Loading...The following is the transcript of the sermon delivered on the Ohio River which can be viewed HERE.
Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now he said this about the Spirit... [see Isaiah 55:1]
How could I not bring you to the river today. The Ohio River at Towhead Island in Louisville is at 16” high and running at 2.1 cubic feet per second. The temperature is 64 F. For the record, I swim 1.5 cfs. That means I need to swim as fast as I am able to just to stay in place. Or I can just relax and let the river take me where the current is going. Towhead is where the highway drainpipe is located, so I quit swimming there awhile back, ruins a girl’s swimsuit.
So my friend Nina, and her neighbors Becky Donna and Chris for whom I give a prayer of thanks to God, graciously hosting this sermon today. It’s the feast of Pentecost when we celebrate the Holy Spirit and the way Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as a river of living water flowing out from a believer’s heart. Look how powerful the flow of this river is! Look at how the river can carry debris. Look at the speed at which the river relocates things which aren’t rooted in or can even pull up things which are rooted securely. The river can flood and it can go so low you have to portage a kayak across the creeks it feeds.
This river is inexorably connected to all the other waterways in our nation and of course, eventually in the world -- just the way the air we inhale and exhale contains moisture droplets, droplets causing so much anxiety right now. Whatever our droplets may or may not contain we are in them — can’t avoid them. We can inhibit them, alter them, sanitize them. But looking at the way water moves so powerfully tells us that regardless of how we try to altar the droplets we can never ever ever not be touched by them.
Downstream from here you can see the Falls of the Ohio where engineers designed to help regulate the flow. It’s a remarkable system which does provide many advantages. But no amount of engineering can stop the flow of the river.
The Holy Spirit cannot be stopped. It will get you whether you want it to or not. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit brings life and quenches the thirst of all who drink it. [Don’t drink this water directly from the Ohio River here] The Holy Spirit is the original Live Stream. I hope you will join me for our Facebook Live Stream from St James Pewee Valley on Sundays at 10am Eastern Standard Time.
Let’s talk more about the Holy Spirit before I jump into it. Holy means it belongs to God and returns all that belongs to God to God. Spirit means breath - literally a spirit of water droplets. When all the tiny microscopic airstreams come together, feel the power of the prayers in each heart. Right now we cannot sing together but we can join our heart’s river to flow together with the same prayer of:
Alleluia, Praise to the Lord who grants us forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus Christ who died on the cross to fulfill God’s mission so we can live with him forever. Amen.
God’s mission fraught with both suffering and surrender, triumph and joy, glory and grief.
Vicki Harrison describes grief the way the same way I describe the Holy Spirit: I wonder if you can feel the same feeling I do. I say Holy Spirit, she says Grief is like the ocean; it comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.
I’m taking the prayers of grief and hope and healing with me into this river asking that God’s holiness would cleanse and renew Louisville and all communities.
Let’s swim!
