Saturday, July 30, and Sunday, July 31, 2011
Come, come those who are hot and tired, those who need relief from the heat and humidity, come and cool off, come and cool off at no cost to you, come to the free pool, come to the free beach, come to the cooling centers opened by the county. Come, come get much needed relief from the heat.
That’s the invitation made by people and agencies in our communities, people who are concerned for others.
But then from the sidelines over here someplace, watching this invitation to pools and beaches and cooling centers, someplace over here on the sidelines comes the impatient question like I saw in last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune letters to the Editor: “I find it funny that so many people are going to pools and the beach to ‘beat’ the heat wave. I prefer to stay inside in my air-conditioned home!” (Chicago Tribune, “Voice of the People,” July 24, 2011).
That’s a great impatience of understanding, a way of just not getting it. I mean, not everyone has air conditioning. People flock to pools and beaches because they need some relief. You need to know the stories of people who can’t afford air conditioning, and then it makes sense that they’d go to the beach when it’s hot.
Again, we here an invitation in the world, an invitation to those who are struggling. This time the invitation is in Africa:
Come, come those who don’t have water. Come, come to the new well we’ll drill for your community. Come, come to the well we’ll repair for your community. Come and drink water without cost. Come to the free well, come to the well that’s a gift to your community. Come, come drink water and be refreshed. Come, come drink water that gives you life.
But again, from off there someplace, off someplace on the sidelines comes an impatient question: Why do these communities in Africa need people to give them free wells? Why do they need others to come and drill wells or come and repair wells? Why don’t they just find their own water? Why don’t they just turn on the faucet in their homes? What’s wrong with the water they do have?
That’s a great impatience of understanding, a way of just not getting it. Not everyone has indoor plumbing, not every community in the world has a water tower and water treatment plant and water pipes running to every house. Not everyone can trust that they’re going to have a clean, affordable source of water. You need to know the stories of people who don’t have water, and then it makes sense that they need others to help them. You need to know they have real thirst.
On the insert in today’s bulletin, you have some information about an organization called Blood:Water Mission. Started by the Chrtistian band Jars of Clay, it’s an organization that has been working to help with the AIDS/HIV crisis and the water crisis in Africa. Here’s one of the stories about what Blood:Water Mission has been doing, what they have been doing for the real thirst in Africa:In semi-arid northern Kenya, water is precious and closely guarded. As the saying goes, "Water is life." Before October 2010, the Arapal community (2,000 people) relied on a water source nearly 12 km away (that’s about 7½ miles), and gaining enough access to the water source often produced conflict with neighboring communities. Also, the Arapal community did not have a latrine, and whenever rain comes, human waste washed into the water source, contaminating the water. For them, water was not life-giving.
Between October and December 2010, Blood:Water Mission's partner in Kenya helped the Arapal community by rehabilitating the water source with a gravity system, installing a water tank for the community, and laying pipes to connect school tanks to the main water point. In addition, this partner agency constructed three pit latrines with two doors each, washing rooms, six hand washing facilities near the latrines or kitchen, and a trough for livestock (so that they do not contaminate drinking water).
These changes transformed the Arapal community, both inside and out. Along the way, the Kenyan agency educated community members on the importance of good hygiene and latrine use. Since the construction of the three latrines, at least six people have started to build their own latrines out of local materials. Relationships outside of the community are better, too. The area chief said, "Initially, there used to be a lot of animosity amongst communities living around us. Right now we are comfortable sharing water with them because it is a lot. As you can see, it is overflowing." Now, not only does water bring life, but water also brings peace.
When you know the story of the Arapal community, now it makes more sense why they need help, why they need someone to help them fix their water system. When you know the story of these people, now it makes sense that they need an invitation: “Come all you who are thirsty! Come to the waters.” Now the invitation makes sense: “Come, come to the well we’ll repair for your community. Come and drink water without cost.”
And that’s the invitation, then, in Isaiah chapter 55, that’s the invitation to the people of Israel, that’s the invitation to a people who are being taken over by an empire, taken over so that their sources of water and food, their sources that sustain life, their sources are no longer their own, no longer available, no longer free or affordable. That’s the invitation. God the Father speaking through the prophet Isaiah is saying that God’s going to provide for them, God’s going to support them, He’s going to drill a new well, He’s going to repair the well, He’s going to give them clean water for their community.
