "Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD, " he says. "They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land."
The analogy is abundantly clear. Those who trust in God and live their lives according to that trust, will be full of life. Not only that, but they will become so deeply rooted in God that when life gets difficult, as it does for every human being from time to time, they will be able to draw on their inner resources and discover hidden strength to help them through the tough times. They won't need to fear when things get hot, because they'll have roots deep enough to continue to receive sufficient life-giving water from God himself.
Those who rely on their own strength will find tough times more difficult. They will be like those desert shrubs which struggle to survive in a parched landscape where the only water they can find has such a concentrate of chemicals that it's poisonous. Jeremiah may have been thinking of the Dead Sea and its surrounds when he wrote those words.
The Dead Sea looks glorious. A wonderful stretch of tranquil blue water, which appears to be very inviting on hot and dusty days. But the appearance is deceptive, for the Dead Sea is so full of poisonous salts that no living creature can survive in its waters.
Those who think they can manage fine without God, or who arrogantly decide that God doesn't exist, are mistaken, says Jeremiah. He tells us that the heart is devious and perverse. It can deceive us so that few of us really know ourselves as we think we know ourselves. But God tests the mind and searches the heart, and God gives to all according to their ways.
Trees and plants which don't receive sufficient water shrivel up and die. Human beings who are not sufficiently rooted in God, receiving living water from God, also shrivel up and die. Like the Dead Sea, this process may not be obvious from the surface. There are many apparently beautiful people who are gradually shrivelling up and dying inside, because they receive no living water. They think they can manage fine without God, or they have decided that God doesn't exist.
Jeremiah was writing at a time when Babylon was the great power threatening the Ancient Israelites. The previous great threat, Assyria, had fallen and so the Israelites, cock-a-hoop, had returned to their old ways of worshipping other gods and paying no heed to the demands of Jahweh, the one true God.
But along with worshipping other gods went all sorts of abuses which were against God's law and which damaged people. Abuse not only damages the person who is abused, but also damages the abuser so that they themselves shrivel up inside. Jeremiah could see the degradation and debauchery which was going on and knew that unless the community mended its ways, it would certainly fall prey to yet another great power, that of Babylon. But his warnings and threats were rewarded by arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace.
However, Jeremiah was proved right in the end for the nation did indeed fall prey to Babylon, who dragged the people away from their own country and into exile in Babylon in 587 BC.
Jeremiah was right too about the need to be rooted in God and this need is true for all time. Those who receive living water become beautiful from the inside out. “The fruit of their doings” as Jeremiah puts it, is good and wholesome and luscious. And in the New Testament, St Paul spells out exactly what that fruit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23.) These are the fruits that grow in those who are rooted in God, for God gives us living water which in turn gives us eternal life.
Living water is necessary for our life and our growth. Without it we shrivel up and die inside. Let us make sure we are firmly rooted in God, so that we may receive a constant flow of his living water and so become beautiful people.
