*****This is the last week we have with our theme, “Immersed in Living Waters,” the theme for this year’s Season of Creation.
And with all these scriptures that talk about rivers and lakes and seas and oceans, it all reminds me of so many other stories from my life and from the world, that involve water.
I remember my 7th grade science teacher, who one day assigned us an essay to write; the title of the essay was: “I Was a Teenage Water Molecule.” In this essay, we were to creatively imagine what it would be like if we ourselves were a water molecule, and what our life would be like.
Of course, the essay would talk about how we fell to the earth as rain, joined up with other molecules in streams and rivers, how we eventually made our way to the sea, and how we then—through evaporation—made our way back to the sky, thus completing the entire hydrologic cycle.
Not every essay I had to write in school was fun, but I did enjoy that one. And I still think about watersheds, and where rain goes after it falls to the ground, and the life that rain brings.
I almost included in this sermon a story about a river in Wyoming that got blocked by a landslide and changed direction. And since the river is near the continental divide, it meant that, instead of flowing west toward the Pacific, it now flowed east, toward the Atlantic. Fascinating, I thought… until I realized the story was made up by a satirical website.
But I almost believed it, because rivers do change. Humans changed the direction of the Chicago River, but often, rivers change due to natural causes.
******The town of Kaskaskia, Illinois—located on the Mississippi River—was the first state capitol of Illinois. In 1881, a devastating flood caused the Mississippi River to change course, so that, instead of flowing west of Kaskaskia, the river now flowed east of town. How strange is it to have an Illinois town sitting west of the Mississippi River!
Today, Kaskaskia has an Illinois telephone area code but a Missouri ZIP Code.
And there are other spots, all along the Mississippi River, where state boundaries no longer follow the river. Once upon a time they did, but the river changed, while the boundaries stayed where they were.
It’s a reminder to me that rivers, like the rest of creation, are alive. The water that flows really is living water.
We often set state or national boundaries at major bodies of water, like rivers, but the rivers don’t pay attention to where we have drawn our lines. The rivers move; they alter course; and they are always at work, changing and reshaping the geography.
In the same way, God’s spirit is always at work, shaping and reshaping the church, giving the church new life. And as a result, the church itself is always changing.
***** We see this today in the baptisms of Audrey and Edward: every new person who joins the church changes the church. We are not the same church today (Oct. 4) that we were yesterday (Oct. 3). God’s spirit is changing us, moving us, leading us and guiding us, into our next stage of existence.
And just as the rivers pay no heed to where we set our boundaries, the same is true for God’s Spirit. We find ways to divide ourselves from one another, to divide humanity into groups, nations, races… and these divisions lead to animosity, exclusion, and even hatred… but we are all one in God’s eyes…. Something we are especially reminded of on this World Communion Sunday.
Rivers also provide essential transportation links. The rivers themselves keep us united. This is certainly true for the Mississippi River. Barges transport goods up and down the river, and even today, passenger boats take people up and down the river, something that was even more true in times past.
Even the oceans unite us.
***** We often think of oceans as great divides, but ancient Polynesians saw things differently. They saw the ocean as that which connects different island nations to each other.
Some anthropologists even believe that ancient Polynesians made contact and traded with indigenous peoples along the west coast of North and South America before Columbus ever set sail across the Atlantic.
Having learned a little bit about the canoes of the Tongva and Chumash people where I grew up in southern California, and the skilled ocean navigators of ancient Polynesia, I’m inclined to believe that this is true, that Polynesians made it to the Americas before Columbus did………
Just as the ocean connects, so does God’s Spirit. And so does the church.
***** The church connects us to God and to each other.
The word religion, in fact, comes from a Latin phrase re-ligio, which literally means to reconnect.
Religion that is done right and which honors God is religion that reconnects us to God and to one another. Religion that is done right reminds us that we are one with creation and one with each other.
Which means that a primary task of the church is to connect and unite, and overcome the barriers and divisions that keep us separated from one another.
And what better day than today to ponder all these things. World Communion Sunday. Baptism Sunday. The last Sunday of the Season of Creation.
It all comes together.
And after worship, we’ll gather in our fellowship hall, and hopefully take another step toward unity and understanding, overcoming the divides and barriers that separate us, and charting a new course… just like the Mississippi River, that often changes its course…
…as we continue journeying toward God’s beloved community, that kingdom of heaven, marked by peace and understanding and justice and reconciliation and hope — all the elements that, together, are what the Bible refers to as shalom; the world as God desires it to be; the world where all can live together, and thrive, and experience all the blessings God has to offer.