And at first, it sounds like God’s just talking about water and food, just talking about basic necessities of life, just talking about pools and beaches and cooling centers. It sounds like God’s just talking about the basic needs that people have to get through life, and so maybe this passage is just about going out and drilling new wells in Africa and opening up cooling centers in Chicago.
But God’s also talking about the real thirst, the thirst underneath it all, the thirst that goes to the core of our being. And the invitation comes to all of us.
Come, come those who are searching in their souls, those who need relief from their sins and failures, come and find peace, come and find forgiveness at no cost to you, come to the refreshing waters of God’s Word, come to the free grace of Jesus Christ, come to the cross and resurrection, come get much needed relief from sin, death, and the devil. Come, come drink the water of life and be refreshed. Come, come drink the Gospel, the Good News that gives you life.
But off to the side again will be the impatient question. Maybe it’s from someone else, someone observing you going to church and believing in God. Or maybe it’s from inside of you. But that impatient question arises: Why don’t you just find peace in yourselves? Why do you need some outside supply of peace and comfort? Why not forgive yourselves? Why do you need God to get you through? What about taking responsibility for your own lives? Why can’t you just face your own fears and get over it?
That’s a great impatience of understanding, a way of just not getting it. Not seeing that we can’t do this thing called life on our own. We can’t find peace and comfort inside of ourselves. We can’t be so sure of ourselves that we never ever doubt ourselves. We can’t get to a place where we’re so sure that we’re good enough. We need a cooling center for the heat of our fears. We need clean, affordable water to quench our spiritual thirst. We need someone other than our own thoughts and feelings to get us through the day. We need something besides what we’ve found in ourselves.
But like I said, that great impatience of understanding, that can come from someone observing your faith or it can come from inside, it can be a knock on your faith or it can be a nagging struggle inside your heart, but no matter what, that impatience of understanding, that’s like saying people should just stay in their air conditioned homes, that people in Africa should just use the water they have. That great impatience of understanding is saying that you should just try to get through life without God.
But that leaves you thirsty. That leaves you hungry.
And so the invitation comes. The invitation from God.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”
And so the invitation comes, and it’s more than invitation for water and food, more than an invitation for sustaining our day-to-day lives. It’s an invitation from God to sustain our souls, an invitation from God to revive our souls, renew our souls, feed our souls, give life to our dead spirits, give us life forever after death. God’s Blood:Water Mission, God’s mission comes through the blood of Christ and the water of life, comes through the Lord’s Supper and Holy Baptism. The organization Blood:Water Mission which not only provides education and wells for the crises in Africa, but also points to the hope we can have in Christ, well. They do this because God’s Blood:Water Mission speaks to our daily needs, provides for us in our day-to-day needs, but He also reaches into our core, reaches into our souls, reaches that place in us that needs more than water and food, that place in us that needs the food of His Word and His life-giving water, that place that needs more than loaves of bread and a few fish, that place that needs to be sustained in our very souls. God’s Blood:Water Mission reaches into that place in us, and He invites us to come to Him, invites us to hear Him, invites us to receive from Him all that we need for eternal life.
And so in our arid spiritual lives, a word of hope is precious and closely guarded. But mainly it seems we rely on sources of hope that are extremely distant, and getting enough hope produces conflict with others. Our spiritual lives are contaminated by sin. For us, the hope we find in the world is not life-giving.
But then God’s Blood:Water Mission in Christ comes rehabilitating the source of hope, installing a water tank, the Word of God, the tank of life-giving water in our community. He forgives us for the ways we contaminate the world; He promises to protect our souls from the contamination around us. He trains us by His Holy Spirit, so that we live for Him, bringing less contamination into the world.
These changes transform us, inside and out. They cause us to see how the hope of God overflows, the hope of God overflows so that we are able to share that with those around us. Now, not only does water bring life, but water also brings peace.
God’s Blood:Water Mission, God’s mission agency has set itself up in your community, has established itself right here in your midst. His Word, His Holy Spirit have come to bring you great relief. God’s Blood:Water Mission invites you in.
Come, come those who are searching in their souls, those who need relief from their sins and failures, come and find peace, come and find forgiveness at no cost to you, come to the refreshing waters of God’s Word, come to the free grace of Jesus Christ, come to the cross and resurrection, come get much needed relief from sin, death, and the devil. Come, come drink the water of life and be refreshed. Come, come drink the Gospel, the Good News that gives you life.