Pastor’s Corner – September 17, 2023

Is there a symbol that is offering you encouragement these days? My favorite symbols are often water and trees. Rainbows and dirt are others that often offer me support and encouragement in the living of these days. 

As I long to hold on to summer, I think about the water that some children have access to enjoy over the summer when it is hot – pools, sprinklers, garden hoses, bathtubs, buckets of cool water, puddles…. As I think of opportunities for refreshment near rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and oceans, I thank our Creator for clean water to drink and wash in. I give thanks for the rain that allows plants and food to grow. I give thanks for the water that connects us, enlivens us, renews us…… I also give thanks for all the encouraging stories that involved water in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. I was curious, so I looked up the number of times water is in the Bible. 708 times!!!! Do any water stories or memories from the Bible or your growing up years come to mind for you?

Maybe memories of swimming lessons or swim teams, maybe creation stories involving water, maybe rituals with water. Perhaps stories of God’s protection of a baby floating in a basket in a river or God’s liberation of people through water as the Israelites who were being oppressed walked through dry ground as the seas were parted or Jesus emerging from the waters of his baptism or Jesus calming the storm….Perhaps verses that compare Jesus to living water or the ways that water reminds us God’s refreshing love and grace…..

As I think about stories of the faith of Jesus that involve water, I also think about our call and responsibility to live in loving relationship with all God’s people, creatures, and creation. There are so many concerns about clean water and access to water…..I won’t try to go into those now, but I invite you to learn, pray, and consider how we can do our part in caring for and partnering in the waters of life which connect all of us.  I would also like to invite you to an all-ages water event on Saturday afternoon, October 14th at Holliday Park. We will learn about some of Indy’s watersheds, spend time in meditation and reflection, join in some clean up, and enjoy time for snacks and connecting. If you have questions, please let me know. The event is free. Donations can be made to Earth Charter if you would like. All are welcome. Hope you can come and bring others along.

With gratitude, hope, and love,

Sarah

10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir,[c] you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”   John 4:10-14