Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost
A Cup of Cold Water
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. In today's Gospel, our Lord Jesus stands among the crowd and
announces,
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as
the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
Now this [Jesus] said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were
to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified."
Dear Christian friends,
1. A certain three-year-old in my house does not like to drink water. He
always wants something fancier like milk or juice or some other flavored
drink. Water is simply too boring and commonplace for the child, and if you
offer him water he will invariably refuse it. Sometimes he will even get mad
and walk away because he does not want the water. He wants milk or juice. As
a result, the cool, refreshing water untouched sits on the kitchen counter.
The only way to overcome this child's refusal to drink water is to get him
all hot and sweaty. Make him thirsty. Stick him in the back yard for a while
on a summer's day. Run him around at the park. When he gets really thirsty,
the water the child once refused starts to look pretty good, and before
long, this stubborn little boy happily drinks the water, receiving its
healthy and refreshing benefits.
2. Many years ago, I met a woman who was experiencing several burdens and
difficulties in her life. She was continually struggling with the same sort
of things with which you also continually struggle. She was preoccupied with
things that are very similar to those things that preoccupy you. Some, if
not all of you, probably have at some point or other in your life shared
this woman's feelings of exhaustion, frustration, fear, worry, loneliness,
and grief over life. The woman was thirsty, and her thirst led her to pews
very much like these pews in which you sit. "God's Words in this place," she
said to me, "are like a cup of cold water."
Jesus says to you in today's Gospel, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me
and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Today is the Feast of Pentecost.
Today we (along with all God's people) rejoice in the divine gift of the
Holy Spirit, who "proceeds from the Father and the Son" (Nicene Creed).
Jesus in today's Gospel proclaims to us two great gifts from God that are
now given to us through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first great
gift is the gift of thirst. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me." The
second great gift is the gift of eternal and unending drink, so abundantly
poured out for you that-according to Jesus' own promise-out of your hearts
"will flow rivers of living water."
1. Because of our fallen nature, and because of the dogged persistence of
our sin, we each tend to be very much like three-year-olds who refuse to
drink water. Just as it is much more enjoyable and tasty for three-year-olds
to drink milk or juice rather than pure, refreshing water, we Christians
likewise find it easy to replace the cool waters of God's refreshing Word
with more entertaining substitutes. That is why we find it so easy to skip
worship for the sake of other pursuits. That is why it is so easy for us to
delay and eventually forget our daily prayers. That is why we fall quickly
into the routine and habit of singing the liturgy without thought and coming
to the Sacrament without first preparing ourselves. The cup of water sits
unused by three-year-olds who are preoccupied with wanting other things, and
in the same way, the "rivers of living water" flow untouched and un-tasted
by those who do not perceive their thirst.
So God must make us thirsty. This is part one of the ongoing work of the
Holy Spirit in your life and in mine. Just as a three-year-old must be
exercised and made thirsty before he will drink, we Christians also must be
made to thirst before we will have any interest in the "rivers of living
water" which God has provide to us. "That is why," St. Paul states, "many of
you are weak and ill, and some have died" (1 Corinthians 11:30). That is
also why your God the Holy sees fit so lovingly to accuse you of your sins
and to weigh your conscience with guilt. It is why God the Holy Spirit sees
fit to allow you your own portions of death and mourning and crying and pain
(Revelation 21:4).
This is not a physical thirst, such as is felt for beer or wine, but a
thirst of the soul, a spiritual thirst, a heartfelt desire, yes, a
distressed, wretched, terrified, and aroused conscience, a despondent and
frightened heart. Such is the timid, fainthearted conscience: it feels its
sin; it is conscious of a weakness of spirit, soul, and flesh; it is aware
of a menacing God; it fears God and sees His Law, wrath, judgment, death,
and other penalties. Such anxiety marks the proper thirst (Luther AE 23,
267).
Only after the three-year-old has felt the heat for a while does he become
interested in the refreshing drink of water that is held out to him. Only
after we Christians have likewise experienced the thirst that God the Holy
Spirit creates in us do we become interested in and pay any true attention
to Jesus' words to you: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink."
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as
the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
Now this [Jesus] said about the Spirit.
2. What does the Holy Spirit do for you, aside from showing you
your persistent thirst? He gives you your cup of cold water. Even better,
God the Holy Spirit takes up residence within you. Delivered to you through
the living Word and the enduring promise of God, the Holy Spirit takes up
residence within you so that an ongoing miracle will continue to take place
within you. What is the miracle? "Out of [your] heart-that same heart which
you know to be blacked by sin, that heart perpetually weakened by burden and
guilt, that heart terrorized by the fear of judgment-out of [your] heart
will flow rivers of living water."
God's Words, God's Baptism, God's Holy Communion: these things are
nothing other than the Holy Spirit's cup of cold water, by which He lovingly
satisfies for you the thirst He so lovingly created within you. God has
declared that all your sins are forgiven, and when you hear that
proclamation of forgiveness, it is as though God were pouring cool,
refreshing water into your guilt-burdened, thirsty soul. In Baptism God
adopts you to be His dear child. By speaking His adoption-promise of Baptism
to you, God the Holy Spirit lovingly refreshes you who feel yourselves
ostracized and alienated and separated from God. In Holy Communion, you take
part in the death of the Christ who has risen again, through which you are
given God's thirst-quenching promise that you also shall rise, never to
thirst again.
"Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water.'"
With these Words, Jesus announces to you that the cool, refreshing
cup of water that you receive here in worship is not for you only, but also
for those whom you know in your life who likewise thirst, but do not yet
know where to come and drink. Jesus says to you, "Out of [your] heart will
flow rivers of living water." The great work the Holy Spirit does in you is
likewise the work He does through you for your neighbor. God does not cease
in His comforts for you:
. not only does He satisfy your thirst, but through you He also assuages the
thirst which the Law has created in others. The longer the Gospel is
preached, the more effectively the thirst is slaked, and the better it
tastes to him who is thirsty.
Therefore he who believes in Christ and is supplied with water by Him is
also in a position to console and refresh others with this draught. When the
Lord says here that He will give people to drink, He does not intend to do
this with a spoon; He will not siphon it through a pipe or tap it from a
spigot. No, streams of comfort shall be theirs, and all the thirsty shall be
satisfied with a boundless supply.
Today is the Feast of Pentecost, the day on which we Christians
rejoice that God has sent us the precious gift of the Holy Spirit. Today is
an important day in the life of the Christian Church. Many people in many
denominations have many things to say about the Holy Spirit. Most of it is
wild-eyed raving, apart from the Word. Very few of those people spend much
time speaking about those things God the Holy Spirit loves most to do: He
loves to make you thirsty, in order that He might give you something to
drink. Drink deeply, dear saints.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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