 |
| Twenty-Third Psalm by Frank Wesley |
This morning we encounter a great multitude gathered around the throne of God. Once again John of Patmos serves as our eyes and ears, interpreting the scene for us. John sees a crowd of people clothed in white garments and carrying palm branches. One of the elders tells John that this multitude is composed of the saints of God who went through the great ordeal. They’re drawn from every nation and tribe and people and language. Together they declare that “salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” They are accompanied by the angels, the elders, and the four living creatures. They sing a song of praise to God and to the Lamb: “Blessing and honor and power and might to our God forever and ever! Amen!”
What a grand sight this is. It’s hard not to be overwhelmed. If you’re like me and you love to sing the great hymns and songs of the faith, you’ll want to join this heavenly choir. Oh, what a blessing that would be!
I mentioned earlier that the multitude includes people who stood firm in the faith despite the threat of suffering and death. Now, they gather before God’s throne to receive their reward. This is the reward given to those who remain faithful: They will not experience ever again hunger or thirst or suffer under the scorching heat of the desert because the Lamb of God will be their guide. Yes, the Lamb will become the shepherd who leads them to the springs of the water of life.
The language John uses to tell this story is rooted in words we find in Daniel and other similar books that offered comfort to the Jewish people as they tried to stay faithful during the oppressive occupation of their land by Antiochus IV. Bringing this word into a more modern context, I think of the Jewish community that listens carefully to the voices of those who survived the Holocaust. While their numbers are growing thinner with time, their voice remains powerful. I also think of the Christian communities in Syria and Iraq who have experienced great oppression as well. Then there’s the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where the people have suffered greatly.
The ancient church honored those who remained faithful amidst persecution by canonizing them as saints of God. Consider for instance the witness of St. Perpetua. She was a young woman from Carthage who refused to recant her profession of faith in Jesus and went bravely into the arena to face her martyrdom. She did this despite being a nursing mother. Her witness has served to encourage many others down through the ages to remain faithful to their confession of faith.
Our reading not only speaks of the witness of the martyrs. There’s that reward I mentioned earlier, the one in which John tells us that “they will hunger no more, and thirst no more.” With that promise in mind, we can draw upon another word of Scripture that speaks of a shepherd. You see, today is not only the Fourth Sunday of Easter, it’s also “Good Shepherd Sunday.”
The word we heard earlier from Psalm 23 celebrates the shepherd who leads the flock to green pastures and still waters (Ps. 23:2-3). It’s a word that has brought comfort to many through the years. Then there’s the reading from the Gospel of John that speaks of those who hear and heed the shepherd’s voice. According to Jesus, those who belong to the flock will only trust and follow the voice of their shepherd (John 10:22-30).
These passages help us understand what John reveals here in Revelation 7. The Lamb who sits beside God’s throne becomes the shepherd who guides the sheep to the “springs of the water of life,” much like the shepherd in Psalm 23 leads the flock to still waters and green pastures. As we hear this word, about the water of life, we’re reminded that water is an essential element of human existence.
We’re blessed to live in a region surrounded by one-fifth of the world’s freshwater. That’s good news, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted. The news from out west, in my homeland, is rather bad. The drought that has persisted for several years is said to be the worst drought in a thousand years. The snowpack in the mountains that feeds the rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, is well below normal. As the people look for alternative sources of water, they’re drawing on an aquifer buried deep below the surface of the earth. This pool of water that has been gathering for thousands of years is now being quickly depleted. So, people are beginning to wonder about the future. While we have plenty of freshwater here, we only need to think back to the Flint water crisis to be reminded that we also need safe infrastructure to get that freshwater to our homes.
As we ponder this reality, Diana Butler Bass reminds us that “Water is life; life is water. Living water is God; God is Living Water” (Grounded, p. 77). If we’re to experience salvation or wholeness, we need to drink deeply of this spring of the water of life. Yes, we must drink deeply from the life-sustaining water that is God!
As we ponder this message, it’s good to remember that water also plays an important role in the biblical story. In Genesis 1 the dry land emerges out of the waters. In the Exodus story, the people of Israel first cross through the sea to obtain their freedom and then cross the Jordan to enter the Promised Land. Jesus begins his ministry with his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist in that very same Jordan river.
It also seems as if many important conversations take place at wells. Consider the story of Jacob and Rachel, who meet and fall in love at a well (Gen. 29). Then there’s the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well, which leads to an important theological conversation about Jesus’ offer of living water (Jn 4:7-15).
Here in Revelation 7, the Lamb who becomes the shepherd leads the martyrs to the spring of the water of life. This image leads us back to Psalm 23, where the shepherd leads the flock to the still waters (Ps. 23:1-3a). Once again we hear the invitation to drink deeply from the water of life so that our souls might be restored.
When I think of springs of living water, my imagination takes me back to the City Park in Mount Shasta, California. If you go to that park, which I love to visit, you’ll find a spring bubbling out from an outcropping of rocks. This spring is fed by the melting snowpack of Mount Shasta, a magnificent 14,000-foot mountain. This spring serves as the headwaters of the Sacramento River. The water that emerges from this spring is clear, clean, cold, and refreshing. This spring gives birth to a great river that provides drinking water to millions of people while providing water to irrigate the fields and orchards throughout Northern California. Peaches, pears, and plums are all fed and watered by this river. But, if the snow fails to come to the mountain, eventually the spring could dry up. If the spring dries up, the river dries up. If the river dries up, the fields will dry up and millions of people will struggle to find water to drink. Yes, water is essential to life. It’s a gift of God that we shouldn’t take for granted.
We come here today as servants of the Lamb of God who is the Good Shepherd, who leads us to the “springs of the water of life” so that we will thirst no more. That is God’s promise to those who heed the shepherd’s voice and it is our hope as well. But, even as we anticipate that great day, the image of the springs of living water can stir us to action.
Going back to Genesis 1, we hear the word that God entrusted to the first humans and their descendants with the stewardship of God’s creation. This is part of our witness as followers of the Lamb who is the good shepherd. So, as we tend to the waters of life, let us sing God’s praises. Yes, “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Supply Pastor
First Presbyterian Church
Troy, Michigan
Easter 4C/Good Shepherd Sunday
May 8, 2022
Image attribution: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Twenty-Third Psalm, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59161 [retrieved May 7, 2022]. Original source: Contact the Vanderbilt Divinity Library for further information..
Comments