The Holy Spirit Quenches Our Thirst

John 7:37-39a
(June 8, 2003 Sermon Transcript)

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        Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our text reads, On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

        Dear friends in Christ, here in southwest Colorado, we have learned the realities of drought. Last summer, along with the summer before that, and some would say, the summer before that, we watched as the little snow that we received during the winter quickly melted during the spring. And we watched the levels of the streams and rivers dropped. We watched our reservoirs, as they began to be nothing more than mudflats. We watched as the rains that would have alleviated this simply didn’t come.

        We watched, as watering restrictions became more and more stringent with the passage of time, and our water bills got higher and higher.

        And we watched as forest fire after forest fire continued to darken the skies of our beautiful mountain valley, and destroy homes and dreams.

        Yes, we watched that drought choke the life out of our land.

        And what’s more, we know as well, that anytime during that terrible drought, any of us, without any hesitation, could go to the faucet in your kitchen sink, and turn on the cold water, and get a good glass of water to drink. None of us ever, by God’s grace, went thirsty. Not a one!

        And we began to understand that God sustains us in times of drought as well as in times of plentiful moisture. And He is our hope in times of need, as well as in times of prosperity.

        And then, remember this. As we read this text, we are talking about more than physical thirst. Indeed, I am certain that anyone in the entire city of Jerusalem at that time could have gotten up from where they were, gone down to the Pool of Siloam, and drawn there all the water to drink there that they needed. Indeed, that pool kept that city in water for years of siege against enemies before the fall of that great city. Anybody who wanted to could get a drink.

        And so, perhaps the words sounded strange. As Jesus is sitting and teaching in the Temple, suddenly He stands up, and He cries out in a loud voice, "Anyone who is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, and he will receive living water." Living water!

        One could only suppose, I guess, what the people in the Temple thought of that! But I think it is necessary for you to remember that this was the last and greatest day of the feast, this being the Feast of Tabernacles. And as we read in the scriptures, we find that the Feast of Tabernacles was a sort of Thanksgiving Day celebration for the nation of Israel. It was a time when they remembered back the blessings of the past, especially how they lived in tents, in tabernacles, in booths if you will (all of those "tent" kinds of words in the scriptures) during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

        And it had to be absolutely significant, I think, that indeed, one of the main memories of that wandering experience was the time when the children of Israel were perishing of thirst, and they were grumbling and complaining to Moses and asking him, "Why have you brought us out into the desert to die of thirst?"

        And then God told Moses to go to a rock, and to strike it with his rod, in a place called Horeb. And plentiful water came forth, and the lives of the people were spared, and renewed. And refreshed.

        Well, our thirsty world is every bit as spiritually thirsty as the day in which Jesus stood in the Temple, and invited them to come and drink the living water He was ready to give. We are as thirsty for just about anything the world tells us will provide satisfaction in this life. Indeed, people are dying just for the ability to feel good! They are dying of thirst, that they want quenched!

        And so we find that people will turn to any number of things that they think will make them feel better. Drugs and alcohol are abused, and often people find that that is a temporary solution, that only brings more problems later on. And yet, despite the "feel good", they only become more thirsty, as time passes, for the peace they seek.

        Indeed, married and unmarried people are thirsting for more and more passion in our day of such exalted sexual revolution. Yet, the more people seem to have, the more thirsty they seem to be for true satisfaction.

        Millions and millions of people are thirsting after more and more money, thinking that surely this earthly treasure will quench their need for purpose and direction in life. Only to find that no matter how much is accumulated, no matter how many bells, and toys, and whistles we have, that it means nothing if we are spiritual dry wells, sitting in the middle of a land of plenty.

        Perhaps there is a more subtle danger around us. For many are the religious people who feel absolutely no thirst at all, thinking they have heard enough sermons, thinking they have learned enough from study of God’s word, thinking perhaps that they have gone to the Lord’s Table long enough and frequently enough that only occasional visits need now be paid to the altar of the Lord, and little study is required.

        And so, thinking they have plenty, in fact they are dying of thirst. For the Means of Grace, which is the Word and Sacraments of the Lord.

        Indeed, we might remember, in the Old Testament reading for this day, that account of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. They are described in detail, not only as dead and gone, but as the whole house of Israel. And they looked like there was no hope for them. And no life in them. And yet, ay the Word of God, spoken through the prophet Ezekiel, those bones came to life. And God’s Spirit spoke life into them, and they stood, a vast army.

