Holy Spirit as Water
For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ~ I Corinthians 12:13
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?~ John 4:9-11
Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God's command and connected with God's word. ~ Martin Luther, Small Catechism
We're one, but we're not the same. We get to carry each other. Carry each other. ~ U2
What is water like?
Wet, sure. But what else?
Wild? Untamable? Powerful? Life giving? Life destroying?
The Spirit as water is all of that and more. It has the power to take opposites and make them one.
Jews, Greeks, white, black, hispanic, asian, gay, straight, trans, power-brokers, political strategists, poll-workers, ranchers, migrant workers, men, women, old, young, border patrol, refugee, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, country music lover, punk rocker, auto mechanic, professor, farmer, urban planner.
You get the picture.
It makes alive that which seemed dead. Parched earth springing forth greenery.
It can destroy as well - hurricanes, floods. The lack of it bringing drought.
Does the Samaritan woman even know what she's asking for?
Would she ask if she knew just how powerful that living water was?
Would we ask?
How much do we miss the point when we insist we aren't one? When we see someone as the "other" and not part of the one Spirit?
Would we even want to be baptized if we really knew what it meant?
If we knew that through God's command and God's word we are absolutely made new.
That water is powerful. And it is in us. Part of us. Cleaning us. Molding us.
And when it is all said and done, it leaves us no longer alone.
It leaves us as One.
Not the same, but still one. Still infused with that life-giving Spirit that ends all the separations that we can come up with.
Prayer: Give me a drink of Living Water, Lord! And let it work on me! Amen
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?~ John 4:9-11
Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God's command and connected with God's word. ~ Martin Luther, Small Catechism
We're one, but we're not the same. We get to carry each other. Carry each other. ~ U2
What is water like?
Wet, sure. But what else?
Wild? Untamable? Powerful? Life giving? Life destroying?
The Spirit as water is all of that and more. It has the power to take opposites and make them one.
Jews, Greeks, white, black, hispanic, asian, gay, straight, trans, power-brokers, political strategists, poll-workers, ranchers, migrant workers, men, women, old, young, border patrol, refugee, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, country music lover, punk rocker, auto mechanic, professor, farmer, urban planner.
You get the picture.
It makes alive that which seemed dead. Parched earth springing forth greenery.
It can destroy as well - hurricanes, floods. The lack of it bringing drought.
Does the Samaritan woman even know what she's asking for?
Would she ask if she knew just how powerful that living water was?
Would we ask?
How much do we miss the point when we insist we aren't one? When we see someone as the "other" and not part of the one Spirit?
Would we even want to be baptized if we really knew what it meant?
If we knew that through God's command and God's word we are absolutely made new.
That water is powerful. And it is in us. Part of us. Cleaning us. Molding us.
And when it is all said and done, it leaves us no longer alone.
It leaves us as One.
Not the same, but still one. Still infused with that life-giving Spirit that ends all the separations that we can come up with.
Prayer: Give me a drink of Living Water, Lord! And let it work on me! Amen