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NEVER FAR FROM THE SOURCE
A sermon preached February 11, 2007 at University United Methodist Church, East
Lansing MI, by John Ross Thompson
Scripture texts: Jeremiah 17:5-10, Psalm 1, Luke 6:17-26
Today it will be 24 degrees Fahrenheit, a heat wave compared to the bitter cold
of the last two weeks. It was great seeing so many of you last Sunday, despite
the below zero temperatures. I noticed how long you stayed after the brunch, not
wanting to go out in the winter day.
Most of us have warm homes and warm offices or classrooms. For us, getting
warmer means only adjusting the thermostat and, of course, paying the higher
fuel bill. A few of us need to work outside in this winter weather. We might
notice the cold, as I did several times this past week, when we get into our
cold cars. Those few minutes until the car is getting warm seem like a long
time, but the heat finally comes.
I am reminded of my childhood, growing up in a farmhouse with four unheated
bedrooms on the second floor. We could quickly get out from under the warm
covers, grab our clothes, and sit on the register in the hallway, the only
source of heat from our coal furnace on the second floor.
What occurs to me in all of this is how important it is to be near to the source
of heat.
This is the last week before Lent, which begins in just ten days. Lent has
become for many of us a time of preparation for the walk with Jesus toward
Easter.
Perhaps at this time we feel even more keenly the need to be near our spiritual
source.
That spiritual source is where we go for assurance, security, peace of mind,
joy, and trust.
This is what came to mind as I read through the Psalm 1 and Jeremiah passages.
The tree that is planted by the water, drawing nourishment from it, is a symbol
for our need for spiritual nourishment. Wouldn’t we like to be connected at all
times to such a spiritual source?
Remember the scriptures were written in a dry land, a place where water was not
always visible or readily available. The image that is given of the spiritual
person is one who is like a tree planted by a stream, with deep roots able to
find the source of living water to sustain it. It might be an underground
stream, invisible to most persons but a ready source of water if you know where
it is, like the underground rivers in our own community. The living, fruitful
tree by the water is compared to a shrub in the desert that has no consistent
source of water. The Biblical writers point out the difference between a
withered shrub and a strong tree.
The Luke passages of blessings for those who trust in God, and woes for those
who do not, is from the Sermon on the Plain by Jesus. All three of the scripture
passages today contrast those who are filled with God’s spirit with those who do
not have it.
It’s no surprise that Jesus, teaching in a desert land, told others that he was
the living water, the one able to meet the needs of all of us who are thirsty.
Don’t you envy the persons who seem to have it all together, able to weather
tough times, handle difficult situations and always seem poised and on top of
whatever is happening? Perhaps here in the church you picture others having some
deep roots that go all the way to God, to the source of spiritual strength.
That’s what these scriptures are all about.
Joyce Hollyday of Sojourners presents this image:
“On the small mountain farm where I live, blackberry bushes ring the lake. Much
to my dismay, the owner of the farm came one day last spring to tear them out.
But within days, small shoots began to reappear. By late spring, the thickets
were providing a canopy of protection for a nesting goose and burrows of baby
rabbits. By mid-summer, a few of the bushes were putting out fruit—enough for a
few days' worth of fresh berries on my cereal and several blackberry cobblers.
Next year there will be more. Whatever destruction came to the branches, the
underground network of roots held, providing an anchor for rebirth. Roots that
go deep can bear a lot and still survive.
‘Blessed are those who trust in the Lord....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.’”
Our need is to never be far from the Source.
If you have any doubts about what the Source is, here are some conduits of God’s
Grace as summarized in Stephen Ministry training materials:
1. The Bible
2. Worship
3. Prayer
4. Confession and Forgiveness
5. Sacraments – the water of our baptism and the community meal we call Holy
Communion
6. Meeting Jesus in “the least of these”
7. Practicing Other Spiritual Disciplines
8. Getting Together with Other Christians
9. Christian Art
Our Gospel passage today from Luke can be disturbing to those of us who have a
lot in this world. Jesus said blessings go to the poor, the hungry, those who
weep, and those who are despised or rejected. Woes will come to the rich, the
full, those who laugh, and those who are socially accepted.
Why?
Those who are needy, just like those who are in the bitter cold, know better
that they need to be near the source. Those who seem to have everything can more
easily forget the Source.
Joe Nangle, a writer from Chile, has said, “Today's reading from Jeremiah,
together with the Luke version of the beatitudes, remind me of an experience I
had during my years in Peru. Once in a remote part of the Andean highlands,
representatives from base Christian communities prepared with me the lessons for
Sunday worship. As painfully slow readers, they labored over today's passage
from Jeremiah, finally agreeing that it held a significant teaching for them.
During those days famine threatened the communities due to a months-long drought
in the region. These unschooled, desperately poor Indian folk centered on the
image of ‘the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. S/he is like a
tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream.’ They
concluded that the scripture that day was telling them to be fruitful trees for
one another; that those who had somehow harvested a crop, however meager, must
share it with those who had not. If there was no abundance to share, then at
least they could share in the paucity.”
This source of life is the stream of which Jeremiah and the psalmist speak, and
only when we plunge our roots deeply into it do we have any hope of being God's
instruments of justice and peace in a troubled world.
As we begin Lent in 10 more days, I invite you to stay near the source. We will
be offering extra worship services, Holy Communion every Wednesday night, Bible
study groups and a Sunday journey into prayer. You can find even more ways to
stay near the source where you study and work and live. Alone, we dry up and
languish. Near the source, drawing on the living water, we find the nourishment
we need.
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