        In the same way, God has touched us. In the same way, God has come to each of us, not only once but time and time again. We hearken back to the day of our baptism, as we mentioned to the children, and remember there when the water, that living water, touched us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and granted to us, those of us who were dead and dry bones, life!

        God spoke through His Word, and granted us the gifts that baptism brings. The gift of the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the indwelling of God’s own Spirit in us. And we were made alive. Resuscitated every bit as much as the dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley. Granted the blessing of life and faith. Granted the opportunity to know Him, and to grow in the knowledge of His words and sacraments.

        Indeed, we had been in the desert. And through that baptism, God had struck the rock. And that rock had gushed forth, quenching our thirst, and giving us life.

        God continues to bring us that word of life, and that living water. He washes us through the shedding of His blood on the cross. We remember, with sometimes mixed feelings of ghastly reality and also with awestruck wonder at the grace of God, when we recall that a Roman soldier goes up to Jesus and thrusts a spear into His side, and from Christ came what looked like blood and water coming forth. Let us know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was truly and certifiably dead, for the separation of the blood and the elements happens after someone has died.

        And that death is our life! That death is payment made for your sin and mine! That death is life-giving water to thirsty souls, who, without the sacrifice of Christ, would have no help of any kind before the throne of a righteous and just God.

        For God has exercised His judgment. And God has sent punishment for sin. But, wonder of wonders, He has not sent it on us, but rather on the innocence of His Son.

        His death becomes our life. His death becomes the portal to knowing that Christ is all there is.

        Christ continues to quench our thirst with the gift of the Holy spirit. As we listen to His word in sermons and in Bible studies, as we gather around the family devotional table, we hear that word of life, and we are refreshed by it, and our thirst is slaked.

        And when we realize again, the guilt and the shame, that dry parchedness with which our sins continue to afflict us, then we come again by God’s grace, to that water flowing which eases the dryness, quenches our thirsts, and helps us to know that our sins are forgiven. And we are His own.

        And then, in those times of life, those times that come to us, that knock the pins out from under us, we think that all has gone bad and God has abandoned us. Let me tell you, He has not! Indeed, God will use the very trials, and traumas, and challenges that come into this life as the very vehicles by which we now drink again from the waters that are alive because of Christ.

        This is the day of Pentecost. God showered on His church, on that first day of the New Testament church, the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was given in a special and miraculous way. You know the account. That people gathered outside, many many of them, we are told three thousand were called to faith that day.

        We listened to the sermon of St. Peter that was read as our second lesson, and we heard him declare that this Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, is the one who brings us life. And who grants us the forgiveness of our sin. And who refreshes us, in the parchedness of even the most traumatic events of life. Let us know that He has not abandoned us, and that indeed, He will nourish us no matter what the circumstances of life. God is faithful to us, and He has promised that He will never, ever, leave us alone.

        Well, whenever we take Him for granted, whenever we think that we have heard enough sermons, or studied enough of His word, nor come to His table sufficiently, then He increases our thirst! Perhaps He does that any number of ways. He could do it, I suppose, through those very trials and traumas and challenges that come with life, to come and kneel, and to trust, and to listen, and to be blessed. To know again how much He loves you, and how much He loves me.

        And it is necessary also, on this day of Pentecost to remember, that this is a renewal of His church. It’s not as though the Holy Spirit had been absent all those centuries preceding. That is not at all the case. But rather, this is the new blessing. A blessing formerly reserved for those who held the term "prophet", "priest", or "king". Those who were specially designated to speak God’s message of grace to the world.

        But now, at Pentecost, we know that that blessing of prophecy, and of speaking, is given to all. That is exactly what St. Peter refers to when he goes back to Jeremiah 31:31, when God says, that in those days, people will dream dreams and all men will prophesy. And all will become the source of living water flowing. And all will be able to quench the thirst of a thirsty world, who looks in all the wrong places, but who finds it nourishment, and its refreshment, only in Christ.

        May God grant to each and every one of first, first, the realization of the washing that we have received in our baptisms, knowing that we have been called His own, and become His dwelling. And then to remember that He makes of us streams of living water that will flow from within to those with whom we have the privilege of sharing this refreshing and thirst-quenching word of life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.