3^rd Sunday in Lent

February 24, 2008

Omaha, NE

Rev. Steven W. Plank

“Thirsty, Anyone?”

Text: Romans 5:5b – “… God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Scripture Lessons: Exodus 17:1-7

Romans 5:1-11

Proposition: Water is such a powerful and rich symbol throughout Scripture. Paul uses this imagery to talk about how much God longs to satisfy our needs with divine love. “Thirsty, Anyone?” We’re invited to take a long drink from the Spirit’s presence.

Prayer for Illumination: Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

One of my closest seminary classmates, Rick, was the pastor for a few years of the small Presbyterian congregation in Ishpeming, Michigan, near Marquette, on the Lake Superior edge of the Upper Peninsula. Rick and I graduated from Louisville Seminary together 31 years ago this May. Now that’s a sobering thought! He served as an Associate Pastor for years in two different congregations: the first in Kansas, the second in Missouri. After he and Amy were married, they lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul, where he was Associate at yet another church. Rick was born and raised in Kentucky, and I remember asking him how he liked the Twin Cities area after he’d been there a few months. He said, “It’s great. But the food is so… so… so ‘white.’ And whatever isn’t white, they cover it with cream sauce!” He had some adjustments to make!

But then the call came from the tiny congregation in Ishpeming. Rick laughingly told me that it was not what many would consider a good “career move!” After almost 20 years of ordained ministry at that point, with a solid track record and broad pastoral experiences, Rick found himself as the pastor of a congregation of about 95 souls in a small mining town in the backwoods of the U.P. Yet one of the reasons I like and respect Rick so much is because he was not concerned about his “career,” but about being true to his thirst for following his sense of “call.”

Rick was at that church in Ishpeming for five or six years… which was one of the longer pastorates in that tiny congregation, where people stayed for generations, but pastors came and went fairly quickly! Ishpeming was an interesting little town. It was an old mining town, in the center of that area filled with what are now largely former rich deposits of iron and copper. There is still metal in that land, but the cost is too prohibitive to actively mine it any longer. So the old mines are closed down, and many of the towns have suffered pretty severe economic hardship as a result. When Ishpeming was “up and running,” an interesting, but not unique, phenomenon occurred. The mine owners and management tended to all become members at a couple of the churches in town. Office and sales workers tended to gravitate toward a couple of the other churches. And the miners themselves, along with their families, usually attended the remaining churches. The Presbyterian Church was one of the latter congregations.

Rick grew increasingly frustrated during his years there. It seemed that, no matter how much he attempted to encourage folks, to place a vision for ministry and parish life in front of them, to lead them to be open to new expressions of mission and evangelism, they were simply content to let him do it. At Session meetings, they waited for him to make decisions on their behalf, and then got frustrated if he didn’t do that. Over the years Rick was there, they all developed a very good and close relationship, but it filled all of them with frustrations at times.

Rick finally hit on what he believed was the core of the issue. For most of that congregation’s 100-year history, everything centered around what the mining company in town did. When things needed to be done, “the Company” took care of it. When churches ran low on coal for their furnaces, the Company made sure new coal was delivered. When the furnace went out, someone called the Company and they sent one of their own crews to fix it. Over the long decades, the people of the town in general, and that congregation in particular, had come to expect that the mining company not only would make decisions about what they needed, but the company would actually do everything itself. So initiative on behalf of the people was not only not expected, but also was not welcome. Yet Rick discovered that the people there were thirsty… thirsty for continuing pastoral leadership that would urge them to follow their calling as a congregation, thirsty for being able to put the gifts that they had to good and meaningful use.

Rick told me the story of an elderly man in that congregation who called Rick to tell him that, several months earlier, he had made a “pretty good donation” (in his words) to the university in Marquette. As they talked, the man told him that, over the years, he had accumulated not only savings, but also small bits of stock in the mining company. Suddenly, he realized that his investments were fairly large, and, since he didn’t want his “lazy son” (again, his words) to get everything, he had decided to give a good portion of it away. The size of his gift to the university, Rick discovered, was just slightly over $800,000! Rick asked him why he hadn’t given that to the church that he had been born and raised in all his life. The man paused for a minute and said, “Umm. Never thought of it! And nobody asked.” Now, as an important aside here – if you have assets available… and as we continue to live in a building that is increasingly old and has had water problems for decades… and has a furnace that we still trust will make it through “just one more winter”… and as we figure out how best to air condition our second floor… think about your church, and I=m asking!

The people in that congregation were not bereft of resources. They were lacking in confidence and initiative and follow-through. They were thirsty to do something meaningful with their lives and their resources, even if they didn’t know it.

I was reminded of them as I considered our Old Testament lesson this morning. The people of Israel had just begun their Exodus. They had been enslaved for almost 400 years in Egypt. Just consider that. Every person on that exodus from Egypt, and their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents, back some 15-20 generations, had been slaves! They knew no other existence. So, what happened when this large group of Israelite people suddenly found themselves free, but out in the middle of the Sinai desert without enough water for everyone to drink? Did they organize scouting parties and send them out to find what sources of water might be available? Did the form a committee to devise a long-range strategy to make sure that water would be available on a continuing basis throughout the course of their exodus? No. They complained to Moses, and to God, even asking Moses the seemingly-ridiculous question: “Did you bring us all the way out here in the wilderness to die of thirst? We could have done that in Egypt, where everything else was provided for us!”

The people were so used to being slaves that they could not bring themselves to any sense of personal responsibility, nor could they motivate themselves to do anything about their dilemma. In short, they forgot that they were thirsty for more than just water. They were thirsty for accomplishments, for self-esteem, for personal and communal success. They were thirsty for hope!

St. Paul, in our New Testament lesson, talks about how we struggle with difficulties that face us. And he affirmed for us that, even in the midst of the challenges, and even the pain and losses, that come our way in life, God does not desert or abandon us. Indeed, God works through the circumstances in our lives so that we come to realize, in Paul’s words, that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope...” (Rom 5:3-4). Yet he attests that this is not just a simple matter of progression in our personal moral or spiritual character, but this is rooted and centered in the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In his words, “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Those are powerful words for thirsty people!

What is it for which we are really Athirsty@ in our lives, in our jobs, in our relationships, in our church? The Holy Spirit moves within us, bringing water and life to the barren places of our lives, empowering us to take root and grow strong. “Thirsty, Anyone?” AMEN!